What it's all about

My girls.

Free museum pass= fun

Girlies had been wanting to get back to the museum for some time now, and we went this afternoon.

The library allows you to check out a free pass to the Reading Public Museum, and we had taken advantage of it a few days before Abrielle was born last April. Maddie and Faith had had SO much fun looking at all of the exhibits. I thought it was going to be a little too 'boring' for them, but these girls truly love any outing. Faith especially loved the animal exhibits.

We went today on an otherwise ugly day. They had a visiting exhibit showcasing Gene London's Hollywood costume collection. It was MADE for my lovely ladies. We went up the staircase and they were all immediately in awe (including Abrie who has a fetish for ceiling fans and lights!) of the disco ball. We had to keep them from running up to each and every dress, and they would just start going on and on about how beautiful all of the "princess gowns" were. Not to mention, we've had two imaginary friends living with us for about 2 weeks now that answer to the name of 'Prince Edward' and 'Princess Giselle' (of "Enchanted" notoriety), so Maddie was showing them both all of the different gowns. It really was neat though, and there were authentic dresses from Greta Garbo, Madonna, Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth, etc etc etc.

The little children's section was absolutely awesome today, and totally up their alley. It was a dress-up section. They had costumes assortment out to wazoo, and my girlies were in heaven yet again. They had it all to themselves until closing time since there really aren't ever many people at the museum. In fact, so many of the museum personnel kept walking by and smiling and telling us how great it was to see people actually taking advantage of the costumes and the children's section. Maddie nearly cried when we had to go; she and Faith had a blast with all the beautiful princess costumes. Faith even found an adorable full Mickey costume. And, my littlest woman donned a lion mane which was precious.

Trick-or-Treat preview

I am excited that I FINALLY got a picture of my three lovely ladies all smiling together. Getting all three to even look at the camera at the same time is a feat in itself, so I usually settle for even just glancing at the camera.. but all of them smiling?! Awesome.

Faith was dead set on being 'Peter Pad' this year for Halloween (she calls Peter Pan her "true love!"), but Maddie convinced her to be a bunny. So, I've got three animals for Trick-or-Treat this year: a tiger, a bunny, and a cute little bumblebee. I hadn't wanted to spend a dime on costumes this year, and was planning on recycling old costumes. Luckily though, Nene got Abrie the bumblebee and then we just got the $5 tiger and bunny kits from WalMart.

Priceless Photo-op's

Dan only worked one day out of his 4-day break, so I consider that a success.

Went to see Donovan at his soccer/basketball class on Friday (and the big girls got to join in along with Ella-- they absolutely loved it, and now consider themselves a part of the team and are asking me "ok, Momma.. so what day of the week is dance class and what day of the week is our new sports class?"), spent a miserable rainy day here yesterday, and made turkey cookies and went out to a little pumpkin farm today. 

*****

Little Beeba Show is in a stage where she just loves, loves, loves grabbing faces. She stares so intently at faces and wants to feel your hair, nose, eyes, etc. It's so funny!

Faith's new nickname for baby sissy: "Lumpy Head" and she says it with such affection. So, Abrie is either 'Beeba Show,' 'ShowCase,' or 'LumpyHead' to Faith now. It's never just Abrie. Ha! Faith loves to do everything with her little sissy though; she was definitely cut out to be a big sister, just like her Dee.

Cousin time

Spent the last 2 days with our Guy and our Ella.

Poor Donovan was christened with the name 'Guy' by Maddie when she couldn't pronounce Donovan. And, now it seems as though he will always be lovingly referred to as our 'Guy.' He is Maddie and Faith's dearest boy friend, and I can already see how much Abrielle just adores her big boy cousin. 

Ella is totally a character these days. It's hard for me (and even Maddie, she still tells me about how much she remembers Ella as a baby) to see her as a big girl, and yet she is definitely a big girl. She is hilarious. Faith was always in love with Ella-- the first baby she ever had any experience with, and now she is her 'Diga Diga.' 

The relationship between all 5- and soon to be 6- of them is awesome. They always have some of the most fun together.

These girls just love going to their cousins' house, and we went there on Monday and had a blast. I think that Maddie and Faith would live there if they could. And, yesterday the cousins came here for a visit. We spent the beautiful day (after the dreary 30's and 40's of last week, it was 70+ degrees both yesterday and today!) at the playground/duck pond that is walking distance from here. We took a lunch and decorated cupcakes there. They played at the playground and fed the ducks. We had an awesome time. 

We.love.our.cousins!

Fun with friends

The weather is awesome. Even if it's like this for only a few days as a "tease," I don't mind whatsoever. It's been beautiful.

Girlies had some awesome cousin fun today. Their cousins are so dear to their hearts. It makes me smile every time I see all of them get together; their bond is priceless. Hopefully tomorrow we get some more great cousin fun.

Aside from their dear Guy and Ella (and #3 on the way), my girls and I are blessed to have a few great friends. Genuine friends. I'm all about genuine people, because they are hard to come by these days. We're lucky enough to be still in touch with little Nora (right between Maddie and Faith age-wise) who lives in the townhouses by our old apartment, and the two little girls that Maddie loved from her old dance class, Veronica and Ciara.

Maddie and Faith enjoyed some dress-up last week with little Nora, on an otherwise horrendously ugly day. And, they were invited to a Halloween party at Veronica's house on Saturday where they got to decorate cupcakes, cookies, and a Halloween gingerbread house.

Fun, fun

Since the dreary days have started.... and, tomorrow will be no exception!

Two little girls

The Beebster and the Beeba Show just adore each other.

This was the two of them after Abrie awoke from her afternoon nap today; all Faith kept saying was, "I miss you, ShowCase."

Some 'enchantment' in some otherwise dreary days

These past two days (and the next two) have been a preview of my life this winter.

I am a little worried!

But, before all of that, Maddie cracked me up today. She watched the movie "Enchanted" at a friend's house the other day (Disney movie, but of course as with many others, I still fast forward a lot of parts) and absolutely LOVED it. She was telling Dan all about it yesterday, and of course in Dan fashion, he went out and bought it for her. She has been mesmerized since the other day by Prince Edward, and just adores him. Anyway, I had never seen the entire movie and we got towards the end of it this morning after fast forwarding a lot of it. It turns out the princess Giselle was falling in love with the Patrick Dempsey character (Richard) and wasn't in love with Prince Edward anymore (Maddie's beloved). When Richard and Giselle started dancing together, Maddie got this funny look and goes "hmmm, what's going on here?" And, when she was poisoned with the apple and needed "true love's kiss" (Faith says this over and over again), Maddie was absolutely appalled when Richard's kiss, and not Edward's, woke up Giselle. She started hysterically crying and crying and crying! My poor Maddie. Her heart has not yet recovered. She tells us "I love that movie, but don't ever show me the ending again. That is NOT the way it should end. A princess should be with a PRINCE. I love Prince Edward."

It's been one of the funniest things ever.

******

Got some crafts in the clearance section of Target the other day, and it was craft and activities day here yesterday. I picked up a bunch of workbooks too-- everything was $1 or less which I love-- and I'm just trying to survive this absolutely miserable weather. I also made sure to collect as many rocks from the apartment complex before we moved, and kept them in our big crafts bin for days like today. They were busy painting rocks yesterday as well as making charm bracelets (Faith) and painted piggy banks (Maddie). Maddie and Faith ask us every day if we can move to Florida, and I would absolutely go in a heartbeat. 

Took them to Redner's today, and I was never naive enough to think that taking three little girls out in the cold would be anything remotely close to "easy," but boy is it even more difficult than I had thought. I'm going to have to start giving myself an extra 30 minutes or even more of preparation time before heading anywhere considering all the big ol' layers that are required (it's been 39 degrees here!) that then make the buckling of car seat straps even more of a painfully long process. Not to mention, Beeba Show already has a hatred for all things involving car seats and cars. 

Oh, the joys of an impending winter!

Not enough hours in a day

There never seem to be enough hours in a day for me to accomplish what I set out to accomplish each particular day.

I truly need to get up earlier in the day (before the little ladies awake) so that I have more time to get things done. I've cut way back on my computer time, and even with that, I still feel as though I haven't accomplished what I'd like to by night's end. 

I just finished organizing Abrielle's closet, and rearranging all of Maddie and Faith's winter/fall clothes. I finally did an inventory of what the three of them needed, and went to the consignment shop to try and get everything there first. I did really well (Maddie and Abrie needed the most-- Faith lucks out in that she gets all of Maddie's old things) and only still have to get Maddie and Abrie winter coats. I'm trying not to think about snowsuits and snow boots, as I hate to have to spend money on those darn things. Unfortunately though, these girls have outgrown their snowsuits. Anyway, what I couldn't find at the consignment shop, I finished up at Gymboree with my Gymbucks and some sweet sales.

Besides trying to organize and reorganize (we now have a garage, but our closets are severely lacking in size), I feel inundated with the other constants: laundry, cleaning, picking up, dishes, etc etc. 

Not to mention, I'm really trying to keep up with my two big girls and their 'activities.' Considering Faith never naps anymore, Abrie's afternoon nap time is time with the two of them. I've been trying to split the 1-3pm nap into two parts: 1-2pm I try to get dinner ready with their help (a lot of casseroles) and bake something fun, and 2-3 pm is student Faith and student Maddie time. I've been TRYING to get their school stuff done the night before, although half the time I'm not successful and it's a little less organized than I'd like. 

I remind myself constantly that I need not stress about all of these little things. What matters the most is that our girls are loved, and that's that. I know that, at the end of each day, our three little ladies will remember all the fun times we spent together and not the little messes that Momma stressed about here and there. 

I can breathe a little easier reminding myself of this. 

Grampa's Birthday Party

Went to Lancaster on Sunday for Grampa/Pop Pop's 58th birthday.

Little women had a blast. They had helped me pick out little things here and there for some organized "games." I've been quite successful in teaching Maddie and Faith about the red tags for 'clearance' items, and so now they come up to me and ask me if they can see if there's anything in stores in the clearance section. Haha. We found a lot of little odds and ends for mere cents that they thought were great for their party bags. Ironically, they ended up with little party bags even though it was Grampa's birthday.

They did bobbing for apples, three legged races, pin the tail on the donkey, and the lollipop pull. And, Abrie was scared senseless by everyone! She's just now going through the stranger anxiety phase and only wants myself, Dan, and her two big sissy's. She cries like crazy when anyone else tries to even look her way!

Finally!

It's a banner day here for my Disney aficionados (and, of course that includes myself!). 

We are proud new owners of the quintessential "Snow White" finally. One of the only Disney's that has escaped me on DVD (even when I was younger, I collected them all on VHS and there they rest at Nene's house still to this day) is "Snow White," and, ironically, one of the ones that Maddie and Faith wanted so desperately. 'White' is Faith's dearest princess, and she has always been obsessed with the dwarfs. 

Even Abrie sat in her walker giggling at the screen (well, most likely giggling about the fact that her first taste of prunes this morning led to a blow-out of a poop, and those always make her smile)  while I made lunch this afternoon. Maddie and Faith had all of their dwarfs lined up next to them on the couch, and brought down every single one of their princesses to watch the afternoon matinee. 

They are now dead set on owning "The Black Cauldron" which makes me laugh.

Enjoy the fall, worry about winter later

Had to take advantage of Dan's break, despite the sickness that was our family for the past few days. 

October rolls around, and I always start feeling an impending sense of doom. Winter and the dread of cabin fever will be here before I know it, and I constantly want to jump on any nice day that is handed to us from September-November to enjoy the outdoors before the trees become bare until the end of April. Of course, I've always loved the changing colors of the leaves and everything related to Fall and Halloween.

So, we decided to jump on the opportunity to go to Weaver's yesterday. We love their Harvest Days, and have been going ever since Faith was 10 months old. This year they lowered their prices for the wristbands, and so both Maddie and Faith were able to do every thing they wanted, and more than once or twice. We let them try caramel apples this year, and they just loved them. 

And, today we found a new park that is beautiful. It is in downtown Reading and reminds me of a park from downtown Lancaster that we used to go to and eat soft pretzels. Dan loved the memorials to all of the war veterans, and the girlies loved the awesome playground that they built there. Abrie loved watching her big sissy's play (man, this girl is a total lover! She loves her big sisters and they just love, love, love her!) and doing what she loves to practice these days-- sitting! She loves to sit in the grass and pick clumps of it and whatever else she can grab with her little hands!

So, for now, we will enjoy every last minute of Fall and worry about winter later!