Halloween fun

Girlies will start their old bedtime routine again tomorrow night. They have all been living it up these past few nights!

I just love Halloween. And, so do my girlies and their Daddy! We had a nice Halloween season this year, and we've been quite busy.

Maddie's school parade was on Friday morning. She was so excited to get to wear her costume that day, and her little sisters were beyond excited to get to see her and be a part of it-- especially Faith. Maddie was a witch for her parade (she and Faith love 'The Wizard of Oz' these days and she called herself Glenda the Good witch and did NOT want any face make-up because she said green paint would make her "mean like the bad witch from Oz"). Faith was a bunny that day, and Abrie squeezed into the 3-6 month bumblebee costume that she had from last year!

I was lucky enough to get a Saturday off yesterday, and so we all went to the library for their Halloween party. Girlies' costumes for the day were a cat for Maddie, Aurora for Faith, and a turkey for Abrielle (they like to mix it up-- and Abrie was hilarious as a turkey.. she was walking around in the morning in costume with a can of gravy in her hand!!) It was great, and the girlies just loved it.. not to mention, Dan loved all the Star Wars characters who were there to celebrate. It was great: the Reading orchestra started playing the Star Wars theme music (granted, I do not know much of anything related to Star Wars, but do know enough about the theme music and some main characters because of two certain Uncles who were Star War crazed when they were little!) and Darth Vader led a cast of characters through the library. There were little girls screaming when they saw him! Poor Maddie (who is never scared by characters) was terrified when she learned that Darth Vader is a bad guy, and yet we were asked to pose for a picture with him. She did not want anything to do with this! On the other hand, boy were she and Faith excited to meet the Storm Troopers! It has been quite hilarious because she's been walking around with a collector's card that he gave her and hugging it saying she is now going to marry a Storm Trooper. She and Faith told him, "we know who you are! Our cousin just loves you. Do you know our cousin, Donovan?" They were too funny! They were laughing when he was posing for pictures with books.

Our township actually split Trick-or-Treat into 2 nights: both last night and tonight. It actually worked out nicely because we were able to do just a little bit on both nights. We met up with some friends last night, and we went alone tonight. Abrie absolutely loved walking the streets with her little pumpkin pail, but she had meltdowns each night by 7pm. It's just too much for her, and I didn't blame her. I think big sissys also appreciated coming back at a decent hour. Last night my three were Aurora, a witch, and a turkey and tonight Maddie was Aurora, Faith was Cinderella, and Abrie was a bumblebee. We had gone to see Nene and Grampa earlier today (and had a wonderful visit playing in the leaves in the backyard), and Nene surprised them with a Cinderella dress. Faith was so excited to wear it, and was glad to let Maddie borrow her Aurora dress.

Best Trick-or-Treat gift was a surprise one from their beloved Joie-- she got them the new T.Swift cd "Speak Now!" And, Rhonda had gotten them her T-shirts last week, so they were so very excited. Abrielle is such a big fan too, so they were all so happy.

All in all, we had a wonderful Halloween.

Cute dresses

This week will be a long one, but I am looking forward to my upcoming weekend at home with my favorite people in the world. Library is hosting what seems like a really fun Halloween party on Saturday- complete with visits from Star Wars characters- and hopefully we will be going with our beloved cousins. Dan and I (and Maddie, Faith, and Abrie) are VERY much looking forward to Maddie's Halloween parade at school on Friday morning. Little sisters are quite excited about dressing up and watching their big sissy do her thing, and of course big sissy is extremely excited about being in a parade. Not to mention, the three of them are very excited for Trick-or-Treat that night.

Took my little ladies to Target today (and rocked out to Lady Antebellum on the way-- they LOVE their music.. my little country fans) and let them pick out one thing that they could all share that they liked. They picked a miniature Ariel's Grotto, and the three of them played so happily this afternoon with it. They brought up their pouch of "regulars and bendy arms" (yes, that is how they categorize their little flexible princess dolls) and distributed them quite evenly. Abrie is so into princess dolls, it's not even funny. The girl can point them out in the Princess Look-and-Find book that we're borrowing currently from the library. I love it!

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Took advantage of the beautiful weather (mid 70's in late October!?) and took some inspiration from a photo session that I had yesterday. I've had a lot of fun lately photographing some beautiful families, and I've felt privileged to have them entrust me to try and capture some candid family moments. I thought it'd be neat to try and get some pictures of my loves today. Riiiiight.... these girls (youngest especially!) need a new photographer; they wince when they see me with a camera! Oh well, it was worth a shot.. and, at least I have some memories of their dresses.

Alike, and yet so unique

Cran:

My big girl is doing wonderfully in school. I kept her home on Tuesday due to a sore throat and persistent cough (not to mention, she cried again on Monday morning that she didn't want to leave me and I thought it was wise to give her a day off regardless) and she was eager to return yesterday for her first ever FIELD TRIP! She was accompanied by Dan to Weaver's Orchard. Granted we go to Weaver's all the time, but this was her first excursion via school bus AND the bonus being she got to go with Daddy. Dan was adamant that he was going to go with her ever since we heard there would be a field trip. He has been so excited about going on field trips with them, and he was beyond excited for Wednesday. He sacrificed major sleep, but he and his Maddie had a great time from what I heard. They got a personal tour of the apple orchard (which we've obviously never gotten before), a hayride to the pumpkin patch where they got to pick a little pumpkin, and a tour of the market there where they showed them how they press their apple cider. It sounded like a lot of fun.

This morning Maddie was excited to hear that today was "sharing" day.. aka, show and tell. She asked to take in the scrapbook that Aunt Lisi made for her when she turned one-year-old (that she loves), but the darn thing was too big for her backpack. She then wanted to take a unique glass nail file that their beloved Rhonda gave her yesterday, but I told her that might be considered a weapon. She then matter-of-factly told me that she was going to sing a song for her class. I asked her which song, and she told me she was going to sing her most favorite Halloween song since last year, "The 13 Rooms of Halloween" (note, this is sung to the tune of "12 Days of Christmas" and she has had this memorized since after reading it 1 time LAST September '09). Dan was a little nervous about her doing this because he was worried kids might tease her for singing in front of the class, but I didn't want to discourage her from doing something she was excited to do.

Today was my day to do kid's writing at school, and I expected that they would have already finished with show-and-tell by the time I got there in the afternoon. But, they were just about to start when I got there. I saw Maddie raise her hand and tell her teacher quietly "I don't have anything to share, but I have a song to sing." It was so sweet. I got to stand there and watch her first performance (she told me later that this was great practice for when she does stage shows like Taylor Swift). I could have cried. She sat there with her hand raised waiting to be called upon, and finally got her chance after about 6 other kids who were also so cute. She sang in a voice I have never heard before (I later heard her tell a friend at her table that this was her "beautiful voice") and got to the 10th room in the song before her teacher smiled and said there were other kids that had to share also. She was so proud when her teacher asked her how she learned this song, and she answered "I learned it from my favorite library book called "13 rooms of Halloween" and I wanted to sing it because I knew the boys would like it. There are mummies and goblins, you know?" I had to make sure I didn't burst out laughing!

It was really quite a moment.

The kids are adorable in her class, and I love doing kid's writing with them. Not to mention, I get to come in and see my Cran. AND... I found out that she gets to eat with the principal next week (a Happy Meal, mind you) because she was chosen as October's student of the month!! She was jumping up and down when she heard that, and we are so very excited and proud. We took the girlies out for dinner tonight to celebrate!

Flop:

I am so excited that tomorrow night is a PTL event at the elementary school that we can all attend. Faith is always missing her Maddie when she's away at school, and I'm psyched that Faith will be able to feel a part of the school atmosphere tomorrow. They are having a pumpkin painting event, and Faith is really looking forward to it. She tells me all the time that she wants to go to kindergarten like Maddie. She always reminds me of one of my favorite books when I was little, "When I'm as Big as Freddie." She is forever imitating her beloved big sis, and she takes so much pride in doing things that Maddie would be proud of. Abrie is her pride and joy, and you can tell she wants to be a good big sister. It's really funny.

Faith is definitely a dare devil. We went to the instrument playground this afternoon in Wyomissing, and it was apparent to me how different she and Maddie can be just by watching them play. Faith has been trying to tackle the monkey bars recently, and successfully got across this afternoon for the first time on her own. She did the rock wall without me even there to spot her, and climbed two other huge parts of the playground without me even knowing until she called "Hey, Momma! Look at me" and I looked up and couldn't believe she had gotten to where she was. Maddie was trailing her the whole afternoon trying to do what Faith was doing, and her foot would start to shake and she'd come back down backwards. Maddie is extremely cautious about things, and Faith tends to tackle things head on without over-thinking. It's really neat to see that in Faith.

Her new nickname for herself recently is "Slice of Pizza Faith-y Q." Yep, it's a unique one!

Show:

Little Trouble is teething, big time. She's got the classic signs of teething: crankiness and diarrhea. Not to mention, she's got her entire hand in her mouth constantly trying to uproot her teeth and gums. My poor baby. Her tolerance for pain is quite low, but then again, that's got to be a pain in the butt to get so many teeth all at once.

She actually has been very pleasant this week. She threw one of the most major tantrums in her history today at Target (I had to duck into the pet food aisle to count to 2 in vain as her screaming did not cease at that magical number), but I tend to overlook these things and put them on the backburner of my memory when she's laying in between Dan and I at night as we both hum the melody to "Maybe" from Annie fame to soothe her to sleep. Yep, she loves that song. It's quite funny when I hear Dan humming it to her since he doesn't know the words to the song.

She's got an obsession with putting Maddie and Faith's underwear on her head and parading around in front of her sisters to get them to laugh. It's absolutely hysterical! It's never just one pair that she wants, but both pairs. You can tell that she thinks she's a total riot.

Confessions

*Totally random ramblings*

* I am in love with movies that star Amy Adams. Maddie and Faith got us hooked on her when they fell in love with the movie 'Enchanted' this past winter. I've recently seen her movies 'Leap Year' and 'Julie and Julia' and absolutely love them. I have 'Moonlight Serenade' (I think that's the name of it) on request at the library now.

* I have so many pictures that I need to get printed. It's painful at times to look through all of my old albums online and realize that I don't have anything printed (except for some that are framed) since when Faith was 18 months old. ABRIELLE is about to be 18 months old for crying out loud. I need to do something about this.

* New books are almost like an addiction for me. Whenever we get brand new books at the library, I almost want to stand there and sniff them. I like to hold them. They're so clean and lovely.

Nifty, thrifty Halloween

I hate spending money if we don't have to, and I have been adamant this year that I didn't want to buy any costumes for Trick-or-Treat. Last year my big girlies just wore sweatshirts and sweatpants with those $5 kits you get at Target (Maddie was a tiger and Faith was a bunny), and Abrie was lucky enough to get a new bumblebee costume from Nene.

I figured I would just recycle old costumes again this year.

Daddy being Daddy though took his little ladies to Target yesterday while I was at work. He got Maddie a witch costume on sale (she's been dying to be a witch this year) and then took Faith by herself to the consignment shop here to look for a costume on sale. They came back with a beautiful Aurora costume that I've never seen before. He was so proud of himself for haggling the store owner down to a respectable $10 for a Disney store original that is in perfect condition. And, today a friend of mine gave me the cutest costume ever for Abrielle-- she's going to be a turkey!!!! It is the cutest thing I think I've ever seen, and I was so happy to not have spent any money on it.

So, despite going against my original plan of not spending any money on Halloween costumes this year, I still think we got 3 little girls some adorable costumes for a good deal. I'm excited to see the 3 of them trick-or-treating this year together! Abrie is hilarious with her little pumpkin pail and seems to get the gist of walking around with a pumpkin while receiving candy, and loves it. The three of them were practicing today after dinner (complete with costumes), and it was too cute.

Kid's writing, and that sisterly bond

I've been so lucky to be able to help out in Maddie's classroom now twice. I think it will become a weekly thing, so I am extremely excited. I find out my day off a week ahead of time, and I'm able to go in then on that day the following week.

I help out with "kid's writing." Maddie and her classmates draw a picture and then "conference" with us to tell us what the picture is describing. They try to sound out what they're trying to say and write it down on the paper, and then we write it underneath so they can see how close they were.

It is the coolest thing to get to go see my Cran in "action" in a classroom setting. She is so funny and gets the biggest smile on her face when she comes in and sees me sitting there (and, I admittedly can never wipe the smile off of my face for a good 10 minutes). She's such a good listener and always works so diligently, just like she does here at home. Once you tell her a task that she is supposed to accomplish, the girl sets her mind to completing it and doesn't waiver from it.

Her teacher is very impressed with with how well she's doing, and it's so nice to hear that. She tells me that Maddie is so mature and her sweetheart. And, I told her that Maddie just adores her. It's so nice to know that Maddie truly loves her teacher and enjoys being there.

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Faith listens intently every day to Maddie's report about what they did on that given day in school. These two are so in sync with each other; it's so neat. Everything that Maddie does, Faith wants to do it as well. So, she does her workbook pages every afternoon with either me or Dan (when I am gone) and she and Maddie do their projects, spelling, numbers, writing, drawing, and our home version of "kid's writing" every chance they get.

These two go through so much paper. Rhonda gave us a huge stash of paper a few months ago, and it definitely comes in handy. They are writing or drawing constantly. We have to get them new boxes of crayons and sidewalk chalks very frequently because of how much they use them all. Faith was so cute yesterday too; she picked some flowers for Maddie on the walk home from school. She said she wanted to make a vase for the flowers, so I suggested making one out of a toilet paper roll. She was so excited and made one with my help with popsicle sticks and tissue paper, and then loved it so much that she made another one by herself for Abrie (but this one she said is a "puppet for Abrie!" haha). Maddie and I came out of school together yesterday, and Dan was there waiting with Faith and Abrie. Needless to say, Faith was so excited about the surprise for Maddie. And, Maddie was SO excited when she saw what Faith had made her. Her reaction was so cute, and it made Faith's day. She then decided that she loved it so much that SHE made one for Faith too!

Meet T-r-o-u-b-l-e

Don't let my pint sized little Precious fool you.

The girl is trouble defined. She is so darn lucky she is cute, because boy can she make me want to pull out my own hair. Literally.

She passed through a very troubled phase right before and during our trip to Maine in the summer. Then she calmed down to a much more pleasant and agreeable personality when we came back home. I don't know if it's whenever she is getting new teeth or what, but boy is her troubled nature back with.a.vengeance. I used to affectionately refer to our little Flop as "the cute little thorn in my side." Um, yeah.. Abrie makes those days with Faith seem like a walk in the park.

She's too irresistible though. She knows just what to do to make you want to hug her when she knows she's been a pest. Even after she's tried to give me an eye rake (yes, that is when your 17-month old daughter proceeds to try to claw you from your forehead to your chin) after I've kindly told her that her sisters need their underwear now and that it doesn't need to be displayed anymore on her head (she likes to put both pairs of their underwear on her head, and then knock on the shower door while they're still in the bath-- and, after she's gotten out first and sneakily taken their underwear-- and say 'boo!'), she comes up to me and squats down until she's eye level with me and sings me a song.

My little pistol. Lord, I love my girl!

My little ladies

They are growing up in front of my eyes.

Beginnings of fall

We're in the middle of a warm spell in our PA fall, but I'll take it! I'm not ready for what comes after the fall season... the dreaded winter. I don't even want to think about it.

In the meantime, we're having as much fun as we can with everything fall related. We had a fall party last weekend with our wonderful neighbors. Girlies helped make a pumpkin cake, and they made mashed potato monsters which turned out adorable. They had a lot of fun creating their monsters, and Abrie even got to help with the making of the cake. They painted and decorated pumpkins outside too.

We decided to try a more affordable farm festival this year. It's too hard now to do all the little fairs that ask you to buy tickets for every little activity that they have. We found out that our favorite little farm (where we take them all the time to see the farm animals for free) have their own fall fest, and it was a blast. Dan's been working like a dog lately, so I took them myself and we had so much fun. It wasn't overly crowded whatsoever, so they got to do everything over and over again. And, it was only $3 to get to do all the activities. Maddie and Faith's favorite activity was where you could search for a colored penny in a mound of sawdust. Remarkably, Faith was the first one to find it!!! I couldn't even find one. They got to turn them in for a candy treat (after they re-stocked the mound with more pennies, they each found about 4 more). Abrielle loved a little section where you could drive Cozy Coupe cars in the straw. She just loved it! She was in the best mood the entire time we were there, so it was extra enjoyable. She loved the corn maze too, which I thought was hilarious!