Happily exhausted

Dan has been gone since 11am for tailgating festivities for the Eagles game tonight. My big girls went to bed tonight asking why they didn't see Daddy on TV, even though I had the Chargers/Giants game on while I nursed the Breeze. They are anxiously awaiting him to "check in" on them tonight when he gets home!

******

Summary of today..

Beebster helped me make a new casserole for dinner, along with some cookies. Big girls made their 2nd versions of their Christmas lists (they made their Santa lists earlier this week with Dan's help, and today they made their Nene/Grampa lists). Abrie took two incredibly short naps, which (in a way) was a blessing because it afforded us more outdoor time on this beautiful day. Went to the bookstore this afternoon to look for bargain books, and then spent almost 2 hours at the "instrument" playground in Wyomissing. Who knew it could be short sleeve weather in NOVEMBER! It's supposed to be 70+ degrees tomorrow too, and I am more than excited.

I am now officially exhausted. Happily exhausted.

Random thoughts

Totally random things today.

*****
There is a reason why they say patience is a virtue. Sometimes I think I am the most patient person in the world, and then I am reminded in a second that I must constantly learn and re-learn the virtue of patience. This will be quite necessary for my survival this winter. The weather here is affording me some snippets here and there of practice for this upcoming winter; today it was a mere 48 degrees (but, with a cold wind) which meant thick coats and loosening of car seat straps to ensure that these three padded girlies fit into their seats. The padding does, however, help Abrie to sit nicely in the grocery cart at Giant. She is less likely to flop to one side or the other, and she kept smiling the entire time this morning while she was in the grocery cart. I'm thinking she thought it was the coolest thing ever to be a "big girl!"

Ironically, it is supposed to get back into the low 60's within the next few days.


*****

I love our new neighborhood. It took me a little while to acclimate myself to our new house, but I truly do love where we live. It's definitely becoming our "home" faster than I thought could be possible.

The neighborhood is my favorite thing. There are some of the coolest places to take pictures. I love all of the alley-ways and the interesting old houses. Our house is from the 60's, but there are so many that are closer to 100 years old. I love that Redner's is a 5-minute walk for me. I love that I can see the mountain (Mt. Penn) from outside of our house. I love that there are so many old trees around that the girls have tons of leave to crunch their feet in when we go for walks. I love that even Abrie appreciates her surroundings-- I took her for a walk this afternoon while my big girls stayed with Dan, and she "talks" almost the entire time. I'm always asking her, "what do you see?" and she'll just ooooh and aaah.

******

Totally random, but my little Disney aficionados and I were trying to think of all the Disney characters in the movies that have common voices for their characters. We even made a list. This is what happens in the mornings when Daylight savings time has ended, I mess up and set the clocks ahead an hour instead of back an hour, get myself ready at 5am thinking it's 7am (and in doing so, wake up the rest of my clan), and we have nothing to do while waiting for Dan to get home from work and waiting for Maddie's stiff neck to alleviate itself. Ha! This is what we came up with (and there's lots more, but this is what we thought of on that particular day)-- I love doing stuff like this.. they sit there and concentrate so intensely, and it's cute:

White Rabbit from 'Alice in Wonderland' and Smee from 'Peter Pan'
Duchess from 'Aristocats' and Bianca from 'The Rescuers'
Fairy Godmother from 'Cinderella' and Flora from 'Sleeping Beauty' AND Nanny from '101 Dalmations'
Alice from 'Alice in Wonderland' and Wendy from 'Peter Pan'
Cheshire Cat from 'Alice in Wonderland' and Kaa from 'Jungle Book'
Baloo from 'Jungle Book' and Thomas O'Malley from 'Aristocats' AND Little John from 'Robin Hood'
Chief from 'Fox and the Hound' and Sheriff of Nottingham from 'Robin Hood'
Mowgli from 'Jungle Book' and Wart from 'Sword in the Stone'
Bert's uncle from 'Mary Poppins' and Mad Hatter from 'Alice in Wonderland'
Gideon from 'Pinocchio' and Dopey from 'Snow White'
Bashful from 'Snow White' and big Flower from 'Bambi'

*******

I just love my girls. I truly don't know what I would do without them.

Right now as I type, my sweet baby girl is passed out in her crib-- green blankie tucked under her little arm, and her princess blankie draped over her. If only my USB port were working, I could upload all of her sweet smiley pictures from today. She is a little gem.

My Faith-y girl is passed out next to her hero, her Dee. They are two peas in a pod those girls. Faith is asleep in a Belle dress-up dress. And, Maddie is passed out with her braids still in her hair (today she wanted a 'Giselle' hair-do) and her arm around her Ariel doll who is dressed in a nightgown.

I've been blessed with three sweet girls.

Trick-or-Treat 2009

Better late than never.

Trick-or-Treat was a slight bust this year. It started POURING within 10 minutes after starting to trick-or-treat. And, I mean sheets of rain coming down diagonally and into your eyes. Thank goodness that it was 60+ degrees that night, otherwise we would have all been quite sick the next morning.

On the plus side, my little bunny (or, as Faith said: "Lilly the tiny bunny") took handfuls of candy from the unsuspecting people that did open their doors to our crazy Trick-or-Treaters. I was actually a little worried that somebody would report Dan and I for having the girls out in that awful rain!

It was a nice time though for my little ladies. Or, should I say my tiger, bunny, and bumblebee. They came back and trick-or-treated with Dan-- as in, they would pretend to knock on an imaginary door, and Dan would dump candy into their pails. They thought that was great. They did have a great time though with Nora, and got to make their own pizza at her house.

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.