It won't be long...
Mommy's back can hardly wait.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Sister Time
Halloween
The girls really got some use out of their Halloween costumes this year. Between a school parade, a celebration in dance class, and a trick-or-treat day at Daddy's office, by the time Halloween rolled around Reese and Paige were pros at the getting into their costumes.
The girls visited our four closest neighbors together then split up: Paige helped Mommy hand out candy and Reese got to trick or treat around the neighborhood. Reese was very hesitant about saying "trick-or-treat" at the houses she visited, but she did manage some "thank yous," which is more than I can say for most of the kids that visited our house.
While our neighborhood is LARGE and packed full of kids, this is the first year we've run out of Halloween candy. Paige wasn't the best helper when it came to passing out candy. She enjoyed taking the candy out of the bowl but refused to surrender it to the visiting trick-or-treaters.
When Reese returned from her trip around the block, Daddy put Paige to bed and Reese helped me pass out the remainder of the candy.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Pumpkins Pumpkins
Once the girls were feeling better, we visited the pumpkin patch at Reese's school and bought three pumpkins. Each girl got a tiny one and we picked out a large one for carving. The following days were full of pumpkins rolling down my hallway. And, for anyone curious, those small pumpkins are incredibly durable. Paige tested hers vigorously by picking it up and slamming it against the floor repeatedly.
On a cloudy afternoon Reese enjoyed some pumpkin painting.
The weekend before Halloween, we carved our large pumpkin. It got a "happy face" with three square teeth. Reese wanted to help scoop the "goop" out of the pumpkin, but only with a spoon. Paige wanted nothing to do with the process.
Afterward, Daddy roasted the seeds for us-half with olive oil and sea salt, the other half with cinnamon and sugar. Yum!
Pumpkin Patch
Last year we decided to skip a road trip to the pumpkin patch in an effort to lessen the odds of an early labor (fat load of good that did!). With no health restrictions in place this year, we packed up the girls and headed out to Sweet Berry Farms to enjoy some fall activities.
I woke up on Saturday morning with a start: "It's 7:30! Why aren't the girls awake yet?" They both slumbered peacefully until almost 8AM--an unheard of hour in our house. I should have known then that something was amiss.
After a quick breakfast and some picnic prep, we loaded up the girls and headed out to Marble Falls. We were sure to bring our double stroller, a blanket, and some picnic food.
Based on Reese's experience at the farm two years ago we were expecting lots of excitement: giggles, running, exploring giant piles of pumpkins. I even dressed the girls in matching outfits in hopes of getting some great "fall shots." Let's be honest, a big part of the pumpkin patch experience is getting adorable pictures of kids in cool weather clothes surrounded by all the accouterments of fall--leaves, pumpkins, hay, scarecrows. We decided to take pictures first, and here's a sampling of what we got:
Not exactly cute, right? Paige kept crawling out of shots to explore and put hay in her mouth, and Reese could barely be bothered to climb out of the stroller and leave her water bottle alone. Smiles were a rare commodity.
Through some MAJOR face making we got these two and called it a day with the camera:
We didn't want to push our luck so we walked by the animals and other craft options then strolled over to the zinnia fields. No requests for pony rides or to feed the animals...nothing. We sure felt like we struck out. Maybe our kids are the Scrooges of Autumn?
Just before leaving Reese finally saw something that caught her eye: the oil barrel train ride. A group of kids load up in barrels mounted with wheels and a farmer pulls them around with his tractor. Of course, though, Reese wouldn't ride alone. Which meant mommy had to buy a ticket too. Then mommy immediately went into a silent panic when I saw the sign reminding parents and children that each barrel has a 150lbs weight limit. Cue copious amounts of sucking in and thinking extra light thoughts. Who wants to be the parent who a) gets turned away from a ride and then watches their child melt down or b) breaks a ride while its full of happy children? In the end no one asked my weight (whew...) and the ride stayed in tact.
After a quick picnic we packed up the car and hit the road. When we got home we finally found the cause for our less than enthusiastic pumpkin patchers---Reese was running a 102 fever. Paige was fine, guess she's just waiting to bust out the big guns for Christmas.
Paige Turns One!
A few days before Paige's birthday, we celebrated her first year with a small family birthday party. Both sets of grandparents and both sets of aunts joined us between morning and afternoon nap to squeeze in some presents, pizza (no cooking for me!), and the ritual messy-cake-eating-extravaganza.
The day of Paige's party we got an unexpected visitor: RAIN! It had literally been months since our house was graced with percipitation. At one point Kevin and I even joked that our neighborhood was under a protective forcefield. While none of Austin had seen any measureable rain, our house had missed out on EVERY spotty shower since May.
Paige enjoyed her party as much as most one year olds do--she tore paper out of bags, played with bows, tested her new toys by sticking them in her mouth, and marveled at the spectacle of so many big people with their attention on her.
Paige's carrot cake was a hit, although she didn't get quite as messy as we expected. Unlike her big sister who needed some prompting years ago, Paige dug right in to her cake. I guess it helps that Paige has lived under a slightly less sugar-is-bad-regime than Reese did at the same age. Guess that happens with second children, though.
Here's to another great year with our little one!
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