Sweet November

This weekend we celebrated grandma's 60th birthday with a surprise party!  The girls had a great time opening presents with her and taking many photos with guests using the photo booth app and props we brought along for entertainment!



Some days after school we are all just spent!  Here the girls are chilling with the tablet, watching silly videos.


 Stella helping with the dishes one night after dinner!  It was her first attempt at washing and it went pretty well!








We also had a sleepover with Caroline, Caleb, and Esme.  On Sunday morning we enjoyed a nature walk around the corner from our house.  We had no idea there was a trail in the woods but Caleb stumbled across it and it was great taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather!





On our walk we stopped by the river and the girls were throwing sticks in and watching the current carry them away.  Unfortunately one of Stella's brand new mittens from Aunt MJ ended up in the river too!  Caleb ran along the river and was luckily able to fish it out.  There were a lot of tears but Caleb saved the day!

 Tea party fun!

 Claire simply can't resist playing in the dirt, ever!

 Stella wasn't feeling that great two weeks ago on Sunday morning so she stayed home while Mommy and Claire went to church.  Claire-bear was such a good girl at children's church!

 On the 7th we had a free evening so we ventured out to Appleton Arena for an SLU Men's hockey game.  It was the girls first game and they enjoyed it, especially the snacks!









The girls love to watch shows together - here they are relaxing on the floor with the tablet.

 We have dance shows frequently.  This time in our jammies/undies!

 We spent some time this fall cleaning out the extra room in our upstairs.  We've transformed this into our 'quiet room', where we can play games and read stories - but not leave anything behind!  It's been nice to utilize this space after being here for 5 years and not really using it much!

Claire-Bear walking Sammy with Miss Julie!  Some afternoons on our way home from Julie's after school it will be time to walk the dog.  This afternoon when we made it to our house Claire wanted to keep going with Miss Julie!  So glad she loves being with her :)                                                                                                                            

Happy Halloween 2015

Elsa, Wonder Woman, and Skye Pup!

 This weekend we had some time at home and since both of the girls have come down with a cold it was a good thing!  Claire-Bear was able to take a much needed nap on Sunday afternoon and hopefully (fingers crossed) they will be well enough to go to school tomorrow!

Although the girls were coughing a lot on Halloween day we did take them out and about to around a dozen neighbors to trick or treat.  It
was fun but by the last house Claire said "I don't want to anymore mommy".  We headed home so they could pass out candy instead, which they loved!

 Stella is signed up to bring snack again this week.  For her last snack she chose cosmic brownies, which I tried to convince her not to take.  There's a nut allergy in her class and I knew not all of the children would be able to have one.  She insisted though, that it was her favorite snack.  Which it is, and it's also a treat we don't buy for her all that often.  I gave in but had her choose a nut-free individually packaged frosted sugar cookie to take with her.  The evening of her snack night I asked her how it went and she said she ate goldfish.  I asked her why and it turns out, the child with the allergy chooses a friend to sit with at snack time each day and that friend must also eat a nut-free snack.  Her friend chose Stella but she said to me happily 'it's ok Mommy, I ate my brownie at Miss Julie's after school!'. We are so happy Stella is able to roll with her surroundings so well and hope she continues to be that way. (And that brownie story was karma right there!)  So anyway, this time, she chose something all of her friends at school will be able to eat, a veggie cup!  And she made some turkey heads to decorate the cups this weekend with a little help from mommy's cricut!




We didn't leave the house on Sunday and to pass the time the girls played dress up with Mommy and Daddy's clothes - they were on the way to a wedding...

 There was a half day at School on Friday which was a good thing since Claire's been under the weather.  Mom took the day off work to visit school for the Halloween Parade.  The girls had a great time!










Afterward, Niece and Kalub came to visit for the afternoon and we had dinner together at the Riverview.  The girls were so happy to see them!

Together Again!

Poor Claire-Bear hasn't felt well.  On Thursday she went to bed at 5 o'clock, and only woke to brush her teeth and have daddy read her a bed-time story.  She didn't even eat dinner!  Stella's been doing well fending it off but the cough caught up with her on Friday.  Luckily they are healthy girls for the most part and hopefully this little cold will soon pass! 

While we have such a short time after school to do much, one afternoon Stella gave Claire a quick backyard golf lesson!










Carving Pumpkins, and making scary/angry faces:

 Last weekend we had our first snow and the girls were excited about it!  But not Mommy.  Glad it didn't stick!

Visiting BMC for the PTO Craft Fair

 The girls are still little for carving pumpkins so they did some painting and stick on facial features.

Last Saturday Stella had her first real accident.  Mommy was already in bed and she was bouncing around popping a balloon up into the air in our bedroom.  She tripped and hit her face on the frame of our bed.  She was very scared but we took her to the ER to have a doctor look at it.  They ended up gluing it and despite being there 2.5 hours, Stella was able to see first hand how the hospital is not always a scary place.  The receptionist, after hearing us read all of the books we brought twice, came out with some coloring pages and crayons, which really brightened Stella's mood, especially because she was getting inpatient, and very, very tired.  She was up until midnight, I think the latest yet!
When they glued her cut she laid still and quiet but the moment they left the room she burst into tears and said it hurt.  Poor baby.  She was so brave!  Thank you, thank you, thank you, to Aunt MJ for coming over right away and hanging out with grumpy bear Claire who was devastated she couldn't come along.  We are so appreciative she didn't have to spend time sitting around with us and was able to get a decent nights sleep!  We are happy to report that Stella's cut is healing nicely and is far enough away from her eye that she's not experiencing any problems.  We bought some Mederma but she may end up with a scar on her face.  We'll see.

When we told Stella she couldn't play in our room anymore with balloons her response was that we should do that outside, where there's lots of room!
 

Happy 4th Birthday Claire-Bear!

To celebrate Claire's 4th birthday we ventured to Plattsburgh to the Comfort Inn where there's plenty of fun!

Arcade Fun!

Dinner @ the Plattsburgh Brewing Co.

Splash Pad!

When we arrived home a special treat was in our refrigerator from Aunt Mary Jane!

Birthday Surprise with Rubble, Skye, and Marshall!

It was such a beautiful day on Sunday we snuck in a short nature walk and used some things we gathered for Claire's homework:

Over the weekend Mom traveled to Burlington on her own to the Ronald McDonald House while Daddy and the girls stayed in NY.  Daddy went to a wedding on Saturday and the girls had a sleep over at Grammie and Pa's.  It was a short time away but a reminder that we like being together best!

A walk around Battery Park - while the photo doesn't capture
the foilage that well the view was spectacular!

Since the girls didn't have school on Friday but Daddy did we called Niece to see if she would like to spend the day with the girls.  All three were so excited to be back together again!

Halloween Crafts with Niece

School nights are super busy at our house now that we need to be sure the girls are in bed early but this past week we managed to get a few fun outings in before dinner - one night we visited the playground, and another the library (since now that Gymnastics and Dance classes are happening it's tough to make it there on Saturday's).   These were quick visits, 15-minutes, but something fun to do in our own neighborhood!

Puppet Show, a favorite toy at the local library!

Skype Pup

We could not find the Halloween Costume Stella wanted in her size locally.  When we tried to order it online, it was out of stock!  Fortunately though, the company put us on a list for restocking which happened quickly so we ordered it right away.  When it arrived much sooner than expected we had one happy pup!  If you aren't around little ones, Paw Patrol is a Nick Jr. show about several pups, all with different themes, who are always helping to save the day!






 Packing school lunches has become an important part of our routine.  We keep it simple, avoid nut-products, and try our best to make it healthy.  Thank you to Aunt MJ for buying the girls these soft lunch boxes which fit everything, including our thermoses from a prior blog post, perfectly!  While not shown here, their favorite is a cinnamon-sugar (sprinkled over butter) sandwich, cut in a mickey shape!