Halloween

Wow! What a busy week for such a dumb holiday! I'm sorry, Halloween just isn't my favorite. We certainly made the most of it, though. We started with the parade in town with our friends (lovely picture of me with my eyes closed, but it gives a good feel for the evening). Then we had Trunk Treats at church - very fun and our first time at this event. It's like a giant tailgate party with all of your church friends (is that an oxymoron?) and the kids get candy. Emma and Hailey enjoyed their pizza in the back of our van. Lila decided after the candy that she'd like to chill out in the van with another slice and a movie by herself. Lila was supposed to be Cinderella as you can see in this picture from her gymnastics party. Luckily, I knew that once Lila saw Emma in her fairy costume she would want to be a fairy too - so I planned accordingly with an extra costume. We went to Emma's school parade. It was a beautiful fall day here - Lila thought it a little too sunny, as you can see by her visor and glasses. The finale to our Halloween season was our traditional Trick or Treating with Maddy, Andrew and Lillianne. Cute Kids!! I love those little fairies!

"Scoopy Punkins"

We had family pumpkin carving night last night. A great time was had by all. Emma pretty much did hers all by herself (Ryan just cut the top off). She had fun designing and carving. Lila was also very entertained by the tradition. She actually took bites of the pumpkin, and said it was tasty - more than one time. Hey, what can I say - she likes squash! Also, she gets the word "spooky" all mixed up. She usually says "scoopy" or sometimes "scooby". I'm thinking maybe it has something to do with "scooping" out the pumpkin, or "Scooby Doo", or maybe it's just a new word for her. She always wants to go see our neighbors scoopy house, though.

The master carver with her new "real" hair cut I might add. I've always trimmed her hair, but we had mother-daughter day at the hair dresser after school yesterday. -Very exciting!

You need to get a really good look at what you're doing.Ewww! Slimy!

"Is that tasty, Lila?" "mmm hmmm."

Ooooh! Scoopy Punkins!

Entertaining Our Kids

Last week, Lila and Mommy made applesauce...

While Emma put a diaper on Daddy's head.

Hmmm....

Fun With Logs

Yesterday, Ryan took down a dead tree in our yard.

This inspired Emma to play with her Lincoln Logs...

..and Lila to use Lincoln Logs as a flute.

Egg Comment

You'll be glad this post has no pictures! I was in the middle of making egg salad for lunch, I discovered that Lila was on the potty. Lila has history of trouble when left alone in the bathroom - need I say more?! So, I ran in to make sure she wasn't shoving wads of t.p. in the toilet or worse. I still had a hard boiled egg in my hand. She looked at the egg, then me, then said with a smirk, "Mommy, don't put scrambled eggs on my hieney!"

A Little Bit Sick

The girls have each had a day of being a little bit sick this week. "A little bit sick" is a pain in my neck! They're too sick to go to school/church/whatever, but not sick enough to just lay on the couch. Lila had it on Sunday and Emma today. It starts with a low fever, but as soon as the tylenol hits - they're healed. I'm thankful that they're not vomiting or shivering, but kind of miss the lethargy as a symptom.

That Funny Kid

We were riding in the car the other day, just Lila and I, and she said:
"It's smokin' hot in here."
Now imagine that statement with a slight lisp. :)
I've never said that in my life - I have no idea where she got it. She cracks me up!

Garden Fresh

One of the many lessons we've been trying to teach Lila is to ask before she takes and eats something. I thought that today would help teach that, but I've learned to never assume anything with Lila. This morning, before gymnastics, I heard her crunching something. She had taken a jalepeno out of my basket of stuff from our garden. I was thinking "Oh good, she'll start crying any minute and I can tell her that's what happens when you you eat something without asking." Instead she just kept taking bites and telling me that it was good. The last bite had lots of seeds in it. She simply spit it in her hand, said, "That's too spicy for me." And walked away with her milk cup.

Celebrating Christopher Columbus

Well, it's Columbus Day, and both Ryan and Emma are off. We had no real plans except to try to get some things done around here. It's HOT today - like 86 degrees hot. So, to appease our awnry kids, we washed the cars. -Always a fun idea with Lila.
"Lila, don't stand in the bucket."
"Lila, leave your clothes on."
"Lila, I told you not to stand in the bucket."
"Lila, don't rub the sponge in the dirt."
"Lila, put the hose down."
"Lila, get our of the bucket!"
Need I go on? Anyway, we got through it and have two relatively clean cars. Then, for some reason (I'm assuming Emma put the idea in her head), Lila kept asking if we could have a picnic. So I packed the real picnic basket (apparently that was key), and off we went to the backyard. What fun! Especially when we found Emma's 11 month old birthday cake in the freezer and added that to the basket!

Scarecrows

I just came across this picture from last week and wanted to post it. We went to a jazz and wine festival last week. It was a beautiful day and the girls and Chelsey had fun strolling with their lemonade and admiring the scarecrows on Main Street. "Jimmy Spooktron" (this one) was their favorite.

Soccer Tournament

Our weekend was filled with a soccer tournament for Emma. She's been enjoying playing on the traveling team this year, and Ryan and I have enjoyed getting to know the parents better. Emma's skills are improving, and she's having a great time being part of the team. They even all wear their jerseys to school (2nd grade!) on Fridays. Though she's still not the most aggressive girl on the team, she's learning the rules and positions well. She's getting better at "wanting to get the ball herself" - that's what Ryan, the assistant coach has been telling her. They had 3 games - 2 Saturday, 1 Sunday - this weekend. They won the first 2 quite easily (they're really a good team for their age), but lost the one on Sunday to older girls that were as big as me and skilled. I'm not sure why they played against a U8 team, but it was a good lesson for our team that is used to winning all the time. It was unseasonably hot also, which made for a sweaty, hot, red-faced little sister trying to be good on the sidelines. Oh, and then there was the traffic getting in. It took Lila and I almost 2 hours to get through the line of traffic for security at the military base where it was held. Not fun!

The girls were impressed by the tanks.The fog was ridiculously thick at 7:00 Saturday morning.

Coach Jeff getting them ready. That's Emma drinking her yellow gatorade already.

Lounging out between games. My daughter is the lazy one on the right.

This game was actually last week at our home field, but it's a good shot of Emma running up the field with the ball. She's the one in front about to shoot on goal! The goal didn't happen, but it was a great try!This was also last week, but a really cute picture of my Dad walking Lila to the playground during Emma's game.