It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas!

We haven't been blogging too much lately for two main reasons. One, the flash on my camera isn't working, and that makes taking pictures less fun since they just don't turn out so well. And two, after many years of talking about it, Kent and I are finally going to list our home, and preparing for that has taken up most of our spare time. And as we pack and paint and fix and clean, we are also preparing for a last Christmas in our cozy little home . . .

The 2010 Christmas card photo has been taken, and the cards have been mailed . . .

The tree has been trimmed . . .

Our elf has been making daily appearances in various places . . .

We have a new advent calendar this year . . .

The nativity scene from Aunt Dawn has been arranged (and rearranged several times) . . .

Holiday programs have been performed . . .

Cookie dough has been rolled and baked and eaten . . .

Gingerbread houses have been decorated with the help of cousins . . .



And, we have lots of family in town this month to help us celebrate the holiday season.

We hope all of our friends and family, both near and far, have a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Merry Christmas!!!

Disney!

My dad and Mel treated us to a day a Disney which was so much fun. The grandparents spoiled the kids silly with balloons, hot chocolate, lollipops, and other gift shop goodies. It was a gorgeously cool day, and the park was decked out for Christmas. We even saw Santa during the parade. Sophie, who is usually too scared to ride anything, surprised me by riding on the teacups twice and the Peter Pan ride. The only downside to the day was the three hours it took us to drive home in Thanksgiving week traffic.

More Adventures at Griffith Park

We love spending time with our cousins! Train, pony, carousel rides and ice-cream make our little ones happy campers.

More on Turning Four

I took Sophie to see our pediatrician on Veteran's Day for her four year check up. My sweet girl endured a hearing test, a vision screening, a hemoglobin finger prick and five, yes five, shots. Poor thing. Those shots are so traumatic for both of us! She was quickly distracted afterwards with the lure of stickers and a trip to Toys R Us. She is 42.5 inches tall (95th percentile! Thanks to Daddy) and weighs 4o pounds (80th percentile).

Sophie is going to preschool full time now, and she seems to be doing well. I think she is the youngest one in her pre-k class! She has homework just like Madeline, and she is pretty good about completing it. She loves writing her first name and is working on writing her last name. I recently learned about some transitional kindergarten programs being piloted in our school district this year that I am really excited about. This program is only offered to students with Sept., Oct., and Nov. birthdays, and I think it might be a good fit for Sophie next fall.

All in a Weekend, Whew!

Our weekend started early on Friday morning. We woke up at the crack of dawn, before dawn actually, to dress the Spider Web Witch with costume, face paint and fingernails to boot, get Sleeping Beauty into her gown for school, and to take their Daddy to the airport shuttle. By 7:45, Daddy was on his way to LAX, and the girls and I were off to Madeline's elementary school for Halloween parade #1.
At Madeline's school, we ran into another princess, Alexis, and Sophie's preschool teacher from last year. The weekend was off to a great start!

At 8:30, Sophie and I headed to preschool for Halloween parade #2 and a little performance of sweet Halloween and Fall songs.

In the afternoon, I attended Madeline's parent conference, which I was very pleased with, and then picked up Sophie early from school. She went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch last week, and she brought home a fourth pumpkin! We made pumpkin bread while Madeline attended a Halloween party at her after school program.

On Saturday, we continued to cram every ounce of Halloween fun into our weekend and met up with Jessie and family for some trick-or-treating at the LA Zoo. Notice our costume change: Sophie went with Cinderella, last year's costume, and Madeline went with Sleeping Beauty. I definitely bought Sophie the wrong size.

The princess and the frog:

You'll never guess who we ran into!!!! Cinderella herself! What a surprise!

My girls schooled the Malisch boys on how to consume pixie sticks. Aunt Jessie has completely slacked in that department. Emmet is obviously amazed at my girls' skills. Take note, cousins, take note.

On Sunday, we decided we just had not had enough sugar and/or excitement, so we headed off to a Halloween party where Madeline wrapped Sarah Jane up as a mummy, we ate cake and ice cream, and pounced on the pinata contents because, as you know, Halloween is all about the candy!

Last, but not least, we rounded out our weekend with some real door-to-door trick-or-treating with our good friend, Milo. Sophie went back to her Sleeping Beauty costume, I made a lovely bustle for her, and Madeline went back to her scary witch costume. We have candy coming out our ears, and we have some really lovely memories too.

Happy Halloween everyone! And Daddy, we are so happy to have you home. We had fun, but we sure missed you!

Pumpkin Carving!

Pumpkin carving 2010; let the games begin! This year we carved three pumpkins: two little ones and one big one with two scary faces and one silly one.

Corn Maze!

We celebrated my birthday a wee bit early, and what did I want to do? I wanted to squeeze in one last trip to the pumpkin patch. We ventured through the corn maze which turned out to be more difficult than I thought. We did have a map, and luckily, Kent was quite good at reading it.

This week, as usual, will be a busy one. I have parent conferences for my students all Thursday evening, Madeline's parent conference to attend on Friday, pumpkins to carve, and 2 Halloween costumes to complete. See you next week with Halloween pictures!