Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Northern VA! We were able to enjoy brunch at my mom's house, dinner at my dad's, and dessert with the Dow's. We had full tummies all day! We have so much to be thankful for!

When we got back from our trip, we decided to decorate for Christmas. As usual, I took care of the inside, but this year, Danny decided to take care of the outside! I wasn't sure what he was up to, but after seeing him crawl in & out of the upstairs' windows and watching him take three trips in one day to Lowes, I knew it was going to be something big! By nightfall, I wanted to call him Clark (Grizwold that is). The end result was beautiful!

Anabelle's Crazy 8 Party~!~!~!

Anabelle had a Crazy 8 sleepover for her birthday and it was a lot of fun! I decorated with some crazy 8 cards on the table, lots of crepe paper & balloons, and simply blew up 8s in different fonts and posted them around the room. When the guests arrived in their wackiest attire, we had "It's Your Birthday" by the Beatles playing in the background. The girls were really creative with their outfits!!! Anabelle was so excited about this part! First we ate pizza and then we began the games. We started out with a balloon game called Dough Girl. The girls were split into two teams and they had a bag full of little balloons and one volunteer from each team to be the "Dough Girl" and she wore an oversized tshirt. In thirty seconds, they had to see how many balloons they could stuff into the shirt. They LOVED this game! It was hilarious to see how the girls looked with all of the balloons! Anabelle said, "Mom, we should have called it football girl!"

The next game was Cookie on a String. We simply tied a cookie on a string to a broom stick, blindfolded the girls, had them put their hands behind their back and asked them to eat the cookie as fast as they could. This one got a lot of laughs, too!

For doing such a good job, I gave them all stick on moustaches. Here's a photo of us looking very serious & getting ready to play Blindfolded Chef. In this game, the kids were blindfolded, a chef hat put on their head, and then they were given a big bowl of marshmallows & a spoon. They were asked to fill the other bowl with as many marshmallows as they could in 30 seconds. Let me tell you...the marshmallows were FLYING!!!

After picking up hundreds of marshmallows, it was time to do a calm activity. I gave them each a piece of paper that was folded into four parts. First they were asked to draw a head. When they were finished, we flipped the paper to the second part & passed it to the next person. Then they drew the stomach & arms. Then we passed again & the next person drew the legs and then the feet. When we were finished, there was a silly drawing of a person! They really enjoyed this, too!

Next, it was time to decorate their cupcakes...crazy of course. The had lots of different icing and sprinkles! When they were finished, we sang happy birthday and ate!!

Our last activity, was punch balloons. Instead of giving the birthday girl 8 spankings, they had to give her 8 punches with their punch balloons. Here's Anabelle under the big heap of balloons! When they were finished playing with the balloons, the girls got their jammies on & headed upstairs to get ready for a movie. The movie didn't end until 11:00, so when it was over, it was definitely time to get them to sleep. After an hour of giggles, sleeping bag rearranging, and lots of bathroom trips, they finally fell asleep. I know I had fun and I think the girls did, too. Happy Birthday to my sweet crazy 8!! We love you Anabelle!!!

~Anabelle's New 8 Year Old Room!!~

Anabelle has been asking for a new room for a while, so I suggested we redo as her birthday present! She's been watching Trading Spaces for Boys & Girls lately, so she really liked the idea of a big reveal on her birthday. I did have to remind her that her room probably wasn't going to be like the ones on the show...you know...ice skaing rinks, revolving doors, climbing walls, etc!

I moved her out of her room for a week and a half & asked her to sleep in the guest room. I decided to leave the walls light pink to save time & money and I started by painting big graphic hot pink flowers to spice it up a bit. I was doing this on a budget, so I had to be frugal. I also got her new curtains, new bedding, a fuzzy rug, and gave new life to a few things I found at Goodwill. Reuse...right!!! I also made some hanging paper bag flowers that I found on Martha Stewart's website. They turned out pretty cute & added a lot of color to the room. I also got rid of the little girl daybed & replaced it with a new headboard I found at The Market Place for $25. I spray painted it white and also painted some pink polka dots. Lastly, I recovered her chair in a polka dot fabric that matched the colors in the room & used the same fabric on her bulletin board.

She woke up early on her birthday and wanted to see the room right away! She was very excited when she saw it and kept saying, "It's pretty!!"

Anabelle won 2nd place for her photography!

Anabelle came home a few weeks after school had started and said she wanted to participate in the Reflections contest at school. Reflections encourages children to use different art forms to express themselves. Each year they choose a theme and the children can choose to express it through visual arts, photography, or music. Honestly, I wasn't thrilled with the idea because we had SO much going on, but how could I say no? She had made up her mind that she wanted to enter in the photography portion because she thought it was the easiest. She quickly learned that it wasn't just as simple as taking a photo. She also had to think of a title and describe how her photo showed beauty. This required some thinking!!

One nice afternoon, we went outside and I told her to take some pictures of things she found beautiful in our backyard. I told her that beauty is all around her. You don't have to drive far to find it :0). She took some great shots of flowers around our house & the lake. She also took one of a knot in a tree that was in the shape of a heart. I showed her how she can move her body & the camera in different ways to look at one object from different perspectives. After many photos, we went inside and looked at them on the computer. She narrowed her favorites down to three:

After really thinking about it, she chose the red rose (which was my favorite as well). A few days later, she had to come up with a title and a reason why it showed beauty. This was the hard part!!! She ultimately decided on the title being, 'Rose of September' and she said it showed beauty because "The color just popped out and I couldn't take my eyes off of it."

Last weekend we got a call that she won 2nd place! We went to the awards ceremony last night and we were all very proud of her. After they called her name she said, "I had butterflies in my stomach!"

Here's the video:

Here's Anabelle with her photo and her proud Dad.

Sadie Turns 4!!!

This Sunday we had a Fancy Nancy Tea Soiree for Sadie and a few of her friends. We kept it small this year and it worked out perfectly. For some reason, I still stress over the details, but it was all worth it. We started out by having them decorate paper purses, then after painting their nails, I read them the Fancy Nancy story, and we played a Fancy or Not Fancy game using items around the house. Then I had drawn a picture of Fancy Nancy on posterboard & had them try to pin a cupcake on the tray she was holding. Lastly, we gathered in a circle and played 'Pass the Purse' which had bracelets inside & when the music stopped, whoever had it, got to take a bracelet. Once the games were over, we began our tea soiree! The food consisted of dipped pretzels, little sandwiches, fruit kabobs, and of course, cake! I served them birthday tea and they all remembered to point their pinkies up! I had boas & sunglasses waiting for them at the table, so they looked quite fancy! After our tea party, we danced to the Fancy Pokey and opened presents. By the look on Sadie's face, I'd say she had a great time! Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

Happy Halloween!

Here are my little trick or treaters! Nanna was kind enough to make the girls' costumes again this year. Sadie was Glenda, Elise was a fairy, and Anabelle called herself 'Spider Girl'. We had a great Halloween with friends and the girls came home with a giant bag full of candy. I met someone recently who told me about the candy fairy and how she comes around to collect candy & will give children a book in return. Mmmmm...I like that idea! Of course, I'd have to get their permission first!

Danny & I actually dressed up this year, too! We decided to go as Deadheads which really wasn't that hard to do. I went into the attic to find some old clothes, slipped on my very old Birkenstocks, and Danny bought a dreadlock wig...then VOILA! All we needed was some music and my old bongos :0)!

And a skater is born!

Well, Danny is one proud papa of a new little skater in the family. One day Elise asked to hop on Danny's old skateboard & away she went. We were both amazed by how well she could balance herself. She even learned a few new tricks! Danny says he'll have to build her a ramp, but I'm not so sure I like that idea!

Pumpkin Carving

This year, the girls did most of the work on their pumpkins. Danny and I did help them with the pulp because they said it was too gross, but they cut the top and did most of the face carving themselves! We were only able to light them for a few nights though because it rained a lot and the pumpkins were a little mushy inside.