oh my goodness...

Grace was invited to attend a princess/Disney birthday party recently. When she received the invitation, it instructed her to dress as her favorite Disney character. She has a couple of dress-up dresses and, since she went as Sleeping Beauty to the tea party she attended this summer, she decided to go as Tinkerbell to this party.

The day of the party was a chilly fall day (okay, don't ridicule me, northern folk...it was about 60° that day, but coming off of the 90s, it felt cold!), so I told her that she would have to wear black pants and a purple shirt under her costume. Grace was NOT happy about this. She told me that Tinkerbell did NOT wear pants under her dress and I told her that Tinkerbell did when it was cold outside. Next was the shoe battle. I sent her downstairs to put on her tennis shoes since I have yet to buy her a new pair of black mary janes since she has outgrown her old ones. She piped up that Tinkerbell did NOT wear black shoes OR tennis shoes. When I asked her what Tinkerbell did wear on her feat, she replied, "Green shoes with a white poof on them." To which I replied, "We don't have any of those. Put on your tennis shoes."

We finally made it out the door and to the party. As the other guests arrived, I noticed that most of them did not have pants or shirts on underneath their costumes and I held my breath hoping that Grace wouldn't notice. She didn't seem to, or, at least, didn't seem to care. She was too caught up in the real-life Belle who would later be singing to the kids and the steady flow of school friends arriving to celebrate with the birthday girl.

And then I noticed the only other Tinkerbell walk in to the party. And she was some Tinkerbell. She had a gorgeous fitted costume with wings that didn't flop over and every last detail in place. As she got in line behind Grace for facepainting, I saw Grace turn to her and say hi then look her up and down, pausing for several second at...the shoes. Green with a white poof on them. Then her eyes shot over to me with a glaring look and my mind immediately went to prom in 12 years. We are so in trouble.

Grace did enjoy the rest of the party, though, and was thrilled to go home and show daddy her cool face paint. And I enjoyed another opportunity to meet some other parents from school. So, overall, a good time, even if we didn't have the perfect shoes for the event!

quality time in MI

A school inservice day at the beginning of October prompted a weekend visit to my parents' for me and the kids. While I love my sisters and their families and love being there all together, it was kind of nice this trip to have my parents and grandparents all to ourselves! We were able to give Mom her birthday present in person, play with the castle and watch for freighters at Grandma Pat and Papa Tommy's, visit with Uncle Bill and Aunt Julie who came up for the afternoon on Saturday, and even trick-or-treat at the Halloween event at the campgrounds.

Just wish we lived closer and could do these fun weekends without the 7-1/2 hour drive!

Oktoberfest 2010

Our church festival was a few weeks ago and I signed up to work in the kids' crafts tent on Friday evening. It turned out that it ended up pouring rain during my shift and I was a crazed mess as I had a line almost out the tent for sand art. Who knew sand art would be so popular?! Hundreds of little hands were handing me soggy wet tickets and demanding their funnels for two and half straight hours. Ugh...I think I'll work in the gambling tent next year! While I was working, Kris took the kids around to some other activities. Unfortunately, they couldn't play on the inflatables that night due to the rain, so we went back between soccer games the next day for that. This is the first year they are students there, as well, so we had fun running into other kids from their classes and meeting other parents.

Grace saved her last tickets on Saturday to get her hair sprayed purple and pink...

And then proudly showed it off at her soccer game :)

first lost tooth!!

Sam came downstairs around 10 P.M. the other night from bed to tell us he had just pulled his tooth out and was just left with a "bleedy hole" in his mouth! Is it weird that I almost got emotional over the whole thing sitting there holding the tooth that I remember popping through when he was 9 months old? They are growing so fast! My big brave boy who didn't cry at all when he yanked his own tooth was pretty happy the next morning to find money from the tooth fairy in his tooth box!

Goal!

I missed this, but thankfully, Kris happened to catch it on video...yay, Grace!

apple orchard field trip season!!

Over the past few weeks, I was lucky enough to get to chaperone on both kids' school field trips to local apple orchards. These events were exciting for the kids because they were getting to go to the orchards with their friends AND they didn't have to wear their uniforms! I never knew being out of uniform would be such a big deal for a kindergartner or a preschooler, but they are beyond excited for those rare days every few weeks.

Sam had a fun time on his field trip picking his pumpkin, going on a hayride, feeding the animals in the petting zoo, drinking cider and playing in the GIANT playground that gave his mother a near heart attack as I tried to keep track of the group I was in charge of while they ran like wild animals amongst the hundreds of school kids from various area schools that were at the orchard that day.

Grace missed out on the petting zoo on her trip since her school day is shorter so her classmates had to get back for preschool carline before lunch. She still had a great time on her hayride, drinking cider, eating doughnuts (which, at that particular orchard, were guaranteed nut-free, so we bought a couple of packages to bring home...Sam was thrilled!), picking her pumpkin and playing on the playground (which was much less frantic for mama at this orchard!).

I was happy to eat up two vacation days to go on the fall fieldtrips...LOVE time at the orchard and LOVE getting experience these trips with my kids. I figure I better take advantage of it now when they're happy I'm chaperoning instead of embarrassed that I'm there!

Quick photo update

Just a quick post since Kris, sitting at his computer tonight, called me a bad blogger when he checked and saw that I haven't posted anything in a while. So, just a couple of shots from the Arboretum a few weeks ago...enjoy :)

Sister Sister Sister

Sister Sister Sunday

I thought since I'm so diligent at keeping my own blog going (haha!), that it would be fun to contribute to another blog as well! My sisters and I are featured as guest bloggers on yesterday's Sister Sister feature over at Kuzak's Closet. Click here to check it out!