Watercolor class and last swim lesson

Mira has had a busy day today! I signed her up for a one-time watercolor technique class. She really enjoyed learning about this painting technique. They even matted her art for her!


In Mira's words, her picture is "a green bridge with yellow water under it and an orange lobster in the water. In the sky is an orange dragon and a mean red witch with blue clouds."


And Mira had her last swim lesson today for this session. Overall she did really well and enjoyed it a lot. We'll sign her up again as soon as the new schedule comes out. We really want her to know the basics by summer when we are at the lake a lot.


And a random photo of Amelia and Mira coloring today. I bought these things Crayola makes called "Slick Sticks." They are hard to describe; sort of like a very soft crayon. They are pretty cool!


Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

{feeling the spirit}

Mira and Amelia are {feeling the spirit} this season! They have already received an invitation from Santa to go watch him read bedtime stories in their pajamas in a couple of weeks. They get milk, cookies, and a private meet and greet so I can take pictures. Perhaps one will make its way onto our Christmas card! Then they have a date to have breakfast with Santa in a couple weeks. It's going to be a Santa-filled Christmas! All the more reason to be {nice}.

Cookie dude and a good deed

We've been lying low lately, resting until Thanksgiving and the season that is so busy I can hardly keep up! Looking forward to Christmas this year, since my sister and her family will be in town from their home in Sydney, Australia! It's been 9 long months since we've seen them.

Amelia tried her first oreo the other day, and boy did she love it! Proof positive:


And Mira did a very good deed this past week. She had the opportunity through her church school to help a child in need. We needed to find a shoe box and fill it with items for a 4-year-old girl. I took Mira to Target and she helped pick out items for a girl she didn't know, but who she wanted to make Christmas better for. We filled the box with: socks, Little Mermaid underwear, a Dora toothbrush and toothpaste, soap, crayons, a color book, a shirt, barrettes, and a mini Care Bear. Mira was so proud to help out! It made me feel good too!

Hope you all find the time to relax and take a breath in the coming month. We hope to see many of you, or at least exchange some holiday cards with those of you we don't get to see very often. Happy holidays!

Ho ho ho.

Amelia's 18 month stats!

We had Amelia's 18-month wellness check today. She is doing just wonderfully! Growing great and her motor and verbal skills are right where they should be. Amelia is 22 pounds, 3 ounces, which puts her a little light (10-25 percentile), and her height (33 inches) puts her at the 90-95 percentile. So Amelia is tall and thin.

I've been wondering why the pants she's been wearing that fit Mira keep falling off her! Little waist, I guess. Here is a photo of Amelia today!

Thank you, Chesney!

Today, Mira received in the mail a letter from Chesney, promising us that she will come back. It was handwritten by her, and Kelly said she knew how to spell all the words herself. It came with a great drawing of two animals doing it. (What IS that a picture of?)

Thanks, Chesney! We love and miss you!

Darling down under

Kelly sent me this darling photo of my niece Chesney (right) and her friend.
It was too cute not to post!

Leaves, leaves

Today, Grandpa Randy and Grandma Terrie had the kids over for a post-Halloween get together. They all dressed up and then got to jump in the pile of leaves in the yard. They had a blast! Grandpa raked all the leaves to his truck and let the kids jump out of the back into the leaves! I think these photos say it all!






And one last shot of the beautiful view. Bliss.

Happy Halloween from Mira and Amelia!

Mira and Amelia would like to wish everyone a happy and safe Halloween! They had a great night, trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with lots of their friends! What a beautiful, mild evening!

Pre-Halloween festivities

We've been spending the last few days getting ready for Halloween. Making sure the costumes are ready, having a couple of parties at daycare, carving the pumpkins, roasting pumpkin seeds. It's been a busy week!

Here's Mira and Chris carving our pumpkins. Well, Chris did the actual carving and Mira got to draw the face on the other one. Check out Mira's new glasses too! We love these! Much sturdier than the others. We haven't had to get them adjusted yet!




Amelia only got to watch. But she did it so adorably!


Our daycare provider for three days a week (Connie) had TWO parties this week since her "kids" aren't all there on the same day. Fortunately for Mira and Amelia, the days the parties were on were days they were at this daycare. They got to dress up twice! Mira went as a cheerleader and Amelia wore her Mickey Mouse ears from Disneyworld. Their "real" costumes were too cumbersome (and warm) for an indoor party. I let Mira take our point-and-shoot camera to capture some of the party. Most of the photos were blurry, but a few that Connie took worked out!



And here are the girls wearing their new googly-eyed glasses!


We'll be trick-or-treating in our neighborhood tomorrow after getting take-out pizza (Solo's!) for dinner. Everyone have a safe and fun Halloween!

Park, Play-Doh, PJs

Just wanted to post some random photos of Mira and Amelia lately, enjoying their days. We went to the park today, thinking it might be the last nice weekend with such mild weather for a long while. Take advantage while we can! Mira took Amelia down the slide. Did Amelia enjoy it?


Amelia enjoyed playing with Play-Doh for the first time. She only tasted it once and decided it wasn't good enough to pursue. She did like to just mash it around a bit. Mira had to show her the ropes since Mira is a Play-Doh pro!


Mira recently received new Little Mermaid pajamas and a small pillow with a matching pillowcase. She loves them and wears the pajamas to bed every night (no lie). I finally slipped them into the wash today . . . and she is wearing them to bed again tonight!


And we completed the annual task of making sure the girls each had a winter coat, and that all the hats and mittens still fit and were put into pairs. The girls are showing off their winter outerwear!

Uh. Oh.

Last night Mira's glasses broke. Just snapped right in half. We've had lots of problems with them, always having to go into the eye clinic and have them adjusted. Like once or twice every week. It was a pain. They seemed a little flimsy and were constantly changing their shape so that they kept sliding down Mira's nose.

So they "finally" broke.

I took Mira into the clinic today to see what we could do about a replacement. Since the glasses Mira had weren't carried in the store anymore (and, truthfully, I didn't want the same ones anyway), the woman who helped us let me in on a little secret. She had just gotten in new frames. So new they weren't on the display yet.

Any idea what they are called? Disney Princess Jasmine glasses. And the color? Purple Fantasy. They are adorable! With a little charm of Jasmine on one side.
If anyone knows my daughter, she is NUTS about the Disney princesses. We couldn't have dreamed up a better pair of new glasses for Mira. (Well, since her absolute favorite princess is Ariel, the little mermaid, that would have been her charm of choice, but she's just as excited about Jasmine.) Even better, these glasses are much stronger and have these great springs in the side pieces, so they won't keep bending too wide.

I'll be sure to post a photo of Mira in her new glasses later next week! I'm sure she'll be all smiles.

Triathlon PINK!

This Saturday, who is going to . . .

. . . Swim 100 meters . . .


. . . Bicycle 3 kilometers . . .


. . . and Run 1 kilometer?


Halfway across the world in Sydney, Australia, I want to wish my sister Kelly THE BEST OF LUCK in her first triathlon this weekend. It's called Triathlon Pink, and is an all-female triathlon series benefiting breast cancer research. Here's the website: http://www.triathlonpink.com.au/


Have a great time, Kelly! We can't wait to hear about your experience, and post photos of you running across that finish line! I am so proud of you! I love you and will be thinking about you!
Michelle

Pumpkin Patch '08

Every year we take the kids to an apple orchard/pumpkin patch. Yesterday we went to one in Delano called Fall Harvest. We were there a couple of years ago and thought it was a great place for kids. They have farm animals all over the place! Chickens, goats, pigs, a donkey, plus corn bins to play in, hay bales, a tractor to sit on, all the pumpkins you can stand to look at, and an apple orchard. The kids really had a great time. We met Chris' brother and his family there so the girls got to spend some time with their cousins. It was the nicest day!

Mira and Cara in the corn crib:

Mira and Cara feeding the goats:

All the kids on the hay bales:

Mira found her pumpkin!


Amelia LOVED to run away from us. We only lost her once! Here's a photo of her planning her great getaway! She has that mischievous look in her eye A LOT. She's going to be trouble, that one.


Afterward we all went to Randy and Terrie's house for hot dogs and s'mores. Thanks for dinner! It was the most mild evening we could remember . . . especially for being October 11!


Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dad! I love you, Dad!
Michelle