Boo to you!

Madeleine and Lily vampire pumpkins wish you an awesome day.

Happy Halloween!

 On Saturday we hit up the Town of Cary's Howlin Good Halloween celebration at the community center.  The girls had a blast playing games and trick-or-treating at some of the downtown shops.  We skipped the hayride because of the looooooooooooooong wait and walked it despite the cold.  We finished up with a walk through the haunted house at the new Cary Arts Center.

 We were thrilled to win some vampire fangs after searching for them at stores all day.  You'll see why tomorrow.

 The girls kept pulling their strings back with nothing on them.  Finally the teens behind the screens just threw the lollipops over the top.

Lily patiently waits for a tattoo.

Rocktoberfest

 Since we use the YMCA for afterschool care, it made sense for us to join as well as our regular gym.  At afterschool camp, the girls have been talking about Rocktoberfest at the Y for weeks.  Lily has been diligently making posters and working on the banners.  Of course we were all super-excited to attend on Saturday evening. 

 It featured all kinds of outdoor games.

 Face painting.

 Costumes

 And the all-important pumpkin-smashing catapults.

 We had dinner, enjoyed the "Spooky Hallway," and rocket out at the dance party.  I got to meet some of the counselors and "friends" I hadn't met yet.  I love seeing the girls this excited about new things.

Pumpkin Country

 This year we headed out to Ganyard Farm near Durham to pick our pumpkins.  The last two years we went to Hill Ridge Farms out near Wake Forest because we were going with field trip groups.  But Ganyard is so much closer and just as fun.  We first visited in 2007 when the girls were only two, and you can see how much Madeleine has changed in the last four years.

 Madeleine drew a picture of what kind of pumpkin she wanted to get.

 "Milking" a cow.

 Playing in the corn crib

Corn maze with Daddy.

2011 State Fair Wrap Up

We visited the North Carolina State Fair over the weekend.  The weather was perfect, if even a tad warm.  So we trekked out with the rest of the world Saturday to the fairgrounds.  Now that we're big schoolkids, no goofing off and going during the week.

Usually we take the first park-and-ride bus at 8:30 and get there plenty early.  Unfortunately, the people who sell the bus tickets must have not set their alarm, because there was a long line of us there waiting to buy tickets when the first bus showed up.  They let us buy tickets on the bus, but everyone feeding in dollars individually into the meters took a while, so it was almost 9 am before we got there.

The girls demonstrate their hula hoop skills at the PBS Kids/Marbles tent.  I didn't know they could do two hoops at once.

 They weren't really interested in the animals this year.  We checked out the crafts and hobbies building where the girls plotted what crafts they want to submit.  They didn't want pony rides or the petting barn, but we did check out the rabbits.

 As soon as the rides opened at 10, we got in line for the ferris wheel since that was the longest line we stood in last year.  Lily was very nervous the first time around, but Madeleine immediately looked for our house.

 We graduated to some of the more big-kid rides this year, including the giant slide and the swings that make mommy nervous.

 While eating lunch, Lily overheard some people talking about the pig races.  So, we headed up to the "Hogway Speedway."  I knew from previous experience that people get there up to one hour before showtime to claim seats.  The girls patiently waited 45 minutes for the show and really enjoyed it.

 They brought their birthday money and could buy themselves any souvenir they wanted.  Madeleine got a light up sword, and Lily picked yet another cowgirl hat.

We were back in line for the bus by 2pm and headed home for a much-needed nap.

Important 6-year stats

I don't know at what point we stop talking about this, but this year's height and weight:

Lily 45.8 inches tall and 41.5 lbs.
Madeleine 45.5 inches tall and 44.5 lbs.


So pretty much exactly the same height and weight gain since last year.  Madeleine is on the 50th percentile exactly for everything - Lily is 50th for height and 25th for weight.  We've pretty much had a consistent growth pattern since they were 2.

Party Time

The girls had their 6th birthday party at Kenney's Gymnastics on Saturday.  They took gymnastics there last year and had been asking about having their party there ever since.  You get a trophy when you're the birthday kid, and that's what is most important apparently.

 It was Madeleine's year to hear "Happy Birthday" first.  She was most excited to note I put the candles in an A/B pattern.

 A very touching moment when Madeleine decided to hug Lily prior to her blowing out her candles.  I had to ask her to stop so that we could get this over with before everything was melted.

Lily's turn.

We had some new friends from elementary school attend as well as some old preschool friends.  It was kind of hard this year since I didn't know how to go about inviting anyone from school, and I couldn't invite both classes entirely.

For the record, I did invite almost everyone we knew from the neighborhood, EPLC, and Country Sunshine.  Unfortunately, I didn't discover until Thursday that maybe only 50% of the people I sent invitiations to received the emails unfortunately.  I didn't want to look like a jerk at the last minute inviting everyone, so I kind of just let it go.  Hopefully we'll all get to catch up sometime soon!

Happy Birthday Girlz!

Look how far you've come!You are such big kids now, and I am amazed at how much you learn each day. You love homework and doing what all the other kids are doing in afterschool camp.

You both love meeting new people and make friends easily. We still have to say goodbye to all the counselors and our friends before we leave each day.

I love your projects, dance parties, and how much you still love to snuggle at the end of a long day. Thank you so much for letting me be your mom.