Overheard

Madeleine and I were talking this morning about why they're off for Veteran's Day. I explained that it was a day to rememeber people who were in the Army and all the other soldiers. She asked what Grandpa Dave did while in the Guard, and I was like, "I have no idea."

So I remembered a picture of my uncle Ken jumping out of a helicopter. So I told her that Grandpa Dave's brother Ken was in the Army, and he jumped out of helicopters. I figured she could wrap her mind around that.

She thought about it a minute and said, "Was the driver mad at him?"

Halloween Survival

We made it. It started last weekend with the "Spooktacular" at the gym, and wrapped up last night with trick or treating. We wore our costumes for approximately 5 different events, and no one changed their mind about what they wanted to be. Madeleine did change her mind about her witch hat by Saturday though and only wanted to wear mine. By Saturday night, Lily was still annoyed every time someone called her Spidergirl.

The Spooktacular at the gym was pretty fun and geared toward kids slightly older than them. Lily was more scared by the haunted house than Madeleine, and somehow they both sat still for an hour long magic show.

They're not bored in this picture. They're mad at me for wanting to leave.

Then for the fourth year in a row they came with me to work for the Global Knowledge Halloween festivities. Keeping them from getting bored this year was the "Wizard of Oz" show put on by accounting. The poor girls stalked Dorothy and were super excited to raid their treasure chest of gifts.

Then it was off to daycare for the annual parade. We marched down to the Tree of Life church again where they handed out some candy and then around the pond at the retirement community. It was only in the 60's, but the humidity was so high all of us were sweating by the time it was over.

Friday night we carved our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. The one on the left is their teacher Ms. Rebecca. When I joked about doing a pumpkin of her, she thought I was kidding.

Saturday morning we hit the TMOTT party at 10. Madeleine promptly settled in to the coloring area and would have been there all morning. Lily got bored fairly quickly, so we covered her in tattoos and let her play pin-the-face-on-the mummy. I liked seeing all the little kids in their costumes, but it was really crowded, so I didn't get to check everyone out.

Trick or treating itself went well. We went up to the other end of the neighborhood first. Quite a few kids were already out, which was new for us. We'd always been the first ones. Lily decided she liked "girl" houses better than "boy" houses. But we did my whole parents' street before doing a couple houses on our own. They liked to say "Happy Trick or Treat!"

Down on the farm

Okay - so Hill Ridge Farms doesn't seem to be a farm in any way. I didn't see a barn. Or things growing. There were some animals behind a double-layer fence. The pumpkins all had stickers on them that said "Appalachian Grown." But all my kids cared about was that it was their first field trip at day care. I went a little bit crazy with the picture taking because it's very rare I bring out the nice camera, and I knew some of the other parents either didn't bring theirs or didn't get the chance.

Eric and I took the day off to go with the class. About an hour's drive north of Raleigh, the "farm" is really a collection of fall-themed kids activities. Even with a 1-to-1 parent to child ratio, the trip was definitely a handful. There were tons of other day cares and school classes there without the benefit of parents, and I really don't know how those teachers stayed sane.

We left EPLC around 9 and got to the farm around 10 am. We hit the train ride first and took two laps around a big empty field. Then we split up to do our own thing for about an hour before our hayride to the picnic location. Most of this free time we spent standing in line for the big slide. After about 40 minutes we were about 20 people from the front when we barged ahead since we were going to miss the hayride otherwise.

Tons of bees at the picnic site, but luckily no one got stung.

We got 4 small pumpkins at the patch. Picking them out w/ kids means you want to make sure the kids can carry them themselves.

After 1pm, the place seemed to clear out, so it was back to the play area again. The kids played all together in the sandbox and then split up for the corn house and slide again.

We learned that Lily will not pee in a port-a-john where she can see if someone else has gone. So she went all day without peeing. Madeleine would use it but wouldn't let me in there with her. Awesome.

"Fair"ly Entertaining

No - the girls had an awesome time at the fair. I'm just not good at coming up with puns using the word "fair."

We didn't tell the girls when they'd be going this year since we weren't sure about the weather and didn't want them to be disappointed. Thursday night we let them know they needed to be good for the "surprise," but didn't tell them what it was. Friday morning I woke up, and they were both sitting in their room wide awake. The first thing Madeleine said was, "What's the surprise?"

"First, Grandma and Poppy are coming to visit." Yay! "And they're taking you to the fair!" Total joy.

Here we have proof for Mommy that we attempted to stay germ free.

A nice day to go as the fairgrounds weren't crowded at all.

Boarding the roller coaster. Eric said it was scarier than last year's, but they did good.

Lily checking herself out in a funhouse mirror. I wonder if she sees Madeleine?

Stats from 4 Year Checkup

Lily: 391/2" (50th percentile) tall, 34 lbs (25-50 percentile)
Madeleine: 39 1/4" (50th percentile) tall, 35 lbs (50-75 percentile)

So pretty much the same now. They gave us a sheet with examples of developmental behavior, and the girls are right on target. Eric laughed out loud at these:

• regresses to baby behavior periodically
• has a penchant for silliness

They also had their first hearing test by themselves. We asked Lily how it went, and she said she had to say 'Beep'.

I asked the doctor a ton of questions about the flu. They were out of the FluMist vaccinations for the seasonal flu, so I need to check back about getting them done. She's recommending the H1N1 vaccination, but they have no idea when or if they'll get access to it. Odds are the girls will end up getting it before they would ever be vaccinated. We went over the list of symptoms that she would want me to bring them in for when the time comes, and it should last 4-5 days.

Happy Fourth Birthday Girls!

I can't believe you both are four years old. It does seem like only yesterday we were in the hospital. A lot of people say they can't remember what life was like before they had kids, but I remember very clearly every moment the few months before you both were born. The doctors appointments, the take out food, the hours of bad TV, and every detail of the three days I was in the hospital before the BIG day.

And then the actual day itself I don't remember anything much past 2pm. They had given me a sleeping pill the night before, but I barely slept. I got out of bed and tried to crawl up on the couch in the room with your dad around 5:30 am. I don't know how I didn't fall on the floor. One person can't even fit on those much less a 34 week pregnant woman.

We waited hours for them to tell us when it was time. Then when it was time, we had to wait 3 hours more before heading to the OR. Then you were born. All I saw of Lily was a tiny hand before they took her to the next room. Madeleine was taken to an exam table to my left where I could see her get cleaned up. They brought her to my cheek to give her a kiss, and then she too was out the door. It would be almost 24 hours before I would see you again.

It took forever to sit in recovery as the nurse filled out paperwork and my machines beeped. Then up in my room. All I wanted to do was sleep...

Birthday Party News

The girls' fourth birthday party was Saturday, October 3. After two years of having it at Planet Child with cupcakes, I thought it would be nice to do something different. I looked at the standard bounce party, a soccer party, Build-A-Bear, Tumblebus, and the children's museum. But with the number of kids I wanted to invite (this is the first time I invited kids from daycare), it wasn't just feasible with approximately 20 kids.

So, I went with a "dress up" theme, and we had the party at our house. I bought some gender-neutral and boy costumes, and the girls had TONS of princess clothing to share. I got a few craft projects from Discount School Supply (decorate a frame, color a crown, and make a necklace).

For food, I went with party trays from Chick-Fil-A for lunch. This is the first party I've ever had where there weren't very many leftovers. The nuggest and wrap/sandwich trays were GONE.

Even though the party started at 10:30, most people didn't get to the house until 11 or shortly after. Most kids went straight for the craft projects, and it took a while for the girls to warm up to the dress-up stuff. I think I only saw one boy don the Superman outfit.

I made homemade cupcakes again this year, this time with the girls' help for the frosting.

Most people left between 12:30 and 1pm, so I'm assuming everyone enjoyed themselves. The girls opened all the presents afterwards, and it was totally overwhelming. I apologize to everyone ahead of time about thank-you notes. I may not have gotten everything written down as Madeleine was opening faster than I could write, even in my crazy shorthand.

My mom-moment for the party was the favors. For the girls, I spent the last two weeks making tutu's for everyone to take home. I didn't get any pictures of them from the party because I didn't pass them out until people were leaving. Because the girls were changing clothes quite frequently, I knew some would get left behind, and I didn't want fighting over colors and claimed tutu's.

But here's Lily modeling ALL the tutus I made.

And here's the instructions for anyone interested enough to do these:

http://plumtickled.typepad.com/plumtickled/2007/08/tutu-tutorial-t.html