Thanksgiving Summary

Grammie came to visit us over Thanksgiving. She made Celia a special apron. Celia had a wonderful time helping Grammie cook bread, cookies and green beans. She helped Daddy make mashed potatoes. I am so glad she is taking after David in the kitchen.

We went to the annual Oyster Roast at the church. It was really neat. They had tons of oysters (I ate one, Celia ate none and David ate a lot). We will know next year that David needs to bring his own glove, towel and oyster knife. There was also a fire for smores.

Then on Friday, we went to the holiday festival of lights. We arrived and drove through the 3 miles of lights. Then we parked, ate a picnic dinner, rode the carousel and visited the sand castle. Only on the water would Santa's Village be made of sand.

We bought one of those gingerbread houses kits. Celia and I made the house. Thanks to the special tray, it was a million times easier than the last one I tried to make (mother-daughter project when I was 8 yrs old...I don't think we even got one wall up). It was a fun and rejuvenating holiday.

Celia's 3rd Birthday

Saturday was Celia's 3rd Birthday. We had a green frog party. When they arrived, kids got to color a froggie mask.

Then it was time for some Jumpnastics. They had an obstacle course and these wobbly seats.

Cake time!

Then it was time to play some more. The kids loved parachute time.

And they practiced coordination using these over sized hands to bounce the balls. This is Kylie with Celia, one of her favorite friends.

Emme helped gather the kids for present time (nothing attracts preschoolers like a baby).

I was so proud of Celia on her birthday. As each friend arrived, she greeted them with a hug. Then when she opened her presents and her friends "helped" she never snapped at them or complained, she graciously let them help. Can you see the polka dots on Celia's shirt? She was surrounded!

It was a wonderful party. Celia had a great time and was a perfect hostess and all her little friends had fun, too.

Celia's 3rd Birthday (continued)

The parachute was a favorite activity.

Publish Post

Halloween Photos

Sorry for the lack of new posts, but until we can get back in the swing, here are some Halloween pictures.

Touch Book

Celia brought home this touch book the other day from school. It has soft things, rough things and scratchy things....Celia knows how to describe all of the items only, when she gets to the sand paper, she says "its Daddy's mess" (her name for when David needs to shave).

Nap time

Today, I put Celia down for a nap. Emme was not interested in the nap idea at the time, so I took her downstairs. She had squash, played some, and had a bottle. I checked the time and Celia had about 15 minutes left. Emme and I sang "Head and Shoulders" and then played "How Big is Emme?" Just then, I heard Celia calling from upstairs. I went to the bottom of the stairs and saw Celia standing at the closed baby gate. She said, "Were you just going to leave me up here forever?" She is just so funny.

Whew, what a day.

Today was a busy Saturday. We started with Celia's dance class. I asked Celia while we were getting ready which story she thought they might read and she said, "we'll have to wait and see." The story today was The Red Shoes. I have never heard of the book, so we might have to find it at the library or book store.

After dance, we changed the girls and went off to the pumpkin patch. There is a plantation that has a scarecrow festival with a pumpkin bounce house and other fun stuff. Well, we didn't make the festival part, it was just too wet (notice the puddles in the back). When we first got there and told Celia to pick a pumpkin, she pointed to Emme and said "I want that one." So cute!!

We had lots of fun. We took some really cute pictures.

Celia found a pumpkin just her size.

And another one that David can carve.

Our happy pumpkin.

After lunch was nap and then the UT/ou game. It was so neat to be able to watch UT play and it was an awesome game. Celia likes football, too. Emme got a bit scared when David and I started cheering at one of the touchdowns. No matter who won, it was a good game to watch and of course, it is even better that we did win.

Next, we got the girls dressed up in their Halloween costumes and got pictures made (pictures to come later). Celia is really photogenic and Emme is adorable, so it makes choosing really hard.

Celia did such a great job at the photographer's that we let her have a ride on the carousel at the mall.

And baby doggie got to ride, too.

It was a busy day and we spent a lot of time in the car driving between locations. But Celia made sure to serenade us the whole time (If you notice the background moving a lot, David was parking the car while I took the video).

p.s. I looked up the Red Shoes. It is originally a Han Christian Anderson one about a girl who instead of doing what she is suppose to with money from her grandmother, buys red shoes which make her dance constantly. I tell you this in case you look it up, because the HCA version says her feet get cut off, but I want to reassure you that the version the girls read today is an adaptation and not at all as scary.

Happy Half Birthday

Emme is 6 months old today. We had a half birthday party. We have been talking about Emme's half birthday for a few days and mostly just bought her a new (not a hand me down) toy. But Celia was really excited about "the party". When David picked the girls up, Celia started talking about the party and asking about it. David called and told me about Celia. We decided it would fun to have a real party, so I made a quick run to get a few more things (plates, a piece of cake and a balloon). We also had a noise maker, candles and such left over from my birthday, so we got those out.

I think maybe Celia was most excited about the cake and ice cream. After cake and ice cream (applesauce for Emme), she got to open her present. I used tissue paper to wrap it so it would be easier for her to tear. She was pretty good at it.

Celia helped a little too since she is a pro.

Emme really seemed to like it. She mostly chewed on the rings.
Emme even shared her new toy with Celia.

Sleeping Emme

Hurray for Hand Me Downs

Since Celia's birth, Grandparents and friends gave Celia special dresses and clothes. On a day to day basis, though, most of her clothes have been hand-me-downs. People at our church have been so generous sharing their gently used clothes with us and we have lots of friends with girls just a bit older than Celia. It has really helped save money on clothes she will grow out of so quickly, especially while David was in school. Now, since we are so far from Texas, we don't have such easy access to our hand-me-down connections. Last week, David even had to buy Celia some clothes for the fall and her drawers had been looking bare since I put away the things she has outgrown.

And then...
Wednesday, one of the wonderful ladies at the church asked me if Celia would wear used clothing. Heck yes (I thought). She gave David a large stack of cute dresses, a bag of shoes and a basket of PJs, socks and play clothes. So generous!
I realize that at some point, we will probably have to start buying clothes on a regular basis, but I am happy to delay that day a bit longer. The other great thing about getting clothes from someone else is that I have absolutely no style (really, I don't), so they are clothes that someone with style has picked out.Although these are also some of the new clothes, it is really a picture to show how long Celia's hair is getting.

This week in ballet...

Today, the girls read Cinderella. They danced some and then each one tried on a glass slipper and it fit! It was "bring a friend" week, so there were a lot of extra parents watching and so, I couldn't get very many pictures.

Celia's Art

We have a lot of art work around here. Celia brings home a "Friday folder" each week with her art from school. Also, she brings home art from Sunday School and Children's Church each Sunday. We have a door in the kitchen that we have covered in art work and I rotate pieces out from time to time. There is just so much. I often think about framing it or sending it to someone. Today, I took pictures of several of the pieces and then..threw them away. It was hard, but at least we will have photos of everything. If you would like to be in an art of the week club, just let me know and we can mail you art for all your walls.

Cheerio

I gave Emme some Cheerios today, mainly for her to play with while I made lunch.

She didn't get any in her mouth, but it was still a good first introduction.

Bananas!!!

Today, Emme tried Bananas. She ate the whole jar. I thought maybe she was just getting better at eating, but tonight I gave her peas...and nope, it was that she likes bananas.

Growing vocabulary

As I have mentioned before, Celia often says things that catch us off guard. She will say very insightful things or use big words... Last Sunday, the girls and I were in the car and David was at church. Celia pretended to call David and said, "Hi Daddy, um Emme is crying, apparently she is still sick." I later asked David if he though she knew what "apparently" meant and he said "apparently so".

Yesterday, Celia brought home a project from school with lots of items from nature taped to a piece of paper (bark, grass, acorns and a pine cone). Celia showed us the little baby pine cone and said "its adorable."

Exercise

Emme still can't sit up on her own, but she has some tummy muscles.

The cool thing about ballet shoes

Celia discovered today what makes ballet shoes special...they slide. She would slide down, get up and do it again. It passed the time until class started.
Today's story was Ragged Ann. The girls got little pants, dresses and an apron.