a fun start to the holiday season!

we went to the lighting of the macy's tree last night after a delicious (but much overdue) birthday dinner at cheesecake factory (okay, the dinner was like 3 years overdue!!!!!)! we waited FOREVER to get into the parking lot for the event, but the kids kept saying "it's worth it!". we got a great parking spot, only to find out the macy's doors to the event were locked. go figure. so we walked around and had a view of a spot of the stage and half of the tree, but were surrounded by the excitement.

we heard some caroling followed by a performance by jordyn sparks (i kept telling the kids they were hearing someone famous although bailey had no clue who she was . . . even after singing the songs that are on the radio!). then we counted down for the lighting of the tree with st. nick. . . and a million fireworks!!!!! it was soooooo cool to watch the girls' faces, especially as they did the grand finale!

the place was packed, but we walked around for awhile and just enjoyed the nice evening. we even attempted to take some cute pictures . . . you'll notice that all of them will not look/smile at me at the same time. ahhhhhh! we are working on that.

we all got sooooo in the mood that we had to put up the decorations and the tree today! :) what a fun start to the holiday season! :)

turkey celebrations

we attended two turkey celebrations today! :)

ken's kinder celebration begin with singing 3 thanksgiving songs . . . she was dressed as a pilgrim- super cute - with a bonnet and apron! :) we got a turkey lunch and headed outside. what beautiful weather. ken wouldn't eat anything but the roll. we decided next year she can bring her turkey lunch! :) we got to hang out on the playground for a little while too!

mck had her pre-school celebration at night. we had another turkey meal and listened to her class perform 2 songs. mck was dressed as an indian - complete with headband and a necklace bearing her indian name "fairy girl"! her favorite part of the evening "wearing my cute dress!" go figure!

kam loved watching her sisters and showing off the turkey on her shirt! :) she wasn't into the turkey meals, but sure enjoyed the cookie desserts ! :) yep, two healthy meals for kam today! :)

can't believe thanksgiving is almost here. we have so much to be thankful for.

pictures at the park

we met our friends at the park on monday. the kids were in great moods, the weather was great, and i actually remembered to take some pictures. :) some of them turned out pretty cute! :) you can't beat an afternoon like that!

axe 'em jacks! our first family visit to sfa!

we made our first "trek" to nacogdoches to visit aunt sarah and see daddy's old hangouts! :) the girls had so much fun checking out sarah's dorm room - so tiny, but decorated to a tee! :) they thought it was pretty cool. we got a tour of her sorority house too! :) we walked around campus, got hot chocolate at starbucks, and toured all the "cool" places!

it was a super chilly evening, so we bundled up with winter coats, hats, and mittens for the football game! we we were all wearing sfa shirts, but they were hidden under lots of layers! ken LOVED seeing the cheerleaders, mck LOVED dancing to the band, and kam just loved being outside and eating snacks! :) what a perfect night for football! we left at half time for the hotel and bailey headed back to catch the end of the game and see old coaching buddies.

on sunday we toured the town in the morning - including seeing daddy's old frat house (a sad metal building which he was very proud to point out had a concrete floor that could be hosed off after a party! nice.) and his old apartment building! we ate a yummy breakfast at ihop then played at the park and took a walk. ken and bailey collected pecans to make a pie and mck collected acorns - she also thinks she is going to make a pie! :)what a great weekend! :) thanks sarah! :)

letting go . . .

okay, so half the reason i started staying home was to be able to go on school field trips with my kids . . . okay, not half, but that was a big bonus! :) well, ken's first field trip was today and NO parents were allowed. i was devastated, but only for a day or so and then i started realizing that this is just one of the many things to come where i need to begin to let go.

today was a string of firsts for ken -
first time riding on a school bus
first time traveling downtown without mom/dad
first "sack lunch" - she was so adamant that EVERYTHING be able to be thrown away! :)
first time to the paramount theatre
first real theatre production

she came home soooo excited and loved every minute of it. i think she also loved that i wasn't there. it was a day she could share with the family . . . but something only she experienced. so i played the part of the happy mom at the end of the school day . . . wanting her to recount every detail of the day, trying not to think about how much she is growing up and how much i am having to begin letting go.

kissing pavement

well . . . in keeping with her habit of hurting only her face, ken kissed the pavement at the library yesterday and ended up with a lovely looking nose! :)

she ran ahead of us at the library when she was supposed to stay with us. i didn't say anything - i didn't have to! we got in the car and mck said to her "ken, are you allright? you were supposed to stay with us. you were supposed to stay with mommy!" (i was glad it was mck saying it and not me - ken did not want to hear it ! :)

i told her today when people asked her she should tell them she kissed the pavement. she said, "mom, i didn't kiss it, i flopped onto it!"

of course this happened just in time for school picture re-takes . . . her first ones weren't good. i asked her tonight what we should do about her nose for the pictures - "well, if i rub real hard i can try to erase it." :)

butter, muffins, and water experiments!!! a busy morning!

this morning was a combination kitchen and science playdate with our playgroup - the doodlebugs!

mck had fun making butter and blueberry muffins, but of course eating them was the best part! :) even kam got in on the action and stirred the muffins with help from mck! :)

we also did a sink or float experiment. she brought her bath barbie and a small dino from home and had to make a hypothesis about what the items would do in the water. what a smart cookie! she was right about both of them! :) kam had fun throwing blocks in the water - over and over again! :)

morning meltdown

okay, so anyone who has seen kam lately has seen her puppy. seriously she has become scarily attached to her stuffed animal/blanket. well, because she's been carrying it around everywhere (totally my fault) it has gotten DISGUSTING! i've said for the past few days we need to give puppy a bath. kam's immediate response, "NO!" so i planned to sneak puppy away or take it at night, but never had a chance to . . .

so this morning i told her we were going to give him a bath. she grabbed the puppy and ran. she backed herself up to the couch and just kept saying "NO!" after several coaxing attempts, i bribed her with a candy corn. she ran with a smile into the laundry room and put him in. she waved to him while he spun around. then ran to get her treat! :) so i'm thinking "ha, who knew it would be this easy?" . . .

yea, well, that didn't last long. she finished her candy corn and wanted to get puppy out. like now! she had a major meltdown (and hello, we were only on the wash cycle - still had to dry him!) poor thing. she just lost it. nothing helped. we went in and watched him spin around and tried to distract her by playing but then she'd hold her hands out and cry sadly "puuuuppppy?" oooh! talk about breaking your heart. seriously between the crocodile tears and her pouty lip, i am a whimp!

so, i gave in. we stopped the cycle in the middle of spinning and dried him super fast. you would have thought it was christmas when she got him back. . . gotta have a new strategy next time! :)

here's how it played out in pictures . . . :(

"crafty" mom . . .

okay, so i haven't quite earned that title yet . . . nor will i ever, but i really branched out this weekend! :) my bff came over to show me how to make a super-girly tutu! :) (thanks, stef!!!!!) who knew it could be soooo easy and sooooo stinkin' cute! :)

okay, i thought i bought enough material to make one for each girl . . . oops! only had enough to make ken one. luckily, mck was able to wear it too . . . so it ended up working out! :)

mck tried it out today for ballet this morning. it was a hit. she felt so stinkin' cute! after ballet she wanted to wear it into wal-mart to do some errands. i thought that might be a bit over the top! :)

so what's next for the crafty mom? hah! :) i think we'll stop at tutus! :) (at least for now! although an old lady at hobby lobby watching me buy all this pink fluffy stuff was warning me "honey, you know this is only the beginning!?!")

her father's girl!

mck grabbed the newest toy catalog off the table and started walking away. i asked where she was heading . . .
"mom, i need to go to the bathroom. i'm going to be sitting!"
hmmm . . . bringing reading material to the bathroom? didn't get that from me! :) she's got to be her father's girl! :)

halloween 2008

okay, we've counted down halloween day since the middle of sept. it was hard to believe it had finally arrived! :) the girls were in GREAT moods when they woke up to their trick-or-treat bags filled with goodies from the "halloween witch" - a.k.a. mom! :) they opened their treasures then ate yummy halloween sprinkle donuts before starting the day!

after school we tried to get the girls to watch e.t., but they preferred coloring halloween pictures . . . for everyone they know! :) we ate jack-o-lantern pizza (this will be a new tradition! it was fun and yummy and too easy!) then the girls were ready to get dressed for their big night out! :) ken was a fancy kitty, mck an orange fairy, and kam a pink poodle!

we took some pictures on the front step, then headed to a friend's neighborhood so ken and mck could trick-or-treat with their friends! what fun! the girls were so excited! :) it took kam a few houses to get the hang of things and then she wanted to run with the big kids! she never said "trick-or-treat", but would say bye-bye" and do a cute little wave after being given candy! :)




the girls made out really well! after just over an hour of treating, they had a whole bag full of candy! :) we headed home to pick up grammy (who came to watch the girls so we could get stuff done around the house) and went to sonic for 50 cent corn dogs and ice cream! (okay, hope you're not adding up all the junk the girls ate . . . oh boy!)

when we arrived home the girls dumped and sorted their candy and chose a piece to eat! their loot filled up the large mixing bowl! wow!

can't believe it's all over. the girls had a great day, but i think i had the most fun just watching them be excited about everything! the best part of the day being over for ken and mck was getting to put their outfits in dress-up! :)

halloween happenings at school

we started our halloween morning off with a family trip to ken's school for the halloween parade! what a fun treat! ken got to wear her costume to school and loved seeing her friends dressed up. the entire school paraded to "thriller", monster mash", and other halloween tunes! the girls LOVED seeing their big sis at school!

we headed back up to school for ken's p.e. time to see her participate in an obstacle course to grab a baby pumpkin from the "patch". so cute! :) we are so excited that these will now be part of our halloween traditions!

we headed to mck's school in the afternoon for her halloween party . . . 17 three year-olds and TONS of junk food! it was fun to see her with her friends. she's kind of quiet and shy . . . totally different than home! :) she loved having us all there and ken and kam loved eating some of her goodies!

after that it was home to chill before our big night!

crazy hair day!

in celebration of red ribbon week, each day at ken's school has had a different theme. wednesday was "crazy hair day". i found these really cool feather hair clips for halloween at hobby lobby awhile ago and showed them to ken. she said, "mom, those are crazy. i'm not wearing them until crazy hair day!" i thought, "perfect."

well, the morning arrived and we fixed her hair and she said "i'm not wearing them. they look dumb." okay . . . she's five, not 13. how are we having these issues already?

anyway, i tried to convince her that she looked cute and spouted off my usual things . . . "do you think i would make you look dumb?", "i promise people will think you look cute!", "i bet the principal will even notice how cute you look!" . . . blah, blah, blah. i made her pose for a picture on the way out the door . . . she left for school in "a mood.

well, picking her up was another story. she was beaming! "mom, i won a coloring book and a pencil and a ribbon and crayons for the best crazy hair girl in kindergarten. my teacher took my picture with the other crazy hair kids . . . ms. foss even liked my hair. it was cool."

i smiled and tried not to say it, but i made repeat to me, "mom, you were right!" :)

cupcakes with kenzie

okay, just another reminder of why i need to spend time with the girls individually . . . mck was soooo excited that she got to make the halloween cupcakes all by herself. she kept saying things like "i get to pour the water?", " only i get to do the sprinkles?". so sweet, but also made me realize just how often she has to share. poor middle child.

she did an awesome job on the cupcakes, taking extra care to position each ghost on top "just right"! she was so excited to share her cakes with friends at the park and with her teachers at school. they were DELICIOUS! :)

our kitty ballerina

ken's halloween ballet performance was tues. night. it was really great. so different than a couple years ago. she actually danced through the whole thing - with a smile! dressed in her fancy cat outfit she was having a great time! :) mck and kam really enjoyed watching her. kam just stared the whole time! :) she is waiting for the day she gets to head out on the dance floor.

still working on the video . . .uhhh.