Where Was I?

Let's see....

After a fun afternoon swimming trip last Saturday, we changed clothes and headed to Charleston's for Anna's baptism dinner. We couldn't be more proud of how our girls behaved! Adele hardly made a peep during dinner, and Anna napped for a good chunk of the time.



Before Anna took her nap, she let Grandma feed her some peas:


After our dinner, it was bedtime for the girls. And then it was crazy time for Mommy and Aunt Dee Dee. We made all of the food for Sunday morning (well, except for the cake, which Grandma and Grandpa brought down from LaPorte). Next, we got sewing on Anna's Halloween costume. I made more "baby legs" out of a pair of Dee Dee's striped socks, and then we made Anna's "Raggedy Ann" hair to attach to the hat Memaw sewed. After our cooking and sewing projects were completed (or almost completed, at least) we headed to the airport to pick up Aunt Jenny. Her flight was due in at 11, and Dee Dee and I debated stopping for coffee on the way. I know you'll be shocked to hear that we actually SKIPPED the coffee and opted to head straight to the airport instead.

Although she had several "hitches" in her travels, Aunt Jenny arrived from DC in one piece and on time! (We only had to "circle" once, and that was just because there was a really crabby airport attendant on duty!!)

With Aunt Jenny in tow, we headed back home to bed...or to make cheese, THEN to bed, with alarm clocks set for bright and early on Sunday morning so that we could enjoy going out to breakfast (Dee Dee and Michael's treat!) before Anna's baptism.

We made it to the church in plenty of time, and Anna was in a great mood while she got baptised, although neither girl made it through the entire service in the sanctuary. We spent some time taking pictures and then headed back home for barbecue, taco dip, chips, cheese, crackers, sausage, veggies and (what other than) pumpkin cake!








After we ate, Dee Dee and Michael headed back to Wisconsin, Anna, Aunt Jenny and Bapa snoozed, and we opened presents. (We're pretty sure that Anna didn't mind that Adele helped with this job!)


And that was the end of the "Baptism" celebration...up next, HALLOWEEN 2010!

Grandma and Memaw and Bapas, oh My!

On Friday night when Adele and Daddy arrived home from the PBS Kids event, Dee Dee and Michael were here. We grilled burgers for dinner and as soon as we were done eating, Memaw and Bapa arrived...and "relative overdrive" began!

Memaw and Bapa were loaded down with gifts-the "favorites" being a "Cinderella" purse and jewelry set from Bapa and a "Belle" Barbie from Memaw. Somehow, the girls were able to put their excitement aside and sleep (well, I might add!) before heading down to the Children's Museum with Dee Dee, Michael, Memaw, Bapa and Mommy while we waited for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive. We checked out the new Polar Bears and Penguins exhibit and had to drag Adele away from the "penguin slide" where she was actually SUPPOSED to go down on her belly!

After lunch at the museum, we dropped Memaw and Bapa off at their hotel and headed home to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa for even MORE treats!


They brought a whole bag of peanut-free Halloween goodies for Miss Adele...talk about heaven!

And again, despite her excitement, Adele took a good nap before heading over to the hotel to go swimming. Both sets of grandparents stayed at the same hotel, which made for a nice visit by the pool! It was a bit hot for Anna, who didn't care too much for the (chilly!) water, so she spent some quality time with Memaw in the lobby. Adele, on the other hand, was not bothered by the cool water at all. She jumped, dunked and even invented her own little splashing game to play with Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa!








When Adele was worn out from all of her swimming, we went back home to take a bath and get ready for our "Fancy" dinner at Charleston's to celebrate Anna's Baptism the next day.

PBS Kids Trick or Treat!

We had a crazy-busy weekend, so bear with me-I'll blog as fast as I can!

On Friday, Daddy took Adele down to the PBS Kids Trick or Treat. It was at the PBS Studio downtown, and they had a blast! Princess Presto from Super Why! and the Cat in the Hat were there. We didn't tell Adele where she was going ahead of time, and it sounds like her reaction was priceless when the characters entered the room! She got to watch the Halloween episode of Super Why! on a screen that spanned an entire wall in the studio (Daddy tells this WAY better than I do-he was quite impressed too!) She was apparently very proud of herself for putting her "hands in" at the appropriate time in the episode (the characters put their hands in and say, (Super readers:) "To the rescue!" She got a boatload of candy, decorated a picture frame, colored a monster (very well, I might add!) and had a blast! She also enjoyed seeing the other children in their costumes!

Ready for fun, dressed as Cinderella! (I had already "fixed" her Belle costume several times and didn't want to sew it again...)


What could be better than getting to hug a "scary boo"?

Choosing some goodies:

Busy coloring her Frankenstein:

This is when she looked up and saw Princess Presto and the Cat in the Hat:


So much love for Princess Presto!

The Cat in the Hat was cool at first, but then she decided he was a little too scary:

Dancing in the doorway:

All twisted up!

Decorating her picture frame:

Watching a giant episode of Super Why!

Arms In!

So proud of herself!

Having a blast!

She was a little sweetie and told Daddy she was saving some popcorn for Dee Dee and Michael who were *hopefully* waiting for her at home:




She had a blast, and that was just the beginning of our fun-filled, crazy-busy weekend!

In Love.

I love my girls!

We've been having so much fun enjoying the gorgeous (well, except for yesterday morning) weather, pumpkin recipes and well, all things fall!

We're cleaning like crazy, getting ready for visitors for Anna's baptism, and in the process we're switching out a lot of Anna's toys, giving her "big girl" playthings. Adele is especially excited about the transition! Anna's favorite "plaything" continues to be her sister, giving her belly laughs on a daily basis (well, except today-she was pretty crabby for some reason...probably teething, but I can't be sure).


Miss Anna is now rolling from her tummy to her back (although today she wouldn't...too fussy, I guess) and she rolls from her back to her side (especially when I lay her in the crib) and she usually won't stay on her tummy for long before rolling! She loves her exersaucer, and will occasionally still stay happy in the swing. She can sit for long periods of time unassisted, but prefers for me to be right behind her (even if I'm not touching her at all) it seems that the second I leave her sitting alone in a room she topples over (I don't do this often...mostly just to see what will happen). She is working hard at teething but so far no teeth to speak of. I was just sure one was poking through on Sunday, but I guess I was wrong because she's still all gums. She now has tried rice cereal, squash, green beans, sweet potatoes and pumpkin. She enjoys her solid food but I think she still prefers nursing (especially in the middle of the night lately...and I've been too tired to try the whole cry it out thing again...it's a pretty vicious cycle!) She is my little snuggle bug and I am trying to soak her all up because she's already getting too big too fast!

Also growing too fast (because "God made me grow", as she told me the other day), Adele has completed her first sticker chart for good behavior and earned a trip to the dollar store with $2.00 to spend. I'm a sucker and gave her a third dollar because I couldn't resist buying her some pumpkin socks! It's actually somewhat surprising that she has earned this reward because since initiating the sticker chart (she had to earn 20, at a max of 2 stickers per day) we've had to take just about everything out of her room. During nap and bedtime she started CLIMBING her furniture and could reach what we thought were "high" shelves. So, everything came off of the shelves. Next she started climbing her bookshelf, actually knocking a shelf (and all the books on it!) out. So, the books from that shelf went away. The next day she had all of the rest of the books off the shelf and was tearing the covers off of her chapter books (this time I was actually upset with her...the other times we were able to laugh at her once we got back downstairs). I was at a complete loss about what to do after the book incident, especially because I knew that it was at least partially my fault for having chapter books in her room where she could access them! After all, she is only two!

I could hardly believe my eyes last night when she had taken ALL of her clothes out of her dressers. But I left the mess and told her that she'd be cleaning that mess up by herself today before doing our intended project of decorating our pumpkin cookies.

She cleaned. We decorated.






We ate.
We ate WAY too many pumpkin cookies.
Now we have to make more before our company comes!

And finally, after a fantastic day, we completed the sticker chart!
So, we shopped!
She picked out red fairy wings and matching "slippers"
And smiled the whole way home.



(And then, while I was writing this she took her books BACK off of the bookshelf. I know this because while they're back ON the bookshelf, they're a little bit...sideways. I love that naughty little girl!)