A Very Merry Christmas to all....

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! Here are a few of my favorite Christmas snapshots taken before we went to Christmas Eve mass.

Breakfast with Santa

Livingston-Wyoming ARC sponsored a Breakfast with Santa event. There were lots of things going on there...crafts, face painting, balloon animals and of course, seeing Santa Claus! Chloe and Emily enjoyed seeing their teachers and some other children they knew. They waited in line for balloon animals (Chloe chose a blue kitten and Emily asked for a pink mouse). After that, Chloe had a Christmas tree painted on her face and Emily chose a candy cane. Then we waited in line to see Santa. Each child got a turn sitting on Santa's lap and received a stuffed animal from Santa's helpers. Chloe and Emily both sat on Santa's lap and he reminded each of them to remember to put out cookies and milk!! It was a really fun event and we really enjoyed it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have soooo many things to be thankful for in my life, but here are my top two!

Making Pilgrim Hat Treats!

We had fun tonight making some Pilgrim hat treats out of Keebler fudge stripe cookies, melted chocolate and peanut butter cups. Chloe and Emily enjoyed unwrapping the peanut butter cups and putting them on the cookies. We used mini m&m's for the buckles. Of course, when we were finished, we had to sample the goods. Emily and Chloe are excited to serve them to family at Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow!

Happy Halloween!

Emily has been sick this week. She has been coughing, is very tired and just doesn't feel good. We missed a Halloween party at our preschool and our Mom and Dad said we can only go trick or treating to our Grammy and Grampy's house so we don't spread our germs and get other kids sick. We were feeling pretty sad because we can't have fun with other kids. But today, something really exciting happened. We were playing in the house and we heard the doorbell ring and when we went to the door, someone left a sign telling us we could trick or treat on our own porch! There were candies and little pumpkins and treats hidden all over our porch! It made us feel so happy and excited!!! The note was signed by The Great Pumpkin!! We thought it was super special and we want The Great Pumpkin to know how thankful we are for the special treats. We felt very happy and loved and this turned out to be a very special and happy Halloween because we know that people care about us!

Thank you, Great Pumpkin!!!!

Love, Chloe and Emily

Miss Spider

As I looked out our kitchen window one morning I noticed a large spider in the middle of a big delicate web. I called Chloe and Emily over to take a look and we were all fascinated by her. We have been watching her over the past few weeks. One morning, we saw her repairing her web, the next morning we saw a bug wrapped up in her silky web. Sometimes she's in the center of her web, but most often now she's tucked up in the windowsill outside. At first, Emily was a little leery of getting too close. Of course, we went to the library and checked out books so we could learn more about spiders and also picked some fun books like "Miss Spider's Tea Party". All in all, it's been fun to watch our spider friend.

Fabulous FOUR!!

Emily and Chloe turned 4 on September 6th. It seems like just yesterday that they were helpless little babies and now they are two independent, smart and funny little girls. We had a family birthday party. It was a fun and happy day!

Stony Brook

Joel had the day off on Friday and brought Chloe and Emily to Stony Brook State Park. I can't believe our baby girls are going to be four years old on Sunday. Here are some pictures of the grown up girls.....

On the Boston Whaler

Since Chloe and Emily liked the kayak so much, the guys wanted to take them out on the Whaler. Emily and Chloe enjoyed their ride around the lake.

Making friends with the bait.....

Emma and Chloe weren't afraid to get friendly with the worms Sarah was using for bait.

Fishing

Sarah enjoys fishing when she's at Keuka Lake. She baited her hook, cast the line and showed Emily how to reel one in!! Cool!!!

Keuka Lake

On July 18th, we went to Keuka Lake to visit the Brills (Monica, Bob, Michael and Sarah) and the Brickwoods (Erinn, Guy, Colin and Emma) at the cottage they rented for a week. Wow, what a lot of fun we had!! Uncle Guy took each of the girls out for their first kayak ride in the "banana boat". I must say I was worried that the girls would fall out, but they sat still, helped paddle and thoroughly enjoyed it! All of the beautiful pics from Keuka Lake were taken by my sister, Monica.

Butterfly pasta

Emily is a picky eater. She is reluctant to try new things and will happily go hungry rather than let a morsel of anything unfamiliar touch her taste buds. For a long time, bow tie pasta with butter and parmesan cheese was what she asked for and devoured. It was a meal she never turned down, and I named it "butterfly pasta" to be more appealing and exciting sounding. We haven't had butterfly pasta in a while because she has branched out to spaghetti and has actually been trying some new foods. I served up some butterfly pasta last week and watched as Emily picked up each noodle, ate the "wings" off the pasta, and deposited the rest in a pile on her plate. It reminded me somewhat of the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine ate the muffin tops and gave the stumps to the homeless. So behold, the butterflies and the stumps that remain....

Fancy Nancy Party

The Wadsworth Library in Geneseo had a Fancy Nancy Party today. I just happened to have the day off and I thought Emily and Chloe would really enjoy going because they like the Fancy Nancy books. So, they chose fancy dresses, jewelry and hats and we were off the the party. It was very well done, there was a craft (decorate a crown), story time and of course fancy snacks. We sat with Ellie and her mom and had a great time.

Little chefs

I went to the library after dinner one night last week and came home to find the house smelling all chocolatey. Joel had enlisted the help of two little chefs to mix up a birthday cake for a friend. I hear it was tasty. It was made with love. ;0)

Simple pleasures

It is really amazing how thrilling little things can be for kids. I grabbed an old tablecloth and spread it on the ground in the backyard and we had a picnic lunch last weekend. Emily and Chloe absolutely loved the idea and we laughed and ate and had a blast.

Little Mermaids

We've had so much rain this summer we have had to grab any opportunity to swim that we can! Joel runs a hose from our utility sink in the basement to the pool so the water is nice and warm and most evenings we can be found in the driveway watching Chloe and Emily frolic in the pool.

Backyard Fun

This summer has been pretty rainy, but there were a few sunny days where we were able to enjoy some fun outside. We had a robin's nest on our front porch and watched 4 robins hatch and grow, then right after they left, more eggs were laid and 4 more robins hatched and flew away. Joel took the nest down, and a robin built another nest in a different spot on the porch and there are eggs in that nest, too! Chloe and Emily love being outside. They like playing in the sand, swimming, looking for bugs, and having a picnic lunch outside. Emily found a super cool black and white moth on our basement window and we were able to snap some pics of it.

We play with our food.....

My paternal grandmother died when I was young, but one memory I have is of her spreading a large sheet on the floor and bringing out the elbow macaroni for my sister and I to play with. We would scoop and pour, fill and dump, stir and mix to our hearts content. When the girls were big enough to know not to put the macaroni in their mouth, I went to WalMart, got a large rectangular container with a lid and 6lbs of elbow macaroni. Chloe and Emily are almost 4 and they still ask to play with macaroni. We scoop and dump, fill and pour, whisk and mix. I love the sound the macaroni makes, I love my children's laughter as they play and I'm glad my grandmother thought to bring out the macaroni.