How I Became a Pirate!

No more hugs!!

Sisters are wonderful!

Cally and her funny grimace-smile!

We were about to leave for our favorite children's theater. It was the last day for their second play of the season, How I Became a Pirate.

I was able to talk Addy into posing for me, I felt a little bad about how bright the flash was! Poor thing!

Such silly girls! :)

Pippi!

Addy dressed up as Pippi Longstocking for her school's dress up as your favorite character day. Her braids stuck out in the am, not so much after 3 pm! Cally and her book were happy to join the photo too.

The book somehow made its way to Addy's hands. Cally is just now noticing this.

Cally is not going to let this major transgression stand!

Evidence of a negligent mother....

This was the visible evidence of Cally's afternoon exploration efforts.

Luckily for Cally she is too cute!

I am apparently not on my A game this week! Earlier in the week, Cally floated her MOPS craft project in the big tub. Yesterday Cally dumped out one of my bathroom drawers (you might be able to guess it was my hair stuff drawer) onto the floor, she also dumped out the contents of many creams, lotions, and liquids in the drawers and left them as a nice little surprise for me to clean up later.

The sweetest thing I have ever heard!

Addy came home from kindergarten telling me how much she loved her sisters. I replied that was very sweet, but who is her sister besides Cally. Addy said, "Mom, Cally is just my little sister. I was talking about all of my kindergarten sisters." Addy went on to name her sister classmates, I am crossing my fingers that she never hears of the sister wives concept! ;) When I asked her how she came up with the idea of having sisters at kindergarten, she told me that Bald Eagle sisters' have nests close to each other (not really sure if that is factual...). In her classroom the desk groups are called nests so I guess it all makes perfect sense!

In news that makes me bitter and not happy, David and I went to get our new driver licenses. I had been pretty much pinning all my hopes and dreams on getting a new picture for my license. I am not really too vain, but my picture was taken when I was 9 months pregnant with Cally. I had full-on pregnancy face, in fact, my eyes are hardly visible. I guess with our state's new license procedure they don't need to take new photos, but they are happy to charge you the same rate! So here I am stuck with my 9 month pregnant swollen-face driver's license picture. I am probably supposed to learn a valuable lesson here about not being too wrapped up in physical appearance, but I am kind of bitter about having to pay twice for this lovely reminder of the wonders of pregnancy!

Cally can not get enough of these picture posing set ups!

The girls were determined to rescue the trapped balloon.

David and his mini-me. Cally's grimace is her new go-to smile! ;)

This photo of me is only remarkable because Cally took it herself. Not only am I in the frame, but I am not blurry either! Also, notable is that this is one of the last pictures that will ever be taken by my camera. Cally dropped it and broke it not a minute later. I wonder how long it will take to get a new one from the protection plan I wisely purchased?

This was another perfect fall day at Vala's Pumpkin Patch! These pictures are from our second trip this year. We went very early in October and somehow I neglected to bring my camera with me. That visit was so much fun that we were happy to go again with Aunt Michelle and cousin Calvin. I didn't include any photos of them because I haven't asked permission yet. Rest assured that Calvin and the girls had a great time making each other giggle though! It is crazy how fast your own children grow up, but it is even more astonishing how fast other people's children grow up! All of the 'babies' in our family are quickly approaching one year!

Addy and Cally were so thrilled to be going back to see old friends! They were also pretty happy to be dressed up.

I was pretty happy to see old friends again too! I was also happy to figure out the self timer on my camera!

This picture was one of many attempts to capture Addy and one of her oldest friends together.

Yet another attempt!

My two ate cookie after cookie.

One of our favorite fall traditions is a fantastically fun Halloween party some of our favorite friends throw every year.

Displaying our 'wares

Our new kitchen is perfect to display some of my favorite kitchen treasures. It makes me really happy to 'vintage up' the kitchen with my granite ware and Texas ware bowls.  I am still getting used to the smaller counter space but I love the walk-in pantry. Hopefully, David and I will find bar stools and the kitchen will be more complete.

Frolicking

Cushions for our tushes

Cally, mid-jump

When we sold our house, we included most of our furniture with the sale. We were perfectly fine with doing so and were pretty excited today when our new living room set was delivered. Somehow a couch and a couple of chairs makes me feel more like I am at home.


We ended up choosing an accent chair (totally comfy despite not having arms), a slightly oversized chair and ottoman and a sofa. Our house has an open floor plan and it is definitely making me think and rethink furniture arrangements. I wanted the entry way to be left open and not blocked by the back of a couch or chair, we needed to keep a path open to the kitchen and to the downstairs and our bedroom.

A slice of daily life...

I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately. The girls play a lot with our next-door neighbor and I don't want to post any pictures of her on the blog. She is a fantastic girl, she is in 3rd grade but is similar enough in personality to Addy that they can play well together. I almost feel like I should be paying her as a mother's helper!
 I can't get over how nice our new neighborhood has been for the girls. Addy is one of 6 K'ers on our circle. In fact, one of her favorite classmates is just three houses down. We also don't have anyone speeding down our side alley or just strolling up and down it on their 5th trip to Sunmart that day (that was usually us! ;)). I do miss our old place and of course our friends, but it is nice to make this move and discover that there is so much good about it! Another huge bonus for David and me is that we can actually work out at the gym again. Our old town had a 'gym' but no child watch so it was pretty much impossible for us to go. Here we drive about 8 miles to a Y and Cally happily plays with her friends while David and I work out. I am getting back into running and finally have started to appreciate running on the treadmill.

Here are some things that have amused my lately. Addy apparently prefers re-impregnation over reincarnation. Addy told Cally that if she didn't listen she would have to go back in my belly and start over as a little baby! I chuckled and Cally hit Addy, well she tried. Cally is her wonderful dare-devil self and really needs to get back into gymnastics/tumbling. She has started to use the back of the downstairs couch as a balance beam. She prefers to enter the bath tub by jumping off the side of the tub. She is a fantastic scooter rider but has learned the value of a helmet the hard way. Too bad I can't bubble wrap her!

The first day!!

Addy has been at her new school for almost two weeks now. Overall, the move has gone really well. I was worried on Addy's first day because she said she was not excited at all. Addy loves school, always has, so I was worried that could change. But her new teacher, Mrs. S, was/is wonderful with making Addy (and me!) feel comfortable and welcomed.After showing Addy the ropes in her new classroom and answering all of my questions, Mrs. S stayed late and made sure Addy had her name put on everything like the other students. It was pretty hard for me to leave Addy in line at a school where she did not know a single person  but Addy left that first day with new friends and said there were too many favorite parts of the day to choose just one. All is well and we are looking forward to many great things at Addy and Cally's new school!
 
Here is Addy and Cally on Addy's first day of the new school! We were still living at the Holiday Inn Express too! I happily packed Addy's lunch from the breakfast spread that morning. ;)

Action!

Here are a few pictures of the girls in action! We are all loving our new home. We are unpacked and settled in, we are waiting on our new furniture (we included pretty much all of our furniture in the sale of our old house) and I have to make some decorating decisions. Right now, David and I are feeling pretty blessed with how our move has turned out.

Mom, here is where I rehomed Grandma's iris. Hopefully they will get some rain soon! ;)

Yes, Cally should definitely have a helmet on! Somehow, we overlooked this, I have to admit it took looking at these pictures before I realized she didn't have one on!

Chasing butterflies and the moon!