Friday, October 31, 2008

the rest

It was a GORGEOUS day, and an unbelievable night.  The girls both had SO much fun.  Paige had so much fun, she lost a shoe.....a Stride Rite shoe.  We'll be backtracking tomorrow morning to see if we can find it.

I did find some time to carve pumpkins this morning.
Emily's Kindergarten class.
Watching the parade.  The WHOLE school dresses up and parades to Halloween music played over the loud speaker.  It was awesome.
The littlest witch.  She has her shoes on in this one.


Our favorite house.  They had a robot skeleton that followed the kids around.  Emily wasn't even a little bit scared. 

Hope you all had a great and safe Halloween - and your kids are not climbing the walls from their sugar highs!

witchy woman


a sneak peek. there will be more later.........

Thursday, October 30, 2008

sometimes you just gotta jump

With all that is going on all around us - sometimes you just have to jump in a pile of leaves. Good thought Emily.





And sometimes you just have to look cute while sitting in a pile of leaves.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

unusually busy

It's not that we lead a boring life or anything - we always have plenty to do - but it's never all in the same week.  As most of you already know, on Monday we moved my Mom into her new apartment.  It was slated to be a cold and snowy - yes, I said the "s" word - day, but it wasn't, and could not have gone smoother.  Thanks to my cousin Sue, Aunt Joan, my husband, my neighbors, Bob and Ginger, and my Uncle Denny for all their help.  My Mom is doing very well in her new place - or so I have heard, I have been to busy to even get over there and help her unpack.

Yesterday, Emily had her regular tap class, but they had to wear their halloween costumes. That took some extra planning on my part, and some extra time to get her ready.  I would have taken pictures, but I wanted the "reveal" of her halloween costume to happen on halloween.

Tonight, we have the Halloween Hoot - a scavenger hunt and carnival - at her school. Tomorrow is Paige's 15 month doctor appointment, and I am helping out in Emily's class in the afternoon.  Friday is of course Halloween - and I am again, helping out in Emily's class, and then it's trick-or-treating at night with our neighborhood friends.  Like I said, a BUSY week.  

So, in case you are wondering why I haven't posted in a while, now you know.

Here are some pictures from the past week:


Last Saturday, Eric and Emily went to a Michigan Veterinary Association "clinic" at the local community college.  She got to bring her doggies and have them looked at by real veterinarians. Fudge and Copper both got bandages on their legs.  She LOVED it.

Emily made this spider hat at school.  She wore it home, and around the house for the rest of the day.  I like the Caesar salad dressing on her lip.

The girls having fun this morning.


We did see some of the white stuff while the girls were eating lunch today - it melted about two seconds after I took this picture.

Paige in her cute polka dot jacket.


Have a great week - check back on Halloween for a costume reveal!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

some pumpkin goodness

Went to actually buy some pumpkins today.  Our last outing was just for pictures.  This outing was mainly for pumpkins, and if we got some good pictures, yea for us.  I think we ended up with both, good pumpkins, and good pictures.

  
Emily was cold, and complaining about it, so this was the best one of the two of them - neither one is really smiling, both are talking - this is so them.


This is my favorite of the day.





And then we came home and played outside for a bit before dinner.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Emily and Paige

I don't know if you know this - but I just love these girls.  They have both brought me more joy than I ever knew was possible.  It's just so cool to watch them grow up together.  With each day, they seem to get closer and closer.  It's like they each speak some language that only they understand.  Paige now even says "Emily" - or something kind of like it.  Sisters, siblings, best buds - so cool.








By the way - I just love all these pictures....except I was so mad at myself for not removing that red sticker from Emily's shirt.  Oh well.  I was trying to capture a real moment from them, and if I paused to take off the sticker, it would have passed.  This is real life, right?  Not perfect. And I am good with that.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Ojibwa Road Rally

Last night, Eric and I got to experience our very first Road Rally.  To those of you who don't know what a Road rally is - it's a kind of, sort of scavenger hunt that involves driving around town, solving puzzles, gathering clues and ending up at a final destination.  Does that make sense?  Well, just read on......

We went with our neighbors Bob and Ginger and their friends Susan and Bert.  The six of us started out in the parking lot of Emily's school - Ojibwa Elementary.  We drove our Minivan all over town.  The people who planned this road rally even included a few physical challenges - working together as a team of four while walking on a set of two by fours with ropes, running around our local outdoor mall trying to find out what Victoria's Secret is, and my most favorite: wearing "drunk goggles" while walking a specific path....Eric got to do that one.

The theme was "Getting Lucky", which we thought had something to do with gambling, but no, it was actually a code for Date Night.  Some of the places we went were the car wash (Jon's Soft and Foamy), a gym, a spa, a flower shop, Victoria's Secret, a bar, the movie theater, a pharmacy, a liquor store - that had mirrors on the ceiling, a very seedy motel, and ended up at Bath City Bistro in Mt. Clemens.  The proprietor from the motel - The Flamingo Inn on Groesbeck - was a little upset that all these people kept driving up and asking him where the hot tub was.  By the end we heard that he actually started to chase down the cars.  Oopsie.  Wonder what he was trying to hide??  My stomach actually hurts today from all the laughing that I did.

We were the third team to arrive - right behind the second team - we accidentally allowed them to pass us.  But because the game was based on points, and arrival time was only used in the event of a tie-breaker, we came in sixth.  Had we have known that time wasn't really a factor, we might have spent a little more time making sure our answer sheets were 100 percent correct. Oh well.  Next year. 

And so sorry, no pictures.  I forgot to bring my camera.  Can you believe it???  Just picture Eric driving the minivan like Mario Andretti, and me in the back laughing until my sides hurt.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Apple Pie and other stuff

I was trying to take some pictures of a very wriggly little Paige, but the camera wasn't cooperating.  Somehow, something got all switched around and the pictures that I took were very blue.  That would probably explain the crappy pictures of the fall colors I had taken earlier.  No problem - I just changed Paige to black and white.
This is the view from our big window over the front door.  That maple tree was very spindly when we first moved in, but now it is tall and filling out quite nicely.  The colors this year are beautiful - and such a nice thing to see whenever you walk by the front door.
And here's the pie.  Eric and Emily thought it was pretty good.  I made it with the crumb topping because I do not do double crust apple pies.  Those Northern Spy apples are really good for pies - thanks to my Uncle Denny for sharing that great piece of apple advice.

This poor thing has not been feeling so hot lately.  She has two big molars coming in at the same time - maybe more, she won't let me see.  She has a slightly runny nose, which I am not sure is due to the teething, or a cold, or allergies.  She is so off kilter that yesterday morning when we returned from the grocery store, she fell flat on her face in the garage - injuring her lip.  You can kind of see it in this picture from yesterday.  It's much worse this morning, all scabbed over.  Poor little Paige.  She is turning out to be more accident prone than her very clumsy big sister.  Kelly - we may need to borrow that crash helmet!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

For Mary Frances


I went out to take some pretty fall pictures after lunch, but the lighting is AWFUL.  So, because Mary Frances is tired of looking at my Apple Adventure, I thought I would just do a quick post with the one picture that is moderately okay.  If it - the light - gets better later today, there will be more. For now, this is it.

Now I must go and make a pie - because Julie thinks I should.

Man, you people are hard to please. :)

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Apple Adventure

This is what my fruit basket looks like this morning - very full of apples.  Most of them from our outing yesterday to Blake's Apple Orchard and Cider Mill.

It was a nice and cool morning, just right for some freshly baked, and still warm cider mill doughnuts.  YUMMY.
Oh, and a cup of apple cider to go with it.  Double YUM.
Peak color here is at least a week away, but there are some trees who just can't wait any longer.

Let's go get some apples!!
While looking for Northern Spy apples, we found a red delicious tree.  Emily could not resist. She carried that apple around with her for the rest of the morning.

Paige was partial to the golden delicious.  This was right before she dropped it on the ground - and of course, tried to pick it up again and eat it.  I quickly found her another one....from a tree.

It sure is pretty here.

Paige with her new apple - which she held onto with all her might.


I went to Target on Friday to get a few essentials - you know how it is - and they had all their snow stuff out.  Since I waited until the last minute last year, and missed out on all the good stuff - poor Emily had to wear a snowsuit and boots that were at least one size too small - I picked up a few things for the girls.

Emily is forever misplacing hats, mittens and scarves.  They had this very cute set that included a pair of longer knit gloves - which are hard to find.  She LOVED the boots, and wore them around the house all day.  I also got her a heavy jacket and snow pants.


And, as I was cleaning out the hat, glove, and scarf box, I found the hat and mitten set I bought for Paige last year.  She was more than willing to try it on.  She loved those mittens - really. And it still fit!  Paige got some very cute pink snow boots from Target, which she loved.  She was running around them house in them, and would not stand still for a picture.

Not that I am at all ready for that cold white stuff - but we are very prepared.