Halloween Preparations

We've been excited for Halloween since August, so when the calendar flipped from September 30th to October 1st, the Halloween box had to come up from the basement...

Emily found my red witch's lipstick and schmeared some right on

Addie gave me a super cool face with the purple wig on (reminds me of the first time...halloween box)

Elizabeth enjoyed becoming a chicken

This year the big girls brought some decorations up to their room and decorated the top of their dresser

The witch fingers have become a favorite this year

We went to our friends' house in early October and their dressup box was out. Addie dressed up in Clark's spiderman costume and an obsession with spiderman was born. She began looking out for spiderman things - stickers, books, etc. Then we went over to our neighbor's house a couple of weeks ago and there was a giveaway box by the front door. Guess what was lying right on top? An old spiderman costume. Addie got to bring the costume and she was so proud to become SPIDERMAN.

Elizabeth thought the costume was pretty hilarious and got a kick out of looking at Addie's eyes peeking out from that mask.

Another neighbor saw Addie dressed up and had her son bring over his old Flash costume so that Emily could dress up too. Emily felt pretty cool in the costume, and humored me with this photo, but Flash hasn't come back out. Spiderman, on the other hand, can often be found wandering around our house.

Sue and Larry came to town last weekend and brought with them a Batman suit for Elizabeth. She felt like such hot stuff in that costume! She really strutted her stuff, puffing out her chest and being cool.

All 3 girls dressed up as Powerpuff girls with their Professor dad for some Halloween festivities we attended on Saturday, but on Halloween day, Emily will be Hello Kitty (in her words, "I'm pretty into kitties right now."), Elizabeth will be Batman, and Addie is having a hard time choosing between Elsa and Spiderman. Here she is, sort of going with both...

Spiderman in Princess Heels

Artwork

I love the front of our fridge right now. Addie's most recent self portrait, drawn at school on Tuesday, is right there, reminding me of how big she's getting!

Emily's coloring is really blossoming. She loves making sure all the white is covered. She gets really focused and covers the whole page with beautiful colors!

An older self portrait by Addie still hangs below her new one. I love this one because it's mixed media. Her clothes are represented with bits of napkin.

I loved this one that Emily did with a giant stamp pad. I asked her if I could have it and she told me to write "To Abbey Love Emily" on it.

And here's some Mom art. I look at this every day to try to remind myself to soak it up.

Lunch Bunch

One Wednesday a month, Emily's school has lunch bunch, where the kids stay an extra hour and eat with their teachers. I thought lunch bunch was today, and made Em a lunch this morning...woops! Not til next week! Oh well, while Em was at school, we made a bag lunch for Addie so they could have their own backyard lunch bunch after school. Plus, *bonus!* we ran to the grocery store where the florist offered Addie and Elizabeth free balloons. Addie, very kindly, asked for a pink balloon for her sister who was at school.

A Gorgeous Colorado Sunset

The other night, the girls were playing out on the deck while we finished up the dinner dishes inside. Emily came bounding in, telling us to come look at the sky. She is my sky watcher, always noticing the colors of the sunsets, the shape and color of the clouds in the sky, whether a moon is present - during the day or evening, and what shape it is. She predicts rain often when she sees dark clouds, and usually her predictions are correct. She loves puffy white clouds, and likes looking for shapes in the clouds. I love this about her, because I feel like sometimes we all get so busy, it's hard to remember to look up and appreciate the beauty that is constantly looking down on us. I love that she is always reminding me to look up.

Beautiful girl with her beautiful sunset

Elizabeth kept pointing at the sky, saying "touch touch" She wants to touch everything new and beautiful.

Elsa gloves, they're nearly always on

Have you looked up today?

Extracurricular Activities

Over the summer while Emily and Addison were doing their once a week morning fun class at Little Lights, I did my first mommy and me class with Elizabeth. We went to a Music Together class in Longmont for six weeks. It was SO fun to have the special one-on-one time with Elizabeth, and because music and dancing really do seem to be her thing (she wiggles to the beat almost any time she hears music) so the music class was just perfect. I didn't get to take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked, but I have lots of wonderful memories. She got to play instruments during each class, and really seemed to gravitate towards the bells and drums. (The bells were on little circles of webbing, and she liked to wear them as bracelets.) We also did an activity with scarves or ribbons in every class, and she really enjoyed waving these around. Here's a little video of a ball activity to music. Elizabeth really loves balls, and "bah!" was one of her first words.


I'm hoping that next summer we'll be able to get a similar schedule going so that Elizabeth and I can do another mommy and me type class.

The big girls have recently started a ballet class at the Thornton Community Center. They were very excited to pick out their tutus at a fun dance store in Fort Collins with Wendy and Rose, and were super excited to put their ballet outfits on for their first class last Monday. This class will last through December and ends with a recital. Oh what fun!

The class is 40 minutes long and is a drop off class, but parents get to observe for the last 5 minutes of each class. Elizabeth and I had a great time while the girls were dancing (there is a walking path and a couple playgrounds right outside the building) and then watching the girls dance for a few minutes at the end was so fun!

This video makes me giggle. I think both the girls were so focused on standing on their assigned number and they were distracted by me and my camera (notice Emily smiling at me). I showed them this video and showed them how the other girls were doing what the teacher was doing...hopefully they'll be doing that next time! :)

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Broadcast to Bring You...

The First Days of School!

I just couldn't wait to share the excitement! 

Addie had her first day at Tarver on August 22nd. She is attending two half days a week, and so far she is LOVING it! Her teachers are Miss Amy and Miss Peggy, and Miss Kirstin, Miss Tracy, and Miss Sharron rotate between the two preschool rooms. She comes home every day with lots of stories, and has already begun making friends. Charlotte likes to hold her hand, and Tye wears a diaper to school, but she likes to play with him on the playground. She has an Addie in her class and they're friends, too. On Friday she came home with a super star sticker, and she was so proud to tell us about how she'd earned it (by tapping a friend on the shoulder and telling them, "Hi I'm Addison, what's your name?")

Emily had her first day of preschool at Little Lights on September 3rd. She is also attending two half days a week, and she's being such a brave big girl during her first experience being all on her own without Addie by her side. She says she feels a little shy at school, but she's only had two days so far. Her teachers are Miss Michelle (her FAVORITE teacher from the summer fun program) and Miss Jenn. Miss Jenn didn't teach this summer, and Emily was a little nervous to meet her, but has discovered that she's super nice ("Just like Miss Shell!")

 

I'm so proud of both of these brave, smart, loving girls and I know they're going to have great school years! We love you Addison and Emily!

While You Were Away

This year we did our summer Michigan trip a little differently. Chris and the big girls flew out four days before Elizabeth and I. Chris got to have his full 10 days at home, and I got to have 4 days of alone time with Elizabeth. It worked out perfectly. Elizabeth and I had a lot of fun on our own. A few of the highlights...

Elizabeth had the dress up box all to herself, and she had a blast picking out different outfits and accessories.

We built a tall tall tower, and Elizabeth got to admire it and then knock it down!

True to her style of turning anything circular into a bracelet, Elizabeth created this signature look...

We walked around holding hands. 

Our raspberries were just beginning to turn red, and we spent a lot of time in the raspberry patch, picking and eating.

Late afternoon shadows in the sandbox...

My biggest accomplishment during the few days "off" was finishing the pillow shams I've had in mind for the big girls ever since the cozy corner was created. 

Then it was off to Michigan for us! We were ready to see family and swim in the lake!