All I want for Christmas...

On the 6th of last month, Addison lost her third tooth.

Then, on the 23rd, Addison came up to me with a big smile on her face, and a crooked tooth in her mouth.

The next day, that little baby came out too.

If she keeps this up, she's going to be eating nothing but smoothies for a while.

I'm secretly hoping the other one doesn't start growing in until January.  As I recall, when I was about 6 years old, all I wanted for Christmas was my two front teeth too.  :)

The Way I View - Halloween

So when the twins were born, I dreamed of taking full advantage of them when they were toddlers and dressing them up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 for Halloween.   Two days ago I realized that dream.  In fact, we made it a family ordeal.

About a year ago, just after Halloween, I asked Addison what she thought about our whole family dressing up as characters from the Cat in the Hat next year.  She was thrilled when I suggested she be Sally.

She also suggested Hannah be Nick (for those of you wondering "who?", there's a Cat in the Hat series on PBS staring the Cat, Sally, and Nick, Sally's friend...I assume it's a friend...although I suppose I don't really know.  He could be her adopted or half brother I suppose...I haven't watched closely enough to figure it out...but I'll go with friend).  At this suggestion, I responded, "How about the fish instead?"

Not gonna lie, I was pretty intimidated at the thought of one of my kids being the fish.  I was planning on doing everything as inexpensively as possible, which meant making costumes, and I had no idea how to do a fish.  Fortunately I found this blog, and took it from there.  In retrospect I would have changed the head to look more like a fish and less like an octopus.  I also would have made it a bit smaller, but overall I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. 

I also am pretty proud of the fish bowl.  Bart does these people sculptures out of packing tape with his art classes every so often.  I used the same technique with a yoga ball instead of a person....well, really Bart did most of the work.  :)  (Like I said, it was a family ordeal.)  If I had had more time I would have cut down the top a little more so it'd look a little less like a ball, but eh.  She was happy with it and so was I.

In fact, Hannah wasn't just Happy with it, she LOVED it!  All night she was doing this little dance down the street singing, "I am the fish, I am the fish."   A few days before Halloween I even heard Addison telling someone that if she had known the Fish would have a fish bowl, she would have wanted to be the fish.  The bowl was a hit.

We decided Maya would be thing one since she was born first.

And let me tell you, it's a small miracle that I got any pictures of her.  She WOULD NOT sit still for even a second...EVER.  Most of the pictures I  got of her (and Lilly for that matter). Were very out of focus.  They played the part of energetic Thing 1 & 2 VERY well.

And here's Lilly:

Not gonna lie, they made some pretty dang cute...Things.


I gotta teach Lilly how to kiss without sticking that tongue out.  ;)

At first the twins weren't quite sure about the whole trick or treating thing.  They are rather shy shy around people they don't know well.

But they warmed up to it quickly.  It kind of reminded me of that Jerry Seinfeld sketch, "Everyone that we know is just giving out candy?!?!"

And Addison was actually with us.  She was just a lot faster than the rest of us.  As soon as she got the candy in her bag, she was off to the next door.  Thing 1 & 2 and the fish needed a little help getting down stairs (it's hard to walk in a fish bowl).

My sister Stacy came with us too.  She dressed up as a nerd.  She was the cutest little nerd I've ever seen.  :)

This was the most decorated house we went to.



In fact, there was a little boy right behind us that refused to go to the door because he was scared.  Poor little guy.

Overall it was a really great Halloween.



If anyone else in my blog circle posts, I'll link to their blog, but in the mean time, here's a link to another blog circle doing the same theme:  http://www.melissagibsonphotography.com/2012/11/02/the-way-i-view-halloween/  Enjoy!

The Way I View - Back To School

I can't believe another month has passed already.  I swear, the older I get, the faster time passes.

Well, this month's theme is "Back to School."  Even though Addison's my first in school, September has always felt like Back to school to me because Bart is a teacher.  But this year, the big difference in our house has been Addison reading for class.  Technically her homework is us reading 15 minutes every day with her, but we do that at bed time already, so I've been having her read books on her own, and she's doing great, and really enjoying it to boot!  :)








And um....is anyone as excited as me about Halloween?  Every time I go into a store I have to seriously restrain myself to keep from purchasing hundreds of dollars worth of Halloween decorations.  I suspect the next "Way I View" post is going to be fun.  :)

Check back and I'll include a link to the other Back to School posts in the blog chain.

Cornbelly's

Well, going to Cornbelly's has become quite a fun little tradition in our family.  And this year not only was my mom up, but my dad was able to come up and go with us too!





You wouldn't believe it by Lilly's face, but she absolutely LOVED the slide.  As soon as she got to the bottom, she'd turn around and run to the stairs to go again.  I took about a million pictures of her trying to get one of her smiling because I knew how much she loved it, but instead I got this face every. single. time!  Maya on the other hand was all dimples!  :)


Watching the animated...animal band?  I think the twins were disturbed.

Little puzzle maze.

According to Addison, we spent way too long here, but the bigger kids seemed to like it quite a bit.  :)


There were these huge pillow trampoline things that were AWESOME!


Dad and Stacy even got in on the action.  I really want to send that first picture to my dad with a speech bubble that says, "Daddy daughter dates are great!!!


 Every other year I've gotten an awesome picture of my mom at Cornbelly's.  But this year, this is all I got.  :(  Next year mom, no cell phones allowed!  :)


According to Maya & Lilly, we didn't spend enough time here.


Apparently I'm not giving Bart enough affection.


And according to Bart, we didn't spend enough time here.  Boy loves his carnie food.  He's a bad influence on my dietetics-studying sister.




Toy duck races...always a favorite.

Right before we left we went to the kiddie corn maze.  There was a giant spinner every so often that had different directions for what you were supposed to do as you went through the maze searching for the next spinner. Bart got very into the "Pretend to ride a horse and chant 'clippity clop, clippity clop'" one.



Can't wait to do it again next year!

The Way I View - Playtime

Well, it appears my little blog circle has dwindled down to me.  :)  But I'm still going at it, and if someone posts, I'll add a link at the bottom later.  In the mean time, I'll give you a link to another blog circle doing the same theme.  They're pretty incredible, so be prepared to be amazed.  I'll link you in at Leah's blog.  I'm not sure where their blog circle officially starts, but hey, It's a circle, so you'll be able to see them all.  :)

Update: Candace, who just had an ADORABLE baby, posted her take on Playtime.  You can see it here.

Anyway, the theme this month is The Way I View - Playtime.  And really, with the move and Addison starting kindergarten, and soccer, and EVERYTHING.  I completely forgot.  Fortunately, playtime is something I regularly try to photograph, so I actually had a plethra of photos to choose from.  These are some from about a week before our move.  I was out packing the POD and Addison and Hannah had gotten ready for bed and were waiting for me to go in and read them a story.  They asked if they could play on the neighbor's swing set and I said sure (they had given us permission to use it any time.)  Addison absolutely LOVES these pictures.  She keeps asking me to show them to her again. I'm glad they bring her as much joy as me.  So here's a little view into a spontaneous before bed play time.