Newest Obsession

It's been awhile since I've blogged yet again.  I have been bad this past school year! You would think that only having one child at home would make it easier to blog... But that one child at home is like a little leech when Missy isn't home! 

So, I'm breaking nearly all of my previous promises to blog about Missy's birthday party and other such happenings over the summer. If you are DYING to see snippets, hop on over to my Instagram feed and check it out... Though you'll have to scroll back a ways. :/ Sorry about that!

My grandmother was very generous at Christmas and sent some money for us to buy "wants" for ourselves. The kids received re-decorated rooms, Hubby received a Nook, and I purchased my very first sewing machine! 

For YEARS I have been terrified to sew. I figured that if there was a way to sew your finger to a blanket, I would do it. This coming from the girl whom almost chopped off her thumb with a massive paper cutter... And there WAS a guard!! But I collected the courage, pushed back my fears, and ordered one!! I then ran out and bought fabric for a few projects and waited. Then the ice storm hit the day it was scheduled to arrive and I waited a few more days. 

It FINALLY came in and rather than busting it out immediately and sewing something, I was smart about it and took it to my "professional" friends to teach me how to use it. (They are not actual professional seamstresses... But one knows how to sew the cutest little dresses for her daughter and the other knows her stuff as well. So in my book... "professionals.") 

One of them took the lead since our machines are similar. It's like she KNEW me! She threaded the bobbin... And then UNthreaded the bobbin and said, "Now YOU do it!" Then she showed me how to thread the needle, and then again UNthreaded the needle and had me do it!  Visual Kinesthetic learning at it's finest!  

Missy has been growing inches in her legs recently and pants that we just bought were too short and rather buy her new jeans when these fit everywhere else, I wanted to sew on ruffles to the bottom! So this became my first project! My second project was to simply sew up the back of smocked fabric to make a dress and then to sew button holes into ribbon so that I could add removable straps to the dress.  She is in love with her "new" pants and new dress and I am in love with my sewing machine!  

I even managed to sew a coordinating dress/top for Masha!

The sewing machine rekindled my Pinterest obsession and I found more easy projects that I could do! Baby gifts! Easter gifts! I am so excited and Missy is just as excited to watch me sew as I am to sew! The Hubs is taking the dining room turned sewing room "renovation" rather well too!! Just kidding... I set it up and take it all down when I'm done... most of the time.  I'm thinking the next home may need a sewing/craft room. ;) 

Do you sew? What do you like to sew?

Holiday Extravaganza

The past few weeks have been BUSY!  We had Missy's "Holiday Extravaganza" at gymnastics... kinda of like a recital, I guess... the parents got to come down to the gym floor with them and see what they could do.  It was so cute and she was so proud of herself!  As she was jumping and flying down the trampoline, she would look at me and shout, "WOOK MOM!! I DOING IT!! I DOING IT!!"  She even learned a new skill that the next level up does!

This is the beloved Ms. Jennifer.

At the end of the Extravaganza, Santa came out and Missy had her first encounter of the season with him. :) 

She was so sweet and asked only for a pencil.  And when she got one (it just happened to be included in the gift bags) she was SO excited and ran back over to him and said, "Tank you VEWY MUCH for my pencil!!  It my FAVORITE pencil in da whole world!!"  This reaction caught the "Santa" off guard and he let out a normal laugh and broke from character a little! :)

Later that night for advent, we went and saw Santa after church.  Poor Bub.  He was not having it.  He didn't actually cry... but he held back those tears with all his might!  He did manage to ask for an iPad though.  Ha ha!!  Priorities!

They also had the chance to meet Mrs. Claus and she and Missy danced and twirled while waiting for Santa to finish his time with the children in front of them.

Missy, again, was thrilled!  I think we have a believer!  Bub... not so much.  :)


I'd love to hear your Santa stories!!


Until next time!

~Monica

Another "Glorious" Moment

Have you ever had one of those moments when you just have to breathe and count to 10?  I had a moment today when I had to keep counting.  Counting to 10 was just not enough of a breather.  

A few hours before the moment, we received a package from my parents with a birthday gift for me, some goodies for the kids, and some art supplies I had left at their house by mistake.  Missy was SUPER excited!  Her voice kept getting higher and higher and culminated in shrieking and jumping onto the dining table for this little Strawberry Shortcake On-the-Go Activity Pack.  In this box was also 2 tubes of glitter and 2 bottles of glitter glue.  Can you see where this is going?!

Fast forward to quiet time.  Glorious quiet time.  

I'm scouring Pinterest in peace.  The Hubs and Bub are sleeping and Missy is coloring with her new activity pack.  I decide to look in on her to find crayon all over her dresser and mirror.  Of course, she chooses the blue crayon.  Did you know that blue is the hardest color to remove from walls and furniture?  I have had more luck removing black crayon off of flat builder's grade paint with a Magic Eraser than I have had with blue crayon.  I am out of Magic Erasers and have to get more, but baby wipes were not budging the crayon from the dresser.  Anyway, I scooped up the Activity Pack and informed her that after the marker incident the other week and this crayon incident, she was loosing the privilege to color in her room for awhile.  She apologized and went back to her bed to play quietly.

Nearly a half hour later I hear the bathroom faucet turn on.  And off.  And on again.  And off again.  Then she comes running out to excitedly tell me that she washed her ears.  I off-handedly say, "Oh cool."  Because really... washing her ears?!  Then I look at her.  And I see it.  

There, on her left cheek, is a small smattering of pink and blue glitter.  My eyes must have bugged because she immediately fell silent.  I got up and headed towards her room and she did not follow.  I walked in to find a sight dreaded by every janitor that works in an elementary school.  

She had snuck out of her room and grabbed the glitter and snuck back into her room and opened them!

 In her own words, she wanted to "make her dress sparkly like a princess.  And her pajamas.  And her face."  

Thank goodness the bottles of glitter glue were sealed!!  Those did not go all over her bed and carpet.  But that doesn't mean she didn't try.  Oh she tried!  The lids were off.  

This behavior is so out of character for her!  I counted to 60... not really... but I definitely stayed in her room and took a few many deep breaths before going back to the living room where I found her standing with her fingers in her ears (her scared/nervous stance).  I told her that she lost glitter privileges for awhile and that she knew she wasn't to be playing with glitter without me being right with her.  She, again, apologized for messing up her room and for spilling the glitter.  But then asked if I could put the blue glitter and the pink glitter back into their tubes so that she could use it later!  HAHA!!  Uh... no.  She got to watch me vacuum it all up.  

Good news: my new Dyson vacuums up glitter AMAZINGLY!!  


Until next time,

~Monica

24 Days of Christmas: Day 3

Have you ever been to a preschool gymnastics class?  Its pretty hilarious!  To see them springing on the trampoline and swinging on the bars and teetering on the beam... trying with all their might and fighting every urge to run around like little banshees.  I love it.  Missy has been taking gymnastics for a year and a half now and the thing that impresses me the most is not the maturity that she has gained, not the skills she has learned, not the dedication she gives to something at 3 years old by practicing at home as much as she can... the thing that impresses me the most is the patience of her coach.  

I have my degree in teaching... teaching elementary school.  However, I know that I do not possess the patience that it requires to teach the younger children.  I'd much rather have a classroom of thirty-four 6th graders than a class of twenty kindergartners.  Preschool? I don't think so.  Preschool Gymnastics?! A place where they can run around without desks and chairs for them to sit in? A place where older children and teenagers are tumbling? No way!!!  And there are only at the most 6 other preschoolers in her class!!  Yup!  "Miss Jennifer" has the patience of a saint!

She works with one child on a back bridge while simultaneously reminding another to stay in a certain position.  She helps one child with a spider hang on the uneven parallel bars while also reminding the other children to stay on their carpet squares.  She manages 3 jumping children on the trampoline while making sure the others are seated on the side of the trampoline and not falling off! She walks them, in a single file line, through the gym while the competitive girls are practicing their routines and skills all over and keeps them all safe and in line.  She cannot leave the child she is working with because that child is normally not in a position where they can do it on their own.  Could you imagine if she were to help a child get into a position hanging upside down on the bars and then walk away to redirect another?  She would have upset parents on her hand.  In the year and a half that I have watched Missy do gymnastics, I have not seen lose her patience once!! I can't recall her ever even raising her voice!  She has definitely not put my child at risk.  She calmly redirects the kids and they listen.  

She has definitely taught me a lot.  She has three children of her own, two of which I have met.  They are respectful and get along very well with my own children despite the rather large age gap.  I even believe that Missy has a huge crush on her son.  :)  Watching her reminds me of how I want to discipline and correct my own two little ones: with calm redirection rather than the impatient demands that I can lash out with in frustration.  Patience is not a strong suite of mine.  

Due to gymnastics, we decided on something very easy for Day 3 of Advent.  In the cone for day 3, they found a little ornament for each of them to put on their tree.  

Princess Aurora for Missy and Lightning McQueen for Bub.  Simple.  Short.  Sweet.  The longest part of the whole thing was them deciding on the perfect spot on their little tree to put their ornament!  

Each was moved around a handful of times before it was JUST RIGHT.  :)  My little perfectionists!  I think their little tree is turning out great!  Suites them perfectly!! Bright.  Colorful.  Whimsical.  Perfect.  

Until next time!

~Monica

24 Days of Christmas: Day 1

This is the first year that we are doing an Advent Calendar.  I am super excited!  Rather than a traditional calendar, we are doing an "Advent Tree!" I found the idea on Pinterest, but here is a link to a tutorial.  I forgot to take pictures while I made all of the cones, but Cassie at "Hi Sugarplum" does a great job of explaining it! All of the ideas for the 24 days were either Pinterest pins or were my own.  Have I mentioned how much I love Pinterest?  Well, I do.  Love it.

 It all began yesterday.  Right after breakfast, the kids were dressed and then went back to the table so that they could find the cone on the tree with the number 1 on it.  The little slip of paper said that they were going to be getting their very own Christmas tree and that they were going to make a garland for it!

 Then it was off to the living room for garland making fun!!  To make the garland, I used all materials I had on hand: some white beading cord and neon pony beads.

Missy has done quite a bit of beading in the past, so she went right to it!  Bub had a little more trouble but he tried.

Then things got interesting.  Have you ever seen a Jack Russell go into "puppy mode" and they get all crazy and start digging or running around and they can't seem to stop, but they look so happy and excited that you don't want to stop them?  (Donner did this when we tried to litter box train her... never again...) Well, that was Bub with the beads!  He started digging...

And dumping them....

And sitting in the tray....

And driving a car in them... immediately after we picked them back up... and complete with screeching sounds....

And throwing them... which sent Missy into a panic and scramble to pick them up....

And swimming in them....

While he was having the time of his life with the beads, Missy and I were busy beading and collecting beads that were being scattered.  After an hour or so.... the garland was strung and on their little tree!!  Both of them were so excited by this little tree and Missy cannot wait to put other things on it!  She wants to do all the activities today, but she will have to learn patience.  :)

Before going to bed, we read a story called The First Christmas Tree and Missy drew a picture of a Christmas tree.  She was so excited about the story because it was a "God story" and was even to hear only a few lines before determining that it was the story of baby Jesus from a different perspective.  She amazes me!  I would show you the picture of her Christmas tree... but Bub's scribbles got a little carried away and drifted onto her piece of paper and she responded by scribbling all over her paper.  Oh well.... kids will be kids! 



Until next time!

~Monica

A Glorious Moment

There are moments... many moments... in our house that chaotic.  The kiddos are 17 months apart and that means I have the "Troublesome Threes" AND the "Terrible Twos" going on - at the same time.  I have one in diapers with GI issues who can have explosive blow-outs at the exact same time that I have another forgetting that she does not have a diaper and she cannot just go in her panties.  I have a cat who likes to pounce on the dog and a dog who is afraid of her own shadow, so is naturally also afraid of the cat.

Needless to say, quiet time is a much anticipated moment in my home.  Its the one time in the day when both kids are in their rooms and either napping or playing quietly, when both animals also decide to take naps, when nothing is getting messed up or thrown out of order.  Its quiet.  Gloriously quiet.  Most of the time, its interrupted many times by Missy coming out and asking questions or just saying hi, but for the most part, I can sit and read or blog or catch up on my Hulu+ queue.  

A few days ago, the Hubs was outside working on his truck, Bub was napping, Missy was coloring, and I was watching a show.  Missy was actually not coming out, but she would call out from her room periodically.  All of a sudden she came running out of her room yelling excitedly, "Mommy!! My boo-boos are gone!! My boo-boos are gone!!"  My first thought was, "what boo-boos?" but then she turned the corner and I saw her....

With all my might, I did not laugh... at first.  Instead, I quickly grabbed my phone and started snapping pictures.  :)  

"Look at my nose!! My boo-boos are gone!!"

Well of course the boo-boos are "gone"... the scratch on her nose is no longer visible under the marker!!  And notice that she applied it like eyeshadow!!  The more I looked, the harder I laughed!! How can you not?!  

She was very detailed in covering her ENTIRE hand!! Every speck of skin was covered in the marker... but somehow, she managed to keep her dress clean!! Although I had to keep reminding her to stop touching the couch and the table!  She only smudged a little on the carpet directly in front of the mirror in her room.  I noticed this before running her outside so that the Hubs could see.  He also laughed!  Before washing her off, I got her to pose for a few more pictures.

She did not understand the hilarity of the whole scenario.

She was quite proud of herself.  :)  Fortunately, it all washed off very well!  It practically rinsed off in the water, which created pink bath water and a very excited little girl who kept squealing, "MY FAVORITE COLOR IS PINK!!! JUST WIKE MY BAFF!!!"  A few spots needed a little scrubbing, but by the time the bath was over, she was perfectly marker free.  I did not have to bring a red-colored child to gymnastics! YAY!

It's moments like this that make me so happy that I am a stay-at-home-mom.  I wonder how a daycare provider would have reacted.  Would she have gotten in trouble?  I know that she has never done this before and that she simply got carried away... she is only 3!  Things like this happen!  Nothing is ruined.  No one is hurt.  And even if it was permanent marker, going to gymnastics with marker on her face probably would have taught her that we don't color on ourselves!  So we laughed.  We took pictures.  And we cleaned her up!  Then she went back to her room to finish quiet time, withOUT markers; and I sent the pictures to friends and family and Facebook!  :)  

And as you can see by the background in the pictures, the tree is up and the stockings are hung.  We will be starting a new tradition of the Advent Calendar this year and I'm so excited to see the kids' faces!!  It's the first year that they both get to participate in the festivities!  More "mommy moments" to come!! :)

Until next time!

~Monica

It's Fall Y'all

I'm not technically "southern"... I was born and raised in California, and have only lived in the "deep south" for a year and a half.  The Hubs and I were married in August 2007, and since then we have moved more times than years we have been married.  For 8 months, I jokingly referred to Donner and myself as "nomads!"  Anyway, a year and a half means that Savannah has been our longest home since we've been married!! :-D

So in honor of the south, it's fall y'all!!  Fall in the south means that cotton fields are blooming!  If you have never seen a cotton field in bloom... You should!  It is GORGEOUS!!  I have yet to capture a picture... one that isn't blurry or so far away that it doesn't look like much.  The colors are amazing.  Milk chocolate browns and golds of the stems, dark greens of the leaves, and crisp whites of the cotton.  Almost always with a backdrop of trees with their leaves of reds and golds and oranges.  Breathtaking, I tell you!  My words are not doing the sight justice! 

As friends of mine and I were chatting on Facebook about the beauty that are cotton fields in bloom, the Hubs kept laughing at me.  Over the past year, I have become... as he says, "southernized!"  Yes... That is a word... at least in our house.  :)  Southern hospitality is alive and well in Savannah and I love it!  I don't know what it is, exactly, but I feel at home here!  The way of life is perfect to me!  I feel like I should have been born and raised here!  If you have never been to Savannah, visit!  It's awesome and you won't regret it!

Fall is in full swing here at our house!  The kids love pumpkins.  "Love" may be an understatement.  Budboy stops in his tracks for pumpkins.  Any kind of pumpkin.  Plastic, hollow, trick-or-treat buckets, real... you name it, and he wants to stare at it.  This causes mini meltdowns as we drag him away, but there is always another pumpkin not too far away.  Last fall, we did a different pumpkin art project seemingly everyday when Missy was in her pumpkin obsession.

This year, her obsession is more specific: pink pumpkins.  :)  We haven't seen too many, but she painted one!  One with three faces and hair that rotates so that she can display whichever face she wants on a given day.  Pumpkin painting is a yearly tradition for us.  I'm not a fan of carving them.  Looking at carved pumpkins fascinates me!  All the little details are great!  However, the inside of a pumpkin kind of really grosses me out!  So we paint them.  Plus!  I never have to worry about one going bad quickly on my doorstep!  Budboy hasn't painted his yet this year... he likes to have behavior issues on the nights we have it planned and it keeps being postponed... but it WILL happen!! 

We upgraded Missy this time.  Instead of finger painting, she was given a sponge brush!  And she also got acrylics!  She was super excited to get creative and decorate her little pumpkin!  She begged us for days!  When the special night came, she took her time and made sure it was perfect! 

We let the pumpkin dry overnight, and the next day, she excitedly grabbed some markers and drew faces.  Three different personalities!  She got a little carried away with freckles on the pink one, but her detail-oriented nature made sure to include laugh lines on the white one and eyelashes on the yellow!  Her drawings amaze me!  She pays so much attention to the fine details. 

I have a few more fall activities planned for this season.  Unfortunately, I just realized today that Thanksgiving is next week!!  I need to get on those projects!! (And the menu for the big day!!)

What are some of your favorite things about the fall?

I Have a Confession

I am so humbled by the responses to Friday's post. You guys are so encouraging! I definitely don't have it all figured out, but I am learning to live in this new state of normal. 

I have a confession. If I can help it, I do not take the kids grocery shopping by myself. As they get older, I feel like I could do it; but as it stands right now... I'm afraid of it!

I've had a few horrible experiences. One of them I'll share with you. :)

Missy was about 15 months old.... Maybe 16 months. I was 8 or 9 months pregnant with Titus and was going grocery shopping with her to pick up ingredients to have a fun "make your own personal pizza" night with my parents. At this age, keeping weight on her was an issue and we were constantly needing to feed her and she was seemingly always hungry. So you can imagine what taking a toddler who could, at any point, eat her body weight in food into a place with a TON of food that she couldn't eat was like. I came prepared with snacks and the lady behind the bakery counter also offered her a small cookie. If it meant more food in my arsenal, then I will take it!

I should also note that Ana HATED being in a shopping cart the correct way. Even while strapped in, she would wiggle her way around so that she was on her knees facing away from me in the seat of the cart. We never got great looks from onlookers but constantly turning her around and garnering "make-your-ears-bleed-screams" from her was not my ideal shopping trip either! So often, we let her... as long as she stayed on her knees and did not stand up.

I'm hustling through the store while simultaneously keeping her on her knees, feeding her snacks, grabbing items, and squelching meltdown after meltdown because she could not eat the items that I was putting into the cart.

Half way through the store it happened. I ran out of snacks. I started moving even faster as her meltdowns were growing. Before I knew it, she was flailing herself around in the seat of the cart and screaming those "make-your-ears-bleed" screams that was making EVERYONE in the store not only look over at us but actually come to the aisle we were in to make sure that we were okay! At that point I called my dad. He walked over to the store which was around the corner from their home and took her outside as I quickly grabbed the last few items and checked out.

From then on, I have been terrified to take them BOTH into a grocery store by myself! I can take them to other stores... But NOT a grocery store. Even when the Hubs and I go together it can be a struggle as they fight and kick and hit and want to eat EVERYTHING. When they aren't both toddlers, it will be much different, I hope. :) I'm just going to keep telling myself that. I also have plans to organize our shopping trips better so that the kids are involved. :) It'll take some time, but I'll share once it is all done!  

How are your kids in a grocery store? Is there anywhere that you avoid taking them?


Until next time!

~Monica

A Microwave Cart and a Dress-Up Station

You are probably wondering why those things are in a title together. They have nothing in common and don't even belong in the same space of a home, right? Well, read on. :)

When I was 4 or 5 years old, my parents bought a microwave cart. My mom originally re-purposed the microwave cart to be used as a TV stand. She cut holes in the back of the cabinet so that the cords could come out and the electronics could be hidden. The kitchen in our first home in northern California was a good size, but oddly laid out with not a ton of counter space, so converting the cart back into a microwave cart was necessary in order to have a space for the very large microwave that we had. Over the years, the microwave cart was used again as a TV stand.  I apologize for the poor quality of the "before" picture... but digital cameras were not around... and this is a picture of a picture because, quite frankly, I didn't have the time for it to be scanned. :) You get the idea though, right? 

The glorious "before" picture... circa 1986-1987.

Fast-forward to when the hubs and I got married. We had practically no furniture and not a ton of cash, so we gladly took any hand-me-downs that we were offered. This microwave-turned-TV cart had been temporarily sitting in my parents' garage! We were using an antiqued dresser as a TV console in the living room, but needed something in our bedroom. It didn't match any of the furniture in our room, but we figured that no one was really going to be hanging out in our room anyway, and took it! :)

Once we moved to the central coast of California, we used the cart in the hubs office to hold a TV and DVD player in case he wanted to watch a movie in there while studying or working. The great part about it having wheels was that we could easily roll it into our room if we wanted to watch a movie before bed!

Now we are in Georgia and for the first few months it sat in our garage. I didn't know what I wanted to use it for, but for some reason or another it made the move with us across the country. One day last year, it came to me! Missy desperately needed more storage in her room. So we the hubs sanded it and spray painted it white. Then I used some hot pink and neon green craft paint and painted the little grooves in the doors. Voila! A cabinet that kinda matched the decor in Missy's room!

Excuse the nicks in the paint and a the few stickers... its been in her possession for a little while now.

Originally, it held coloring books and crayons on the shelf and the striped storage bins held puzzles and stuffed animals underneath... but today, all of that changed!

She has been in dire need of a new way to store her dress-ups. The cardboard trunks that her original sets came in were breaking (she was stacking them and then putting her step-stool on top so that she could reach the top drawer of her dresser) and therefore, oodles of tulle and other shiny material were exploding all over her room! So, I emptied the stuffed animals into a plastic storage box in her "baby's room" (ie. her closet floor) and also found a new home for the puzzles. In one storage bin, we put all of her hats and purses and other make believe play toys. In the other bin, we stored all of her play makeup and her Strawberry Shortcake wig and her fairy wings. On top of the cart we have her tiaras, a tin purse, and her piggy bank displayed and an old train case that used to belong to my grandmother. In the train case we housed all of her costume jewelry and gloves. The piggy bank opens by removing the nose, and it is crooked because Budboy has recently learned how to open the bank and Missy is not a fan of him stealing her money... so it has to be turned very tightly now. 

Those bins fit perfectly on the shelf and inside the cupboard we folded all of her dresses and skirts and tops and stacked them... I do realize that they will not stay folded for very long... but I can hope, right? And as you can see... we ran out of spray paint before we could finish the inside of the cabinet and finishing that part has not been at the top of our priorities. Eventually, her dresser will get a face lift and the cabinet will be finished then. :)

There you have it!! A microwave cart turned dress-up station!! Missy is beyond thrilled!!


Until next time!

~Monica

The Princess and the Prince

I guess it's really the princess and the musketeer... but the kids think that Budboy was a prince and that is the opinion that counts, so we'll go with it. Tonight we went trick-or-treating on post. The kids, mainly Missy, as Budboy didn't know about trick-or-treating, had been looking forward to this night for weeks!  

As you can tell... they are oh-so-excited!!

Budboy was practically running up to the first house. Missy was in dress-up heels ("up-shoes" or "slippers with sticks" as she calls them) so she was having a little trouble walking, but she was a trooper and refused to change into the alternate pair of real shoes that we had on hand. 

Budboy just got his first ever trick-or-treat candy, and he now loves this holiday!

She wanted to make sure she had her picture taken after the first house also...

 After the first house, Budboy was even more excited and ran to the next. He was getting free candy and all he had to do was say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you!" Of course, his sounded more like, "teek a teet" and "tank you!" And at a few houses he added, "see wa way-der" (see you later) and "ha-ee ha-wee" (Happy Halloween). 

These boys were so sweet to the kids! One even helped Missy find her shoe and commented that Cinderella lost her slipper!

By now, Missy is a pro at trick-or-treating. She is not shy, though she sometimes appears to be, so walking up to strangers and asking for candy and engaging in conversation is a dream come true for her! Yes, that thought is scary. To her, everyone is a "friend." We are working with her on that.

His "Chandler smile"... Friends reference... :)

 Near the end of the night, we could tell that their buckets were getting harder and harder for them to carry... but would they let us help? Nope!! THEY wanted to carry them!! 

Glow stick swords!!

After the last house, another girl handed them each a glow stick. Which, of course, became swords! And at that point, they were more than willing to let Daddy carry their buckets so they could duel. 

The kids were not thrilled with the idea of heading back to the car, but once we were there they did not fight it. They were visibly tired and a part of them probably wanted to relax... and eat a treat. :)

All done, and another "Chandler smile!!"

My sweet little girl. Tired but very happy!

We got home and dumped their loot onto the floor and divided it up. Missy does not like chocolate and Budboy cannot eat chocolate... so all of that and the hard candy went into the blue bucket for Mommy and Daddy and all the rest went into the pink bucket for the kids. They don't get to eat lot of candy normally, so it will take a long time to go through it as they will get one piece a day, but I was very excited to see that we seemed to get a fair amount of teddy grahams and pretzels this year! So YAY!!

Tomorrow For the rest of this week and possibly next week, I'm expecting to have a little princess and prince running around the house. I'm excited for them. This is Budboy's first "dress-up"!!  :)

How was your Halloween? What did you do? What did you or your kids dress up as?

Midnight

When I was younger, I had an imaginary friend zoo. Yes that's right... a zoo. Well, maybe more like a farm... or a menagerie. Anyway, call it what you want, but it was not a person. No little friend that spoke to me or ate with me. I clearly remember in third grade, sitting there while the teacher was talking and then thinking, my bird is sitting on my friend's shoulder!! I giggled, then proceeded to tell her that Tweet, my bird, was sitting on her shoulder! Oh the look!! You'd have thought I had sprung two heads!! She looked at me like I was crazy because, of course, there was no bird sitting on her shoulder!! After that, I only told a select few about my "friends."

The bird in third grade was probably my first imaginary animal.  The first that I can remember. There were more at that time, but the bird was the closest to me. In fourth grade, Midnight entered my life. Midnight was a beautiful black stallion that I found in the baseball field of my school. Like all of my "friends," he did not speak to me. He was like any real horse, except he lived in my backyard instead of a stable. He also came with a white mare and a spotted black and white foal. Whitey and Spotty, if you must know their names. For the next three years or so, these horses went everywhere with me! They went on family camping trips, to the grocery store, to my grandparents' house... they simply ran along side the family van along the freeway. Now I know what you are thinking, "She must have been a loner" or "This chick is crazy!" No... I was not a loner, I had many friends, and I may be a little crazy, but my imagination has always been vivid!

So, imagine my surprise (and glee) when Missy walked up to me and asked me where her horse was!!! Yes, that's right!! My 3-year-old has an imaginary horse!! I was so excited! Inside, I was jumping up and down... outside, I had to keep my cool... I don't want my hubby to think I'm completely insane! He knows about Midnight and the others, but I don't think he realizes the depth of these "friends." I asked Missy what her horse looked like and what the name was and if it was a boy or a girl. Galahap is black with pink streaks in his black hair. "He wuvs to gawup (gallop) weally weally fast," she told me as she demonstrated around the coffee table. :) I am so excited about her new friend and intend to encourage her in this, but not force her into keeping these friends. She has also mentioned a pink giraffe with green spots, but she doesn't have a name as Missy says she is "wittle bit scared of da giraffe."  :) I love this age we are entering! Pretending. Imagination. AAAHHHH!! It's just so much fun! Dress-up was the beginning of the imaginative play in our house... and it's an everyday thing! But more on that later. :)

The tiger is rawr-ing at the kitty!

Did you have any imaginary friends or animals growing up? What about your kids?

Until next time!

~Monica