A White Halloween & Chad's birthday!

Ahhh, the first week of November...another busy time for us.  Halloween, then Chad's birthday, our Anniversary, more birthdays, and then.... BAM!- Thanksgiving hits us before we even know what happened.

We are having some crazy Fall weather here in good ol' Winchester.  3 inches of SNOW two days before Halloween!

Chad didn't want to come out and play in the snow, but the girls decided to throw snowballs at him anyway...

Then Halloween came and the girls could hardly contain their excitement! Hannah was a bit scary....

They had a great time and ended up with 2 buckets full of candy goodness.  It will take them months to eat it....so I'll help them out.

Yesterday was Chad's birthday so the girls and I surprised him with gifts in the morning...and chicken casserole & chocolate cake for dinner.  It was also our friend, Amy's,  birthday yesterday...so she came over for dinner too!

Field Trip & Halloween Parade!

Today was bursting at the seams with activity.  I chaperoned my first Kindergarten field trip to Blandy Farms...an experimental tree farm.  It was cold & breezy...and I was assigned 4 kids to keep track of.  It was a lot of fun, but my head was pounding from the loud bus ride!  Here's Hannah with her friends, Ryan & Brianna.  5 is such a sweet age.  I'm really enjoying this Kindergarten adventure!

After the field trip, Hannah and I went to Sadie's preschool to catch the tail end of her Halloween party and costume parade.  It is neat to watch Sadie finally get to participate in the events that she's watched Hannah do for the past 3 years.  I think her Goldilocks outfit is adorable.  And with the parade, the trunk-or-treat, and Halloween night....we sure are getting our 10$ worth!

Trunk-or-Treat

Today, I took the girls to the 2nd annual MOMS Club trunk-or-treat.  It was sort of a last minute decision, seeing as it was such a rainy & cold day!  I picked up a couple packs of spiderwebs and we decorated the back of the van....as if our van isn't already scary enough!

About half-way there, I realized I'd forgotten to grab their pumpkin buckets...but I didn't have time to turn around to get them.  So I dug up a Subway kids meal bag...and a clear plastic bag that had my new toothbrush/floss in it from my dentist appointment.  Hehehehe :)   They didn't care!

Oh..and Hannah's Snow White wig itches her head, so she's wearing her Rupunzel headband.  She thinks it's cool that she gets to be TWO princesses at the same time!

Fall Happenings

We've been keep busy this Fall!  One of our newest adventures is Girl Scouts.  During the summer, Hannah participated in a "pre-Daisy" 6 week program.  An older Girl Scout (who was running the program as a way to earn a badge for herself) taught the girls what it was like to be a Daisy scout...they sang songs, planted flowers, played games, etc.  Hannah absolutely loved it and decided to continue into a true Daisy troop this Fall.  Another Mom from the group and I volunteered to become co-leaders of the troop.  At first, the other leader and I felt like we were floundering, trying to get the troop off the ground with little guidance from the district coordinators. Lately though, things are falling into place.  We finally have all the girls registered & we're earning our petals.  Hannah has made some new friends and is gaining more confidence.  It's also something special that we can do together.
We've had some nice weather lately, so last week we picked out our pumpkin & the girls drew and helped carved the face.....

Vacay

This week, I took the girls to Virginia Beach for a few days so they could have a little vacay before I had to work again on Friday. It doesn't hurt that my hometown is a vacation destination and that I can stay with my parents for free :)

The whole family went to the Ocean Breeze, which is a water park that I worked at a few summers while home from college. I can not remember the last time I was at a water park with my Mom & sister...and not sure if I have a single memory of seeing my Dad in a body of water. lol He went down the large tube slides with Hannah...they go super fast, and the heavier you are...the faster and crazier you fly down that slide. Well, since Hannah only weighs about 38 pounds or so, she slid daintily down the slide and landed in the pool below without getting wet at all (which is great, because she flips out if even one molecule of the stuff gets on her face). Then Dad came flying down, swerving all crazy from side to side on his tube raft, and proceeded to flip completely upside down once he hit the pool. It was hysterical....I mean, where's the camera when you really need it?! The girls had a blast...it was their favorite part of the trip.

The next day, we went to the Virginia Aquarium....which, I suppose has changed it's name from the "Virginia Marine Science Museum". I think I went there for a class field trip every single year of my childhood. They have made some awesome improvements though, and it's come a long way from the late 80's :) The sharks were awesome, but my fave were the giant sea turtles...they were gorgeous!

Here's one of the girls at Ocean Breeze. I didn't get many pictures from our trip. Sometimes, I just have to enjoy the moment, instead of stressing over getting pictures of everything.

Manic Monday

Is she cute or what?! This past weekend, our favorite dog/house sitter graduated from high school. She will be attending VMI in the Fall, the same school that her older brother just finished last year. Chad has enjoyed helping to prepare Chantal for her 'rat' year. I had absolutely no idea what to get for her gift. When I went off to college, all I wanted were phone cards & a cute comforter! With all the rules at VMI, I wasn't sure what she was allowed to have. So, I bought her some regulation black socks, bandaids (gotta ward off blisters from her boots), and an alarm clock (without a radio). JOY! Her family threw her a great party, complete with a D.J., dance floor, misters (in case anyone got too hot), and gourmet cupcakes.

We have a busy busy week coming up! I work a couple of days this week at Hallmark, and Hannah's dance recital is Friday evening. Chad's parents are coming in town for that & Father's Day....then the girls and I are packing up to head to VA BEACH!!! So, this means that I must clean the house AND pack for myself & 2 kids. (which is enough to make me very crabby with anyone who gets in my way) ;)

Summa Timmme!

Summer has begun! Going to the pool tends to bring out the stark differences in the girls' personalities. Hannah is terrified of the water! She seems to have forgotten how fearless she was last year at Ocean Breeze when she played in the wave pool and went down HUGE water slides.

Sadie, on the other hand, would run and dive into the deep end if I let her. I literally have to hold her back. She's trying to get away from me in the picture above :)

Ah, summer. I had written it off because I was supposed to have foot surgery at the end of this month, which would leave me on crutches for 8 weeks. That changed when Chad lost his job...so I've pushed it off for a while....hopefully next year. With the new prospect of having two usable feet this summer, I'm scrambling to come up with a plan to keep everyone occupied and happy. Hannah's dance recital will be on June 17th. Thank God!...I'm so ready for dance class to be over. I think she is too. She hasn't seemed to enjoy it as much this year, and the pressure is starting to be too much for her. She melted down last week in class. See, it's crunch time before the big show and the teacher wants to make sure the girls have memorized their short dance. Up until this week, she's been standing in the front of the room going through the steps with them...and they all just watch her for the next move. Hannah is one of the few who really knows all the steps by heart. She got upset though, when she accidentally started following some of the other girls who were doing it wrong. It threw her off and she started crying and saying how she "just couldn't remember" ...she said "mommy, I'm here to learn how to dance and I can't remember the steps...that's bad!"

Sigh.....so I know 2 things.

1. NO more dance ....it puts too much pressure on my 5 year old. If one day, she says to me "You know, I'd really like to pursue professional ballet"...then that's fine. But we are done for now. There are not many places around here that focus on dancing for FUN!

2. In my quest for a more nurturing & less competitive and stressful activity for her, I stumbled across the Girl Scouts. She's been in a 6 week "pre-Daisy' program and she absolutely loves it. Looks forward to it every week. She has earned two badges already and will earn her final one on Friday during a little ceremony. She loves it so much, that I have decided to become a troop leader for the Fall. I'm officially registered with the Girl Scouts of America and have my troop number!! :) I have some online training to do over the summer (a friend and I are doing it together) and in the Fall when she starts Kindergarten, she will have her own Daisy troop as well.