Pumpkin Pickers

Just another gorgeous day at the farm . . .

Astronaut

Brenna is up to her elbows in a science project. She's making a paper mache model of the moon complete with mountains and craters. Then she got the idea to spraypaint some mini army men for astronauts and give them a little paper flag.

She'll paint it this weekend so I'll post a photo of the finished project. She's really enjoying this assignment (the only thing that would have been better would be if it was about the Titanic. Now that's her passion!)

WAH!

Molly's class is going to the pumpkin patch and I'm not! Oh the photo ops I'll be missing!!!

I suppose it's not entirely tragic since we have to go back to the farm anyway because Brenna will still need a pumpkin. I'll just have to take my pictures then.

You'd think I'd be pictured out though since we spent the weekend in portrait places. On Sat. I had the girls' photos done together and then on Sun. I took Brenna back to get her 8 year old ones done alone. They'll be back on Nov. 1 so I'll have them to share after that!

Reading

Lately Molly has been much more interested in reading by herself rather than being read to. It's become evident though that as "poor, neglected subsequent child," I need to work more with her on such things. It became painfully obvious today.

We were out shopping and I suggested the girls look in the toy department for a birthday gift for their cousin.

Molly: "We should get this bouquet for him!"

Me: "A bouquet? Why?"

Molly: "Because it looks really interesting."

Me: "An interesting bouquet? Show it to me."

(She holds up an I Spy type of book)

Me: "I thought you said a bouquet?"

Molly: It is - see? B-O-O-K. Boo-K.

Followed immediately by the sound of my laughter.

It's Halloween. She knows the word Boo. She knows the letter K. I guess I follow the logic but I think this learning to read thing is going to take longer than I anticipated!!

Nailpolish

The girls are not allowed to wear nailpolish to school so tonight I was removing some that Molly had on over the long weekend. It reminded me of the last week before school started when they were still with my parents. My mom had painted Molly's nails a pretty dark shade of red and Molly was describing it to me over the phone.

"It's really cool Mom. It's really red and really shiny.

And Mom . . . (brief silence) . . .

(whispering) I think I might be a diva!"

I cracked up laughing at her. You see Molly's definitition of diva consists mostly of Bratz dolls and models in Victoria's Secret window displays. I'm not ready for her to be a diva!

Zoo Day

We took advantage of the awesome weather and spent a few hours at the National Zoo today. It's hands-down Molly's favorite place on earth (our little animal lover) and since Brenna is just happy to be out doing anything, all-in-all it was a perfect day.

Brenna has another trip there in early November with Girl Scouts. Since I know they are planning to do the "lower" part of the zoo (it's a huge hill!), we stuck to the "upper" part today. Conveniently the upper area is home to all of Molly's favorites - the elephants, the cheetahs, the pandas and her personal favorite these days, the hippos. We spent most of our time looking at this . . .

Yup . . . Nothing like whiling away time watching a huge creature submerged in murky water to get a person excited. Molly however was in heaven.

Ending the day with a dinner at McDonalds (including ice cream!) and boy oh boy do Dean and I now have these girls wrapper around our fingers!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Canadian family and friends!!

Animal Lover

Thursday is the feast day for St. Francis and our church always holds a blessing of the animals in the evening.

Molly must have heard about this because she came home frantic yesterday. She ran in, dropped her bag and blurted, "I need a pet and I need it by Thursday! I need to get it baptized for St. Francis!"

She wasn't impressed by my suggestion to bring some of her stuffed animals.
Dean had better sleep with one eye open tonight! (see this story - again!)

Just Around the Riverbend

It's been a busy week of school, activities and homework but here's a glimpse of Molly from a few days ago. It was the first day we've been able to get together with her sweet friends Sarah and Lele since school started. We met at a nearby park that borders a creek ("my river" as Molly calls it) and naturally the playground there was soon abandoned in favor of wetter activities! Luckily the weather has been wonderful (although you can see from the water level that we really need some rain!)and we enjoyed an afternoon splashing and laughing with friends.

Now that makes for a great day!!

My big girl is 8!

HAPPY

BIRTHDAY

DEAR BRENNA!!

My #1 baby girl is a lot bigger, a lot blonder, a lot sweeter and a lot sassier too. Happy birthday to our darling Brenna Boo!

We celebrated with dinner out at her favorite Chinese restaurant and came home for some cake and ice cream. The newly minted 8 year old declared that her day was perfect!!

Post her some messages because she loves coming on here with me to read them!

"Dear God,"

One of the side effects of Molly's chatty Kindergarten class is that they've been late going to lunch nearly every day because they have trouble lining up quietly. And because they have to eat their "healthy food" first, Molly has brought home the same 3 Oreos (now mere crumbs) each day because she hasn't had time to eat them. Last night I made cupcakes for Brenna to bring to school so I promised Molly she could have one in her lunch today instead of the cookies.

So after breakfast this morning I sent Brenna upstairs to brush her teeth and Molly was finishing her juice while I packed the lunches. I looked over and Molly was sitting at the table in her little plaid uniform with her head bowed and her hands folded and she was whispering. When I asked she told me she was praying. So I encouraged her to pray out loud so God could hear her easier (and because I was being nosey!) This is what I hear . . .

"Dear Lord, please help me and my friends get our apples back today.

Let us be better listeners and go to lunch on time.

Let us not make Mrs. M angry because we aren't being good.

Make sure everyone brings their new ears and tries real hard to listen.

I hope we can do good things and not be late for lunch

(and here she whispers really quickly)

because I have a cupcake for my sister's birthday in my lunch and I really want to eat it!

Thank you Jesus. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

I nearly choked trying not to laugh.
Which was better than her teacher who nearly wet her pants when I did my imitation of my pious little girl. The prayer was so heartfelt and concientious that I should have known there just had to be some ulterior motive! She really wanted that cupcake!

And Mrs. M told her she could eat it first because it looked so delicious. I have one happy girl on my hands today!

Oh and later in the day she told me, "Mom, you're the best mother in the world! Well, except for Sharon. She's my best mother too because she's my godmother in case you die."

Okay then! First she wants to pick Dean off for a cat and now I'm on the chopping block so she can get to live with Sharon! This kid is crazy!!!

New Ears

Molly's class has been giving their teachers a run for their money. They're a large group and are very energetic. Many are new to the school this year and not quite in step with the whole Cathoic school discipline thing. The "old" kids (who were there last year) are also unique in that they're all siblings of older students. It changes the dynamic in that these tykes have been in and out of that building since they were babies and thus have a certain confidence there and tend to be very "cool" in their attitudes. All in all they're great kids but it's taking a while for them all to gel as a group. They have an apple chart that is used to track behavior and from what I gathered today there are no apples to be had on that chart!

So this afternoon the class was going to church to get ready for First Friday Mass next week. This will be the first time they go to Mass with the rest of the school so they're practicing where to sit, etc. So my intercom buzzes and the teacher says, "We're leaving the building now. We'll be in church asking God for new listening ears." The principal (a nun) is standing with me and we cracked up laughing.

Tonight as Dean was tucking Molly in I hear:

Molly: Daddy, I put my old ones on your dresser.
Dean: You're old what?
Molly: My old ears
Dean: You have new ears?
Molly: Yup, brand new. From God.
Dean: (looking completely bewildered)
Molly: See, all our apples came down so we had to go to church to pray for new listening ears. And it worked! God sent me new ones so I switched them and left my old ones on your dresser. But you know . . . my old ones weren't really THAT bad. Oh and Daddy? I think when we go back to church next week we're supposed to pray for new lips or something. And when we do maybe then we'll get our apples back.

I love Catholic school!

Bad Mommy Award coming my way . . .

And what did I do to deserve this award you ask? I sent my child to school in her uniform.

You see today was picture day and the kids are allowed to wear "dress clothes." That's all well and good but because I do portraits each year on their birthdays, this Mommy insists that at least one school picture during their school days be done in uniform. That shouldn't be too much to ask considering they both rather like their uniforms. Brenna wore her uniform in her Kindergarten photo (the first year they wear the plaid jumper) so silly me thought I would do the same with Molly.

That would have been fine except that Molly is not Brenna and oh my does she have a mind of her own! I finally had to bribe her by promising to buy her many books but she finally did go out today in her uniform.

. . . after scowling at Brenna all through breakfast. (Brenna was in dress clothes and I admit that would have been hard to take!)

. . . after announcing to EVERYONE she saw on the quad at arrival "My mom made me wear this." or "My mom said I had to wear my uniform."

. . . after putting on shorts under the jumper so she could whip that jumper off the moment the photo was taken.

What a day! But when all was said and done she had her picture taken in uniform (as did at least 6 others in her class who also wore uniforms - clearly with less trauma!) and God willing it will come out good because I can't bear the thought of having them redone!!!

And now I need to go order some books for my darling child who came home and announced "Phew! I did it. Can we order my books now?"

Here's Brenna's Kindy picture. It's hard to believe that was 3 years ago already!

Farm Girls

But you can't see the farm girls because I forgot to bring my camera!

Anyway, we packed up our picnic basket and headed out to Homestead Farm on gorgeous, sunny Sunday. We picked three huge bags of apples and grabbed some fresh tomatoes and squash while we were at it. The kids enjoyed the animals and Molly was very happy to meet up with their dog (a gorgeous golden retriever also named Molly) again. It's a bit of a tradition!

Now it's back to the grind at school. Brenna is adjusting to the new workload of Grade 3 - studying for tests, more homework in general . . . Adding in dance classes, scouts, soccer, choir, and such means we are on the go a lot but their school work has to come first! So far so good!

Phew - Friday!

It's been a long and crazy week and we're al looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow! We had Back to School night on Monday for Molly's class and Tuesday for Brenna's. I now have a stack of papers with dates to add to the calendar, forms to fill out, checks to write, etc. One depressing thing was that I wasn't able to sign up for any of the field trips or special celebrations at school since I now have to be in the office. In some ways I'd rather do those fun things even if it meant not seeing them at school all the time. Actually, there are many days I don't see the girls at all! I am enjoying the job though and today I even held down the fort by myself as my co-worker went home sick at 9am. So far so good!

After Back to School nights, the rest of the week went by in blur. Brenna started Irish Dance at a new studio this year. It's still convenient (although not as much as having it right after school and right in the school building!) and I think she'll enjoy this new place even more. She did camp with Sean (the owner) 2 years ago but this time around she has the other teacher, Nikki. We'll keep you posted as to how things go!

She also started choir at school this week. I know it's a lot of activities for her but how could I say no to church choir?! The director is the school's new music teacher - who is also a 31 year old nun. She's a wonderful woman and I think she'll bring a nice, fresh perspective to the group and help the kids to really enjoy it.

A final activity for the week was a return to scouts. And sucker that I am, I led today's meeting (each parent commits to one though I know I'll wind up doing more!) The troop was dropped down to 8 girls which is actually a great size for this age. They are fun kids and I enjoyed it - I was just a bit too tired to look forward to it the way I had hoped!

Miss Molly is doing well and adjusting to life in kindergarten. So far so good and, other than feeling the need to tell her teacher 5x today that she had on new knee socks (hey, it's a big deal when you're 5!), I haven't had any reports that she's too disruptive. With Molly you never know what you're going to get!

Fundraising

As every other school in the world does, the girls are in the midst of their school's project. If anyone needs wrapping paper for the holidays or birthdays, check out www.sallyfoster.com (they also have other stuff but I just like the paper)

If you'd like to order (they can ship directly to you), give me a shout and I'll give you the code that sends 50% of the proceeds to our school and credits Brenna and Molly for the sale - you know, so they can get more rinky-dink prizes that they "soooooo NEED to have!!!!"

Guess who's coming to visit?

It appears that our good friend the Tooth Fairy will be making another trip to our house tonight!

Molly didn't want to go to school today because she was worried her tooth would come out and get lost. It was a bit wiggly and then a little good-natured tussling with a friend yesterday loosened it a bit more, but not a whole lot in my opinion. I checked it and declared it was no where near ready to come out (mind you the last one was literally hanging out of her mouth before we could get it out!) and sent her on her way.

Imagine my surprise when she was down in the office less than an hour into the school day to get an envelope for the newly missing tooth!

What do I know, I'm only a mom! And she's a smart little gal ("I TOLD you so , Mom!!") who will no doubt have some shiny new coins in the morning!

HAPPY (early) BIRTHDAY BRENNA!

We had a pool party today for Brenna and her best friend who is conveniently also a Sept. baby. Sixteen of the 20 girls in their class were able to come plus one who transferred out this year (but will continue to do scouts with them) and their collective 3 little sisters. It made for a lot of squealing girls but it was awesome to see them all having fun together. Because their school has only one class of each garde, most of these girls have been together for several years and have formed neat little friendships. Amazingly, they also still do really well as a big group too - no cliques or girly cat fights yet!

Things got off to a rocky start when I woke up at 6:30 am to rain and gale-force winds. Oh nooooo! I said a few quick prayers for sun and jumped in the shower before wrapping the favors. How cute are these "cupcakes" filled with cool girly stuff? Though the rain stopped as the morning went on, it was still quite windy and chilly (I was wearing jeans) when I went to the pool at noon. I brought basketballs and jump ropes we could use if it was simply too cold as well as our CD karaoke player and the High School Muscal and Hannah Montana CDs to use in a pinch. There would be nothing worse than a posse of bored 8 yr. olds!!

I was pleasantly surprised to find it was quite warm on the pool deck though and when the girls arrived at 1pm, they happily jumped right in with nary a shiver. I guess since the pool is set up high on a hill, it's much warmer there or something! Everyone behaved beautifully, had fun together and ate the ton of food we brought. And the wind must have scared everyone else away because we had the whole place just about to ourselves. We had reserved the big pavilion and deck in the back, but there were only a few lap swimmers in the pool and no one else on the main deck anyway. Good, because no one else would have wanted to be subjected to the dance party they put on after eating!!

The only downside to the whole thing is that Brenna's "real" birthday is still 2 weeks away but now she's "in the spirit" so to say. It's going to be a long wait until that big day!

A "Good Kicking Foot"

Miss Molly started soccer today to take advantage of her "good kicking foot" as she termed it. It went well and the popsicles they got at the end of the session may go a long way in keeping her happy.

Let's remember back to the spring of '05 when she did a soccer clinic with her preschool: It started well but she quickly developed a weird aversion to the games the coach played and spent most of her time crying. That is, playing and crying, because she would gamely go out onto the field and try to play despite the tears. It was really heart-breaking to watch. When I'd tell her to come sit with me and watch for a while she'd just say no and keep going. After a few weeks of that she took my advice and we'd go to soccer purely to watch the other kids. The season finished with, go figure, her playing the whole last session very happily and being devastated that it was over.

I truly couldn't take the pressure of it all so I was thrilled when she said she didn't want to do soccer last fall. If I remember correctly, her exact words were "I'd rather die than do that soccer thing." Okay then . . . I'll take that as a firm "no"! (Perhaps drama classes should be the direction we look for this kid!) I was a bit skeptical when she insisted she wanted to go back this year. But the clinic is on the field right at their school during the same time Brenna has choir so I figured we had nothing to lose. Well so far so good so please wish us both (because Lord knows I can't take any more drama!) well and we'll let you know how things go in the upcoming weeks.

Rewind: Highlights from "Camp Nana"

Here are just a few photos from some of the fun things we did during our time at Camp Nana. We didn't begin to capture things like going to Build-A-Bear, playing Webkinz, eating at Gerard's with Nana, helping at Nana's school, swimming fun with cousins Jenna and Benjamin (there are some here from the day with Jack, Brody, Johnny, Coleman, Nora, Nolan, Aidan, Michael and Nick though. We sure do have a lot of cousins!), almost-sleepover (Mommy made us go home because we were leaving the next day. Boohoo!) and many many other things we were able to do. We saw lots of our aunts, uncles and cousins from Canada who spoiled us rotten with gifts and attention and weworked really hard to keep everyone straight. Let's see, we spent time with (Great) Aunties Bev, Kim, Kaye, Marie, Judy, Bonita, Dottie, and Lynn. We call Mommy's cousins our aunties too so that means we saw Aunties Sharon, Lisa and Shannon too. Let's complicate this with 2 Debbies and 2 Dianes so we have Auntie Big Debbie and Auntie Little Debbie as well as Auntie Big Diane and Auntie Little Diane. And don't forget Auntie Kristin who is technically our only "real" aunt in Boston. Remeber all of this is hard work - and those are only the folks we got to see. Mom claims there are still lots more! But we wouldn't trade it for the world. It's neat to be part of such a warm and loving family.

Mangia!

Today is Brenna's best-friend-since-nursery-school's birthday. Her party was an Italian theme - quite appropriate for that family! The invitation read: "Sophia's turning eight and her party will be great! No princesses, no pinatas, no streamers, no malls -- Just come to my "restaurant"; we'll be making meatballs!"

They had a chalkboard sign outside that said "Bienvenuto al Ristorante Sophia" with red and green balloons. The girls each got an apron and a paper chef's hat and decorated namecards for the tables (red and white checkered cloths with chianti bottle candles and wineglasses) They made their meatballs and garlic bread and played some games while they baked. Then Soph's dad Frank served their tables, taught them some basic Italian and then they had cake and spumoni. They all looked so cute and all had a great time.

This was her party for her "home" friends. Next weekend Soph's mom and I are having a joint party for both Sophia and Brenna at our pool. Neither of us felt up to hosting all 21 girls in their class at our house. Talk about chaos! If all goes well, I'll propose we do a joint party again in the spring. Conveniently Sophia's sister Francesca is Molly's best friend and they too were born just weeks apart! And believe it or not, they have 21 girls in their class as well. Clearly no one in our area produced boys in 1999 or 2002! And I'm lucky that our families line up so well! (Deanne and I have birthdays just days apart and our husbands are a few weeks apart as well. Weird, huh? They do have a third daughter though - but we felt no need to match them on that one!!!!)

School: Day 3

Day 2 was a big success with both girls and myself there all day. The new job is going well and the office is really busy with all of the back-to-school forms, supply fees, milk and lunch orders, etc. all coming in. Dean didn't have it so good as yesterday he had his surgery scheduled. They wound up removing both his gall bladder and his appendix and he was home last night - doing well but very uncomfortable.

Day 3 dawned as a "playing-it-by-ear day." He wanted me to go to school but I wasn't thrilled about leaving him alone. Well, not alone because his mom wanted to come over, but we were all trying to figure things out. Leave it to Molly to solve the problem. A 103.7 fever brought her perfect attendance career to a screeching halt. Sound familiar? So she wound up home today, with Grandma and Daddy. So our day looked like this:

Brenna

Molly

Daddy

(he wouldn't let me take his picture but he's feeling better.

He keeps getting the hiccups though which are tough

when you have a lot of abdominal pain.)

Molly's fever still hasn't broken but her pediatrician said it's not her ears and, though her throat looks red, it probably isn't strep. So she's earned another day off tomorrow and we'll take the weekend to get both of our patients better and hope next week brings better luck!

Here we go again!

Heigh Ho! Heigh Ho!

IT'S OFF TO SCHOOL WE GO!

Today was the first day for both girls. Early reports (it was only a half day after all!) are that all went well, both girls really like their new teachers (both classrooms have teachers new to the school) and they are excited for what else in in store. Molly was excited to be sporting a uniform this year and Brenna was excited . . . to see her friends mostly!

So here's to the start of what will hopefully be a fun and enjoyable year for both of them!

Enjoy a little glimpse back at our earlier school days . . .

Home Again

Bear with me as I get my bearings! The girls have been away for a month and it will take me another month to unpack the suitcases. They accumulated a lot of things in their time at Camp Nana! We are quickly switching gears into school mode but I have lots of things to backtrack to and share some pictures. All is well though so stay tuned . . .

Surviving . . .

So far so good during our big separation! The girls have been entertained endlessly at Camp Nana and the daily reports read like a litany of fun activities. Molly especially seems to love calling me to chat. She has the cutest voice on the phone! I guess I've never heard it before because well, she's always with me! They've been on the go constantly and always seem to come home with some new object (read: toy) that they've conned Nana into buying. When they're at the house they're glued to the Webkins website, taking over Papa's tv remote or playing Polly Pockets (or "midget people" as Papa calls them which send Brenna into fits of giggles) Molly doesn't play Pollys as much as she colors - she's quite the artist and I imagine Nan's fridge is pretty well covered by now. They also are professional wildlife watchers now and hang out on the sunporch each night to watch the "stinky 'ol skunk" that walks down Papa's driveway every night between 8:30-9:00 pm.

I'm keeping busy too. I've been working each day and then trying to do some back-to-school shopping afterwards. My wardrobe of jeans, tshirts and sneakers is just not going to cut it "at the office" so I've had to do a fair bit of whirlwind shopping to outfit myself. I wish I could just wear the school uniform too! Luckily I can get a lot done in a short time when I'm alone.

Dean is on a plane somewhere over Tennessee in between business trips. The van has to go in the shop tomorrow for the 3rd time in two weeks. Otherwise not much else is new here. It's just awfully quiet without my little darlings around. I miss them like crazy!!

Rewind: High School Musical 2

Just downloading some pictures I took in Boston and wanted to add this one. Joining nearly every other girl between the ages of 4-16, Brenna and Molly hunkered down with some popcorn and ice cream last week to enjoy the long-awaited sequel to High School Musical. The anticipation was half the fun, but they both really enjoyed the show and now have a whole new repetoire of songs to perform in the mirror! The show was only halfway through the opening number when Molly said, "I can't wait for High School Musical 3!!" Thank God for Troy and Gabriella!!

Camp Nana

"Camp Nana" began last night when I hightailed it out of Boston leaving my two little monkeys in the care of their grandparents. I had to come home to start my new job but will be heading back to Boston in 10 days for my cousin's wedding. Rather than bring the girls here to leave them with a sitter all day and then fly them back to Boston again, we came to the conclusion that everyone would enjoy it more if they just stayed on with Nana and Papa. So the girls are living the high life in Boston for 2 more weeks while I slave away in the office.

I was chatting with Brenna's Gr. 2 teacher today . . .

Mrs. G: So what are your girls doing today?
Me: They aren't here. They stayed in Boston with my parents. Cross your fingers, I've never left them before!
Mrs. G: Oh no! Did they cry when you left?
Me: Well no they didn't, but my mom did!

(But honestly- she really wants the girls to stay! She wasn't crying that she had to take them!! (At least I don't think so!) To tell it truthfully, you have to know that my poor mom cries at any and all goodbyes but it sure makes for a good story when I say that she cried when I walked out and left my kids on her!)

The first report says all is well. Brenna misses me and Molly apparently hasn't noticed I'm gone. As long as she has control of Papa's tv remote, she's 100% happy. Let's hope the remaining nine days pass as quickly. They may not miss me, but I sure miss them!

Trailside Museum

Staying busy here! After a long day at the beach with friends earlier in the week, we stuck close to "base camp" today and went to a local nature center. Brenna had a few things about animal habitats that she needed to finish for a Girl Scout badge so I figured this was a perfect way to fit that in as well. I hadn't been to the Trailside Museum since I was a kid and everything was just as I remembered it. We saw the few outdoor animals they have and then spent just over an hour at the indoor exhibits. Molly enjoyed the turtles (and conned me into buying her a stuffed one - must be the only animal she doesn't own!) and Brenna really liked the owls and honeybees. I promised we'd go back some day (when we were wearing better shoes!) so we could take a long hike on one of the many trails through the Blue Hills. I remember the thrill of reaching the big observatory at the top and being able to see the Boston skyline right out to the Harbor Islands and I know the girls would really enjoy that too!

Flying High!

Here's something you do when the weather is gorgeous and the
sea breeze is in full force - FLY KITES! There's a perfect park nearby with a wide open field that we thought would work. So off we went to buy some today and then took to the park to see if we could get them flying.

Turns out that was not much of a problem.
We were pros in no time at all . . .

They launched immediately and climbed as high as the string would go.

Actually, we could even fly them lying down!

(Brenna's on the left and Molly's on the right - see how high their kites are?!!

Here's Molly below with her kite that's "a million miles high!")

We nearly had a run-in with a passing airplane but we pulled the kites down just in the nick of time to avoid getting them tangled in the wings. :)

Brenna and Molly hope the airplane passengers enjoyed the show!

SPLASH!

A great new addition to the park near Nana and Papa's house is a splash zone. We went over to check it out today and deemed it a most worthy neighborhood addition - especially since we can walk there! I think we'll be spending many a great afternoon enjoying this. There's also a playground directly across the street and a walking/bike trail that runs right along the side. Plus the whole thing is on a river and we spent some time watching people launching canoes and fishing. It's easy to forget we are so close to the city with all of this green space now!!

We Made It!

After a long delay at the airport on Tuesday, we finally made it to Boston. And in true fashion we've hit the ground running! We've already had a Cousins' Day at Auntie Dottie's pool (awesome as usual - we had 11 kids age 7 and under and they played beautifully together!), went to the movies with Nana, visited Castle Island with some Aunties, climbed all over Uncle Don, bought new Webkins, taken over Papa's television and all of the other fun things that are just expected when we visit. We sure do get spoiled here!

Here we are with some of our cousins. (Can you see that the boys really outnumber the girls? Luckily we still have lots more room in this growing family!) After a long day of swimming and playing we're all dressed in our pajamas for our moms to take us home. That's the only bad part of going to Dottie's! (We were watching a repair truck fixing electrical wires outside her house.)

We still have 3 weeks and a whole list of things to do so stay tuned for more adventures!

Three Random Thoughts

1.) Something prompted me today to sing the old Fritos jingle "Muncha buncha, muncha buncha Fritos go with lunch . . ." Brenna laughed and asked if I made that up. When I told her it was an old tv commercial she wanted to know why they didn't make commercials anymore. I didn't catch her drift at first. Then I realized that she pretty much only watches Disney Channel. Because they don't show commercials, she assumed they weren't made anymore! (This was not always true because I do remember them watching a lot of Nickelodeon a few years back. Molly started commenting at every commercial "I want that for my birthday!" I knew I had to draw the line when she even said it for a commercial for Pedisure!)

2.) Tonight Brenna was reading an American Girl Mystery book and asked if I had read it when I was her age. She looked surprised when I said there were no American Girl books then. Then she said with shock, "And there were no Polly Pockets either? How did you SURVIVE??!!" Can you tell what her favorite things are?

3.) Molly usually uses a mask when we're at the pool so she can swim underwater for a longer time. I bought her a new pair of goggles and was trying them out today. She went underwater in front of me and when she came back up I asked if they worked well. She replied "Oh yeah! And Mom? They make you look really skinny!" --- so I just ordered 300 pairs for everyone at the pool. :)

Pearly Whites

Getting ready for our vacation means that we need to finish up some business on this end. The girls won't be back here until the night before school starts so everything needs to be ready to go for that before we even leave on this trip. So today we picked up the last two things Brenna needed for her school supply list, returned all the library books we had out and squeezed in dentist appointments before the crush of school schedules begins.

Good reports all around and given that between the two of them there are several teeth missing and thus not able to be cleaned, we were in and out in record time! :) Dr. K announced that Molly has 3 more loose teeth and was surprised to see that she has all her 6 yo molars (and has since last year actually!) He predicted that she'll catch up with her big sister before long. (Needless to say, that didn't sit well with Brenna who already chafes that she's "late" losing teeth!)

And now after all that running around my lower leg is completely swollen like a sausage from a bee sting I got yesterday and someone smashed up the passenger rearview mirror in the van while I was running a 10 minute errand in the grocery store. I was telling Dean all of this on the phone (along with the fabulous news that we should plan on braces for both kids down the road, but who doesn't expect that nowadays!) and he was trying hard to sympathize. I helped him futher by telling him that he got a jury summons in the mail today - in District Court - for the whole month of September.

There must be light at the end, right?

Island Paradise!

Brenna's walls are pink which lends itself to all sorts of girly themes. We did the princess/ballerina thing for a few years and then added some black and morphed to a "fashion girl" theme. This time we tossed it all out and went tropical!

The new comforter has lots of color - a darker pink looks great with the walls but it also brings in blues and greens. Her desk chair was already painted that fuschia color (can't see it in the pics) and her dresser has baskets with pink liners so they all stayed as is.

We added some new curtains (I had planned to make bedskirt valances here too but these work well enough and required no maternal labor so I'm all in favor of them!) To add to the beachy look, I tacked up a great strand of shells and starfish from Molly's mermaid birthday (no pic of that here) and doctored up some photos that I've taken through the years of Brenna on the beach. I brought in all the colors in the bedspread and scrapped them to look somewhat like postcards or just in keeping with the style on the bed. I stuck these in cheap plastic box frames and collaged them on the wall above her bed (I have a few more to add yet) So again - only the cost of the bedspread and curtains (thanks to Nana our bargain shopper!) and some plastic frames and Brenna has a great new room too. Plus I can show off some fun photos that had been previously closed up in albums.

Now I need to do something with our master bedroom that lacks style on any level!!

Call of the Wild

The girls have been asking about redoing their rooms - nothing major like painting, just updating bedspreads, etc. Molly insisted she wanted a jungle room and since her walls are a cream color and her carpet is celery green, it seemed like we could make that work. She had a sort of spring butterfly thing going on in there but my animal girl really wanted a change. Well, it sounded easy until you try to buy leopard print sheets that aren't satin and designed for *ahem* an adult bedroom!

We finally found an animal print comforter and I used the bedskirt that came with it to make valances. Now I need to get to the fabric store to get from piping or something to edge the rest of it for dresser runners. I also used the frames she had up already by adding animal print scrapbook papers and 5x7 photos of some animals I took at the zoo. We found a monkey set of coat hooks and a zebra shoe bag for the doors and I have some animal print ribbon I can use to update her photo board on another wall. (And I need a poster or two so I can take down that pastel print right above her head!)

So all told, for less that $75 she has a new room and she's thrilled!

Brenna's room has been changed as well. No hints! I'll get pictures in there tomorrow - when it's hopefully a bit tidier!