Halloween Cuties

A few pictures from Halloween

We had a great time trick or treating with friends. Notice the twins next door are little frogs? Here are the original frogs - Molly and their older brother in 2003!

Oh and Molly the angel? That was originally . . . The Ballet Bride from recital 2005. Gotta love recycling!

Busy bees . . .

We left the house today at 8:15am to head to church. Brenna's Children's Choir was singing for the parish for the first time today. We left straight from Mass and took the Metro downtown. Today was the Marine Corps Marathon and my cousin Jeff was running it as his first marathon.

Go Jeff Go!! We knew he'd be wearing his Boston College shirt and sure enough . . .

How's this for a proud finisher? I was so impressed with him (and all the others) for taking part in such an amazing feat.

We zipped (okay we didn't quite zip. Given the crowds at the Metro, we opted to walk over an hour to another stop! It was a beautiful day and a long walk seemed like a good idea after watching the endurance of those runners!) back home just in time for our neighborhood Halloween party. I won't post a picture of the girls in their costumes just yet.

You'll have to come back on Weds. for those!

In the meantime, congratulations to Jeff on an awesome race. I hope he's feeling darn proud of himself!!

School Pictures

Granted no school pictures will every be as darling as those first ones from preschool . . .

Brenna Sept. 2002

Molly Sept. 2005

Here are this year's. Once again I agonize over whether to redo them. I don't like Molly's because that's just not her smile. Brenna's is more natural but does she have to look 14?! I just had her 8yo portraits done and they came out better so I think I'll leave this school one as is.

On the subject of her 8 yo pictures, that day she did a little extra posing for the photographer. He is trying to build up his portfolio by doing some of those "fantasy" type pictures. He had some little kids in fairy costumes and asked if Brenna with that long blonde hair would pose for some mermaid ones. She thought it was fun and he's giving me some copies in return for letting her pose. These are the proofs . . .

It's not something I would plan to do with a kid her age but she thought it was fun so who am I to complain!

For Nana

Here are more of the many faces of Molly that you liked!

She's a clown.

Operator?

Molly was doing some work in a workbook and one page talked about using the telephone. The last line said "My telephone number is ____________" I read it to Molly and she said,"Oh I know! 301- . . . (she knew it but I'm not about to type it!)" The funny part was that as soon as she finished saying the number she immediately rattled off "please leave us a message and we'll get back to you!"

Okay. She didn't learn her phone number because we taught it to her - she learned it from listening to our answering machine pick up!

You see it picks up after 3 rings and I occasionally don't get to it fast enough and it starts to play before I switch it off. So I guess a series of oops moments on my part trying to find the cordless phone in time has actually turned out to be a good thing!

Rewind: Field Trip

Two quick photos from Molly's field trip to the farm that a chaperone mom sent me. I love the sea of navy blue sweatsuits! Her class is so darn cute!!

(Molly's in the middle with orange bows but you can't see her face)

(Molly's on the far left)

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!