views on the road

we've just returned from a few days of road travel down south. here are some favorite sights...

Santa Fe...or Marrakech?

(sigh)

welcome back, Billy, this one's for you:

On Tuesday night, I was putting BR down for bed and the girls were taking turns giving him goodnight hugs and kisses. I turned to go and L. said, "Wait, mommy, I have one more thing to tell him!" then she leaned down and said in a very serious voice: "congratulations, Riceball-McCain, you are NOT president."

sweet thang

i've been using the halloween candy as rewards for the kids. mostly as a reward for obedience, and also for exercising self-control. like, when you finish everything on your dinner plate. like when you go an entire afternoon without hitting someone. you probably deserve a piece of candy. this is really, really hard when you are 2. So, when you succeed, you should be really proud.

A.: "Now I can have my tootsa roller!"

geek squad

although they probably look like capris, these are actually some of BR's trousers

sometimes you just need to curl up in your pumpkin suit and read a book.

We decided to play "red light, green light" yesterday with some of the kids in the neighborhood. I guess she had a picture of a road crossing in her mind because A. said: "Yeah! And I can be the white man!"

on Halloween night...

...we had in our group: a princess riding a unicorn, a doll, a pumpkin and a maverick. those ziploc bags are full to bursting and the contents are going directly to mommy and daddy's tummies. heh heh...

"my fellow Americans..."

ps: this mama was very relieved to have found that pumpkin suit at a thrift store the other day. it solved the problem of how I would possibly sew a costume on time since every other day we were changing our minds. previous ideas included (but were not limited to): a unicorn, a colorful fish, a meerkat, a fan ("so I can blow everyone away"), and a bird.

A's costume was decided for her by us, but she was very happy about it and during dress rehearsal earlier in the week she was proud to announce: "look! a doll is riding her tricycle!" "hey, there's a doll running in circles" "a doll needs a nap." And when she changed back into her regular clothes: "i'm just ah-ma-ree now." phew.

proof

that we have a backyard! these two especially love to play out there. and here is a view of the cute little house.

no one will ever find me here

there's a gap below the kitchen counter and next to the dishwasher where the Riceball likes to hide when he is plotting some mischief.

catching up

if the blog's been quiet it's because we were busy enjoying a visit from good friends for four days.

the kids loved the attention, having extra readers around and BR especially took advantage of the additional lap space.

And when they left the girls both cried. "i miss Kara and Leia!"

A. says...

Our refrigerator makes moaning noises sometimes. It sounds human and spooky. At dinner last night:

A.: "Mommy, there's halloween in our frigerator!"

A List

so maybe her spelling skills haven't quite caught up to her reading ones yet... L. is still determined to make to do lists. Every day. Throughout the day. Here is a small sample (there is much, much more for her to accomplish as laid out in The List ):

go to sleep wake up eat breakfast wash hands take a walk go to the zoo

go to sleep wake up eat breakfast brush my teeth go to the pumpkin patch

wash my hands take a bath dry myself put shampoo on my hair

wake up eat breakfast wash hands go to the ice cream store

this is also a list [for] when it's dark

watch fireworks look at the stars drink hot chocolate and hot soup

lie in the grass when it's dark

find a boat get a ticket to get in it

spooky house

the girls are proud to show off today's ambitious craft: a "spooky house" as they call it. we kinda think the windows look especially spooky that way...

mmm, mmm, yummy as pumpkin pie

mommy's cousin Bethany took us and all the other cousins to a pumpkin patch on Sunday. There was a straw maze and a corn maze, and a petting zoo and a hay ride. The kids (all of them!) were cute enough to gobble up.

i claim this pumpkin for the Republic of Ah-maree.

L. was really, REALLY excited about the hay ride: (holding up her hand) "See? I got my stamp, I'm READY! You need to get yours, go, GO! The driver is WAITING, he is READY for us, come on, let's go on the ride, HURRY!" And then... "Wow, this is so much fun, I am having SO MUCH FUN! This ride is so long. Wow, another bump! Tee hee hee! This is FUN!"
So that evening I was asking A. what her favorite part of the outing was and mentioned that I already knew L.'s favorite part.
L.: "The hay ride!? What!? That was SO boring. I NEVER want to do that again."
That's our A-plus Stinker.

Weekend Update

Things I have heard myself say this week, some more than once.

"No, no, please don't put yogurt in your eye."
"Don't hit your sister."
"Chapstick is not a snack."
"Don't hit your brother."
"Please don't lick that doorstop."
"Put that stick down."
"Stop eating that lightbulb."

In other news, apparently L. has taught herself to read. She's been working on it for weeks, but today it was full (though simple) sentences and short paragraphs. We were at church and she was reading out loud from a book she had sneakily brought along from home so I wasn't exactly ecstatic, but still secretly and guiltily hoping everyone around us noticed.
They didn't. So I had to brag here instead.

today I learned about dinosaurs

(her inspiration: Mo Willem's "Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct")

A. loves to pose for the camera. Especially in her new pink and yellow raincoat. She wears it round the clock, and indoors and out.

things your mother will let you do so that she can cook dinner

yes, we're pretty excited about having wood floors. no, we do not keep them immaculately clean.

it might be cold, but we love Fall

sometime soon...

we have moved into our very adorable little house (rental) and we're told that our internet line will be up and running on the 9th. hopefully I will have found the camera under the piles of rubble by then. i promise, we're still very, very adorable. way more than the house.

it's been quiet

We are still in transition and will move into our new home in another ten days or so. The frequent moving back and forth from family's couch to motel to cat/house-sitting location led A. to ask her daddy today (when he stood up from the couch) "oh, are you going to go put pack all our suitcases again?" Poor childrens, they are used to being homeless already. Here's to Oct. 1...
In the meantime, the camera is lost under some piles in public storage and our internet access has been limited. But try not to forget about us, we're still really, really cute.

brand new

For those who might not have noticed that I added a link on the right, the kids have a new cousine! And we are so proud and need to show her off. She is French and loves baguettes and brie. Um, no. But my oh my is she a cute one. If you have any doubts, go see for yourself.

mommy's still a failure (suite)

So we're stealing some moments away from other activities to do some "preschool" at home. I wrote out some letters on a piece of paper for her to practice writing.

"But Mommy, I wanted to do lower case letters!"

feel the mommy guilt

I was thinking out loud with L. the other day, saying how happy I was that she wasn't in preschool as we had originally planned (the mid-Sept. move is kind of bad timing for school so that's on hold at the moment). I said I was happy that she was home with me because I would have missed her.
She immediately burst into tears.
"But Mommy, I want to LEARN!"

cutie pies-es

"look, mommy! I spelled 'rainbow'!"

such a flattering image of myself I find reflected by my children sometimes...

overheard while I'm cooking dinner:

A.: "Hi, what's your name?"
L.(holding stuffed toy): "This is the Claire shark."
A.: "Let's play together, Claire!"
L. (sharp, flesh-tearing teeth bared): "Argh! No, I can't! I have to do my work! You are going to have to play on your own for a little while so I can finish my work!"