more vacation photos

we experienced some extremes of weather during the last few days of daddy's vacation. within three days of each other we had our first snow, and also went on a day trip to the foothills, one of us in a t-shirt.

look, Papa, gruel!

just lovely

it stuck

poor A. cannot remember her brother's name anymore. or she is desperately confused about whether he really is her brother. know what she calls him now? john mccain.
nope, not kidding.

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