Scrapbooking Fun

The girls and I spent quite a bit of time over Thanksgiving break working on their Disney cruise scrapbooks. I love all kinds of crafts, but literally have not allowed myself to scrapbook merely because of the time element involved. I threw that idea out the door for a couple of days and supervised the budding scrapbookers. It was so much fun seeing Abby and Molly pick out which pictures to use, come up with ideas, and turn those ideas into masterpieces. Neither of the girls are quite done yet, but they certainly are coming along. Abby is more or less doing her album on her own with very little help from me. Molly is getting a little more guidance, but she doesn't seem to mind. Abby is making a big 12" x 12" album with at least three photos on each page. Molly's album is just a 6" x 6" which for the most part allows for just one photo per page, but it's perfect for a second grader. I wish there was a simple way to share their finished projects easily with you, but I guess you'll just have to see them in live person instead. In the above photos you'll see the scrapbook artists and their works of art.

"The Boys and The Girls"

We celebrated Thanksgiving a little early with my side of the family this year. Rick and his family came up north the weekend before Thanksgiving and we were able to spend an evening together with their family and my parents. Because Rick and Jenny have all boys, we have affectionately nicknamed them "the boys." Pretty original, eh? And of course, since we have girls, we refer to them as "the girls." So when you put them together it's simple: you've got "The Boys and The Girls." Here they are in a human sandwich. I think Steven is thinking Molly lucked out with this one. There are some advantages of being the smallest in the pack!

Fall Beauties Part 2

Here are a few more pictures from our fall photo shoot. One of my favorites is the one on the bridge. I caught them while the were skipping across, off into the sunset, not having a care in the world. Isn't that what childhood is supposed to be?

Fall Beauties

Earlier this week I decided to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather and do a little fall photo shoot with the girls. After piano lessons we went to Mill Creek Park and snapped a few pictures. It was quite enjoyable to see how the girls reacted to certain location suggestions as to where they should have their picture taken. Molly didn't care where I suggested. Abby cared. She was vey thorough and deliberate and wanted to go somewhere where Molly hadn't already been. It's such an adventure seeing Abby and Molly grow and see what "gets" them. And let me reassure you -- that changes an a very frequent basis! Enjoy the photos.

Trick or Treat

Tonight was a great Trick or Treat night for us! The weather was PERFECT -- sunny and probably in the 60's the whole time. Our Trick or Treat time was 5:00-7:00 and we haven't set our clocks back yet this fall, so we had a little more daylight this year, which was nice. Abby dressed like a pirate for school, but was a hippie for her official costume. She was a hippie a couple of years ago, but who ever said you can't have similar costumes for a couple of years? There was a very good reason for the hippie costume this year. Abby and her friend Paisley did a pairs costume. Abby was the hippie while Paisley was a mime. Together they were -- get ready for this -- PEACE and QUIET. Get it? Hippie (peace) and mime (quiet). Very fun. Thanks to the internet for that super idea. Molly was an angel for her parade at school, but didn't want to walk the neighborhoods in a dress, so begged us to let her wear Abby's pirate costume for her official costume. At first I told her that I did not want her changing her costume the afternoon of Trick or Treating, so she would just have to be an angel and deal with it, then I finally gave in. Her angel costume looked so cute on her, but she really didn't want to wear it tonight. I relented and figured it's supposed to be a happy night, so why not let her wear what she wants... I caved, I admit. So at 4:40, just 20 minutes before it was time to go house to house, we were whipping together pieces and parts to a pirate costume. Abby did wear the vest type thing to school, but everything else had to be reconfigured for Molly. We did it and she was a happy little pirate!

Pumpkin Time

The girls did a great job making their jack-o-lanterns this weekend. Molly pushed up her sleeves and dove right into her pumpkin and grabbed handfuls of the goop and seeds to clean her pumpkin out. Abby, on the other hand, wasn't too keen on the goop and very carefully used a big spoon to help clean her pumpkin. We figured out that Casper really likes raw pumpkin seeds! He was begging to have more. We tried something new this year by using cutting patterns that came with those little pumpkin knives you can buy at the store. It was a little time-consuming, but the results were well worth it. Molly's pumpkin is the jolly happy faced one and Abby's is the intricate cat face. Happy Halloween!

The Big 40!!

Yes, it's true -- Paul had a very big birthday on October 12th. He's is now into his 4th decade. We celebrated the special occassion by going to Canton, Ohio (just an hour away) and stayed at a hotel as the girls had the day off from school. We did a little shopping, went to see a movie, went out to eat, friends came and met us to stay one night at the hotel, and the next day we went on a train ride on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, which goes through the Cuyahoga National Forest between Akron and Cleveland area. It was a fun get-away.