Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a safe and yummy Thanksgiving! Since I can't post without pictures... here's two of my subject that can't get away... at least not fast enough :)

This girl can knit!

Hannah went to a knitting class last weekend with Grandma and she is a natural. She's so proud of what she can do. At this rate, she'll be done with that pink hat in no time.

Bring a Mom to School Day

Ashley shared her day at school with me. We made dream catchers, played games, read poems, and drew pictures. It was a special day for both of us. Here she is drawing a picture of her Native Amercian alias-- Riding Horse.

Jacob's Crawling Debut...

So I think I've finally figured out how to use the video portion of our point and shoot camera. I was using either the really big setting or the really small-- i think I've found a happy medium... so I managed to catch Jacob in action. Please don't mind the "wooly bear" that walks in front of him-- its the only way Copper can get any attention these days-- poor puppy. And I'm sure (like most excited parents) I sound like an idiot on the sound clip that goes along with this video-- so turn your sound down if you don't want to hear me talking :)

Six Fat Turkeys

Hannah's first grade class had a Thanksgiving play yesterday. Each first grade class was a different fall themed person or thing-- Hannah's class was a pumpkin patch. Then they had one representative from each of the classes as a Turkey-- thus 6 fat turkeys. Hannah was a little disappointed that she didn't get picked to be the turkey-- but she was very cute nonetheless. Here's a mini clip of one of the songs. I know it is a bit blurry-- I had to use the compact version in order to upload here.

She's got a way...

about her, don't know what it is...sorry Billy Joel is in my head...

So I'm waiting on the bus with Ashley. It's a rainy, cold, gross day. We usually sit on the porch and act silly while waiting on the bus. Today I have my blanket covering me in the rocking chair... all I need is Marc's knitting needles and nobody would ever know that I'm a 30 something mom :0 Anywho... so I decide that since the bus is always late, I need something to keep me warm... what do I do? Run inside and get my camera, of course! Ashley and I were acting silly on the porch and I snapped a few. I always seem to embarass her when I sing and dance... I have no idea why other than I do both very badly!

Morning Sunrise Surprise!

So this morning at 6:30 I heard happy shouts from Jacob's room. He usually doesn't cry in the morning, but shouts LOUDLY so that we know he's awake. Even without the monitor we could easily hear him throughout the house! So I pull my lazy butt out of bed. Normally I would already be dressed and showered by this point, but I'm working at home today-- no traffic, no commute, no need to get up early! Anyway, back to my story-- I sleepily walk into Jacob's room expecting to see this:


But what did I see?



What? When did he learn to do that? Papa just put the crib down from its newborn height two weeks ago (long overdue). He had some little red marks on his forehead-- probably from trying to do this before I discovered his standing position. No worries, they aren't bruises-- but based on what we've seen from him so far--I'm sure we'll have many of those to come.

It's on...

Ok so while we were in New York-- I stopped in a knitting cafe called Knit New York to pick up some yarn for Hannah. She's learning to knit with Grandma. It was raining and I had to get a lesson on choosing yarn... so we were in there a while. Long enough for Marc and Steve to peruse the yarn and pattern books and decide that they were going to learn to knit so that they could make a pair of Alpaca boxers. If you have never felt Alpaca wool... it is the softest thing I have ever touched... ok minkee might have it beaten... but it is pretty soft. So Marc quizzed a Russian lady that was knitting to figure out if it was feasible and decided it was. Its only natural for siblings to turn it into a contest... so first one to knit a pair of alpaca boxers wins... what? I have no idea... the right to brag, I guess. So here's Marc during his first lesson-- learning to cast on and the knitting stitch... purling came later... oh and you don't see the beer that was sitting next to him-- very funny site! Please laugh hard and make sure you send Mr. Crafty an email inquiring about his newly found hobby!

Autumn... here and gone before we know it...

Today I noticed that our neigborhood trees that had been so beautiful just a couple days ago were almost bare-- well except for ours, for some reason our house is one of the few that has trees that stay green and most of them don't even lose the leaves until long after the rest have gone! How sad-- I love the fall, but it never seems to last long enough. We always tend to have 80 degree weather one day... a few days of gorgeous fall weather in the 60s... and then straight to winter. At least I have a camera to capture it and a subject that can't get away...yet!

All I want for Christmas....

Well besides Hannah's two front teeth... I've been asking the girls to start thinking about what they want for Christmas and birthday... I'll keep adding to the blog as I find out things.

Hannah is a high fashion queen lately and refuses to wear anything that I pick out for her. She's out of her skateboarder/camo phase and only wants to wear clothes from a store called Justice for All. Great-- the only catch is that there's no way to order online and the closest store here is 30 or more miles away-- so with 3 kids a 1 hour drive for clothes is not something that we do often! There's one near Nana-- so Hannah makes all her requests through Nana-- isn't that conveniently cheap for me (sorry mom). Anyway here's a link for inquiring minds:

http://www.justicejustforgirls.com/

She also loves to read. She's reading at a 4th grade level, so chapter books are best for her. She loves Junie B. Jones and has discovered a couple other series of books that she enjoys. I'll post those soon.

For Ashley-- she keeps talking about this doll called Betty Spaghetti:

Probably one of those toys that will go to the bottom of the toy box, but she has asked for it several times.

For Jacob-- well he's too young to really care... but if there really was a Santa, he would bring him these a pair of Crankypants. I say that only Santa could bring them because they are handmade by this very talented lady in small quantities. She has a waiting list a mile long-- so the liklihood of supply = demand factor in the near future is miniscule... so until then we'll be happy with mass production. Check out the site-- we love the monster booty ones:





As for me, if I had to splurge on any one thing right now, I'd go with this throw from Garnet Hill. Marc says this is a crazy gift-- so until he learns to knit one for me (another story entirely), I'll probably just be eyeing this one in a catalog :)



And Marc... well his latest request was the movie Transformers... he just got a NASCAR package, so I don't think Santa is coming for him this year!

Driving School

Movies and Pizza with an interesting ending...

Last night we took the kids to see the Bee Movie with several of our friends and their children-- 15 of us to be exact-- 9 adults and 6 children. The kids were very good at the movies, they sat there side by side, intently staring at the screen. Every now and then, Hannah and Ashley would cruise down to check on Lex, Olivia, and Andrew two rows down.

After the movie was over, we were hungry, so we headed next door for pizza. As we entered the smallish dining area, the staff scrambled to put the few remaining tables together for us. I glanced around apologetically to the "childless" patrons. It was late for a group of mostly 4 year olds and they were all on the verge of a break down. The first hurdle was determining where everyone would sit. After a game of musical chairs, we arranged ourselves with the kids at the end of the table closest to the back of the restaurant, the women in the middle, and the men at the other end.

The ordering process was uneventful, other than the quick shower of tears when Ashley thought she wasn't going to get a Sprite. Andrew and Olivia squared off next over a napkin. Samuel hit his head on the table and there were more tears. All the ladies ended up making several trips to the bathroom with the kids-- I think I probably had the prize for the most trips-- but then again I was the one with 2 kids-- everyone else was paired with only 1. Somehow we made it through dinner with few outbursts. I couldn't help glancing around every now and again to see if I could catch any stares or eye-rolling from the other tables. Our table was definitely the loudest, but I think the kids behavior was pretty darn good.

So fast forward to the check. The server brought us our check and explained that the man sitting at the table next to us when we first came in had bought our first round of drinks and pizzas. We all sat there in complete shock and amazement. Why? Did he feel sorry for us? Was he writing a book on "when good parenting goes bad"? Surely he wasn't impressed by our well-behaved children and exceptional parenting skills :) The server explained that he simply said that he liked what we were doing. Try as I may, I couldn't remember what the gentleman looked like. Marc and Havalynn said they remembered him and that they had exchanged glances... but didn't think anything of it. We all sat pondering, in dumbfounded appreciation, trying to figure out why in the mad chaos of everyday life someone-- anyone would notice and make such a kind gesture. With no answers, we gave the server a big tip and took our tired little ones home.

Hannah and Ashley fell asleep before we got out of the parking lot. Still Marc and I thought back to the restaurant and continued speculating as to why he would pay for our meal. This is definitely something that doesn't just happen everyday. I felt bad because I couldn't remember him-- I should have at least noticed. I wanted somehow to thank him-- but how? I decided that the only way I could was to tell the story here. I'm hoping that if you made it this far, you are smiling and thinking that there are still some good people in the world. And to the kind and generous gentleman who crossed our path last night, thank you.