Day After Parade

With the McTaggarts in town for Thanksgiving, everyone bundled up and we headed downtown for the Macy's Holiday Parade.  Rooke and I went last year and I teared up then because we were having so much fun while Ryan was studying.  This year I teared up because Ryan and Gretchen (and McTaggs) were there to enjoy the parade with us!

We needed a little hot chocolate to get warmed up.  Evelynn drank hers in 42 seconds flat.

Thanksgiving Snow

Wait, what?!  SNOW???  Yes.  Snow.  It snowed all day on Monday and has stuck around in the freezing weather.  I'm a fan.  It's beautiful, all my shopping for tomorrow is done, and for the first time in three years law school finals are not keeping my family from being together at home. 

He's played in snow before, but didn't remember.  He spent a long time looking out the window before he decided he wanted to go play with our neighbors.

Off to play!

She stayed inside on her 11-month-birthday.

The digger did a great job in the snow.  And after 42 tries, I finally convinced Rooke that it was fun to eat snow!  We also engaged in a bit of a snow ball, eh . . . toss?

The next morning I had a couple errands to run and a Starbucks gift card with hot chocolate written all over it!  So Rooke and I headed out.  These pictures paint part of the story, but what you don't see is that it took us three tries to get out the door with a good attitude, and then we still struggled a bit during our walk.  Just keeping it real for those of you who might think we have it all together.

He was so excited to have a lid on his cup and drink just like Daddy does when he gets coffee!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We Have So Much . . .

It's amazing how quickly my perspective changes when I take time to really look at our blooming Thanksgiving Tree.  We have SO MUCH to be thankful for!  A basket of leaves sits on the table and each morning at breakfast we each get a leaf to write on something we are thankful for.  We started on November 1st and I love seeing how full the tree is after 22 days of being focused on gratitude.  Seeing as how we usually write during breakfast, there are lots of food-related leaves!  One of my favorites being "bacon and strawberries and cereal".  But with a bit of encouragement to think beyond the present, Rooke has been pretty creative.  We let him decide what Gretchen is thankful for as well: "warm pajamas", "her bottle", "being able to walk". . . it's been a great exercise for all of us to grow our Thanksgiving Tree.

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Catching Up

It's been a while since my last post.  I didn't do a great job with the camera last week, but we've been staying plenty busy!  Here's a glimpse of our past couple of weeks:

Lots of smiles!

A new toy from my rainy day bag . . . glow-in-the-dark light sticks (thank you Target Dollar bins!).  At the time, I'm not sure why I bought two, but I'm sure glad I did.  They were a hit with both kids!  We turned off all the lights in the house and, since its basically dark by 5 these days, went crazy with our glow sticks! 

A meeting of the minds with James and Averie at the Shoreline play gym

Both kids had a small pumpkin this year.  Rooke painted his blue the day after we brought them home.  We decided last week that Gretchen wanted hers painted blue as well.  Why blue?  It's the only color of paint I had in my craft supplies!

Most recently, we enjoyed some family time at a free "concert".

Three 12-year-olds gettin' down with a couple violins and a guitar.  They were great!

Now that she's fully walking, we're in trouble.  Her extroverted and social side are really starting to shine through:

"Hello there lady sitting in front of us - are you enjoying the show?!"

"Oh, these are so cute!  Where did you get them?"

"See that woman smiling?  She thought it was cute that I rested my head in her lap.  Come on up, Big Brother.  It's fun!"

And at home we've enjoyed playing in the "tent house".  It's enhanced the "hiding game" quite a bit!

On Her Own

Well, it's official.  She's walking!  I took these videos last week, almost two years ago exactly from when I posted the video of Rooke walking.  She's gaining confidence every day.  I love watching her toddle around! 

Wrapping Up October - the future's so bright . . .

She's really into sunglasses these days.  She doesn't wear them long, but she likes trying to put them on herself and loves to let me put them on and then take them off! 

That last one was taken while we were waiting to see a free preview of Stomp at the library (of all places)!  I unashamedly pulled my stroller up to the front and sat as close as I could to the action.  I even brought ear plugs for Rooke, foreseeing that the noise would bother him and he might want to leave.  15 minutes of free Stomp?!  I'm all about it! 

Rooke read a car magazine while we waited.  I was too enthralled in the actual performance to get any pictures!

She's always interested in what he's doing.  He's getting more used to it.

Yay for baths!  They're into splashing each other these days.

Evelynn's Two!

My niece, Evelynn, turned two last week and we got to head up for the party!  So much fun!  My amazingly creative sister did a great job putting everything together to celebrate this special little girl's first two years of life.  We love you, Evelynn!

The theme for the party was "nature" and the weather couldn't have been better.   Scott, AKA Nature Man, took the kids on a nature walk to search of golden nuggets!  Off they go . . .

The birthday girl with her special "treasure"

Yes, that is a ginormous bear.  Aubyn had the brilliant idea to create a bear as the entrance to the party.  Awesome!  The best part was watching the adults make their way through the bear's tummy to join the party fun!

Rooke was one of the few kids who actually sat on the blankets to eat his lunch and birthday doughnut.  The boy loves food.

Being tough like a bear!

His bear growl was a bit like a roar, but at least he was getting the loud part down!