Kareoke anybody!??!?!

Natalie's Toast! (Out of order)

Found this picture online and it fits so perfectly. Minus the creepy nails of course. Nope she's not toasting Christmas or her birthday... She's toasting bread. She's been making toast for a couple of months now and has gotten pretty proficient. So early this morning while Mom was still sleeping and Dad had dosed in his chair Natalie began to make toast... toast... and more toast... and a little more toast... She toasted an entire loaf of bread. Seems she was on a mission. A mission to survive. She was making enough food/toast to last for two days in the far reaches of the upstairs... Yes, I believe this was Natalie's first attempt at running away. She had such a guilty conscience for what she had done she burst into tears and I had no idea what had happened. The confession fell out of her mouth surrounded by cries of I'm sorry.. I'm soo soo sorry! When asked why she had made so much toast she continued to cry....

"Because I wanted to have enough food in my room for two dayyyyyyyyysss!"

"Why do you need two days worth of food in your room?"

"Because I didn't want to do school work or clean the house......" Followed by more sobbing... "Aren't you mad at me."

"No. You do need bring all the food back downstairs so we don't get bugs."

"Okay are you sure you're not mad?" still sobbing.

"No. Go get the stuff."

I had to remain really calm, otherwise I would burst into laughter.

In her haste this morning preparing her goods. I think she had forgotten that today was Saturday and there was no school work. I think she didn't look around much to see that the house was relatively neat. And she didn't know that the plan was to make Christmas goodies. ( :

When she brought down all of the food and was putting it away I was trying to see what she had taken up all together without drawing any attention to it. She had two Rubbermaid containers and one gallon Ziploc filled with toast, about four cups of raisins in Rubbermaid containers, and four clementine oranges. She also put ice packs on top of the containers to keep the food from spoiling.

So anyone have any recipes that require large amounts of toast, or bread crumbs even??? ( :

Time for Christmas!

Time to decorate!

This year we let the girls put all of the ornaments on w/ the exception of the tippy top.


They did a great job! Natalie's were evenly spaced.....

Lily's showcased the strength and flexibility of the branches on our tree.

This is what happens when you don't keep your things picked up....

Your children pick them up and play w/ them....

Growing up...

Our little girl is growing up.... She learned to tie her shoes even w/ a double knot. She can even put her hair in a pony tail or bun all on her own. Sniff.. sniff... SOB!!

Camping!! For reals.... ( ;

At the beginning of November we headed w/ some of our friends to Lake Buchanan for some camping. The weather was beautiful. Mild during the day, and a little frigid at night. Unfortunately it's been so dry this year we were unable to have a campfire so we used a little bbq instead. We discovered even two small bbq's just can't warm you up in the morning or keep you warm at tight. ( ;
Our friends brought along little containers for the kids to decorate and collect things in. This was a great distraction while the grown ups got everything set up.

Beanies and Weenies on the menu for dinner!

Smores for dessert!

It had been a while since they had played. They had a lot to catch up on.

The stage.....

The kids are all pretty close in age so they paired off, played, and had a good time.

On the second day the dad's rented a canoe and took the bigger kids for a ride. The little girls decided they didn't want to go.

Relaxing...

Time to head home....

Look at that dirty little face...

Halloween 2008

Not a whole lot to say here....

Talks for next year have already begun... We're hearing a lot about Hannah Montana, and Wall-E.

Mariposa

One of the field trips we attended this fall was a trip to the Children's Theater for Mariposa. A story of the Monarch butterfly from a wee caterpillar to arriving in Mexico just in time for Dia de la Muerte.

The girls had a really good time reenacting this one for a couple of weeks.

Paper Mache' Pumpkins

Since the weather in October is still reaching 80 and 90 degree temps in the afternoon pumpkin carving is saved until the day before, or the day of Halloween. One of the mom's in one of our play groups invited us over to make paper mache' pumpkins that we could paint, and illuminate.

It was a whole lot of messy fun!

Natalie is quite the paper mache' pro. Her pumpkin/balloon was neatly covered w/ very little excess goo. Lily's approach was slightly different. She would stick the paper in the paste and then scrunch it up in her fists to get all of the excess off and the place the fist sized glob onto her balloon.

The girls were all nearly finished when they decided they were done. ( :

So the mom's helped fill in any gaps that were left.

Sorry again... No finished pictures here either... Man!

Guess what time it is???????

Time for another visit w/ Nana and Papa!!!! Papa didn't get to stay too long. He was just passing through on his way to Atlanta for work, but we got to keep Nana for almost a week.

We miss you guys!

We had one entire day w/ Papa before he left so what do you do when you're in Texas..... BBQ and bowling..

On one of our days w/ Nana we loaded up the babies and headed to the American Girl Store in Dallas for lunch, playing, and shopping. It was a very fun visit, but time flies when you're having fun and before you know it, it's time to head back to the airport. ) :

Dress up fun.

Okay well not so much fun for the cat... We discovered the cat is bigger around than Natalie. The girls wear these little monkeys around there necks and waists, and the legs wouldn't fit around the kitty.. I guess the self feeding thing isn't working out so well for her.

Natalie came downstairs and showed me the beautiful job she did on her hair. I counted 22 hair clips in all. When you look good you feel good!

This is during Natalie's fashionista period. She dressed Lily up in this cute ensamble. The "torch" is actually a microphone and they were singing but she looked so much like Lady Liberty I had her strike a pose.

Backyard Camping

Scott and I had been talking about taking the girls camping now that they're getting older. We thought it would be wise to do a dry run, so to speak, in our back yard prior to the real deal.

So we had salad and smores w/ the neighbors. Sorry no pics of the smores. The kids did there own this year so it was a little scary w/ hot pokers and flaming marshmallows being wielded by irresponsible somewhat uncoordinated little people.... The kids were scary too.. ( :

Ahhh... The excitement of sleeping in your very own backyard in a tent! I suppose it could be the smores pumping through her veins.

Yep, I think it's the smores...

Awww... Well Natalie made it the entire night, and so did Scott. To be honest I planned to sleep in the house, and Lily only lasted about 30 minutes. Then she came shuffling into the house w/ her pillow and her bunny, saying Daddy said I had to sleep in the house since I wouldn't go to sleep. ) :

Pretty sad but pretty predictable. ( :

Another Whopper of a day...

On this fishing trip everyone caught fish except for Natalie. She was a little bummed but there was a ton of other stuff to do and see. This particular park is a favorite for bird watchers. So we were able to spot many different kinds, and a little group of ducks were giving us some attention. Frogs, golden baby dragon flies, and probably the biggest hit... rocks. ( :

We're not quite sure how long Lily's fish had been on her line since she had been playing and left her pole to twitch on the ground. So there was no saving this little guy. The hook made it all the way to the lung.

This little raised area turned into a stage for Natalie and a platform to look for rocks for Lily.