Happy Birthday Madeline!

Maybe it's a little early (her birthday is the 30th), but in order to have the dad around and to avoid holiday parties, Madeline had her 4th birthday party today. Centered around a pond theme, the party included pinning-the-duck-on-the pond (no blindfold for 4-year-olds), fishing for frogs, treat bag decorating, and constructing paper bag duck puppets. The party was a hit, but the highlight (next to the chocolate rocks on the cake) was the "surprise guest" who came to join us--a ride-on stuffed elephant. (She is sitting on him on top of her chair.)
Madeline had a blast!

Madeline's birthday invitation

Madeline helped me design her party invitation. And, I successfully convinced her to let us ask for donations to the local food bank, not presents, from friends. (The grandparents and parents will still shower her with gifts, of course. . :) We've done this a few time before, but now, I'm pretty sure that this is going to be the rule in our house from now on: If you want a party, you asks for donations to the charity of your choice instead of presents.

Happy Halloween!

This year the girls were "spider witches" using some Halloween costumes I found on clearance last spring. I spent a while looking for witch hats for the girls with no luck. . .until I went to our ward's Halloween dinner and trunk-or-treat! The table decorations were purple witch hats with spider patterns that matched the girls costumes. Well, I revealed my scroungiest side when I grabbed the hats off the table, pulled the newspaper stuffing out of them and plopped them on my kids' heads for the parade. :) Afterwards, the provider of the decorations insisted that we keep them. . .thanks!


Sophia got to be a little pumpkin thanks to a costume Kristina left for us last Spring. It was wonderfully warm that cold night. Our trick-or-treating lasted 30 minutes since I forgot to bring Madeline gloves and she insisted on riding her "motorcycle" (tricycle). Needless to say, our candy haul this year was tiny--the girls didn't make much money off me selling candy. It was wonderful: the girls had a great time and we minimized the bouncing-off-the-walls time.

Happy Halloween!