St. Sidell visit–November 2013–part 1

Greg and Amy braved the trip again for us to have a week of LOTS of yummy food (thanksgiving dinner, homemade pho, and takeout Mexican, Thai and pizza) and tons of quality cousin time.


The cousin time was especially great – they enjoy each other so much!

The girls and I were off for the Veteran’s day holiday and joined the St. Sidells and Nana and Pepere for what feels to be a traditional jaunt to the zoo.
Evidence that it’s impossible to get more than one child looking good – and at the camera – at the same time; thank you, Nick, for being the exemplar here

Dude, was that necessary?

OK. Not bad.

Four little monkeys

And one obliging auntie…

Power outage with Maddie–November 2013

We sat Maddie for an overnight to give Chris and Erin a much-needed and belated break for their anniversary.
Oh, and the power went out…and she was a *great* diversion for the girls!

And she was a total trooper, sleeping through the night and into the time-changed morning (yeah, it was the end of daylight savings, too!) Such a good baby girl!

Pumpkin party–October 2013

October brought another in-service day, so I decided to fulfill my quota and make it a play date for the girls. Zoe hosted Claire and Cassandra while Maggie hosted Nora. Given that it was late-ish October and all, I figured a pumpkin-painting party would be fun. Yes. I did pause a moment to check my sanity (five girls under 7 with lots of paint and paintbrushes), but there’s a few reasons we haven’t updated the kitchen and letting the girls do crafty things is one of them. They were all very well-behaved (the invited guests…Maggie…hmmm, well…) and I’m very glad we did it.
Only wish I’d gotten pix of the artists with their gourds!


Cassandra’s, mine, Zoe’s, Claire’s, Nora’s and Maggie’s

Fall festivities–October 2013

I thought September was busy, but things really do ramp up in October.
First, the Shoreline Children’s Center fall harvest party and book sale – it’s a quaint little fundraiser/open house/pot luck/community gathering that we’ve managed to hit since starting at the center. This year was a little melancholy to me because I’m pretty sure it may be our last (Maggie will be over at Syre next year!) and I’ve really come to like many of the teachers who earnestly seem to love our girls.
The girls love tradition, so they ate it up. Maggie even remembered to beg to have a picture taken with Clifford

Halloween ghouls (girls)–October 2013

Shots of our collective girls all done up on and around the big day.
Cuteness.

Littlest hula dancer – complete with coconuts!

Fairy princess ladybug and ladybug girl
(Maggie’s witch costume malfunctioned on her school party day, giving her a giant rash on her torso and Dave aced a pinch-hit by having her come up with an alternative for the big day…while I was in Orlando, hanging with Maggie's hero at the Lego store! Way to go, Dave!)

Craven Farm, redux–October 2013

We thought Grandma Lani might like to see some fall festivities in our area while she was up, so we took her, Rob and the girls out to Craven Farm.
It was a creepy, foggy morning…great for getting in the Halloween spirit (less great for family photo ops…). I love me a pumpkin, so it was a great day out!



No you cannot have the keys yet!!


serious bidness








Enough pix, mom!

the one that got away…