Princess Time!!

Lydia and Emily LOVE to dress in their princess clothes! They received princess dresses for their birthday and some for Christmas. In addition, a friend of mine gave me some that her girls had outgrown. We have quite a wardrobe full. They love putting on these dresses and showing us what beautiful princesses they are. Lydia has become obsessed with calling herself Princess Fiona. For those of you that have never seen Shrek, Princess Fiona is a character in the Shrek movie. A couple of weeks ago Adella came to visit. The girls got Adella on board with the princess dresses and she decided she wanted to join in the fun and dress up too. I did not have my camera downstairs, but my sister-in-law did and she sent me these pictures. All three of them were so funny, jumping around and dancing. Adella’s dress was a little big for her, but she did not seem to mind. Too funny!!

Halloween!

How great is Halloween!? A day that you can dress up and be anything you want to be! My children decided they wanted to be a football player and princesses. Ryan has actually wanted to be a football player since last Halloween. We borrowed a jersey, pants and a helmet from a neighbor. He has been so excited since we brought them home and has been wanting to wear the jersey everyday! He received quite a bit of fanfare tonight while seeing other football players and several people commenting on his great costume. Lydia and Emily have really gotten into the whole princess thing this year. As a result, my brother and his wife gave them princess dresses for their birthday. I had put them away to save for Halloween and they decided they wanted to be a princess several weeks ago. In addition to their dresses, they received crowns and fake jewelry for their birthday that they wore tonight. Over and over they would say "I am so pretty!" "We are so beautiful!" They received compliments at some houses on how pretty they looked--they beamed!

We stopped at a house where an older couple lived. They each came to the door and the wife knelt down to talk to the kids at their level. After taking her fistful of candy, Lydia asked the lady "What is your name?"

"Gail." said the lady

"What is your first name?" asked Lydia

"Gail." was her response again. "What is your name?" she asked Lydia.

"My name is Lydia." Lydia said as she turned to Emily and said "this is my friend, Emily." Turning to Ryan "and this is my friend, Ryan and my friend Mommy." pointing back to me. During this introduction, I said "Emily is your sister, Lydia." Gail realized the girls were twins and Ryan was their older brother and found Lydia's introduction quite funny. Lydia, our social butterfly!

The kids collected a TON of candy (which none of us need) and were pleased with their stash! It was a great night!

Three for tea

I am such a lucky person! Today was such a neat day! First of all, since I work 4, 10 hour days, today was my day off. I started my day by putting Ryan on the school bus. At 10:00 I reported to Ryan's classroom where I volunteered until 12:20 (I am able to volunteer every other Friday for approximately 2 hours each time--I would volunteer every Friday, but Mike works every other Friday and I can't take Lydia and Emily with me). I love volunteering there! The kids are great and I enjoy spending that time with Ryan. I also really enjoy helping Ms. Clark (Ryan's teacher)--she is really great and he really likes her!

After my volunteer work Lydia, Emily and I went to Ms. Hardesey's Tea Room to meet my friend Rabia and her daughter, Frances. Ms. Hardesey's Tea Room is an old house in downtown Harrisonburg that has been converted into a restaurant/tea room. We had an official tea party today. All three girls dressed in their best princess dresses and pretty shoes and sat at the table with their tea cups. They all laid their napkins on their laps and drank their Tutti Fruity flavored tea out of the kid sized tea cups and saucers. Rabia and I each had our own tea in adult sized tea cups and saucers. We ate lunch and finished up with apple spice and cinnamon scones. It was so much fun and such a neat Halloween tradition that hopefully Rabia is up for doing each Halloween with our girls.

Happy Birthday

Well, Ryan has now turned 5 and Lydia and Emily are 3. It is absolutely amazing to me how quickly time goes after you have children and how completely shocking it is when your son tells you “I am 5!” and your daughters, that you just brought home from the hospital, tell you “I am 3 now.” We had our annual backyard cookout for their group birthday party on August 31. Our close family and friends were there—it was a great time! Lydia and Emily dressed in princess dresses that we borrowed from our friend, Frances. They were so excited to wear these dresses and were quite sad to return them, but Uncle Paul, Aunt Allison and Adella gave them princess dresses of their own for their birthday. Ryan actually turned 5 on September 2 and Lydia and Emily while we were at the beach on September 9. Ryan’s teacher allowed Ryan to bring cupcakes to celebrate his birthday at school and his classmates all drew him birthday pictures and made a littlebook out of it. Very neat! Lydia and Emily took cupcakes to preschool on Thursday before we left for the beach on Friday. Was not quite as exciting as Ryan’s experience, but kids don’t really care when they get to eat cupcakes. It was a really great party and a great day! Thank you to everyone that came! You are all very special to our family and we love you very much!