It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Can you hear Bing Crosby in your head? I can picture my Grandpa Bernie standing by his old slide-top stereo singing & whistling along with Bing on "White Christmas."

We have been getting ready for the holidays around here. Alison is very excited about each & every Christmas decoration that I bring out! She was ready to decorate the tree moments after Trav had the tree up. Their Christmas dresses arrived in the mail, most of our decorations are out, I've started making cookies & cards, & Ali has plans to take her list to Santa. All I need now is for my vacation to start!

Civil War

On Saturday we spent the afternoon & evening at my mom's watching the {pathetic} Civil War game. It was great to be together with lots of food {again!} because the game itself was less than spectacular. We were taking bets on how big the spread would be at half-time and the end of the game... we were all way off! It was a big ole' bummer of a game, but it was fun just hanging out together.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent our Thanksgiving at my mother-in-law's. It was a nice, low-key evening with family and lots of food. {Of course!}

Performers

Our girls are the happiest when they have an audience. They love to sing, and dance, and sing...



They love the High School Musical soundtrack. We listen to it all the time. This is a version of "We're All in This Together." {I think.}

Happy Halloween!

We had everyone over for pizza and trick-or-treating, so all of the cousins could go out together. It has become a fun tradition! This year the littlest two did a great job of keeping up with the big sisters, although Meri was really dragging by the last few houses. We kept giving her the choice to go back to the house to see Grandma, but she was adamant about staying with us: "I walking!" When the little girls said "Trick-or-Treat!" Meri would pipe up (a few seconds behind them) "Yook at me! I a chicken!" It was a very nice night... not too cold and no rain! And the best part? Ali's costume held up through the night!

A New Adventure

Alison decided that she would like to be Belle for Halloween... but not the Belle at the end of the movie in the yellow ball gown. (You know, the one that the Disney store sells?) Nope. She wants to be the Belle at the beginning of the movie where she walks through town with a basket full of books. While I applauded my daughter for making this "intellectual" choice, I groaned inside as I wondered how in the heck this was going to happen!? Thank goodness for my mom... she coached me as I sewed a Belle costume! Ali gave us very specific directions as to how to make it... and although you can't look too closely at the stitches... I was pretty dang proud of myself.

Pumpkin Patch

It was another perfect fall day! Kristen, Bridget and I took the kids out to Fir Point Farms for the afternoon. They had a ball! The highlight of our trip was the journey through the "dark, dark maze". It was quite an adventure trying to keep track of six kids while stumbling through a pitch-black maze. The kids took turns holding the flashlight (which was sometimes helpful) and the moms tooks turns frantically calling for their kids. At one point I didn't really care if we went back out through the entrance... I just wanted out!! It was a joyous moment when we saw the light of the exit. We were covered in dust and hay, but completely thrilled to be out of there!