Tidbits

{Not to be confused with Timbits from Tim Hortons.  Mmmm, donuts}

We're busy getting ready for the Thanksgiving holiday.  For the 6th year in a row Tim & I are hosting our favorite holiday.  We'll be heading out Wednesday night to celebrate with some friends, Tim will be cooking up a delish meal on Thursday, and the ladies (me, Nana Debbie, Grandma Angie, Aunt Nanci & Aunt Elaine) will be heading out at the pre-buttcrack of dawn for Black Friday shopping.  It's the most glorious time of the year!!

But since I've neglected the blog yet again, I thought I'd post a few random updates:

 - KENDYLL POOPED ON THE POTTY!!  Gross, right?  But in our house this is a momentous occasion!  It happened a week ago Sunday and she was quite proud of it.  It probably won't happen again for another 3 months, but we'll take it.

 - Speaking of gross things, here is a funny exchange from a morning last week:
Kendyll - "I need a diaper change" (she only tells us this when she's gone #2)
Me - "Ok K, just a sec"
K - "I NEED A DIAPER CHANGE!"
B - "Yeah, Tendal, you stink"

 - Despite the horror and somewhat disgust about those who already have holiday decorations up & lit before Thanksgiving (the most glorious holiday ever), I am proud to announce I not only have my holiday cards ordered, but they are also already stuffed & addressed and ready to be mailed out the first week of Dec!  And I might add that I love them more than anything (I'm super, uber proud of how they turned out!!).  I'll be pimping Shutterfly again, soon, but I'll leave you with this sneak peek (which is NOT the photo in the cards, but from the session where our card photo came from . . . major thanks to miracle worker and photographer Ashley for these awesome pics!!).

Oh yeah, that update

I think I promised, oh, ages ago, an update about all that B&K are up to these days.  Where do I even begin??

-  The time change was a bitch.  Kendyll was already waking up early on a daily basis for some reason (though she did give me two days of "sleeping in" until 7 when Tim was in Istanbul).  They are both fighting little colds, so that doesn't help.  But I'll put it this way . . . I'm often asking myself why we thought it was a good idea to buy her a twin bed vs. a full-sized bed (and also why couldn't Bennett be the one who requires company at night.  In his giant full-sized bed)???

- Speaking of Bennett and sleep, his imagination is often getting the best of him these days.  Several times a week he talks about the "monsters" in his room.  Or our house (esp. if he has to go in a dark room).  I know he is probably seeing shadows -- or remembering some scary Scooby Do episode or something -- but every once & a while I'll let my imagination get the best of me, too.  ::my son does not see dead people::  ::my son does not see dead people::  Thankfully, a good friend suggested we pretend to spray "monster spray" to keep them away and that has really been doing the trick.  Now when Bennett enters a dark room (or his bedroom), he puts up his index finger and "spppppprrrsssh" sprays for monsters all while saying "no monsters in here" (with a thick New England accent, I might add.  Where does that come from???).

- They LOVE to read.  I mean freaken love to read.  And I'm not talking about US reading to them.  I'm talking THEY read the books to us before bedtime now.  And they both have pretty good memories.  Normally if we've read the book to them once they can recite them back to us (or at least get the main gist on every page).  I really need to get this on video.  Aunt Nanci would be so proud.  :) And for the record, here are some of their current favorites:

{the last two are my favs, too}

- They really care about each other.  It is sweet to see them so concerned when the other gets hurt (well, unless they are the cause for the hurt, that is).  They are much better at sharing and taking turns.  And they still love to help out with Tabasco -- especially scolding him when he steals their food or goes into the play room when he isn't supposed to be there anymore (because he steals their food).

- We're getting excited for the holidays.  B&K have long been exceptional singers of songs such as the ABCs and Twinkle Little Star and Wheels on the Bus and Itsy Bitsy Spider.  But now we're starting to add in goodies such as Jingle Bells.  And they are fascinated with Santa (which is a good thing because we are hosting a little party in Dec with some of our best friends and Santa is going to join us again this year). 

I'm sure there are a gazillion things I should add to this post, but this is good for now.  I'll leave you with a couple of adorable pictures Ashley sent me today (which reminds me . . . we got their school pictures proofs last week -- holy cow do they look like real little people.  I'll try to add a scan once we receive the pics in a couple of weeks).


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Halloween Weekend part 2

On Sunday we packed up and met Nana & Papa for breakfast (funny story -- the bitchen Pacifica has 3 rows of seats and so we didn't have to bring 2 cars, Papa rode in the 3rd row.  Kendyll kept saying "Papa, you ride in the trunk?".  They thought it was hilarious that Papa was in "time out" and riding in the trunk).

We then took a trek up to Leeds Farm for Ava's birthday party (although we technically missed the party . . . it was scheduled for during naptime, so we went up early and still had a BLAST. We plan to celebrate with Ava on her birthday later this month).  B&K had visited the farm a few weekends ago with Nana & Papa and when Tim found out he would be traveling this week I asked if they wanted to go again (because trust me -- there is NO WAY I could have done "zone" defense and handled B&K there by myself this weekend.  Man-on-man is the way to go!).  We had a fabulous time, although the weather was very cold and windy!  Here are some pics from our morning:

"Leeds Farm 10.31.10"

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Once B&K got up from their nap I threw on their costumes and we headed up to Boo at the Zoo.  I wanted to do something on Halloween (since our stupid Beggar's Night was so early this year).  Although we were only there for a short time, it was fun nonetheless.  And we were excited to have our friends, the Murray Boys, join us, too!

Halloween Weekend (aka I am so freaken tired)

As Bennett would say "Holy Moly!".  To say we had a busy weekend is an understatement.  It was so busy, in fact, that I plan to split the recap up in two posts.

Saturday was filled with a picture party (hopefully with at least one decent picture for holiday cards).  Then in the afternoon we went to a birthday party to celebrate Payton's first birthday and Avery's third birthday.  It was at a new, hip kid hang-out in town, Firefly Cafe.  Very, very cool.

Since Tim is out of the country I went a little camera happy trying to capture the fun so he could "live" it with us.    Enjoy the pictures!

"Firefly Cafe 10.30.10"

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"I need candy"

That's Kendyll's nice way of saying "trick or treat".  We walk up to our neighbor's house and after I said "what do you say guys" she responds -- while looking at my neighbor -- "I NEED CANDY".  Fantastic.





Every other year B&K have been alive, the weather has been WARM and Trick or Treating has been on the 31st.  Of course this year -- the year we actually planned to take them ToT -- it is 40-some degrees outside and the beggar's night is on a fricken Thursday.  THREE DAYS BEFORE THE 31st!!!  Arg!

Sadly, Tim is in Turkey this week for work.  We invited Nana & Papa over to help hand out candy and then we headed to their house after ToTing a bit in our 'hood.    First we skyped with Grandma & Grandpa & Uncle Mark a bit so they could see the costumes.




Then we got ready to head out.  I am super, uber proud of their costumes.  For many reasons (if I do toot my own horn for a sec) -- a) because I actually carried through on a project, b) because I think they look better than the expensive costumes that inspired them and c) because I think they were the cutest, most original costumes I saw all night, if I do say so myself.  ;)  You can find my tutorial on the costumes here.









In the end, B&K had a fabulous time on their first trick-or-treat experience.  They did -- most of the time -- say the right things and most importantly lots of unprompted "thank you"s.  Now I'm watching my favorite holiday special (Charlie Brown - or Charlie Brownie, as B would say).  I'm DVRing it, so I can't wait to watch it tomorrow night with B&K.  Happy Halloween everyone!
 

Good Report

As I was cleaning out B&K's backpacks from school today (yes, they actually went to school yesterday  and I'm just now getting around to this), I noticed they each had a little note in their bags.  It was their first "Report Card"  (actually called "Good for You!").  So cute!

Bennett:

Bennett really looks forward to big muscle {this is where they go play outside or inside on the playground}.  He loves to go down all of the slides!  He is very pleasant to have in class and is really great at following directions. 

Kendyll:

Kendyll loves to make crafts.  She does really well during circle time and love stories!  She is a pleasure to have in our class.

Hmm, guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in the crafty department, eh?  :)

It is amazing what they come home with.  I'm starting to become overwhelmed with all of the little craft items and projects they work on at school {and I'm totally open to display/organization/preservation tips!!}.  I'm not going to keep everything but I do want to keep some of it.  For now.



Tis the season for greetings!

Yep, that's right.  I'm already thinking Holiday Cards.  Every year I love looking through the designs -- especially the new options.  I am a huge fan of Shutterfly for gifts such as  books and calendars and they also have some of my very favorite cards.    We ordered our holiday cards from Shutterfly last year as well and had a great experience -- many, many layouts and sizes to choose from, very user friendly site to work with and super fast shipping.  Oh and the quality is amazing as well!

While looking through the fabulous selection of holiday cards for 2010, several pop out at me.   My current fav is the Initially Chick Green card.  I love the pop of green and the option to include six photos.  With two kiddos (and a dog) we need to ensure proper exposure of all of our family members!   A close 2nd is the Pretty Package holiday card -- I'm a fan of simplicity as well.    And since life always seems to get so hectic during this time of year, I'm seriously contemplating getting some matching address labels as well! 

Shutterfly is offering 20% off all holiday cards right now!  Check it out here: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

Have fun with your holiday card shopping!  I can't wait to start getting cards in the mail (I love "good" mail!). :)