Fa la la la la, la la la la!

'Tis the season...are we ready?  You bet!  Already saw Santa twice ("I want a Minnie Mouse dress and a ballerina leotard!"), started decorating the house, playing Christmas songs in the car, attended the alumni Christmas party at Dominican and celebrated St. Nick's today!  Little M is really into the season this year...and already pointed out that our fireplace has room for two more stockings..."how about one for brother and sister?"  Smart cookie!

(p.s. I made this hat and scarf!)

Ballerinas and fairy princesses and candy...oh my!

We're finally relaxing after a whirlwind of Halloween festivities...five days in a row!  Thursday school party, Friday church carnival, Saturday park party, Sunday trick-or-treating at my Auntie Sue's house and, of course, Halloween!  Miranda had so much fun running from house to house, saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" without reminders...she was a pro!

Wow, just...wow!

Well, for those of you who may not have heard yet, our family is growing! Miranda is going to be a big sister come early May. Our family is growing...by four feet! See for yourselves :)

Just a little off the back please!

Miranda's first haircut...we waited as long as we could, but the ends were just causing too many knots and too many tears on a daily basis. Luckily, we have a wonderful stylist :) She sat like a big girl and loved every minute of it!

I wish, I wish, I wish again...

...I wish I were in Michigan!  Just had our last (ok, second to last) summer hurrah, our annual Labor Day trip to the chalets.  Beautiful Saturday, ok Sunday, cool Monday but overall a blast.  And Uncle Jim, of course, in his trademark black shirt, black pants and black dress shoes at the beach...

And our real last hurrah, a great weekend with Miranda's BFF in William's Bay.  Beautiful weather the whole weekend, beach fun...enough said!

Farewell, summer!  Until next year...

Little girl, big imagination

For the last month or so, Miranda's favorite question to anyone and everyone has been, "what are you going to be for Halloween?"  Her answer has been consistent..."a princess!"  We found the perfect fairy princess costume and can't wait to show it off.

Our little dreamer also has dreams of flying...she flaps her "wings" and says "mom, look I'm a butterfly" while running down the driveway.  Or asks us to help her fly like her favorite Tinkerbell.  Never stop dreaming, little bean :)

Boom, Boom, POW!!

Well, we had a little incident...little m was running to the kitchen and I heard an enormous thud, followed by hysterical crying.  She apparently fell face-first into the leg of the dining room table, which is like a heavy, cast iron material (note the double bar mark on her nose).  It was a bit scary being on concussion watch for the first time, but she's A-ok now.  Though the bruise is not pretty...I saw a lady at the pool look at her funny tonight!  She keeps telling us it's "all better," but I can't help cringing when I look at it...I feel so bad!

Miranda 2.5 - Just an Update :)

Miranda reached the big 2.5...we've had a busy summer!  We go on the big potty ("I do it - you don't help me!"), try to eat healthy (mom:  What do you want for dinner?  little m:  popsicles! - we compromised with zucchini bread),

enjoy the beach ("I want to ride the tuba")

and sleep in Da's bed. 

She is a little chatterbox and is so much fun...Jeff always says I will be the one who has to go to school when we get called by the principal for having a little class clown!  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

Mama's birthday!

Thanks to all who were able to make it to celebrate my 35th! Yikes! We had a great beach day, lots of boating, sand and fun :) Can't wait to do it again!  We slept well the next day...

The Best Fest in the (mid) West

Another year of the Westchester Fest has come and gone...had to wake Miranda from a dead sleep at 11:00 to get to our 11:15 swimming lesson today! The people watching is always interesting, the food was good and little M loved the rides this year. Only another year before all the fun starts again...