Sugar & Spice...

Tonight, we made PIES! Apple pies - because I LOVE them! I love them so much that we actually made an extra one to dig into tonight...It's always smart to test them before you serve them, right!?! Steve, Cody, & Lindsey all helped. The kids picked out cookie cutters to decorate the ones with tops & filled all of the pies up with apples. Tomorrow we're going to Aunt Terri's house to be with my mom & her family before having Gigi, Big Daddy, Mimi, & PopPop over for pies after dinner. the kids are really excited to share their pies, show off their Indian & Pilgrim gear from school & watch the big balloons in tomorrow's parade. It should be a great day!





I loved having the kids help make the pies. My family didn't have a lot of holiday traditions. When we were little we were always driving up from KY to spend our holidays in MI. The only thing I really remember about Thanksgiving was watching the Macy's parade & waiting desperately for our cousins to get to Grandma's house. Once we moved to MI, my Dad & I always went over to my Grandma's house to help her make the pies the night before. I liked to help her & she was going to cut out the apple pies and strictly serve pumpkin...Hopefully this will be something the kids will get into every year. Here was their / our finished product!

Pilgrims, Indians, & Turkeys - Oh my!

I'm beat after a long day - So I will keep this one short, sweet, & picture-filled!
I went to school with Cody & Lindsey today to help out with the Feast & Thanksgiving Parade! Cody's class dressed up as Indians, Lindsey's class were turkeys, & Miss Sherri's class dressed up as the pilgrims of course- I loved seeing all kids having a great time & telling the class what they were thankful for - It was adorable!



WILD turkeys!


Miss Deb's Indians


Thanksgiving Feast --- the Pilgrims made butter & baked cornbread. The Indians made fruit salad!



Before I drop into to bed, I should say how thankful I am for the teachers at Children's Workshop! Cody & Lindsey have so much fun at school, they bring home creative (& adorable) art projects, they sing songs for every season or holiday, & they are learning so much. They are both making friendships & thriving this year - For that I am very thankful!
*I don't mind being able to do a double drop-off either!!!

ready, set....GOBBLE!

The kids have been learning all about Thanksgiving at school - The art projects, songs, & discussions have been too cute! Cody's class will be having a Thanksgiving Feast tomorrow with the older room. Cody & his friends will be the Indians & they are making fruit salad to the feast. I'll have to see what the Pilgrims are bringing - I will be helping out during tomorrow's feasts & fun. Lindsey's class is a litle less interested in the story of Thanksgiving, so they will be making turkey cookies together instead of a traditional feast. Hopefully I will get pictures of it all!

Charlie


Indian Princess Lindsey!



Cody & his cornicopia of fruits & veggies


And grumpy Indian in his feathered headband

Cody wrote on his headband that he was most thankful for Chubs! The more we talked about what we are thankful for - he included his entire family, except for Linds... Once he realized that that answer wouldn't help him score a treat, he decided he could be a little bit thankful for her too!

snowy days are here...

It has been cold & the snow has started to fall here in MI - I don't think I'll ever enjoy that part of living up north. Steve, the kids & I had a cozy weekend.


Lindsey dressed up like Tinker Bell & visited Big Daddy at Centennial - she is getting very into princess, dresses, & other sparkling things!





Cody's weekend highlight was trip to Target - he needed slippers for snow boot days at school & he talked his dad into buying the first Madagascar movie too!!! It was a big score! I was fairly proud of myself for letting Cody pick out his own slippers -he wanted the Transformer ones...I'm not a fan, but at least he doesn't have all of the real ones & movies, etc. yet. I'm dreading all of the monster machine, super hero, weapon weilding boy toys in my future-


He was so excited with new slippers & a movie with a hippo in it!!!



Lindsey had to get her own slippers too- She chose beautiful Hello Kitty ones! How stylish!



She has been doing great at school. It seems that the extra 6 weeks made a big difference for her. She didn't ry at all last week & she loves her art projects! Here she is modeling her Indian vest & Indian Princess headband - Don't they go well with the Hello Kitty footwear...



And then there is CHARLIE! He is always happy so it is harder to tell what his highlight was - I'm going to guess it was discovering the cheesy goodness of grilled cheese sandwiches! He LOVES them!



The highlight of my weekend was getting ready for a monumental day today - I rejoined the gym! It has been since about when I was found out I was pregnant with Charlie & really hurt my back - I was way over due, but just couldn't find the time until today! I went, Charlie charmed the 3 ladies working in the childcare room & I'm already looking forward to Wednesday's visit! Even just listening to my own music while I was working out was such a treat - no Dora sings or Backyardigans LIVE! It was great!

Chuck E. Cheese

It was Emmy's 3rd birthday that drug me back to Chuck E. Cheese. Actually I probably don't hate Chuck E. Cheese trips nearly as much as most of my other mom friends do. Amber & I usually manage to have a pretty fun, easy, & cheap time there with the whole crew. It helps that our kids pair off perfectly - I pulled a few cute pics of the kids on Emmy's birthday at Chuck E. Cheese - we will be heading to her ladybug party tomorrow!

Cody & Kaden


My "big" kids driving-


Lindsey & the birthday girl, Emmy-



the little guys, Charlie & Perry, having fun-



Both babies in tears, about to fall out of their dirty high chairs - & We're Out!

Update -

I have taken a few of the pills I spent 3 hours at the Med Center trying to get...I still don't feel any better, but tomorrow is a new day, right? It was a pretty good day even though I felt pretty rotten.

Charlie finally smiled a little bit while we had his 9mo. portrait taken - something he abslutely did not do during the 3mo. or 6mo. shoots. He also said "Mama" all day long! Finally a kid that says Mama first! Looks like I might have another Mama's boy on my hands...

Lindsey made it through her first day of school with no crying!!!
I wasn't really sure that that would ever happen for us - So it deserved some bold type! Even though her cold is still lagging around, she is doing much better with school & she is so excited for her friend Emmy's birthday this week. We get to go to Chuck E. Cheese tomorrow with Emmy & to her ladybug party on Friday - which is a very big deal to Lindsey & Cody too!

Cody is super excited that I get to go to Gymco tomorrow with him in the gym & take pictures - YEAH! So, I'll get to bed & work on feeling better since I have lots of pictures to take & post this week. Until then...

Super cute - CHARLIE!

Feeling better soon...I hope!

I spent just a few mintues shy of 3 hours today at the MED center hoping for some relief from this 6 week long cold. Snow is falling & I'm dreading a long winter. Hopefully I will wake up tomorrow on the right side of the bed, feeling a little bit better already!

Where Dinner & Drinks Led Charlie...

Dinner


Drinks

Dessert

Crowded (not so) hot tub



What a night!

Kaden for PRESIDENT!

Yesterday morning, Cody & I were talking about the election, voting, & what it meant to be president. Cody was pretty quite about it so I thought maybe I went a little over his head with it all. Then he turns around and declares that he is voting for Kaden for President. Kaden is my best friend Amber's 5 year old son. Cody thought "Kaden is a little older than me, pretty smart, & almost always fair." Pretty cute - He even went with me to vote & was a little bit vocal about not finding Kaden's name on my ballet. When he starting talking about who he was voting for - the whole place freaked --- RELAX, even though Kaden might have been the best choice, I doubt Cody was unfairly influencing anyone!








We tried voting on nearly everything yesterday with Cody & Lindsey. Cody loved it & Lindsey couldn't have cared any less about it. Regardless, they looked cute in their VOTE NOW t-shirts...Just too bad Kaden didn't win!

Preschool Lindsey!

So I caught my second wind tonight & I had to get a few of our victory pics up of Linds at school today! It was too stressful to try and capture any of the staged first day of school moments. Maybe I can get those next year... Cody was so sweet & tried really hard to help Lindsey through the day. What a good big brother! Yeah for Lindsey!






Now I can get around to losing the extra 10 lbs. I have actually gained in the past 3 weeks worrying about this day! Seriously - TEN POUNDS!!!

SCHOOL GIRL!!!

I will add pictures to this post later...worrying about the success of today has exhausted me!!! Lindsey is a school girl! She made it through her first day of preschool & I couldn't be happier. I know I had a bunch of friends wondering how today would go, so its a weak posting, but I'll make it fabulous tomorrow!

Way to go Linds!!!

9 months

-9 months old & really growing up!




Charlie has been crwaling ALL over the house, chasing his big brother, sister, & Chubs too! He loves finger foods, remote controls, phones, & cars. He has 2 teeth, a small fuzz of hair, & is usally sporting some drool. Last week he started playing kitchen & whatever else he can with Cody & Lindsey - it's too cute!