ahhhhhhh

in the meadow, we can build a snowman

Carl was surprised that no one mixed them up at school yesterday.

let's assume it is Lew....

.... that the cashier felt was eligible for the senior discount!!!  

Black Friday

We don't get up early - or now, as the case may be - stay up late.  But, we do an annual Black Friday shopping event in our family.  This year, we added to it!!  Before hitting Walmart to buy $4 pajamas we stopped at Home Depot to get a gingerbread house kit that makes a Home Depot store.  Seriously, how was I supposed to resist that???  Y'all picked one up today, too, didn't you?  Well, you should have.

You need reference...  wait a minute - did I tell you that (I measured the kids on the wall on 10/1/12 and then again on their birthday 11/1/20/12?  They each grew over 1" in that short span of time.  Carl is about 52" and Gretchen is about 48" (closer to 49").

This next shot is 2011 - even though Lew, Carl & I all have on the same shirts as 2012.  I am guessing the black and orange rugby won't fit the boy next November.  Bummer.  It is one of my very favorite Halloween season shirts.  Later I will add one here with Gretchen in front of Lew from this year so you can compare where she hits the RUSH logo.  This is 2011.

This is 2012.

And here is 2009.  I am the only one still wearing that same black shirt.  (It hangs off me quite a but more now than it did 3 years ago.)

You get little peeks at each year's artwork on the front door behind us, too.

How about a couple shots from yesterday's dinner, too?

Happy Thanksgiving

We have not sat down to dinner yet.  The kids and Lew are outside playing with Lindy.  Hey, Lew should be in here carving this turkey.  I have to go grab a table cloth.  I think I'll go with purple.

Anyway...  for you...  some photos of our door decorations for the season.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  

the new shirts

I made these yesterday afternoon.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute, right?  I knew they had the cupcake outfits to wear to school on their birthday (of course, I made Carl's cupcake shirt on Monday for him to wear Tuesday... lot's of time to spare there, eh?) so I could wait until the actual birthday to whip out the 7 shirts.  I love that they still love wearing homemade clothes!!

They are 7 years old!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

We had a fun, busy day.  I was the volunteer reader for the class today before lunch.  After reading a birthday book, the class headed to the cafeteria.  We brought in popcorn for the special treat.  After the kids had enough time to eat their real lunches, the twins and I passed out cups of either rainbow popcorn or plain popcorn.  I know Carl prefers the plain... well, turns out that I brought home more rainbow than plain.  He isn't the only one who likes it better!  Although, he was responsible for eating a lot of what got consumed in the cafeteria... he had 4 servings!!!

After lunch, we headed back to the classroom.  I visited outside with a couple other parents and at 1:30 we headed into the classroom to have a Thanksgiving party with the kids.  We had some cupcakes and goldfish crackers as well as more popcorn to celebrate.  The teacher and parents helped the kids make painted hand print turkeys as the craft and I was able to read 2 more books to the kids.

Before we headed home, we took a couple photos by the fall leaves.  Carl is wearing his new cupcake shirt I made him.  He loves it!

Luckily, Gretchen's cupcake jumper from last year still fit her!

Once we got home, the kids wanted to play some Webkinz and PBS kids computer games until dinner.  We finished their homework during that time, too.  While they were playing, Carl noticed something on the bookshelf. "Hey!  There is something for a Wii over here."  He gets to play Wii in sensory on Fridays if he is good all week.  So, when Lew got home - we told him Carl found the big gift and they played a little bit before dinner.  Then, per their request... we headed to Golden Corral for dinner.

Back home, all very full... we started in on the presents!  Let's just say the kids were a tiny bit excited about this!!!

Yay!  Legos!!!

Gretchen got the Rapunzel doll she asked for!!

OOOOOO!!!  More Legos.  They were into watching each other open gifts.  It was very sweet and probably nothing like the chaos of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day gift opening that is coming up too quickly.

2 gifts were to share so they opened those packages together.

The movie Brave!

A Tag reader book from the movie Brave.  We have not seen the movie yet - we didn't go to the theater to see it.  But, Gretchen got to meet Merida in Disney and she was really excited to get the movie.  Carl, too.  He kept asking me, "When Brave comes out, can we buy it?"  Little did he know, it had been out for a couple weeks.  I even found a version that came with a stuffed horse.  Merida has a horse named Angus... so, even without seeing the movie, they love this horse already!

The other gift Gretchen had asked for was "the biggest Hello Kitty she has ever seen"... well, after Disney, we knew that couldn't happen.  In Japan in Epcot, there was a huge Hello Kitty. We didn't even ask how expensive it was.  Well, I managed to also find a huge Chick Fil A cow for the boy.  He loves his tiny plush Chick Fil A cows.

After presents... cake!!!

Well, cake and ice cream!!!!

Gretchen wanted one of those cakes with the Barbie doll in it.  I looked into buying one of the big pans to make them, but they were too expensive for my taste and besides, the dolls they use are not real dolls... only a torso on a spike.  So, instead, I bought a $1 mini bundt pan at AC Moore and a $7 Barbie figurine.  She loved it!  I would love to get into cake decorating - I think I would be good at it - but I can't imagine having to practice and having cakes and cookies and cupcakes etc around the house.  So, for now, a simple doll in a bundt cake will have to do.

What did Carl get?  Teeny cars driving on a road made out of fruit-by-the-foot (he likes gummy candy) with gummi bears around the racetrack as spectators all on a bed of vanilla ice cream.  He was surprised and disappointed when I said he couldn't eat the entire thing last night.  She wasn't allowed to eat all that cake either.  It was 8:30pm already!

Make a wish!!

When they woke up, I had hung streamers over their door.  They were both a little confused, but love them. They will most likely remain in place until they actually fall down.

Here they are holding their coming home outfits from 7 years ago.

Happy Birthday, Gretchen & Carl!!!