Halloween at School

This past Thursday, the girls had their Halloween celebration (for some reason it is ok to call it a celebration but not a party) at school. So for the third time in less than a week, they got to wear their costume again! Unfortunately it was moderately hot and humid (70 +) up here and it is a pretty thick fleece material, but they did not seem to mind at all. They walked into school flapping their arms and when it was time to go, they were still a-flappin'.

This is the best picture I got of their Halloween parade. They were all playing little instruments (B: tambourine A: maraca) and marching a little path around the front of the church. Unfortunately, the girls ended up way behind - so far so that parents were breaking formation to get better pics of their kids - along with a little girl Delaney (who was having problems walking in her outfit). They almost caught up in time for me to catch the tail end of the parade.

The best picture of their class and teacher Mrs. Hogan. The girls seem to be more participatory than the 4 boys who seem totally disinterested in the photo shoot. I was very surprised that the girls were the only animals in their class.
(l to r: Kermit, Daniel, Xander, Abby, Mason, Hailey, Madeleine, Charlotte, Grace, Audrey, Delaney, Brooke)

Playgroup Halloween

This past Wednesday my moms group had our annual Halloween party. It was very much fun - food, crafts, practice trick-or-treating, and just general merriment.
This is the best picture that I got of "all" the kids...of course you can't really see all of the kids in the picture and it does not include the large number of babies that were napping in their strollers.

Brooke and her friend Elisa being silly on the floor

Halloween Party 1

This past weekend our friends Jay and Kelly had a Halloween party. The girls (as well as the adults) had a BLAST. First they were excited that they got to wear their Halloween costumes again. They love to wear them and walk around flapping their wings - super cute. Even more cute, was how they made friends with a little 6 year old named Julia. They loved her and played with her all night. They joined in with the big kids to do Wii dancing. It was just adorable. Here are some pics from the night:

The best picture of all the kiddos.

Wii dancing - I took off their costumes so that they would perhaps stay clean.

Hanging out with their friend Julia...if you enlarge it you can see how enamored Brooke was with her.

Best whole group picture

Fall Folliage

Preschool Update

The girls have been going to preschool for just over a month now, so I thought I should post a long overdue update. A summary, for those of you not interested in details, is that they are doing great and they seem to love going. Here are things about preschool that I think that I want to remember:

• Their teachers are Mrs. Hogan and Mrs. Barnard...though the girls call her Mrs. Nard which D and I have a hard time listening to without giggling. They like to play school and usually one of them is the mommy dropping off the baby, one is Mrs. Nard, and I am Mrs. Hogan.
• We had to put down a goal for the year, and I put that I wanted the girls to learn to play with other kids. I have been getting reports back that they are indeed playing apart...some of the time. Brooke is the more social one and seems to interact more with other kids (as least from listening to her talk about who she played with...though sometimes I think that she is just listing all the kids that she can remember.)
• Both teachers have independently commented to us how polite the girls are. HOORAY!! The first outside validation of all the times that we have told them to say please, thank you, excuse me, etc. They have also told us that they are very well behaved. Another big HOORAY!!
• In a shocking turn, both their regular teacher and their creative movements teacher (Mrs. Wilcox) have told us that the girls have excellent rhythm and are very good dancers/movers.
• Audrey got pushed off the monkey bars one day by a girl in her class. She was not hurt but she did cry. The unfortunate part is that now EVERY day Brooke immediately reports as she leaves the room (in front of all the parents waiting to pick up kids) that "Charlotte did not push Audrey today." Awesome. Fortunately we are usually after Charlotte's mom so this has not unfolded in front of her.
• We had open house last week and this was the first time that D had been up to the preschool. He has been somewhat disappointed with the lack of academics in the classroom....as every day he asks what they learn and every day they look at him blankly and talk about eating snack, going outside, and Charlotte not pushing. After the open house, he has determined that he is not going to think of it as any type of school, but more as a replacement of all of the art and music classes that I used to take them to. Apparently the academics are going to have to come from him at home!
• They seem to really enjoy taking things for their show and tell days (which is every other Tuesday - fortunately they are on the same days!) Audrey took her Nemo fish this past time and Brooke took her squishy ladybug toy (which she was very excited to tell me that she passed it around so that everyone could squeeze it and see the little balls inside of it.)
  
• I am sure there are more things but I can't seem to remember them at all.

Unrelated to the post, but I though it was funny to see them with all of their babies in their diapers. And as we put a new diaper on each one, they would put down the old diaper and say "don't step in the poop."

Halloween Pictures

They are my adorable little butterflies!

State Fair

Thank you cows for the delicious ice cream!

For the long Columbus Day weekend, the girls and I decided to make a trip back to MS to visit the grandparents...and as luck would have it, the State Fair had just started! I was quite nervous about the trip cause this was the first time for me to fly with the girls all by myself. They were FANTASTIC!! What a relief! We had a great, although very short, visit with the family. Here are some pictures from the fair...I have such fond memories of going as a kid myself that it was neat to be able to take them (even if it was BLAZING)

Feeding a goat/sheep animal - I normally know the difference, but for some reason they all looked the same that day.

Audrey feeding an alpaca...the petting/feeding area was a huge hit. Certainly the best bargain at the fair....especially for Brooke who kept going up to the feeders and trying to get out any crumbs that may have been left in and shaking the coin spinner in an attempt to get more food out!

It was the Mississippi state fair after all!

She's a cool, cool, cool, cool rider

Brooke Sings

Lately Brooke has been all about singing - I mean she sings constantly. (Audrey also likes to sing - though not as frequently, but she did not want to be recorded on video.) Here she is doing a couple of songs. The one that you can't really understand is Grey Squirrel - which is from preschool so I don't know how it is supposed to go.

Cute Pictures

Just a few recent pictures of the girls being adorable!
So hot that we played outside with the water hose!
Brooke's constant wedgie - and note her assortment of animals that she must sleep with each night.
Enjoying the bubbles at a birthday party at Little Gym
They LOVE to hug during meals!

Big Weekend

This past weekend we were super busy. On Friday we took the girls to their very first football game. We live very close to a high school and thought that the girls would get a kick out of going to a football game - especially since they have been watching some college football with us on TV recently. Unfortunately, I did not bring a camera (shocking that I would be so unprepared). The girls were quite cute at the game. They would frequently cheer but usually it was not for the team but for the cheerleaders ("Go Cheerleaders") We were there for the first half and the halftime show ("Go Dancers"). Overall they seemed to like it, and their bag of M&M's, quite a bit.

The next day, I started the day with a consignment sale - which I LOVE going to. And then the family loaded up to go apple picking after lunch. We went with our friends the Envalls who the girls love. As it turned out, there really were not many apples at all to pick. Apparently the hot summer and fall has made for a bad crop. However, there were some apples and lots of space to run around - so it was a success. We are hoping that the place is moderately organic, as the girls must have each eaten (parts) of 10 apples each. I made some cinnamon apples with dinner last night and they were quite delicious.

(To complete the weekend summary, that night I got to go out for a friends birthday sans girls and that was delightful! And the next day the girls had a birthday party to go to as well - pictures of that to come I am sure.)

Here are some of the pictures from the day.



Brooke and Spencer wondered why we were trying so hard to get apples from the top of a tree, when there were PLENTY right there on the ground.

This seems safe for 3 year olds, right?

At least the view was pretty, the company fun, and the picnic delicious! And the girls always love to hold babies!!