Audra's First Snow Day

Audra was all ready for pre-school this morning and we were waiting for her carpool when I got on-line and discovered that school was cancelled. When the district is cancelled, pre-school is also cancelled. I was surprised by this. There is about 8-9 inches of snow, but that really isn't that much- especially for Colorado. The district I used to work for NEVER cancelled school. In fact, they are only a couple of miles away and they are just on a delayed schedule, not cancelled. This district is a bit more wussy, though- they cancel school quite often (I say that, but I am incredibly wussy when it comes to snow- I cancel all my plans and stay home and off of the roads- so I shouldn't be so judgmental. But, I'm from Seattle- I deserve to be a wuss!). I believe it's because part of the district is on the eastern plains, which does get a lot more snow, but they should have the ability to cancel some schools but not all- but they don't. Instead they just cancel the whole district.

Anyway, Audra was not too disappointed to have her first official snow day. She immediately wanted to go out and play in the snow. She wishes that she had friends to play in the snow with, but Claire isn't feeling well so she can't go out and we can't really invite anybody over to play.

I think today will be filled with hot chocolate, coloring, and short trips for Audra outside to play in the snow! Happy snow day! (oh, and for the record- two days ago for Halloween it was in the 70's- that's how we roll in Colorado- hot one day, freezing the next)

Trick or Treat Street

On Saturday we took the kiddos to a Trick or Treat Street hosted by the high school I taught at. They always go all out and do a great job, and this year was no exception. Normally, it is super crowded, but this year it was perfect- not crowded at all- and we really had a fantastic time. The girls loved it- of course! (and I enjoyed it WAY more than the trunk or treat)

Here Audra is with her best friend Chole- I mean, Jessie. For this Halloween activity Audra chose to be Princess Aurora, obviously.

 And Claire again chose Minnie Mouse (though she always says "Mickey Mouse)

 One room was a princess room, which had Audra in fairy tale paradise

 What a cutie!

 One room was a Star Wars room. Ben and Audra play Lego Star Wars all the time, but she has never seen the movie because she is too young. In this room they were showing a little bit of the movie so they watched some. I think Ben looks more excited than Audra.

 The four girls- looking great!

 Thumbs up!

 Then, here are some pictures of tonight. Once again, Audra chose a new costume. This time it was "Bat Girl." She decided she wanted to be bat girl at about 4 PM. We did not have a bat girl costume, nor was I about to go to the store and get one. Her friend was bat girl this morning at pre-school and that's why she decided she needed a change of costume. So she came up with her own costume- she got a pink hooded towel and started "flying" around the room. It was pretty funny. I don't think anybody got it except her, but luckily at her age nobody cares.

Claire was a game time decision about whether or not to go trick-or-treating. She has a little cough and a stuffy nose, so I wasn't going to let her go,  but she was SOOOOO excited to go so Ben caved and let her go. This was the first time we took the girls trick-or-treating. Or, I should say, that Ben took them out. They were only gone for a half hour, but they scored some serious candy! People are generous!

 This is when Audra trick-or-treated at our house. Look at that smile! Claire didn't wait for me to give her candy- she just ran inside so I couldn't get her picture.

I was thinking about Halloween. It is not my favorite holiday, but I really do like it. Not enough to do heavy duty decorations or actually dress up myself every year, but I remember as a kid how magical Halloween was. It was always so exciting. We would go out for hours. Then, we'd come home and dump out all of our candy and do swaps with each other. It was so much fun- definitely a highlight of the year. So, even though as an adult Halloween is not nearly as exciting, I want it to be exciting for the kids. They are still a little young, but this year they did start to really get into it which was fun to see.

And, for the record: We had 24 trick-or-treaters, including Audra and Claire. When we were little it seemed like we had hundreds of kids come through. I remember my dad needing to run back out on Halloween night to get more candy because we ran out. Now, with all the trick or treat streets and community events, there doesn't seem to be as many kids out on Halloween night. Oh, well- it was still a fun night- and I am pretty sure the girls LOVED it. Ben asked Audra what she thought of trick-or-treating and she said, "I thought it was really fun!"

When Fall and Winter Collide

Normally, we have the most beautiful tree in our front yard at this time of year. Gorgeous fall colors grace our yard.

But not this year.

On Wednesday we had a pretty good snowstorm that brought about 8 inches of snow and ripped all of the lovely leaves off of the trees, thus ruining our fall festival in our yard. And, also bringing the most dreaded sentence out of my husband's overachieving lips: "Let's rake leaves today."

Blah. I don't like raking leaves. Growing up in Seattle with fields of Evergreens, raking leaves was not a necessity (though we did sometimes rake the leaves from a gorgeous maple tree in our neighbor's yard- the only tree in town that had leaves that fell off). In CO, however, raking leaves is a part of every fall. This year was just a bummer because we didn't really get to enjoy the leaves before we had to rake them up.

As we were raking, however, I remembered one thing: Leaves make for a perfect photo op! The girls actually did have a blast raking the leaves, and they sure looked cute doing it. Here's the pictures for proof:

 Audra LOVED raking and kept begging and begging to rake. 

She was also pretty good at it- a skill that will come in handy for years to come!

Now if only I can teach Claire to look at the camera instead of avoiding it at all costs...

Trunk Or Treat

I think that every church in America hosts an annual Trunk-or-treat, and ours is no exception. Tonight was ours, and it was, ummm.....interesting.

Let me start by saying that I am SOOOOOO incredibly glad that I am not in charge of organizing and putting on this event. It is A LOT of work, and like most things, you can never please everyone. And, I will say, the organization of everything was fantastic- the people who organized it did everything right.

But I am not sure we will ever attend a Trunk or Treat again.

It is tradition in our ward to have a chili pot luck. I made my wonderfully delicious chili (a recipe I got from my Grandma- how could it not be good?). Unfortunately, on the ride over, Ben took a corner too fast and some chili spilled on my wrist and burned me pretty bad. I can see the headlines now: "Pot Luck Chili Scalds Stay At Home Mom." I had to wear a cold paper towel on my wrist the whole night. The evening was not starting well.

Then, we walked into the gym, and I almost walked right back out. It was so incredibly incredibly incredibly crowded! Seriously, I think the entire town was there. I really don't like large crowds. Especially in confined spaces. And especially when there are kids that are bigger than mine running around with pretend Samurai swords, pirate swords, and guns.

There was one rule in regards to costumes: No masks. I think they should have forsaken the mask rule and forbidden fake weapons that can impale small children.

Something more along these lines, for example:

 Ariel and Minnie Mouse. Audra has wanted to be Belle for the past few weeks, but then all of a sudden today she decided she wanted to be a mermaid. It probably has something to do with the aquarium last week. Note: Mermaid tails are very bad for large crowds. They get stepped on continually and you end up having to carry the tail the whole night.

After dinner there was a carnival of sorts. This is when Claire had her complete meltdown and freak out. I had to take her to another room while she tantrumed and calmed down. She was so completely over-stimulated, it was awful. I felt bad for the poor girl.

Because there were so many people the lines for all of the carnival activities were incredibly long. Audra did fine. Claire and I went back, and once she got a package of M&M's she was fine. But I was glad when the actual trunk-or-treating started. I'm pretty sure the girls were too.

This is Claire after she got her loot. Just like last year, she wouldn't let go of her candy once she got it. So we got to deal with lots of tantrums when we got home.

I'm sure next year we will go because the kids love it so much. And I am also sure we will wonder why. I hope next year they forgo the carnival and just do dinner and the trunk-or-treat. Otherwise, it is just too much. Oh, and no AK-47's next year.

Halloween Bash

For some reason, I've kind-of made it a mini tradition to host Halloween and Easter parties each year. I did a Halloween party a couple of years ago, and every year I debate whether or not to do it again, and I end up doing it. They are always a lot of fun, and to be honest I love the girls' friends (as well as the moms), and I kind-of figure this is a way to keep the friends all together. Now that they are growing up, they are all starting to make new friends and go to different schools and such, so I see this fantastic group of girls that are Audra's age all going in different directions. It's sad, but it's life.

So anyway, I decided to do yet another Halloween bash. Ben was not excited. He never is about these sort of things because he hates the house getting messy, so I need to be sure and do a good job of cleaning up before he gets home tonight!

Yesterday Audra and I made the decorations and game items and got everything together. Then today we just needed to make some cupcakes, hang up the decorations, and get all of the other food ready. No problem, right?

Now that the kids are getting older, it isn't necessary for all moms to stay because the kids aren't so hard to handle anymore. But, I did request that a few moms stay to help, which some did and I am SOOOO glad! They are still a little young to do crafts on their own! Thank you to you moms who stayed!

Unfortunately, I didn't get too many pictures. I was too busy running around and keeping the kids entertained. We had 9 kids- which is a lot, but fewer than who RSVP'd. That's one problem with the girls getting older- they have too many friends!!!

I have also realized that all of my parties are pretty much the same- just a different year. Like usual, the kids came in and did a coloring page- just an activity to keep them entertained until all the kids show up. Then, we read a Halloween story. Then, a craft. Today we made ghosts- we traced their feet and used that as the body of the ghost, then added eyes, arms, and a mouth. Then we played a couple of games. One new thing I did that I thought was fun: I had the kids help me make witch's brew. We put together swamp juice (white grape juice), alligator spit (7-UP), worms (gummy worms), monster toenails (coconut) and special Witch potion (food coloring). I made a big deal of making the potion and hammed it up. It was a lot of fun, and all the kids loved it, but very few of them drank it. I didn't think about that- it was too gross to drink. Oh, well. Then, the kids decorated cupcakes and ate some snacks. We ended about 10 minutes early, so then we just sang songs. It was nice and I am pretty sure everybody had a great time.

Claire, unfortunately,  woke up from her nap super grumpy, which made getting all the final preparations ready a little tough. Man, was I annoyed! And, of course, she refused to get her costume on. That is, until all her friends arrived in their costumes. Then she said, "I want my princess dress!" and she went downstairs and put on her Minnie Mouse dress. 

 After they made their ghosts they wanted to fly around with them saying "ohhhhhh!" So, we did an impromptu ghost parade around the house a couple of times and ended with picture taking. That was pretty cute.

 Here is Audra with the "After" shot of "pin-the-smile-on-the-pumpkin."

 Here is Claire with the "feed the ghost" game- the kids threw bean bags into the mouth for a prize. They all insisted on standing within about 3 inches of the mouth, though, so it wasn't quite the challenge it was meant to be.

 
Overall, it was a lot of fun. Will I do it again? I'm not sure. Part of the fun of doing the parties is being with the moms, and now- like I mentioned earlier- only a few moms need to stay. That's fine, it just makes it not as fun for me. Of course, I know it is about the kids, and I know the kids love it. It was so much fun working with Audra and having her help me get everything ready. It was fun to see how excited she was. But, it is a lot of work, and there will always be friends who are left out because I can't invite all of their friends- there are just too many, so I do worry that friends will feel excluded- which is never my intent, it's just I can't handle more than 10-12 kids. So, I guess we will just take it year by year.

Aquarium

We were invited by some friends to go to the Aquarium. We had never been before, but it was great! I was really impressed with how well they made all of the exhibits. I only wish Ben could have gone. Hopefully we will go again soon and he can come with us!

The Three Musketeers. Getting a picture of all three of them looking at the camera AND smiling turned out to be impossible.

 Without a doubt the highlight of the day (week, month, year- you get the idea) were the mermaids. They were SO cool- I was also incredibly impressed. How do they keep their mouths open and smile and blow air bubbles AND not drown all at the same time?

 Audra insisted on wearing a nice dress because she needed to look nice for the mermaids.

 Claire looks sweet and innocent here, and for the most part she was incredibly well behaved today (thank goodness! Without Ben I was pretty worried),  BUT her mantra became: "Too scared!" Meaning, she was too scared to walk, she needed to be carried. Shockingly, she did NOT want me to carry her. It had to be the other mom who was with us. If I tried to take her, she would cry and say she was "too scared" to come to me. Thanks, Claire- I sure feel loved.

 Audra and A- they are so cute, and all three of them just love each other so much. It is really sweet.

 They have a pretend submarine with buttons and such that the kids can play with . It was a huge hit- the kids could have stayed there for an hour.

A note about the monkey backpack: This is one of those harness things with a tail so I can hold onto Claire through the exhibit. She was SOOOO excited to wear the monkey backpack- and even insisted on wearing it the rest of the day and she had to sleep with it. I took the tail off because she was doing a great job of staying with us, but she just wanted to keep wearing the monkey. It was really cute.

 The "Coral Climb"

 Can you see Audra? I thought this was great- the kids could feel like they were in the water.

 Ahhh, the best part of the day. Audra was in Heaven.

 Claire was not.

 Even outside the exhibit there were fun things for the kids to play with.

It is pretty expensive to go to the Aquarium, but I can easily see why. The exhibits are incredible, the fish are exotic, the mermaids are great- it really was neat. I was very, very impressed. This is not something we will do every week, but once every year or two would definitely be worth it. We had a great time!

Claire's A Cutie!

Claire's personality- the FUN side- is really starting to come out. She is such a HAM. And, she knows how to push buttons!

The other day we were driving in the car. Claire had a pair of dress-up shoes and she said, "my princess shoes", to which Audra started crying and screaming- "Claire keeps saying they are her dress-up shoes, but they're not- they're MY dress-up shoes!"

Trying to diffuse this obvious catastrophe and end of the world moment, I said, "Audra, they are both of your shoes- they belong to both you and Claire."

Audra turned to Claire and very matter-of-factly said, "Claire, they are not your shoes. They are both of our shoes."

Claire then immediately turned to Audra and very calmly said, "My princess shoes." Audra screamed and wailed for 5 more minutes.

For being only 2, this girl has all of our numbers!

She also takes after Audra. She now insists on picking out all of her own clothes and putting them on all by herself. She loves dresses, and LOVES Audra's Pinkalicious dress. Sometimes, she wears 3 shirts and no pants. That's the way we roll at this house- anything goes when it comes to clothes.

But doesn't she look SO cute?