Lipstick

I left Emmie in the batchroom to finish washing her hands. When I came back to check on her, she nearly jumped out of her skin and dropped something on the floor. It was a tube of lipstick that she'd carefully applied to her little pucker. When she realized I wasn't mad, she smiled and said, "I look pretty, mama! I look pretty like Tinkerbell!"=) She did a surprisingly good job and didn't get it anywhere else but her face. She cried bitter tears when I had to wipe it off. I guess I better put my make-up away from now on!

A day late....

...but worth the wait! Here's our little Baby Jaguar modeling her costume!

Happy Halloween!

We went Trick-or-Treating with our friends from preschool again and it was tons of fun! We enjoyed a delicious pot-luck dinner before hand and took the kids aroun Piper's neighborhood. Ben and Emily had a blast and ended up with far too much candy=) Here are the cutest pics from tonight!

Officer Ben

Trick-or-Treat! How could they resist such darling kids?

Baby Callie, trying on Ben's police hat.

Ben and his friend Jonah, playing Tickle Monster

Emily loved these breadsticks shaped like bones!

Trick-or-treating can be ruff!


Pretty much all our pictures of Ben ended up like this. His hat was ever-so-slightly too big!

TinkerEmmie did her best to keep up with the bigger kids!

Adore Me

Adore me...

Trick-or-Treat!

In an attempt to get some free candy and a little practice for Halloween, Mimi and I took the little ones to Mommy and Me on the Row's annual Trick-or-Treat event. We've gone to this each year and it's so much fun. We all love seeing all the other children dressed up and who doesn't love free candy? Both Ben and Emily are expert Trick-or-Treaters now, so they made out like little candy bandits. Emily, resplendent in her Tinkerbell costume, really did well in the candy department. She literally had almost twice as much candy as Ben, although we all stayed together! Ben looked super-cool in his policeman costume so I don't really understand why he got less candy. At least he didn't seem to notice=)

Pumpkin Patch!

Ben, Emily and Callie enjoyed a visit to the pumpkin patch today! We found one that was delightfully old-fashioned(i.e. didn't have tons of giant bounce-houses, pony-rides, corn-mazes etc. that they charged an arm and a leg for!). This one was put on by a fruit stand and it was perfect. Just pumpkins and decorations=) We spent about half an hour searching for the perfect pumpkins, enjoying the non-scary decorations and letting them climb in the tractor-trailer(Ben's fav part). Once we picked our pumpkins, we pulled them by wagon to the register(Emily's fav part) and now the pumpkins are resting at the foot of Ben and Emily's bed because obviously one can't sleep unless their beloved pumpkin is in bed with them. Considering the love affair they have going on with these gourds, I'm not sure if we'll end up carving them! That might scar the wee pumpkin-lovers for life;)

Spooooky House

We're still on lock-down as the last of us recover from the dreaded swine-flu. Since children are such petri-dishes anyhow, and have yet to master the art of covering their mouths(hell, some adults still haven't mastered this!), we've had to stay indoors for the past week. We're all getting a bit stir-crazy, but it's for the greater good! To help entertain the wild animals, Mimi brought over this super-fun gingerbread house kit for us to make today. Ben and Emily had so much fun decorating this thing that I wish we had more things to cover in royal icing and candy. The finished product was very spoooooky, as you can see=)



Emily was so proud of herself for doing a good job. She kept saying, "My being a good girl, mimi!"

She really liked putting the candies on.

Ben loved this project, too. He got to help use the hand-mixer to make the icing and
really loved choosing where to put his candies.

The Little Chick loved watching her big brother and sister in action. She's started really watching and interacting with them this week and we've even gotten a few laughs from her! It's very cute and I can't wait to get a video soon!Ain't she a beauty? I frosted the windows. Pretty crappy, huh!