Sugar Plum Tea

Maggie's dance studio puts on the Nutcracker ballet each holiday season. They have a Sugar Plum Tea to fund raise for it. Oh.My.Cute...
It was a full high tea followed by a mini Nut (abbreviated version of the Nutcracker) and then a little photo shoot with a sugar plum fairy. I'm pretty sure I was more excited for this than Maggie was. I could hardly contain myself!
The local tea house, Thompson House Inn, put on the tea and provided a big table full of hats, jewelry, etc for the kids to dress up in. Like the hat she picked?

She gabbed away while stirring umpteen sugar cubes and cream into her orange blossom tea. She kept asking me if I wanted more sugar and cream in my tea and by the end I'm pretty sure I was drinking pure sugared cream...but it made her so happy.

She was enchanted by the ballet. The small children got to sit right up front, a few short feet from the performers and it was magical for her. Her eyes were huge!

Our picture with a sugar plum fairy.

We will definitely make this a holiday tradition.

Thanksgiving

This year we stayed home for Thanksgiving. It's so nice to not travel during the holidays! As nice as it is to stay home I still miss family a great deal and I miss the formal dinner that goes along with it. We had a quiet (but very tasty) meal at home and basically hung out in our jammies.
I let the girls dress themselves and we went to a local park to collect "items" for our table centerpiece. Hilarious....hilarious.

This was the first year we very seriously considered going out on Black Friday to take advantage of the sales but in the end we opted to just stay home and set up/decorate our tree. I believe we absolutely made the right choice.

Very Late Dance Pictures

These were the professional pics from Maggie's dance recital...in MAY! I had forgotten we even had them done. Well, they're cute all the same so I scanned a couple of my favs. How sweet is my girl?!?

A Little Tea Party

Maggie asked me (hounded me for weeks!) to have a little tea party. I finally said ok.
She was ready HOURS before it was to begin.

In full swing:

Maggie and school friend Erin working on a small craft.

Reagan was the most focused and careful colorer.

Somehow they ended up watching a few minutes of a silly Barbie movie before running up to Maggie's room to play with the dolls and such. They all got along famously!

Now she's obsessed with having a "pajama party" (sleep over). I have not a clue where the idea came from. I've tried to explain that we have a family rule of no sleep overs. Ever. It's gonna be a rough one...

Randoms

I love my blog. I love having such a fantastic record of our life. I'm going to try harder to blog more regularly. So there you go Mom.

Maggie and her make up. Always the girliest girl.


It looked like Maggie was not all that upset at Caroline's artwork on her sleeve...

Then she melted down...

We haven't had too much snow this season (yet). Maggie immediately begged to go out in the snow when she woke up to a small dusting. Doesn't she look like the happiest little kid making a snow angel?

I've been knitting a little bit these days. Seems like knitting has taken a back seat to sewing lately. But this little shrug on Caroline makes me so happy!

Maggie and Caroline eating some powdered donuts:

Caroline watching the Wiggles on the computer. I wish this was a video because she was singing along to the songs. She is definitely a singer.

Cell Phone Pics

It's always fun to flip through all the random things I've shot from my phone.
Maggie insisted on a picture of this rainbow:


Crafting project:

Caroline loves the magna-doodle. She demands (and I do mean demands!) that you make "smiley" for her.


Apparently I did take a few photos right after my surgery...wonder why I don't remember...
Ellen reading to Caroline:

Maggie admiring her huge crayon collection that Julie bought for her:

Caroline with my sunglasses on:

At Lowes with my mom:

In the backyard. Love the look Caroline is giving Maggie.

Randoms

Patrick loves his evening popcorn. He used to have the big bowl all to himself until he made the mistake of eating it before the kids went to bed. Now they both want some. Caroline eats her weight in popcorn. Recently Patrick did wait until the girls were in their rooms to pop it. Shortly after it came out of the microwave Maggie calls from the top of the stairs, "Daddy! I smell popcorn!". Busted.

Maggie filled our little sandbox with water and before I really knew what was going on she and Caroline were splashing happily around. It was quite the mess and the kids were not please to be stripped and hosed off before being allowed back in the house.

The girls discovered a "game" they now play regularly. I'm please because when I suggest it I know I have a good 20 minutes of peace. I keep a basket of diapers in bathroom off the kitchen. Maggie passes them one by one under the glass door to Caroline who squeals with joy at receiving them. Once all diapers are through, Caroline passes them back under. Seriously--at least 20 minutes!

Maggie held one or both feet in the air (for long periods of time) at random when she was this age too. Caroline kept her one foot up the entire time she gnawed on that apple.

Yes, I did notice that my younger girl is just in her diaper in most of these pics. She just loves being out of constricting clothes. She pulls at them and says, "on" because she doesn't know how to say "off" for whatever reason. She's pretty insistent and unless it's very cold in the house we usually give in.

Fall/Halloween Part 2

I made some sugar cookies. Maggie and Daddy decorated them:

Trunk-or-Treat. Preparing at home--we did curlers and make up together. It was so sweet!! This was definitely my favorite part.

Maybe it's because we're in the church parking lot that Maggie decided she would pose like that.

Maggie and her little friend Reagan:

This is a little blurry but it's the best close-up photo of our little witch. Both Maggie and Caroline's bolero jackets were sewn by me but the pattern was made by my friend Vicki Sigg.

Maggie's ballet/tap class the week of Halloween (or...most of them).

Preschool costume parade:

Preschool friend Meserette:

Preschool friend (BFF's according to them) Erin:

Preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch:

Fall/Halloween Part 1

Our annual trip to Anderson Farms:

Caroline loved the "cock-a-doo's". She spent a lot of time yelling at them.

The tractor-pulled barrels. Maggie's expression in this picture kills me! She is very seriously focused on steering that silly barrel.

We picked a lot of great pumpkins and as we were happily headed back to the tractor with our loot we hear Maggie start crying. Both Patrick and I look at each other wondering what could possibly be wrong. As Patrick got closer he realized Maggie was standing IN a huge pumpkin. She had tried to stand on it not realising it was rotting. She sunk in a good 4 inches--I really wish I'd snapped a picture of the deep foot prints she left behind when her daddy came to pull her out. After a few minutes of us laughing at her she was able to see the humor in the situation and that helped to dry the tears.

What a great day.