Happy Halloween!

I know I said chickens, but I saw this witch and princess crawling out of the dressup box to dance in front of the mirror in my living room, and they were too cute to pass up. Sorry for the cell phone quality picture. May your day be full of adorable tricks and sweet treats.

Come again?

Looking at the photo, I can see how this has been doctored, but it gave me a start the first time I drove past it.

And some random cuteness for you. Did I seriously not post these chicken pictures before? The girls are going to be chickens for Halloween.


The day we picked up the cotton candy machine, Violet twisted my arm so hard we had to come straight home and try it out. Besides which, we needed to make sure the rental place hadn't given us a dud machine, right?

Violet's clay creation. A lilypad with frog, and a little snack for the frog.



Some freaks from the carnival. I'm not sure anyone else really used the freakshow, but I was really proud of it.



On Violet's birthday, the main event was dancing in the way back of the car in the parking lot at Stop and Shop.





I really need to get the hang of putting a couple pictures up every other day instead of throwing them up there in a mass. I'll try harder if you try to check back more often. Okay, you-know-who-you-are?

Birthday Fun

We've all been very busy around here preparing for Violet's carnival birthday party. I won't say much except that I think all the kids had fun (with not even one little 'incident' - not even with the birthday girl!) and I think the parents might have even had an okay time. So with no more ado, in no particular order, here are pictures from the party.

Eva Roy, Stella's godsister, and one of my favorite small people.


Violet playing ring toss. Notice we didn't manage to get our backyard completely junk free!


How cute is this: Emily (l) and Cayden (r) chompin' their dogs, and Eva manning the ticket booth.Kelsie playing the beanbag toss. There were no real rules for the games, and we found the kids kind of spontaneously made up their own rules. See how Kelsie isn't even on top of the ring?

I think this is Colin at the 'freakshow'. The last 'freak' (hairy person, possibly jumping hairy person) was drawn by Violet. She also did the sun and most of the land and sky on the right.


Oh how I wish I could still do things like this.

Brenna (another one of my favorite small people) with her sister Eva in the corn maze.


Go, Emily, Go! I think this was Emily's favorite game. Shoot down the ducks with the hose. Apparently she's pretty good at it, too. See how all the ducks are lying on the ground?



Sadly, the birthday girl is coming down with a virus. Here we see her sitting to take a break with some cocoa and marshmallows. Did I mention it was cold? I mean, brrr, cold. And the sick kid with no jacket. What kind of parents are we?


Violet gave us detailed instructions on what she wanted for a cake. Triangle cake, purple frosting, yellow heart, "Violet Blue Wise" in blue, the number 5 candle and the fancy 'happy birthday' candles. Here it is, exactly to her specifications. That's 3 cake mixes and 4 tubs of frosting you see before you.


And one sparkler. Notice how horrified Sylvia looks.

We managed to time the singing perfectly so just as Violet started to blow, the sparkler finished. We choreographed that and practiced beforehand.


Stella got to do some bonding with her godfather, Steve. I think he might be the only person ever to Ergo Stella besides her parents.


Look at those faces. You've got to love little kids with the presents.



I'm not sure who this kid is, but he's got his prize bag and his hotdog.


My super-cute bouncer. (the kid, not the bounce house)



Stella and her buddy Lukas bouncing. (erm, trying to bounce, maybe.)

Ah, picture heavy. You're done now. Thanks Steve and Nikki for taking all the pictures. I would have totally forgotten to do so.

All caught up.

Take note: I have managed to complete my backlog of posts! So here are events from the past few weeks.

This afternoon, I went outside and happened to see this:


Which is as cute as can stinkin be.

Apple Picking

Violet's first field trip of the year was to the Giles Family farm for apple picking. I, like most of the other parents, opted to go along. It's always a lot of fun.

Here is the class - these are the kids that are there on Mondays anyway. Olivia, Sylvia, Emily, Violet, Caden, Colby, Colin, Brady, Alayna, Rachel, Sydney and Kelsie.


Stella had a great time as well. She loves the preschoolers.


I realized recently that I have far fewer pictures of Violet than I would like. Mostly because the vast majority of them look like this.


Stella on the other hand, is a much more willing model.

Violet was in her first bike race recently. She was in the training wheel division of the Portsmouth Criterium. First she had her bike and helmet checked out.

Number three-hundred-sixty-one. There were a lot of kids racing. I was shocked.


And they're off. See the pace car? That is the entire length of the course (600 meters). I have lots of pictures of the progression of the race and Violet has had a fantastic time flipping through them like a movie.


Violet finished somewhere near the end of the pack, but by no means last. I think they had to hold up the next race for the kid who came in last. Something to be said for determination, though.


And a well deserved ride back to the car.


Next year? She's talking about being in the '4-6 year old without training wheels' division.

General cuteness

But man, aren't they just the cutest?