Little Chute, Reindeer, and Dress Up

We finally took a trip to Little Chute (they are great at coming to see us, but it had probably been at least a year since we had been there) to see Grandpa Wayne & Grandma Sharon and celebrate Wayne's birthday with a surprise party (on 11/11/11). The party was in the upper room of a cool pizza/bar place and was a blast. The girls had a great time playing toys that Grandma Sharon had brought and dancing, and we had a great time chatting with Wayne and Sharon and their family and friends.

We had a nice weekend there just hanging out at their house, playing games, and taking a trek down the block to a nice little park. Uncle Scotty had come with us for the trip and even joined the girls for a little Merry-Go-Round action.

Back home the following weekend, we headed to Woodbury Lakes Open House for the first time, where there were lots of activities to kick off the holiday season.

Claire, Abby and I took a sleigh ride (and Ryan took some pictures) pulled by these guys here...

It was our first reindeer sleigh ride and it was awesome! We also saw Santa, friends Amy, Linnea and Chris Meyers, and a fantastic fireworks show. Plus we danced with this reindeer (below) and some of his snowman friends. It was a chilly but fun night!

Other than that, we've been hanging out at home quite a bit. We spent some time decorating and, of course, dressing up.

Dr. Claire (& "sweetheart")

Cinderella Abby

Oh, and making a few funny faces, too.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is enjoying the holiday season as much as we are!

Leaf Pile!

The leaves on our trees are finally coming down and in one fell swoop, our yard was an ocean of orange, yellow and green leaves. The girls and I tried to get a handle on it today by doing some raking. Okay, I did the raking; the girls did the jumping into the leaf piles.

It was a gorgeous day for being outside, playing in the yard, breathing in the crisp Fall air, and hearing my daughter happily report to me, "Mommy, I went pee-pee in the leaves!" (said to me moments after this picture was taken).

Bonus points if you guess who it was! (Abby is on the left, Claire on the right)

Happy Halloween!

The girls were SO excited for Halloween this year! Abby asked me almost every day, "Mommy, we go to Halloween now?"

We decorated our pumpkins about a week before Halloween. We decided to use transfers instead of carving and it worked really well! The girls were pretty proud of their creations (above: Claire, left, & Abby, right). Plus they got to put like 3 faces on each pumpkin, so that was pretty cool.

Finally, the big day arrived! Claire was Cinderella and Abby was Ariel, Little Mermaid. (A HUGE thank you to Grandma Sharon & Grandpa Wayne for being our costume suppliers yet again! You guys sure know how to hook these girls up with great costumes.)

So excited!! (Can you tell?)

The day before Halloween, we actually got dressed up and headed over to Aunt Pat's house to see Aunt Pat, Uncle Joe and Aunt Joy and get some of our first treats.

Lily/Butterfly Fairy met us there, which made it all the more exciting! Auntie Pat was leaving for a big road trip a couple of days later so it was great to say good-bye and wish her safe travels.

We also headed to Papa Mike and Grandma Maggie's house that day to say Trick or Treat to them too. (Yep, as much as Abby LOVED her costume, she wanted out of it almost right after we got to their house.)

The next day (actual Halloween), we dressed up again for some trick or treating at the Maplewood Mall, followed by more around our neighborhood. One thing I actually really like about Halloween is it's one of the few times I get to interact with my neighbors! (One of the downsides of being antisocial is you don't get to know the neighbors really well.)

After we headed home with our buckets full of sugar, the girls had some hot apple cider and helped Grandma Gwen hand out candy.

In the times between trick-or-treaters, Claire would stick her head out the window, wave a candy bar around and yell, "Candy!" to entice people to stop by. Plus side, this may indicate a strong future as a saleswoman or, down side, a carnie. Either way, it had me chuckling pretty good!

All in all, a great Halloween for these little princesses! Hope you all had very sugar-filled, fun Halloweens too.