Extra curricular activity

I'm not pushing it! Honest!






And this one, I just asked if they would like to do a cheerleader move. Turns out they did!


(Please excuse Teagan's "drawers" from showing, her outfit is sized 18 months old. And this is the last season before it gets packed away. And she's going to be so sad about it!)

Dorthy

with her toto.










He hasn't been that chill since then! He must have eaten an ornament.... He's been a handful lately!

"T for Teagan"

Teagan knows her letter T. She'll make a letter T with anything - chopsticks, 2x4s, books, videos, shoes, pillows, chips. I think you get the idea. She then proudly proclaims, "Look, a T for Teagan!"

The other day, she outdid herself.







Even though she's wearing a bathing suit, this was the other day. She's very into letters, just like big sister (who is taking the rest of the semester off...so we've upped our learning time at home. You can tell who won that battle!).

The other day, Teagan said "C T P S B A - Kyoto", as we were walking into Kyoto, a family fav, to eat the other day. Such a big girl trying to spell! I remember when Chloe, my niece, was in that stage and did the same thing! Now she's boy crazy and a teenager!

She's into her babies right now. I overheard her tell her baby today, "don't hit mama, do you understand? Do you understand?". You can tell we've had that conversation a time or two? She's into testing her boundaries lately....

Pumpkin carving

We had our annual carving contest a few weeks ago at Aunt Shelly's. This year it was a little less competitive, which was a nice change of pace from previous years!

Me, Price, Shelly, and Honey all were on the same train of thought. We all carved/decorated what the kids (or ourselves, in Honey's case) were going to be for Halloween.

Some looked better in the light.



Price's pirate, my honey bee, Heath's face (he also was going to do Hulk), Shelly's Hulk, Jacqueline's pumpkin face eating a lil pumpkin, Poppa's face, and Honey's raggedy Anne pumpkin.

And some looked better in the dark. (This only slightly improved mine. I need to develop my carving skill.)



Jacqueline won this year with Poppa's in a close second!

On a semi related note, I can't believe it's November!

Photo op

Presley has been loving taking pictures! And this particular series, I heard her instructing Teagan on what to do and how to pose. I couldn't have been more proud!!

Although it started a little rocky...


She soon made her subject feel at ease!



Caught some good emotion and a nice composition.

And finished strong.

Sure the subject might be missing an important article of clothing and look a tad disheveled, but it's "just a few pictures" that your mother allots you that can really document a memory! :)

Halloween 2010

It's been a long Halloween! We've got our money's worth out of our costumes, that's for sure! And that's precisely how I prefer it! :)


Saturday, our good friends, Monica and Stevie had a fun family Halloween party. The girls playing in their back yard. It was a wonderful WONDERFUL night outside!



We left there and headed to Aunt Shelly's who also always throws an awesome Halloween party for the kids and adults! Here's the host and hostess who always have awesome costumes (Katy Perry and a homeless man)!

Here's Honey with all the little grand kids. (Jacqueline was having way too much fun with all her friends for me to ask for a picture with her little cousins!)

All the little ones again with Poppa.

Here's the best family picture we got. I didn't try too hard.... I was a pirate (although I think I made a better gypsy in retrospect) and Price was The Most Interesting Man in the World.

Here's Jacq with some of her friends. I thought their outfits were cute!

After five minutes and a few pictures, Price took his beard off and became Taylor Hicks!

On Halloween night, we went to Aunt Mac's for tacos and trick or treating around the block. Here's the little ones before we got started.

Here they are with Marie, Madden's older sister, who chauffeured the little ones up to the houses and helped carry them around the neighborhood when they decided they didn't want to walk anymore!

Here's Chloe with her posse. (She went as Snooki!)

Willa and Dovie went trick or treating with Jay's family. So we missed them this year, but still got to see their cuteness via text of this cute picture.

Now we just have to polish off our stash of candy and we'll be completely done with Halloween 2010. And unfortunately, we've gotten a great start!

Pumpkin Patch

In October (early, mid, late? I can't remember!) we went to Owen's Farm with some good friends, Jennifer (or Weezer, as the girls call her, I don't know why) and her two kiddos - Jacob and Allie, and April and Cowan.

This was our attempt at a group shot. Or my favorite of our attempts at a group shot!


Here's the barrel ride. Allie and Teagan wanted to sit together. Even though Teagan has a mad crush on Jacob. She is always very excited to hang with him. And of course he is super sweet to her!



And here's Jacob and Presley. (A boy jumped in with Presley last minute and I don't know if she tooted or what...)

And here's the Pointer sisters before we fed the hungry goats.

We had fun and I know the girls did too! Thanks Jenn and April for a fun afternoon!

Child labor laws

My dishwasher is broken. Talk about impaired motivation to cook! Last night for dinner I had a small serving of macaroni and cheese, half a six inch left over subway sandwich, and a cut up cucumber waiting for Price when he got home. Bon appetit!

Presley doesn't mind picking up the slack though!




What she misses, I catch on the rinse!




Mostly she plays and I contain major messes, but that's what I do pretty much all day every day.

Pre-K Party

Ain't no party like a pre-K party, cuz a pre-K party don't stop...

Pres had her fall party last week. Kind of early, but it just gets us ready for Halloween and spreads it all out a bit.

The pirate got in on the action.



The 'sting bug' was all smiles (she was star student that week, so that along with the fun party, made for an exciting school week for her).







Teagan went to gymnastics dressed up as a pirate! (I'm clearly way too accommodating!)


We thought a pirate by the rope was fitting, a'hoy mate!

Perch

When we go to Addie's house, Willa and Dovie have a 'perch' as Alison likes to call it, where they watch TV.

My girls got in on the perch (on separate days)!







They know a good spot to watch tv when they see one! So cute! It's amazing how much longer Presley's legs are than the babes.

Haircuts

This past weekend, I took the girls to Great Clips and had their hair trimmed. It was Teagan's first professional haircut and Presley's second. It drives Price crazy when I trim their hair myself, but seriously can you mess it up when you're just snipping the ends. And honestly, after spending $30 and it not looking magically different from when I do it, I think I'll invest in better scissors and develop my skill. Anywho!

Pres enjoyed it!






And poor Teagan was terrified! I had to hold her hand under the cape the whole time! I let go once to try to snap a picture thinking she was okay to carry on by herself, and she was quick to let me know otherwise.








She finally cracked one smile probably when she realized it was almost over!

Safety first

Cookies can be dangerous!



But at your age, you needn't worry!

Testosterone

The girls embracing their masculine side!

Donut Birthday Party

Teagan is turning three this week and yesterday we had an early-morning-wear-your-PJs Donut Party for her. When you asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday she said she wanted "donuts and a pinata".

So we started off with some donuts and kilaches.





Then we sang the birthday song and she blew out her candles on her donut cake. Wasn't quite the look I was going for, somehow my flash got turned off on this series of pictures.



Here's another shot of the cute donut cake, but even this picture doesn't do it justice. Williams-Sonoma has the cutes donut cake mold.

After no one ate any cake (who could blame them, they were plenty sugared up on donuts), we moved on to the pinata. May the season of candy begin!! My sister made the pinata and me and my mom decorated it. So I was a little apprehensive about how hard we could hit it. So we didn't give the kids much of a chance to hit it, but many got a second turn. Turns out it was made WELL! We finally had to rip that sucker apart with our bare hands!





Then we moved on to the presents. But this picture is actually the only picture that I took of the treat boxes. We filled donut boxes with party favors and an apple. I printed stickers for them with a cute picture of Teagan and a word of thanks. You can see them on the table really, really small with no detail whatsoever! (My picture taking at this party lacked. And my little camera is officially dead to me!)

Love this one of Teagan opening presents with tissue paper flying!

The party was successful! Even desite Teagan spilling chocolate milk on her PJ's before we even got to the party, busting her lip playing rough with her cousin, Madden, while setting up, me putting the wrong address on the invitation (SO sorry to Mike, who brough his three boys by himself from an hour away and was lost the longest), and it being rainy and nasty outside. Thank you to everyone who came and made Teagan's birthday a celebration!

Chucky

That's what the girls call Chuck E Cheese. I think they really think they're on a first name basis with that little rodent.



We had been on a little Chucky break. And clearly distance made the heart grow fonder. Who thought that was even possible!