Happy Halloween!

Trick or treat!

Three princess BFFs

Lucy a/k/a Princess Presto

Lainey a/k/a Princess Barbie

Getting ready for the big event...much glitter and sparkly makeup was involved.

Fall Fun

It's Just What I'm Made Of

As we were carrying bags full of leaves to the curb to be picked up tomorrow morning, Lucy decided that she needed to draw a picture to give to the garbage collector. So she came in and got drawing. While drawing, she explained to me how, when she was a baby, she held a crayon in her fist, but as she's gotten bigger, she's gotten better at holding crayons and pencils and drawing pictures. She said that someday she wants to teach babies how to draw pictures because "I love it, because I'm a really good artist. It's just what I'm made of, Mommy. It's just what I'm made of."

We've got a lifelong artist on our hands, I think!

A few of my favorite recent anecdotes

• Lucy and Lainey, having an earnest and serious argument about whether or not Santa is a wizard.
• Lainey, playing with a stuffed unicorn and discovering its nostrils, blurts out excitedly, "they're like pockets for fingers!"
• Lainey: "Where does Africa live?" Lucy, exasperated because the answer is SO obvious and all but adding a "duh" at the end of her answer: "at the zoo!"
• Lucy, getting really mad at dinner one night and storming away from the table, yelling, "I'm outta here!"
• Lucy, warning Lainey that "you'll be in time out eventually" if she didn't take her dinner plate into the kitchen.
• We were nearly certain last week that Cinder had escaped and we would never be able to find her again. The girls were so, so sad and worried about the kitty. We were all sad and bummed out for awhile until I found her hiding in a nook in the ceiling that we didn't know existed. The girls were SO EXCITED and happy and began running around the house, screaming with glee, shouting, "We're skipping for joy!" "We're running for joy!" "We're screaming for joy!" The next day, Lainey solemnly told me, "Mommy, I was very worried about Cinder and I'm glad she's okay."

Everyone should have an Aunt Norma. Someone who throws her head back and lets loose a big, brash laugh at the slightest amusement. Someone who envelops her great nieces with enthusiastic, warm, soft hugs whenever she sees them. Someone who pushes those shy little girls to play piano for crowds when they really don't want to, which the girls hate at the time...but which, years later, they know happened only because she loved them so much and was so proud of them and excited about their accomplishments. Years later, those girls appreciate that very much. Someone who always (obliviously) says the wrong thing in every situation, but only out of the purest of motives. Someone who was raised and lived her whole life in the south but unquestioningly loved and accepted a gay son. Someone who was nosy, but only because she cared and worried about her loved ones so much. Someone who had a real and significant impact on everyone who knew her.

Everyone should have an Aunt Norma, and I will miss mine very much.

Apple picking with Grace!

Neighborhood Block Party

We had a super fun neighborhood block party a couple of weekends ago. There was a balloon artist, spray-on tattoos, snow cones, beading tables, lots of yummy food, live music, and lots of great company. Our neighbors across the street, who have become great friends of ours, and us watched the girls frolic to the music. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves (until the girls' balloons popped on the way home).

Emblematic of Lainey's joie de vivre

Lucy, Lainey, and their BFF, Hannah, who lives across the street

Update: Nerine's comment made me realize I forgot to note the pink shinguards!! Thanks, Nerns. Lucy starts soccer in a week and is oh so very excited for it...the weekend we got her cleats and shin guards she wore them constantly and would have worn them to sleep in if I'd let her. She also wore them to school one day. We're hoping that the actual experience lives up to her expectations!! (And it's hard to believe how tiny her cleats and shinguards are...so adorable.)