Merry Christmas to all...

Christmas was a wonderful distraction from everything else we had going on in the days before.

Santa and family were very generous with gifts this year. We spent the day eating and playing with just about all of the toys and games that were received...Dogopoly, Sequence, Apples to Apples, GoFish and Super Mario Bros for the Wii were just a sampling.

Megan's new scooter was her favorite mode of transportation for nearly every task of the day...take something to the garbage, bring Emily a glass of water, a trip to the bathroom.

Twas the night before Christmas...

Some Christmas time prose

My Santa Poem
by Emily H

Santa
Wooly, soft,
Eating, working, reading.
Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas.
Working, building, laughing,
Funny, excited.
Elves.

Two months of Saturdays

This summer we were kicking around a soccer ball and realized that Meg was pretty agile with the ball. Following that we decided to sign her up for soccer...but then Emily announced that she wanted to play again (she's played for the past three years). So we took on the challenging endeavor that millions of parents have undertaken before us... two children in organized sports at the same time.

Steve is also the assistant coach for both teams (can you say gluttons for punishment?) So for the past twelve weeks our Tuesday nights, Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings and afternoons have been all about the black and white ball.

Emily's age group started playing on the bigger field this year. Her favorite positions are either defense or mid-fielder. Megan's favorite part of soccer is running through the tunnel (the parents arm tunnel at the end of the game) and snacks.

As you can imagine, we're looking forward to the last weekend of the fall season coming up and a few open Saturdays for awhile.

Best in Show

My mom is an amazing seamstress. Back in the 70s she made both my clothes and my Barbies' clothes. Just think about the scale of Barbie clothes. She added beautiful detail to each outfit. I didn't appreciate the skill it took back then...but I certainly loved that I had the most stylish and best dressed Barbies in the whole neighborhood.

Now that I'm the mother of girls and have a playroom full of Barbies, I definitely can appreciate my mom's talent. The clothes that you buy in the store are less than stellar quality, not to mention Barbies less than conservative taste in a wardrobe. It is also hard to find just the clothes. If you want the wedding dress for your Barbie, you need to buy the entire wedding themed Barbie doll. The marketing is ingenious for Mattel's stockholders but frustrating for the average consumer.

Lucky for both me and my girls, my mom is still making doll clothes. Megan received a trunk full for her birthday last month. From casual to formal, Meg has had so much fun dressing up the dolls.






Mom sent duplicates of some of the outfits so I've tucked them away for safe keeping. Perhaps one day both girls will be able to share them with their own daughters. A special gift made with love by their great-grandmother!

Witches and mice...how nice

A month or so ago, when the discussion of Halloween costumes came up, Megan announced that she wanted to be Minnie Mouse for Halloween. I was thrilled since Em was Minnie a few years ago and Meg is now the perfect size for the costume.

Emily proclaimed that she wanted to be a "pop witch" for Halloween. Our response was, "A what?" After her description I was able to deduce that she wanted to be a friendly variety witch with bright colors and perhaps some bling. Sounded like a fun endeavor so during fall break we started pulling all the pieces together.

Last Friday was the school's Fall Festival so both girls got to take a trial run of the costumes before the big night. She's very pleased with the final result...

All tuckered out

I'd say this is a sign that our first day of fall break was a success. Full of many activities including miniature golf, bumper boats, a roller coaster, bike rides and daddy calisthenics.