Apron Idea

Have you ever pictured something in your head that drove you into doing a project you didn't have time for? It started for me when I discovered that Elyana won't always "willingly" wear a bib when she's eating something messy. However, she's thrilled to wear this little kids apron anytime. I pictured Mikayla, Elyana, and my niece, Sophia wearing matching aprons and helping us with our Thanksgiving cooking. I've never really sown something that has turned out normal unless my expert sewing friend, Karin is helping me. I'm trying to meet an article deadline with Rochester Women, but decided to throw this project into the crazyness. Here is how it turned out, not bad for my first attempt!

Personal Achievement Award

Yesterday Mikayla received a personal achievement award for her class at their school spirit assembly. I picked Nate up at work and we went to surprise her. Her teacher kept it a surprise who was getting the award. We were pretty proud. She received it because of how much she's grown so far this year. From clinging to my leg outside the school for the first 3-4 weeks to blossoming in class, learning to read and write, and make lots of friends. Here are a few pictures that Nate took of her receiving her award. On a side note that you will find very funny. Mikayla has said several times now that Santa is NOT bringing Elyana anything for Christmas because she is so naughty. "Not even sure why she needs to sit on his lap and tell him what she wants." Poor Kayla. I wish I had a video of how "terrible" her terrible twos were.

Christmas Presents for the Girls

When my mom visited this weekend, we make some no-sewing required baby and barbie beds for the girls. It's just storage containers. I like that it's a bed, but you can also store the doll/barbie clothes and dolls inside. Great for traveling! We got the idea when we went to Warrens, WI Cranberry Festival Craft Fair in October. Here's a picture of them:

First Snowfall of 2008

Friday, November 7th brings the first snowflakes of winter. It wasn't 8:00 yet and the kids were eager to play in it. Even though our noses were still running and we still have a touch of a cough, we all bundled up and the kids didn't even have snow boots that fit them. We built our first 2008 snowman, got out the sled, and had a snowball fight. It's funny, Mikayla didn't have school today and I was concerned we'd be bored. Now, it's 9:00 and we're all tuckered out and I still have several errands to run and our coats and shoes are all wet. So, we're bundled up and are watching Frosty the snowman for the first time this winter. Here are some pictures of our snow adventures this morning:

Mikayla the Teacher

I've been wondering if Mikayla would ever start to play school like I used to. I used to have all of my stuffed animals spread out over my room and I was their teacher. I liked to play library too and make little cards for each "student" and had a date stamper for their books. So, Mikayla has been playing school for the first time these last few weeks. For some odd reason, Elyana's potty chair is their school headquarters. The bookcase in Ellie's room is their library. Here's a picture of a possible future teacher...

Halloween

We had a really nice Halloween night. It was the first Halloween I can recall so far here in MN where we could go trick or treating without jackets! It's usually so cold that we just go to 3 houses tops and come back home. It's also the first Halloween where we didn't get to go trick or treating at Nate's office. Here's a few pictures of the girls. Mikayla was Ariel and Elyana was Tinkerbell.



We went to several neighbors houses for treats and then we headed to church. I have much praise for the awesome job our church did last night. They had transformed the church parking lot into a fun place to be on Halloween with a petting zoo, bounce houses, a craft area, and several "trunks" of cars decorated with people in costumes handing out candy. After the girls jumped till their cheeks were flushed, Ellie started to point to the petting zoo saying, "see McDonalds farm."

After it started to get dark and cold, we headed over to Chipolte. Nate said they were giving out free burritos that night. We showed up to discover everyone there was decked out in aluminum foil. Some were full foil costumes of human burritos, some just made jewelry of aluminum. I stopped a lady on her way out with free burritos to ask her what was up. She very generously gave us their foil jewelry and a party hat covered in foil. Kayla wore the foil hat, Nate and I made foil wrist bands, and we connected Ellie's pig tails with a foil band. Nate and I had awesome free burritos while the kids ate more of their candy and played with foil. We were all full and worn out when we got home. Here's an awesome picture of Ellie, totally zoned out with a full belly: