Friday, November 30, 2007

Slow dancing, swaying to the music...


Their evening of slow dancing ended abruptly when Ben made an inappropriate grab for Jesse's rear. Love is in the air...

Had him at the vet last week, and he was around 140 lbs.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Halloween














We have this *massive* local church, Cartersville First Baptist I think with about a zillion members. It's really close to our house so I took the girls to their Fall Festival and it was SOOO nice. I loved it because I knew they were surrounded with (comparatively) safe people, and they had so much for them to do. The minute we got there they handed them glow-necklaces and a goody bag, and then we headed straight for the bounce house, which they had all to themselves for like 10 minutes. Then the giant inflatable slide, which was like a clown car of kids, they were trying so hard to keep them in line but it was a total melee, arms and legs sticking out everywhere. Natalie hesitated a little (and I had to teach her the concept of standing in line) but then she went for it. And the surprise of the night, Madeline saw Baby do it once, and jumped right in behind her. Much older kids everywhere, and she just got in line, threw elbows when she needed to, climbed the ladder by herself (she didn't even look at me!!) and only hesitated for a sec at the top, then Cowabunga!! Down she came, with eyes the size of dinner plates, and I won't lie, she wasn't smiling, but she did it. Then it was off to pet the animals, they had a petting zoo!! I couldn't get any pics of that, but there was a pot belly piggy (I've discovered the world's softest nose, sorry Ben) an alpaca (sp?), baby goats, and a horse in full saddle with a guy in boots and a hat riding him, (which they must have hired from Dorky Cowboys R Us, you had to be there, I was just waiting for him to call me 'Mam.)

So then we "Trunk or Treated" and that was so much fun, everyone had their trunks decorated in different themes, and some of them were so clever. They got loads of candy, and then they had their faces painted. By that time it was dark and getting cold, (and I told them they couldn't eat any candy until we got home and I could look it over) so we "cracked" their glow necklaces, and they came around with glow bracelets too, and those were so much fun through the dark parking lot (which has to be 6 acres, this is a huge church) and in the car on the way home, I might add. They slept with their glow necklaces as "night lights," they love those things. I was really impressed by the Fall Festival, we will definitely do that again.

Natalie's Birthday

More than a little late, I know, but better late than never. I actually have some time so I'm playing blog catch-up today, maybe I should make that this blog's title, playing catch-up. Anyway, Natalie turned 5 on October 1st (FIVE, YEARS, MAN!!)


She didn't know she was getting a "Mommy make me better" baby doll she had seen in a commercial. She asked for it every time she saw the commercial, and I played it cool. Mom found it and sent it, so I didn't even have to figure out a way to buy it for her and hide it (try that when she's in the shopping cart with you. May have worked when she was 2, but not anymore.) Anyway, this was the look on her face when she realized what she was opening.


She had to use scissors to open everything, because she's a big kid now, we were curtly informed, and basically letting her use scissors is akin to letting you or I drive the Space Shuttle.


I loved the reaction from Madeline when she opened this puzzle. She *loves* puzzles and she reacted with her whole body, "OOOOOHHHHH!"


Jesse had all sorts of little things for both girls after Natalie opened her big presents, things like nail polish (I made that disappear post haste) markers, and new princess cups with straws. He made them close their eyes between each little surprise, but Madeline never quite got the "wait til I say open 'em part.) She would close her eyes for just a sec, then totally peek, then yell out the next surprise, while Natalie obediently has her eyes covered waiting for Jesse to say open 'em. It was so cute.


Here's her cake. It was an ice cream cake from DQ, and the *WHOLE THING* was made from ice cream. I thought it would have a "cake layer" you know? The writing on top was supposed to be purple? But we let Natalie put the princess candle and the little pink candles on, and she had a blast. And the cake was *so good.*