Thanksgiving Fun!

Our Thanksgiving celebrations never disappoint. We had 16 people to celebrate at the house this year and we always have so much to be thankful for. The weather was beautiful and crisp. The turkey, dressing and all of the fixins were as delicious as always!

Juliette and Emerson at their Thanksgiving feast at school

Juliette was such a help to her Tessa. She peeled all of the apples for the apple pie and dressing. She was quite pleased with herself!

Silly Juliette pulled Grandpa's hair into a pony tail late Thanksgiving evening!

My Mickey and Me

There is nothing as special to Tripp as Mickey! He may love Caillou on the TV show "Caillou" and he will tell you, "I not Tripp I Caillou" but there is no excitement like the excitement on his face when he is with Mickey!

The kids decided that there was no better place for hushabye than downstairs. So of course, every quilt, animal, unicorn, blankie needed to be pulled from upstairs. As I rounded the corner when it seemed dangerously quiet, I looked and there was Juliette reading to her brother. I just love these very special moments!

The very beginning of the holidays

We kicked off the beginning of the holidays with putting up the annual Thanksgiving tree! Since I host a large Thanksgiving dinner each year, we love to get into the spirit a little earlier. This year I seem to get "More and more of help"… some helpful help and other help we'll pretend is helpful…

We began with a little pep talk on the stairs on how "ornaments can "bw-eak"… the little guy was overly enthusiastic in the beginning, hence there went two ornaments straight to the ground…

And then he got the grand idea to pick up Juliette's frozen book… distraction was a big plus here!

while the artist took control and made the treat beautiful! She loves this time of the year and any and all of the decorating is her thing!

She takes her work quite seriously!

And after we finished all celebrated with some hot chocolate on a brisk day outside!

Tripp is in the prime of his twos!

His favorite phrase over the past month, "I no want dat…" It can be his most favorite thing and just to be the classic two year old he loves to be difficult! 

The funniest thing about Tripp is his obsession about what I am putting on him to wear. If he could live in "birtday doggie" (which is on him in this picture) or a few other themed shirts including shirts with his name and the now post Halloween ghost shirt my Mom made him that he wants to wear daily even though we are well into November! He does want to wear pants. He puts on the tears each morning! You would think this kind of thing would be common in girls. Not mine. Juliette wore anything I put on her! She was perfect! Most likely because it was something that my Mom designed for her and she loved wearing. 

He is hilarious! Everything since Halloween is now "freaky!" He loves the word and anything remotely scary to him is termed "freaky!" He still has not forgotten the annual mask that my Dad jumps out of the bushes in on Halloween to give all a scare. Each day he says, "Doh is freaky!"… and then he replies to himself, "No, Doh is Doh. I not afraid of da mask."

And then there is Juliette who 95% of the time is so cooperative! I like to say that as long as the world is going her way, you won't see her throw a fit…. but occasionally we all know the world cannot always go our way so yes, at times there is the normal attitude or fit thrown. 

And so we always enjoy our non-boring life! One day we will wonder what our days will consist of when they are grown and gone. Well, Juliette has assured me that she will never leave home and will always live with her Mommy and Daddy.  So we continue to enjoy the moment and reap the most out of each day!

The "Cowgirl" heads to school

Juliette got to wear some favorite accessories to school for a successful fundraiser this year! They could wear their favorite sports journal, obviously she doesn't own a jersey so Mommy let her pick out her favorite scarf from my closet. She could wear a crazy hat too so she chose her cowboy hat. She was ready for a super fun day!

Someone lost her front tooth!

Once again the tooth fairy will be busy! Juliette was at art lessons today and bit into a pretzel and out came her tooth. Juliette told her teacher Ms Johanna, "Oh no… my Mommy is going to be sad…" Juliette was so excited about the tooth fairy. She requested a special note to be left for her. Juliette wanted to know her name. 

That morning when she woke up she received a special note from "Tooth Fairy Dienta" (Dienta is Spanish for teeth and Ms. Adi uses the word all the time). Juliette just beamed when she saw the note from her! The tooth Fair assured her that she loved her new smile!

Juliette received a dollar bill, one quarter, one dime, one nickel, one penny and a chocolate carrot (which in tradition the Eatser bunny had given to her and we managed to hide for the next occasion.) Juliette received an orange chocolate carrot this time and last time the Tooth Fairy brought her a purple chocolate carrot. Juliette's response, "Mommy, the Tooth Fairy must have a rabbit that she keeps so many carrots!"

So here is her new precious smile! Toothy or toothless we think you're precious!

The fair oh the fair!

The fair coming to the Lowcountry is one of my favorite weeks! It is a sign of cool weather (often times much cooler weather) and good times with the kids. It brings back so many memories of being a kid there and now to watch my children enjoy it is heart warming!

We made our way two times. Some years it is more but this time two was plenty. Tripp was out of his mind as it was the first time he was tall enough for the rides! He could not get enough of everything. He would be riding on one ride squealing and then turning his head focusing on the next ride he wanted to do. It was a perfect year because Juliette is still young enough to really enjoy the kiddie rides and she was able to them with Tripp. We had a gorgeous evening topped off with rides, fresh squeezed lemonade, gyros and ending the evening with a cinnamon elephant ear!

I asked Tripp the next day what his favorite part of the fair was. His response… "french fries"

And in good form the child who NEVER falls asleep in the car was out cold before we even got out of the gates!

Halloween 2014

Another super fun and super hilarious Halloween for the books! The weather could not have been more beautiful! We headed over for the annual chili dinner at my parent's house and got into the spirit quickly. Doh is always waiting in the driveway in his VERY scary costume ready to jump out when we pull in. 

We began with carving the pumpkin which turned out SUPER cute! Tripp was fascinated by the feeling inside the pumpkin and was fascinated when the pumpkin lit up!

This year, Juliette could hardly wait for the trick or treaters to get to the house! She just wanted to pass out candy to them. At one point she thought she would rather do that than trick-or-treat but changed her mind. She was thrilled when they started to come to the door and wow did she enjoy that!

Mind you this was her fourth time in this Halloween costume and the wig was on its last leg! It was hilarious but she was not phased at all. She LOVED it! 

After her fill of giving out candy we were ready to hit the road! Here are the two houses that we hit. Tripp was hilarious and Juliette was such a sweet big sister leading the way for him.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! From all of us to you!

Superman, Cleopatra and the Doggie!