Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Best wishes for a fun and safe night amongst all of the trick-or-treaters, either yours or theirs. :)

We will be trick-or-treating with the girls' cousin who lived two blocks from my parents, along with her parents, my parents and my sister (aka Auntie E).

Sharing is caring

Sharing in our household has come a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry lonnnnnnnnnnngggg way.

As you can imagine, they had to learn sharing early on. Well at least Ava did; at one-year-old. And today, I can say, she is the best sharer I know. In ballet class today, they had a Halloween party. One of the little girls' moms prepared a bunch of Halloween goodie bags for the ballerinas. Well Emma is not a ballerina anymore due to her shyness/age and did not receive a bag.

Ava was so willing to share with Emma today. I asked her to share with her and she did it... like above and beyond. She gave Emma the only chocolate candy (M&Ms) and shared the 2-pack Starburst candies with her too! I was so proud and smiling from ear-to-ear.

She is the perfect big sister and the perfect sister for Emma. Because if all of that sharing didn't happen, Emma would of been rolling on the ground whining, crying for candy with snotty, red eyes.

Halloween costumes revealed

As much as a three or two-year-old loves to be challenging, my girls went back and forth on what they wanted to be for Halloween.
Did your kids do that this early?!
Emma settled on Strawberry Shortcake and Ava on Strawberry's BFF/side kick Blueberry Muffin.
So cute. They LOVE their costumes so much and tell everyone who they are going to be.

Cheap thrills

Play Doh is a timeless 'toy' or activity, right? Something about the feeling as smushing the dough and creating and recreating things with your hands. And the smell.

We receiving a baby sized container of some red Play Doh as a Halloween gift and the girls enjoyed playing with. So I bought some more. And realized how cheap it was.. and that I could probably make it. But what isn't cheap are the 'extras' you can buy to use with the dough. I said heck with that!

I fished out my random collection of cookie cutters, two plastic cutting placemats and a little plastic cup for rolling. The girls were thrilled!

Cost: Play Doh $2 for two containers; everything else was free/on hand.

Woo hoo! Great rainy day project.

Luckily I don't have carpet or the girls would only experience Play Doh at day care or a friends' house.

'Where's the Love?' Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! I'll get straight to it for this week's edition of "Where's the Love?" courtesy of Miss Abby from Akers of Love. This month she's been doing a month of adoption posts and I have really enjoyed all of them.

This week I am LOVING (like L-O-V-I-N-G, kissing in a tree and the whole sh-bang), pinterest.com. I've read here and there about bloggers that love it and 'pin' stuff and make the 'pins' and didn't really read into it. I didn't think I needed another Web site to check out, or, ummm... get overly addicted to.

And here we are! Addicted to pinterest.com so much that I started a new blog. So let's throw out the etiquette on self promoting, because I wanted to highlight the blog I started with my dear friend, Michelle, who invited me and got me addicted to the site. Our blog is called "Things Pinterest Made Me Do..."

You know you have a submission you want to post, don't ya?! :) Cookies, crafts, frames, funny sayings that made it to posters, dreams of your dream home, etc.

Check it out! We're still fine tuning the site, but already have a 'pin' just completed so stay tuned! So again, go to http://pinterestfans.blogspot.com.

Where is your love this week? Let Abby know here.

'Celebrating Kindependence'

I received an e-mail from the lovely staff members at Pampers Kandoo about a contest that they are holding about "Celebrating Kindependence." (If you are interested in entering, scroll to the end of my post.)

What is 'kindependence' you might ask? It's the child-sized version of "I can do it myself."

Ring a bell anyone? That two-year-old that "I can do it!!!!" when putting on their shoes or buttering their toast.

Let me give you another perfect example where my children are constantly practicing the "I can do it myself" kindependence.

Potty training as anyone knows is a daunting task that parents near and wide, dread. You dread it because you know your days will be filled with bodily functions, lots of laundry, a high water bill, and a new-found loss of patience.

I can now say that both of my girls, have proved that they are out of the baby stage because they are both potty trained. (Can I get an WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!) Now this may come at a shock to all of you, but I have been mourning this new 'kindependence' that they have both earned. I am mourning because both of my 'babies' are no longer babies. They have reached the milestone of exiting babyhood. Even though a two-year-old or almost three-year-old, is truly not a baby, they might still be in diapers/pull-ups or potty training, but not full on going pee-on-potty. It's not that they don't need my help sometimes, but usually they can do the potty thing themselves.

I am honored to say that not only one, but both of my girls, are being celebrated. I have been thinking of ways of celebrating their HUGE milestone of mastering the potty training deal: learning to hold their bodily functions in long car rides (remember we commute), waiting for their turn on the potty, cheering each other on each morning after dry sheets are achieved.

None other than any milestone, this one is huge. They are exiting babyhood and entering kidhood.

Therefore, I celebrate my girls and their new 'kindependence' and will go and buy them Princess dolls and/or sparkly black glitter princess shoes and/or the new Halloween Barbie, for this huge achievement.

I keep in mind that there are many, many more milestones to hit because the issues down the road will become more complex and less physically demanding. I will cherish this 'ah-ha' moment knowing times ahead will be in the rough. But now, I will celebrate by doing the happiest 'happy dance' you've ever seen! (No video, sorry!)

If you are interested in entering a blog post about how your children are 'celebrating kindependence' click here to the contest's Web site. Deadline is Oct. 31.

www.pamperskandoo.com/Kindependence

Creative minds think alike

I'd like to think creative minds think alike, like the famous saying goes, right? I may be creative in my own ways, but not as creative as the people on Pinterest or as one of my favorite bloggers, Mrs. Priss. Recently, the creative momma posted a post about how to make cute little pumpkin decorations with stuff you probably and most likely have around the house. They are called Toliet Paper Pumpkins and if you follow the link here, it will take you to her post on how to make them.

I'm going to make a ton!!! Too bad they didn't make tiny rolls of T.P. haha. I would make little pumpkin place markers for Thanksgiving dinner for everyone!!!

Oh and if you haven't been to Pinterest.com, you are missing out of HOURS and I mean, HOURS, of wasted time on the internet, but you walk away with LOTS of inspiration for art projects, home projects, and a stalk of to-do's for the honey to-do list.

Art project revealed!

I just realized (after joining Pinterest -thanks Michelle!) that I never showed the final picture of my DIY art project for the girls' playroom. If you remember, I was having a hard time keeping up with and loving (like all, not most, ALL parents) with all of the artwork that the girls come home with from day care. I love every piece and I love that they bring it all home. But I was finding that it was just landing in piles while getting lost in the "important-to be hanged" pile or the "bill" pile, etc.

Here's the final picture!

The girls love hanging their art and I love looking at it when we go and play in that room. I ended up using some dark purple yarn that I had laying around and some clear push pins, along with the clothespins.

Super easy, fun and cheap!

Pumpkin festivities begin!

The girls and I headed to the pumpkin patch at this ginormous farm in Lathrop, CA. The farm is called Dell' Osso Farms and we had a blast! The farm is home to a huge corn maze, which we didn't go through.

Support JDRF and Elyssa

My friend, Racheal, I've known since middle school (and reconnected through Facebook recently) has a beautiful little girl named Elyssa. Her daughter was just diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes this year in July. They are both strong and Rachael is amazing.

She made a little video about Elyssa's journey that you can see by clicking here.

Please keep this beautiful little girl and her strong, family in your thoughts and prayers. No child should have to go through this. And with a small donation, you can make sure that research can go just a little further for children as beautiful as her.

If you are interested in following their journey, Racheal writes a blog called Life with Elyssa and Type 1 Diabetes.

It's a 'shape'

My mom and I took the girls to the doctors yesterday for their well baby visits, I guess they aren't well babies anymore, they are big girl visits? Check-ups? How about, princess tiara fittings, because they still do measure the size of their heads and now use the height thingy to see how tall they are.

So we're in the hallway where we are *attempting* to get weighed, measured and have our blood pressure taken (just Ava, I guess it's a new 3-year-old thing), while trying to get them to stop crying and screaming in fear of the weight machine. ??? Anyone else's kids do this? Oh, just mine? I was hoping not.

So we get to the eye chart and the nurse asks her what the shapes are?

Nurse: What is this?
Ava: Hmm...... (silence)
Mommy: What shape is that, Ava?
Ava: Apple!
Nurse: Good, what is this?
Ava: Hmm...... I don't know.
Nurse: Circle?
Ava: Circle!
Nurse: This one?
Ava: Ummm..... hmmm.... it's a .... shape!
Nurse: Uh yeah. I'll go with that, it's a square. How old is she?
Mommy: Three.
Nurse: Oh, really?
Mommy: Um YES! She is three, adjusted age by two months because she was born early and la la la. 

I was so embarrassed. I know she knows what a square is. I know she's only three, but she is three. And I know I need to get my butt in gear for both of them for the next time they are asking so they'll proudly answer with the corresponding answer!

And I know I shouldn't be embarrassed. Both of my kids-- kick butt! They are smart, caring, sweet, athletic, etc. But I should also remember what just happened, Ava squeezing herself out of my grasp while trying to sit in the blood pressure chair (hey girlie, I don't like it either!), refusing to stand on the weight scale, etc.

Sometimes us mommies have to give ourselves some slack and that is what I will/was/going to do!

'Where's the Love?' Wednesday ... a NICU graduation

This past weekend I attended a NICU graduation event at the hospital that Ava was born at and spent most of the first five weeks (minus a week and a half that was spent at another hospital in the same network) of her life. This event is one of the most wonderful events I've attended and has been our second time. The first event we attended, Emma was just two and a half months old, making Ava just14 and a half months old. So we didn't get to play the games, get our hair braided, etc.

Dirt and sunlight

The last night before the rain started to fall (for a day) in sunny CA, the girls and I headed outside to the backyard to catch some rays and burn off some steam.

'Where's the Love?' Wednesday

What I'm loving this week... (hosted by the lovely Abby at Akers of Love)

The love this week is the fact that Emma is potty trained! YIPPEEE!!!

'Day in the Life'

Here goes nothing! Thanks to Navigating the Mothership for hosting this month's Day in the life.

I chose Sunday, Oct. 2, as the Day in the Life. (Most of the picture were taken on my phone- so most are blurry. Sorry!)