Holidays Begin

Maddox had a Thanksgiving dinner at preschool.  As usual, she ate nothing but the cookie and the muffin.  Hadlee and I came to watch and so I let Hadlee eat the rest of her food after they left the tables to go sing songs.  And, as usual, Hadlee ate everything.

This weekend was Winterfest in Waukee.  Santa arrived in town at 4:30 and rode around all the neighborhoods in a firetruck greeting all the kids until he arrived at the downtown triangle (no, it's not the square, it's the triangle here in Waukee) to let kids sit on his lap.  I heard the fire truck siren at the corner so I grabbed Maddox and ran outside to the side yard where Santa waved at her from the cab and said "Ho Ho Ho" over the microphone.  She thought it was pretty cool.  It was a very cold night but we went downtown where we met Suzy and the kids.  Separately neither Maddox nor Emily were willing to sit on Santa's lap.  But once they were together they would do it.  They're both much braver together.  Emily is the only one that talked to him.  Maddox refused to speak or even look at him, just like every year.

 My battery died on my camera so this picture is with my phone.  Hadlee was interested in checking him out, but very quietly and shyly.  Maddox just stared straight ahead.  After this we were all frozen so we went to the community center where they were serving soup, cookies, and hot chocolate and letting the kids do a craft.  It was a cute little night for the little ones.

I don't remember if I ever posted this picture but it's been on my phone forever.  I think it says a lot about Maddox.  It was taken this summer while we were camping (Maddox loves camping) while she was playing on the playground (again, Maddox loves that).  She's wearing her butterfly sandals (which she hardly took off this summer) backwards (because she NEVER could get the right one on the right foot so I just gave up and let her do what she wanted) and a butterfly landed on her foot (loves nature, outdoors, bugs, and animals... she's her mother's daughter)!  So this picture is just full of things and memories that Maddox is and loves. 

Disney on Ice

The Lowe and Schultz families went to see Disney on Ice Treasure Trove the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Maddox was so excited to see this and it was her first on ice show.  It kept Hadlee's rapt attention too.  It was a very cold windy night full of Disney characters and pizza w

 

This is Maddox face when Rapunzel came out.  She is definitely a princess little girl... loves them all!

 Maddox and Emily both got to get princess necklaces.  Em got Ariel and Maddox got Rapunzel.  Of course Maddox wanted the same one Emily got but I tried to push her in a different direction.  She's holding on to it in this photo.

1st Snow in Iowa!!

It snowed for the first time this season last night!  We were forecasted to get about an inch, but got about 3 inches at our house.  Maddox didn't wake up early as usual today so I went in and woke her up around 7:15 so we would have time to play before she had to go to school.  She, of course, was grumpy and tired and sat on my lap.  But when I pulled open her shades and she looked out her face lit up and she had the biggest smile!  Suddenly she was happy and wide awake!

 Even Jessi liked prancing around in the snow.  She ran all over looking frantically for her frisbee.  I'll have to remember to keep that somewhere so I doesn't get buried.  I have no idea where it is.

 Maddox kept saying, "Mommy, I love snow!"  I said, "Good, welcome to Iowa."  We'll see how long that lasts.

 Poor Hadlee still needs some snow boots and proper gloves.  She got pretty cold and was shivering after a short while.  Hadlee pretty much stayed in the sled and really had no desire to walk around in it.  Next time I'll hopefully have proper winter attire for her and I'll feed her before we go out and I bet she'll be much happier with it all.

 It was a really wet snow so we built a quick and short snowman.  Really, I do not like building snowmen.  At all.  The things we do for our children.

 Then we threw some snowballs around.  Or rather, I threw some snowballs at Maddox and Jessi.  See that red spot on her right cheek?  Snowball.  Oops.  Maddox wasn't very happy with me.

 Maddox finally got to make the snow angel she's been asking about all summer!  She's been making sand angels, leaf angels, and couldn't wait for snow to make a real snow angel.  After she was done I don't think she thought it was all it was cracked up to be. 

Then it was time to go to school.  I'm sure the snow will be pretty much gone by lunch time so we had to squeeze our playtime in before school.  No worries, there will be plenty more!

Our First Iowa Halloween

It didn't snow!  It was a pretty decent temperature.  Maybe upper 40s, near 50?  Maddox kept complaining that her hands were cold though.  In Iowa you go trick-or-treating on Beggar's Night from which was on the 30th this year from 6-8pm and you're supposed to have a joke to tell.  Right.  She's 3.  But we stuck with the simple knock knock joke, who's there, boo, boo whoo?, well you don't have to cry about it. An oldie but a goodie and simple for Maddox.  She doesn't really get the whole joke thing anyway.  Luckily she was only asked 3 times to tell the joke which she did very quietly with no eye contact.  After about an hour of trick-or-treating Maddox wanted to go home, Hadlee was getting hungry, and all the houses were running out of candy.

 Maddox wanted to be Ariel from The Little Mermaid so she got a new dress but also wanted to wear all her jewelry and carry her wand and purse.  So she was Ariel, the mermaid princess.  Whatever.  She was happy and that's all that counts.  She wanted the red wig but I refused to waste money on something she'd probably find itchy and not wear anyway so I just curled her hair to make her look fancier.  Hadlee got to wear Maddox's hand-me-down Little Red Riding Hood costume that Grammy made.  Even wearing the costume someone at Target the next day asked me what it was ("little red riding hood") and responded with "Oh!  He's so cute!"  I said, "I'm pretty sure little red riding hood would be a girl."  Really? 

 Jessi wore her usual Supergirl costume again.  Hey, no one here has seen it yet.  Next year I may have to buy her a different one.  She was a hit and even got a candy corn dog cookie at one house.

 Back at home, the girls are grumpy, tired, and my camera isn't working right.  Get out the candy for a sugar rush!

I pretty much let them eat as much as they wanted, which really wasn't that much, that night.  I mean, what fun is Halloween if you don't have that one night of eating a bunch of candy?  So by bedtime they were wired, crazy, and silly.  It was pretty funny!

Center Grove Orchard 2011

Our day at Center Grove Orchard was easily one of the best family days we've had together.  Jeremy's schedule at work was all messed up so instead of his usual Friday off (when it was to be 65 degrees) he had Wednesday off (when it was to be 45 degrees, cloudy, and windy).  But we knew we wanted to go on a weekday rather than the weekend to avoid the crowds and boy did we!  Absolutely everything we did we had all to ourselves.  There were a few other people there, but so few that we didn't ever share an activity at the same time.  I bundled the kids up in snow pants and winter coats and hats so I would hear no complaints about how cold they were.  It was awesome to be able to play with no other bigger kids around and no crowds!

 My little Alice in Wonderland.  They had the Mad Hatter's Tea Party table too.

 There was also the 3 little pig's houses and goats, sheep, chickens, and horses to pet or see but I don't want to post too many pictures.  This picture is the old schoolhouse they have there.

 Maddox made corn angels in the corn pit.

 We didn't take Hadlee's shoes off in the corn pit and she came home with about a whole ear's worth in one shoe.  Whoops.  No wonder she didn't want to walk the rest of the day.

 We had the jumping pillow all to ourselves too!  Which was great because last year Maddox was pretty scared of the jumping pillow mainly because there were so many other kids on it and she kept getting bounced around.  So we all took turns bouncing so she could have control of her bounces.  She loved it!

 Hadlee tries to jump but that consists of bending her knees and just popping back up, her feet never leaving the ground.

 Maddox enjoyed trying to find her way out of the hay bale maze.

 We also went down the super slide.  It looks pretty steep from the top and Maddox was scared, but loved it once we did it.  After going down between my legs she would go down beside me as long as I held her hand and held onto her hood with my other hand.  Hadlee went down between our legs too and  liked it.

 Then we took the tractor ride out to the corn maze and pumpkin patch.  Pictures started ending here because my newfound allergies kicked in and I spent most of this walk sneezing, blowing my nose, and trying to see through my watery eyes.  I was happy to just finish the maze, get the pumpkins and get out of there at this point.  Hadlee fell asleep in Jeremy's arms while we did the maze for a short nap. 

After spending 4 hours at the orchard we got a snack and loaded up to head back home (stopping on the way to buy allergy medicine).  It was such a fun day and the girls loved it!  Who can beat spending the day outside playing with your kids with no crowd around to fight?  Next time I'll take allergy medicine before we go though!

Family and our New Cat

We had to take a family picture for Maddox to take to school.  I realized we really don't have one.  I'm always taking the picture.  So one Sunday we had Suzy take pictures of us.  It's hard to get both girls happy at the same time!

 At the end of September this stray cat showed up at our house.  I tried to find it a home but eventually started letting come into our house.  She was so sweet and nice. She was always laying on our laps and letting Maddox carry her all over the house while she just dangled there.  So I let Jeremy make the decision if we should keep her (that way it would be on his shoulders if she turned out to be trouble) and he really liked her and thought she'd be a good fit for us so he said yes!  We left town for 3 days to go to KC for Jeremy's birthday and I said if she's still sitting outside our house when we get back we'd keep her.  She was sitting on our back steps, waiting.  So now, a month later, she's still with us and in heat.  The vet didn't want to spay her until she came into heat just in case she was already spayed.  Try explaining why the cat meows constantly, rubs on everything, and keeps her rear up in the air to a 3 year old.  I told her the cat really wants to get married and have babies but she can't find a boy cat.  Maddox thinks the cat just really loves her shoes ("they're like a blanky to her") and when we take her to the vet she's going to have surgery on her mouth so she won't meow.  By the way, the cat's name is Precious, named by Maddox because she has a Build-a-Bear cat named the same.  Precious has been banished to the basement at night so we can all sleep and surgery will be soon!

1st Day of Preschool

Here's the school girl, up early, and very excited!  She wore her backpack around the house for almost an hour before we had to leave.

 She looks so little walking away.  No, we didn't have to walk to school.  But the car is parked down the street because our road is being repaved.

 Posing in front of her cubby.

 Then she went straight to circle time.  She couldn't care less about the newness of it all or leaving me.  I had to ask her for a kiss then run out the door before I got too teary eyed.  She is absolutely going to love school!

Labor Day weekend fun

This past weekend we went to St. Joseph and Wathena to spend time with Jeremy's family.  Friday night we went to Savannah's football game, which of course they won and Maddox was enthralled by the marching band as usual.  My kids loved Aunt Shelby's aviator sunglasses in the car on the way up there.

 Saturday morning Jeremy ran a 5k for Wathena's Fall Festival.  He finished 3rd overall and won his age with 18:11.

 Saturday afternoon we spent at the festival.  Maddox rode 3 or 4 rides over and over again.  There really weren't anymore for her age. 

 Maddox also got some fairy wings from the clowns.  A grimacing smile from her... maybe because it was raining on us?  Just a drizzle so it wasn't bad, but we got a little wet.

 Sunday afternoon James and Angie, Gabbie and Hayden came over to cookout at Grandma Barb's.  Here all her grandkids together.  A rarity that will hopefully happen a little more often now that we live in Iowa.  Sunday evening we went to the parade in Wathen and got a ton MORE candy. (5 parades in 2 months... I will NOT be buying Halloween candy.)

 Monday morning we went to the Patee House Museum where the only thing Maddox liked was the old carousel.  It is very pretty.  This might be the first time I've let Hadlee ride one.

Then we spent Monday afternoon at Krug Park where Maddox wanted to explore ALL the castle stairs.  The park itself she wasn't so impressed with.  It is a little cruddy nowadays.  But it was still pretty cool to take her to places I grew up and had so many memories there.  Then the afternoon went downhill from there with Hadlee having diarrhea and no diapers and Jessi rolling in very smelly poo.  It was definitely time to go back home!