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!