Halloween Fun!

I must say, this Halloween was the best one I've had for as long as I can remember. Before I had kids, I always enjoyed the idea of handing out candy to the neighborhood kiddies, but when the day arrived, I felt crappy about being child-less, and kept the lights off and the door locked.

Even when the girls were one- and two-years old, I didn't enjoy it much. They were too small to go trick-or-treating and I really didn't want to deal with the door and watching the kids. Last year we handed out a little candy, but we didn't get many kids at the house we were at.

This year was a whole different ball game. Speaking of - congrats Boston! I digress...

This year, we are living in a real live neighborhood, where the neighbors know each other and the kids all play together. It's fabulous. I hope we can stay for a long time. Some of the houses were all decorated up for the holiday. And now that the girls are in preschool, the holiday was built up at school too. They got to dress up on Wednesday for school and had a little party.

Last night, the girls got all dressed up like little princesses (so fitting!) and we walked around to a few houses in the neighborhood. We went early, just before it was dark, so not everyone was home or ready yet. It was just the perfect amount. They got a little bucket load of candy, which the spent the rest of the night sorting and playing with. After we were done going door-to-door we came home, light the pumpkins and flipped our porch light on. There were so many kids, and some of them were so cute!! Every time the doorbell rang or someone knocked the girls raced to the door to help me hold the bowl. They had a blast! Kaitlyn even told be she was ready for bed about an hour before bedtime. I guess she had a little too much excitement.

(Ready to go Mom!)

 

(they are waiting for the doorbell to ring)

 





I really did have a good time. I finally felt like a mom on Halloween. I know that may sound weird, but this was the first time I haven't avoided the holiday. We actually got into it a little this year. Last weekend we made "monster cookies" that were bright colors with those candy googly eyes. We went to a pumpkin patch and painted pumpkins, we've feasted on pumpkin flavored treats and we even carved a couple pumpkins. The house is even decorated a bit.

It was a really fun month, but I'm ready for the rest of the holiday season. These girls are more and more fun the older they get. I can't wait to see their excitement for the rest of the year. It is the best time of the year, after all. :0)

Helloooo!!

Hi All!! I don't know if anyone is still following this lil blog o' mine. It sure has been a while since I've posted anything. Let me give you a recap of what's been going on since last October...

We had the "big holidays" - Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. All were good. Halloween was pretty low key. We hid out at my parents house,who never get one trick or treater. I figured this was my last time not to have to deal with Halloween. I'm sure this year the girls will want to be dressed up and going door to door.

Thanksgiving was nice. We spent it at my MIL's place with all my husband's family. Since the big "event" between my dad and my husband, my family doesn't get any major holidays, on the actual holiday anymore.

Christmas was fun this year. The girls loved the tree and the anticipation of Santa coming and leaving gifts. They were so cute when they got up Christmas morning and saw all the wrapped things under the tree. Christmas Eve morning was spent with my parents (just me and the girls). Christmas day afternoon Hubby's family came over for a bit.

In January, we met with a prospective preschool. We decided we liked them very much. It's an in-home school with 12 kids in the AM class and 12 in the PM class. We decided to do mornings since the girls are still napping. We are now less than a month away from the girls starting preschool. August 15 will be an emotional day for me, I'm sure.

All the holidays seem to be getting better as the girls grow up. They were so cute on Easter. The day before I took them to my parents house to hunt for eggs. My mom went crazy filling a million plastic eggs with all kinds of stuff. They had also colored eggs and those were hidden too, but if they (especially Natalie) picked up and egg and it didn't make noise when it was shaken it was discarded - haha! The girls had colored eggs at our house too, and I planned to hide them for them to find on Easter, but after I saw how little they cared for the "real" eggs, I didn't bother. Thanks Mom... :0)

I got to go on TWO vacations in April this year. My first trip was with my mom and two of my aunts. We took a road trip to San Francisco for a few days. It was my first time away from the kids that long, and the first time Hubby had to watch them alone for that long. Everyone did fine. It was fabulous!  At the end of the month, things worked out perfect for Hubby and I to go to Palm Desert, CA for our own vacation. It was 8 days of bliss!! His mom watched the girls at our house so we could be gone. We decided it definitely needs to be an annual trip. We got to spend a lot of time together and we had a lot of fun. There was no stress and nothing to fight about. Wonderful!!

I do have to say though, the best part about the vacation, was my MIL potty training BOTH kids while we were gone!!! Kaitlyn didn't even need diapers anymore at nap- or night-time. Natalie only wore pull-ups at night-time for a few weeks. They caught on so quick! She used a sticker chart which was a HUGE incentive for them. For a few weeks Natalie had a hard time going #2 on the potty chair. She kept asking for a diaper and would have accidents in her undies after holding it for days. I was almost to the point of bringing her to the doctor because she had tummy pains, but magically on their 3rd birthday, she snapped out of it. It's been a breeze ever since. They are even over the potty chairs and using the "big toilet" all by themselves!! I'm in heaven!

The birthday party - this was fun also. We had a countdown chart we started about 10 days before their birthday and would mark off days as we got closer. They were so excited. We did a Minnie Mouse theme,which was a hit. I also bought one of those at-home helium tanks. They LOVED all the balloons.

At the end of June we finally moved out of our cramped 2 bedroom one bath duplex we were renting into a HUGE 1900 sq ft, 4 bedroom 2.5 bath house we are renting from my aunt. It is so wonderful! They girls have a fenced backyard to play in, their own toy room, and we have our own master bathroom. I can't get over how nice it is to have to much space.

On the 4th of July we decided to take the girls to their first movie at the theatre - Monsters University. They loved it - especially the popcorn and pop (Sprite) they got to devour during the show. Plus, since they are only 3 years old they got in FREE! I guess we need to go to a lot of movies in this next year to take advantage!

Well that about sums up the past 9 months. Thanks for continuing to follow me, even though I haven't been a good blogger the last few years. Here is a pic from last weekend, when the girls got to fish for the first time. The both caught a Bass at the same time!