Another Puzzle Completed

Sophia and I love to put puzzles together.  This is our latest accomplishment.  I think it has 100 pieces.

Thanksgiving Photos

Lilly made this outfit at school.  

The Native American name that she gave herself was Playful Pup.  

Cousin Caroline and Lilly

Lilly and Cousin Jonas

Jonas, Lilly, Caroline and Sophia

Veteran's Day Parade

Both of my Girl Scout troops walked in the Veteran's Day parade this year and we were actually on the news!  We walked a camera man videoing the parade, but never thought that we would "be famous".  Our neighbors saw us on the 5:00 news.  They recorded it for us so we got to see ourselves smiling and waving our flags. Sophia and Lilly are both in the second row of girls.  I don't think you can recognize them in this first picture.  The girl on the right side looks like she could be Sophia, but it's actually Paige from Sophia's troop.  Sophia is right behind her.  Do you like the banner (above) that I threw together the night before?

Yard Sale Crutches...

So far she's tried to fool 5 people.  

Guess how many were actually surprised?  

 

If you guess zero then you were right. Lilly didn't believe her and told Will that Sophia was faking.  Then I let Sophia use them to go over to Riley's house to ask her to play. Amy, Riley's mom wasn't fooled and neither was Riley or Taylor.

Jillian's Birthday Party

Our little neighbor girl turned 3 last weekend and the girls and I went to her party. They are nice to always invite us and we always try to go. They have a playground in their backyard that the girls usually take over. This year they also rented a bounce house for all the kids to play on...and there were a lot of kids there.

Jillian is a cute girl and Lilly loves to play with her.
 

Halloween Candy

 A VIEW FROM THE SIDE....

 

A VIEW FROM THE TOP...

Lilly's School Field Trip

Lilly's class went on a field trip to a farm just before Halloween.  I went with her as a chaperone.  WE got a tour of the farm and had a quick lesson on how to make real butter where both Lilly and I skipped trying it. Then we got a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch where each of us was allowed to pick one to take home.  I picked a really bumpy one called a blumpkin 1, for real.   Lilly finally found the perfect one.

When we got to the farm, all the kids ate lunch and then they took a class photo.  There are only 15 kids in the class and more girls than boys so I think Lilly is really lucky.

 The Class

 YUK!!!

Norah and Sydney B

 

  

The Story of Ruth

In Sunday school we're teaching the story of Naomi and Ruth this month.  The second and third graders had "story-telling" as their class last week and they did a play to act out the story.  Take a look at Sophia.  She was a priest.  Ha ha ha!

Fall School Pictures - I love both of them!

This is my absolute favorite-ever picture of Lilly!

 

This is a fantastic picture of Sophia.  One of my favorite school shots so far.

And Now Revealing Their Halloween Costumes!

Every year at Strawbridge Elementary the PTA hosts a Halloween party for the students and their families. Will wasn't able to attend last year so he really wanted to go this time. It was the same as last year except this year there was a table selling Halloween jewelry, plastic rats, candy, etc...  Sophia and Lilly begged me to buy them something since it was there!  At least the prices were really cheap.  I spent $2.50 and both were happy with what they walked away with.

Sophia played the cake walk game for about 10 minutes before winning a cupcake, but darned if she was going to give up. Lilly chose not to play. 

We didn't win anything in the silent auction.

Here are the girls minutes before we left.

 Introducing Sophia, The Very Serious Bunny:

 

And, Lilly, The Fairy Who Hands Out Lollipops.  

Coincidentally, this is exactly what she 

wants to be when she grows up. 

She's been talking about it for at least a year. 

 

 The Duo:

And now for the funny pose:

Fall Family Fun Festival @ First Presbyterian Church

Our church held a fall festival on Sunday. This was an event that a girlfriend and I hosted two years ago and it was a huge success.  This year the turn out was much less and it was really geared toward kids ages 2-4.  My girls were kind of bored and let down a little bit. We brought Riley, our neighbor, with us and I honestly felt bad that she was having a bad time.  I think I thought it was way more lame than they did. They all said they had fun in the car on the way home, but I think they were trying to be nice.

The activities included pin the nose on the pumpkin - set up at knee level for them (lame), toddler/miniature bowling (lame), dangling donuts (ok), rate race (lame), touch and feel decaying body parts at a station called Grossology (fun), a cakewalk (fun) and baby cone ring toss (another lame one). Six volunteer families opted to decorate a doorway in the hallways of the second floor and then kids trick-or-treated at each doorway. The year my girlfriend and I hosted the festival, we had 12 families sign up to decorate doorways. Having more was so much more fun for the kids.

Riley, Sophia and Lilly each won the cakewalk twice so we brought home a lot of cupcakes.  Not as many as we donated for the event, but close.  We had fun making chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, gluten-free brownies and a batch of cupcakes.

Here are the girls before we left.  It starts off with a nice, smiling photo and then they take a few goofy ones.  I think one is "mad" and one is "sad" and one is "super happy".  Enjoy...

 Riley, Lilly, Elizabeth, Sophia:

Farmer's Market

This past Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market Fall Festival. It's an event that we go to every year.  This year I realized that the girls have outgrown a lot of the attractions. They didn't even beg me to let them play on the bounce houses.  They both entered the coloring contests. No luck there. 

We discovered this Kodak moment and took advantage of it. I love their faces here. Nowadays when I take their photo...they want to do a nice, smiley one first and then a goofy one next.

We all played this game.  Knock over the milk jugs.  

Guess which one of us knocked them all down? Twice! 

I'm not telling - because it wasn't me.

 

This is the smiling face of the girl who knocked down all the milk jugs not just one time. She did it both times she tried.  I think she's going to be a wiz kid at basketball this winter. I gave her the option of playing basketball or swimming and she choose basketball. She's a really good shot when she's stationary, but I'm not sure how she'll be when she's mobile.  Maybe even better!

There is a craft fair there too. I had $23.00 in my pocket.  

I let Lilly buy a duct tape wallet for $3.00 so I had a 20 left.  The girls decided that they each wanted to purchase a homemade American Girl outfit.  Sophia picked one out for $12.00.  I tried to get Lilly to choose an $8.00 outfit or even a $10.00 outfit because the seller/sewer told me she would knock $2.00 off the price so they could each get something they wanted.  That was all fine and dandy, but Lilly wanted a "set" that came in a plastic box and cost $18.00.  She wasn't budging either.  She wanted that set and she wasn't going to settle for anything but the set. In the end we ended up walking away without the set and without any outfit for her at all and I had $8.00 in my pocket.

We stumbled on some really fresh looking corn on the cob so I bought six ears for our dinner so I think I was down to four dollars.

Our last stop was at the the Confectioner's Shop to simply ogle at the delicious-looking homemade, fancy desserts and candy.  I allowed Lilly to pick one thing. She choose a yard of gum.  In this photo you can see that it's almost as tall as she is. 

I came home with $2 and some change.

Peaceful little girl...still...even at 7!

Eleanor's Birthday Party

Eleanor is one of our friends from church.  Well, she's in Lilly's Daisy troop and her older sister, Mary Price, is in Sophia's Brownie troop.  Eleanor just turned 6 and both girls were invited to her party. It was held at their house and in honor of the season it was themed "fall fun".

Eleanor's mom and my friend, Julie, had her sister plan the party. She planned fun activities like painting a pumpkin, bobbing for apples, getting tattoos, a hay stack candy search, face painting and, of course, cake and ice cream after opening presents.  Sophia was the only kid who snagged an apple! I was proud of her, but so grossed out.

Both Lilly and Sophia had a great time searching for goodies in the haystack.