Showtime!

A few weeks ago I took the girls to see "The Day Before Christmas" at the Taft Theater in downtown Cincinnati. It was E & S's first trip to the Taft and they loved the show. We actually had 4 seats and yet somehow E and S each took part of my lap (I had one on each knee) and Corinne beside me! Ha. It's a good thing the shows are only one hour long because I don't think I could have handled that position for much longer. But we had a great time together and the girls still talk about the show, the songs, and the characters. It's a fantastic experience and such a quality theater company, I'm so thankful we've had the opportunity to be part of it.

Angels

I am in complete denial that we went to see Ellen and Sophie in their very own Christmas program at school. Their school. For them. Not for Corinne. It truly does blow my mind! But we did. Ellen and Sophie are really enjoying pre-school this year and we recently took Corinne (and grandparents) to see Ellen and Sophie in their Christmas program. It was beyond precious to watch them. Ellen (red dress) definitely loved singing and doing the motions and just generally being on stage. She waved many times to us in the audience and seemed to be right at home. Sophie did great, too, but was clearly more reserved, stoic even, and wasn't nearly as expressive in the program. That seems to fit perfectly with how their teachers describe them in the classroom. It is all so interesting to watch the two of them develop and grow. They are best buds. And yet they are so very different from one another. We love our angels.

Dancers

Ellen and Sophie are taking dance class this year and they love it. (Never mind that it makes our Wednesdays an absolute crazy mess!) You'll have to look very closely, I realize, to find the girls in the top two pictures... Sophie is front/left/in a pink leotard. Ellen is front/right in a black leotard (there is a little girl between them). In the bottom picture Corinne is in the black leotard, white tights, front row. And I know I am a biased parent, but many people have told me what I've secretly thought for the last year and a half (since C started dance class), that Corinne has a grace and natural instinct/ability as she dances. She does love to dance and we're encouraging her to stick with it since it brings her so much joy. It will be interesting to hear her reaction when we break the news that we've also signed her up for spring soccer. Yikes.

Snow Days

Corinne had two snow days in December! She loved playing in the snow...E and S have yet to embrace it like C. But it's too bad we didn't have any sleds to use. We can't wait to take the girls sled riding and we have already scouted out the best place to do it in our neighborhood. Hopefully we'll get another chance this winter-- and this time we'll make sure we're prepared for some sled riding.

Thanksgiving Road Trip, Part 2

                                                 view from where we stayed

                                                                Love Aunt Marcey

                                                     Girls waiting for their 1st Subway ride

                                                                    Times Square

                                                    Giant sculpture--good for hide and seek
                                                            

                  waiting in line at Radio City Music Hall for the Rockettes

                                                               Thanksgiving dinner

                                                               making cupcakes

                                                                NYC Transit Museum

                                                               Playing a game

We continued on to NYC for part 2 of our road trip and spent Thanksgiving there with Aunt Marcey and my mom. We packed a lot into just 3 days. Let me just say that we were all exhausted by the end. It was a lot of fun, though and we are thankful we got to make the trip. It was E & S's first time in NY so they got a big thrill from the Subway (especially). And let me just say, I was so thankful that we had a 1:1 ratio of adults to kids because NY is a big place (understatement) and there is nothing laid back about crossing the street, getting on/off the subway, or anything else. Several times we found that it was much easier/faster/more pleasant/safer to just quickly pick up the closest child rather than getting swept up in the crowd. Such a great experience and a great trip. Oh, and the photo above is the view from the place where we stayed :) Amazing. We loved spending Thanksgiving with you, Aunt Marcey! Thanks for planning such a fun visit!!

Thanksgiving Road Trip

Part 1 of our Thanksgiving road trip was to Connecticut to visit our cousins! Hooray for our first visit since they've lived there! It was about time and the kids had a terrific time playing, playing and playing some more. We enjoyed our time and even celebrated C's birthday with a special cookie (complete with candle). We also got to visit Friendly's. Oh, how I miss having Friendly's in Cincinnati! It is a really casual (read: cheap, no frills) family restaurant but it has an ice cream menu that rivals (dwarfs?!) their food menu. And yes, that is all we ordered that day. Ice cream! (Back in the day I was known to go there with some high school friends) It was a great visit and we enjoyed our time with family.

Trick-or-Treat

This year was a first for us...trick-or-treating was actually postponed one night due to heavy rain and storms that were set to move through the area on Halloween night. Many neighborhoods where we live, including ours, opted to move trick-or-treating to Friday night. It did turn out to be a beautiful night on Friday, much better conditions for trick-or-treating. But funny to me, too. I remember trick-or-treating in snowy conditions when I was young. Who knew we could have just postponed it?! So here are the three girls, all dressed up and ready for some fun! Can you guess who they are? Daphne from the Scooby Doo/Mystery Gang, of course! Corinne thought of this and Ellen and Sophie quickly jumped on the idea, as well. Very creative on C's part, though not understood by any other 5 year olds I am quite certain. Pop Pop joined us for the fun.

Artist's Reception

 

Corinne is doing great in kindergarten. We are so pleased with her school and her teacher has been awesome. It has been such a wonderful start to the year and to her idea of real-deal "school" and what it's all about in an elementary building. Sure, she's tired and starving when she arrives home (and not all that pleasant lots of days). We know there will be bumps along the way. But we couldn't have asked for a better situation. Just recently the art teacher at her school was asked to select a handful of art pieces from grades K-4 to be part of an art exhibit on display at the Board of Education Office. One of Corinne's pieces of artwork entitled "Traveling Lines" was chosen for this district honor. The school district held a special Artist's Reception for the artists and their families to come and view their pieces on display. It was fabulous! Corinne's artwork is the one just above her head in this photo. I'm not sure where she gets her artistic ability...I'm almost positive it is not from Brett or myself! However both of my sisters seem to be talented in this area. Thank goodness for them!

Harvest Moon Festival

We had a great time at the Harvest Moon Festival which was held at a park in our neighborhood. It was incredibly well organized and we ran into friends from school, church and our neighborhood all night long. The kids had a blast riding ponies, painting pumpkins, roasting s'mores, taking a hayride, playing on the playground and much more. Luckily we got there just after the rain and left just before. Perfect! The only bummer: C wanted to get her face painted SO badly. But even that worked out okay because with the rain that started falling as we hurried to our car it would have been on her shirt instead of her face anyway. (E smiling while she painted her pumpkin and S on the pony)

Just Because

Life is full these days! I feel like we are getting into a school year routine lately. But just because it's a routine doesn't mean it is any less busy. I'm finding it is harder to get time to update the blog and equally difficult to remember to take pictures so that I have new material to post. Here is a recent picture of Ellen (left) and Sophie (right) from a walk we took in the cemetary near our house. Fittingly these are their two most favorite and frequently worn dresses. (I'm not sure what we'll do when they can no longer wear them this fall and winter) The girls are in a new phase of picking out all of their own clothes to wear each day and also getting dressed completely by themselves. It's quite nice, actually! Ellen's speech has become much more complex in the last month or two and Sophie has also begun to show tons of growth. It is fun to hear them chatter and explain themselves. They will still call each other Toddy (or Todd for short) sometimes, but they have both grown up so much lately that I can hardly believe that it's Ellen and Sophie wearing back packs and riding scooters now!