The beach

While visiting the Murphys we enjoyed an afternoon at beach.  The weather was gorgeous, it was uncrowded, and the kids loved it.  It was especially nice when Ellie stopped chasing animals (dogs, birds) and running into the waves and just settled down to play in the sand.  While there Gabrielle learned to say dog and bark.  A couple days earlier she started to walk up and down the stairs instead of crawl (well, she tried at least). 

 

 

 

Trampoline

All the girls loved jumping on their friend's trampoline.  Alaina and Ellie especially liked it when the big girls went to a book fair and they had the tramp all to themselves.

Virginia Beach

A couple weeks ago I took a little weekend trip to visit some friends in Virginia Beach.  So fun.  The girls loved playing with the Murphy girls and I loved visiting with their mom.  Favorites: all the girlies sleeping together, jumping on the trampoline, and hanging out at the beach.  Meanwhile back at the ranch: Andrew enjoyed some time alone and managed to lock himself out of the house (luckily he was able to break in through a basement window I inadvertently left unlocked).

Princesses

Yesterday Alaina and I made crowns out of pieces of Little People fences and such.  It was completely her idea--I love how creative kids are.

Belly Button Love

Family Visits

It was a lucky week for us. On Wednesday I got to see a couple cousins during a last minute zoo visit. It was so fun and it was lucky that we found each other because, as usual, my phone didn't work.We also tried to get pictures of our kids together, but it didn't work so well--mostly because Lainey was screaming her head off and the little ones wouldn't stay put.Then, on Friday Drew and I got to visit with his brother Dan. We treated ourselves to a delicious dinner at Arcadiana (upscale Creole) and interesting conversation. So nice.

Meanwhile, the kiddos spent the night at our friend's house. It was so nice to sleep-in the next morning, lay around the house for a bit, and enjoy a musuem (that wouldn't be appropriate to visit with kids--Crime and Punishment) on our own.

Halloween!

We kicked off the day's festivities by attending a little carnival put on by Lizzie's Brownie troop where the kids decorated mini pumpkins, . . . ate donuts off a string . . .played ghost in the graveyard (skinny little Liz had to keep tugging up those pants) . . . won cupcakes at the cake walk . . . and just chilled in our costumes.Undoubtably influenced by Lizzie's witch costume, Alaina wanted to be a "scary toothfairy" and asked for eye makeup. The eyeshadow and mascera didn't even make it to the party since Laines cried herself silly on the way over (b/c I insisted she wear a seatbelt and not just "hold on tight").In the evening we went trick-or-treating. It was fun and we are really happy to live in an actual neighborhood now where we can do this classic childhood things.We tagged along with the other families ont he block (the kids didn't look at me once, darn it).Half-way through Drew turned back with the little ones, while Liz and I soldiered on. We didn't even go to every house and we ended up with SO much candy (too much candy). Before we left Alaina insisted on wearing a witch hat (she wanted to be a "scary toothfairy witch") so eventually we ended up carrying around two hats full to the brim with candy in addition to the girl's treat buckets.