We are loving the fall weather . . .

3 MONTHS OLD!

Emma is enchanting us daily.  She has grown lots, she smiles and coos, and regularly sleeps six hours straight at night (once 10 hours!).  Emmaline has grown lots and can hold up her head pretty well.  Of course she isn't anywhere near pushing herself up on her arms, let alone rolling over, since I've been pretty lax about tummy time.  Only negative: she still refuses to take a binky.

 

Busy Weekend: Williamsburg

After a fairly relaxing Saturday and Sunday (Saturday - no soccer games, friend's baptism), we spent Columbus Day in Colonial Williamsburg.  It was a nice family outing.  I had taken the girls back in April.  This time around was a lot easier with Drew to help chase and carry the little ones.

Andrew and I enjoyed the education component, Liz enjoyed using my camera, and Alaina was mesmorized by the blacksmith (she watched him for at least half an hour).

  

Liz is watching a reenacter mix paint:

Below Liz is showing me a hat she wants to buy for her American Girl doll:

Busy Saturdays: Soccer & Conference

Another busy weekend (well, a busy Saturday): soccer class for Lainey (special surprise - Elmo came!), a volleyball game for Drew (turned out to be a false alarm/on our calendar a week too early), soccer game for Liz (& Drew), then GENERAL CONFERENCE!  It was fun.  I really enjoyed the talks and the treats (peanut m 'n m's, popcorn, and apple turnovers).  The girls did pretty well paying attention to the beginning of each session.  I printed out conference packets for the kids to use, but they weren't really into it.  Actually, doing each other's hair kept the kids more focused on the screen than their packets did.  Plus, Liz finally let me try out some of hairstyles I found on Pinterest.

OUTSIDE TIME

Liz likes reading in the tree:

 Alaina & Elle really like coloring with chalk outside (I just leave it on the porch now):

 Emma likes looking up at the trees:

Lizzie's 10th birthday

Liz was pretty excited to enter the double digits.  It felt bittersweet to me.  I was excited for her (and excited that she is still enough of a kid to want toys for her birthday), but I also felt sad that she is growing so quickly.  Where did my baby go?!

On her big day Liz woke up to a doorway of balloons (of which she has a great view from her bed).  At lunchtime I brought 41 cupcakes to school so that Liz could deliver them to all the children in her class and the other immersion class.  After school I hauled Liz to her piano lesson, then to Activity Girls (with more cupcakes), then home where Drew had the little girls in bed and Lizzie's specially requested meal prepared (crash hot potatoes and a yummy ritz cracker chicken dish).

 

Liz made this sign for herself, saying "I guess I'll go ahead and write a happy birthday sign for myself since no one else has" (fortunately she was super cheerful about it, not sarcastic).

During dinner Liz calculated what she could purchase at the American Girl store over the weekend.  We do not give our kids presents on their birthdays, we give them parties (well, they do get a present when they turn one . . . a carseat).  This year Liz decided to forgo a party and use the money for a present instead.

While we don't give our kids birthday presents, we help the girls give them to each other.  Lainey and Ellie helped wrap their present . . . they also helped unwrap it.

Lainey is saying, "Can I please have one too?!"

I felt bad that Liz was not going to have a celebration on such a special birthday so I told her that she could bring two friends with her for a meal at the American Girl store.  As it turned out breakfast for the four of us cost pretty much what I would have spent on a party at home so in the end I didn't save any money.

The girls loved the box of conversation starters on the table.

Liz pointed out that she received her Madame Alexander doll, Laura (named after Laura Ingalls), for her birthday a few years ago so it was the doll's birthday too.

 

Her other doll, Mary (after Laura's older sister), came to breakfast as well with Lizzie's friend:

Lizzie spent weeks deciding which doll to get.  She already had an American Girl doll, but it was a hand-me-down from a cousin.  This was her first chance to pick one out for herself and she had trouble narrowing it down.  The week of her birthday she vacillated between four dolls.  First she wanted Julie, then Rebecca, then Caroline, then Kaya.  Saturday morning it was Kaya, but by the time she was actually picking out a doll it was back to Julie.