Helping Make Lunch

Cuteness helping in the kitchen!

Pumpkin Fun

From picking, to carving, to putting them outside to rot - this is a picture story of our FIRST pumpkin journey! Pictures because Mom says so! :-)

We try to take pictures of EVERYTHING to show Daddy! :-) (that's how I get them to smile!)

The final selection!

In lieu of carving the little ones, we opted for drawing faces on them instead!

Maddie telling me, "It's not a face!" :-)

Abigail was very proud of her drawings, she kept saying, "These are pretty cute, right Mom?!"

Look at Maddie's face... lol - not sure she was expecting that :-)

Maddie telling me it smells really bad!

Abigail pretending to put her hand in to get the seeds out.

They opted for the spoon method instead (so not effective!) :-)

Abigail's photography brilliance! :-)

The girls pulling out the face pieces - Maddie was so thrilled!

What do we do with them now? Oh, now they rot! Good plan! :-)

7 Weeks!

But who's counting??? :-)

Bowling!

When Nate was home, he took the girls on a date by themselves. Abigail got to go clothes shopping for school and do her favorite things at the mall (getting pretzels and seeing "cats and dogs.) And Maddie got to go bowling. When Abigail found out that Maddie was going bowling, all she could talk about was how much she wanted to go too (neither of them had ever done it before.)

So, on Monday before Nate flew back, we had a crazy fun day! We met friends for lunch at Five Guys, had Cold Stone ice cream, then took the girls bowling and to see Shrek 4 (although they have only seen 1/2 of the first one!) :-) There are no pictures of the other events, but here is a snapshot of what it is like to bowl with Abigail and Maddie!

Being the independent chicas that they are, they wanted to carry their own bowling balls to the ramp, and after awhile would not let Nate and I help with any part of them bowling!. I worried about broken toes, but thankfully we escaped with no injuries! I think it's also worthy of mention, that I schooled EVERYONE on our first game!!! (however, my integrity makes me say that we used bumpers too - and on the second game (with no bumpers), not only did Nate win, but I came in at the same score as Maddie!) :-) LOL

Nate's Visit

So, we didn't take a whole lot of pictures while Nate was here, but there will be a few more after this post.

We had a great time - we did way too much to mention, and I'm too tired at the moment - but it was wonderful having him home - it wasn't long enough and I'm glad we're on the downhill slope now!

These are a few pics from our trip to Useppa Island with Nate's uncle and some family. It was the girl's first time on a boat (other than at Disney) :-) They had a blast!

This was a tourist shot at City Walk in Orlando when we met some friends of ours for dinner. Thanks to Anthony for standing behind the photographer and for owning an Iphone! LOL :-)

The girls were THRILLED about the parrot! :-)

More pics to come....

Abigail's message to Daddy

I feel a little badly sharing this with the whole world - but I really just can't resist. The girls get hold of the video camera quite bit (so I find out when I go to download) and I have to delete 5 - 1 second videos. HOWEVER, this time actually paid off. I am so surprised and tickled at the same time that Abigail actually did this AND the fact that I had no clue!! She makes me laugh out loud every time I see it!

My Incredibly Brave Girls (part 2)

Ok, so at the end of the last swimming season, Maddie seemed fearless in the water and was swimming with no jacket. However, we've been in the pool since April and she has decided to wear her swim jacket or a floaty every time. For the last few weeks, she's been slowing working out of a floatation device, until Saturday when she was back to swimming from side to side all on her own! She is very proud of herself and I am too! She's getting so big!

We bought this huge turtle at the store the other day and the girls have loved it ever since! Not only do they have fun on it, but it's another good way for Abigail to help Maddie and take care of her, and it's helping Maddie be more courageous in the water. She has fallen off of the turtle before and has had to figure out how to swim to the side! Who knew a turtle could be such great training!? :-)