Excited for the Holidays

The girls have been loving all of our holiday prep. Clara practically jumped out of her skin when we told her we were going to decorate the Christmas tree. We've been making Christmas crafts, decorating the house, baking cookies, reading Christmas books, watching holiday specials, making Christmas cards and countless Christmas drawings. Clara even drew a picture of Santa in his sleigh, complete with reindeer. She cut it out and placed it above the doll house. It does make the holidays extra special having little kids running around so excited about everything. It makes up for all the crazy drivers, shoppers and just plain holiday craze.

Clara's Dictionary

Clara is the queen of making up new words. An example from today. Crail - the trail ones fingers leave when rubbed against textured fabric. "My fingers left a crail on the sofa."

My poor Clara

She's having a rough week. On Monday she fell at the grocery store and got a serious, sore fat lip. Then before bed she scratched her cheek and it left a huge scab. Now she's sick and has red eyes and a runny nose to accompany the rest. What a mess.

Beach in November

Beaches in November = Awesome.

We packed up the kids and headed to SC for a little quality family time. We normally try to go north, specifically Acadia, however we could not get a vacation in the books until November. It was too cold and no campgrounds were open in November in Maine so we headed south. Bryan and I aren't really beach people, the sand, extreme heat and sun don't work well with us. But let me tell you the beach in November, not so bad. We wore our pants and sweatshirts and felt fine. The girls could still hike up their leggings and wade in the tide pools and we didn't have to worry about lathering 95% of there bodies in sunscreen. Maybe only 10%. Awesome.



So, traveling with a four year old and a two year old is a little crazy but we had fun too. I loved walking down the beach looking for shells with the girls and watching them draw in the sand. We saw more living beach critters on this trip then I think I've ever seen all at once. Little crabs, big crabs, jellyfish, horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs, mussels, scallops, sand dollars, a starfish and tons of birds all right out in their natural habitat. We even got to touch the starfish before I safely returned him to the ocean. Clara was on a mission to collect anything and everything possible. We came home with a nice collection of seashells and pinecones. In addition to our beach exploration we saw the local lighthouse, visitors center, nature center, marsh observation boadwalk, you know pretty much anything and everything to keep the girls busy. At night we snuggled up in our camper and played countless rounds of crazy eights and read the same 7 books over and over. ( Next time mommy bring more books.) All in all it was a very nice campground, the beach was beautiful and we had a great time. It was nice to get away for a little while and I wouldn't have a problem returning sometime in the future.






Here's a link if you would like to check out some more of our vacation photos

Take two

Take two took. Our little Hazelbug-Hazmat has been in underwear and doing good for a few weeks now, including on vacation. YAY!!!!!

More Clara Drawings

I love all the special pictures Clara draws. Here are a few I scanned today. Two portraits of Mommy and one of a jack-o-lantern.

Halloween girls

Costume ideas were decided by both girls on there own. A blue flower and a blue butterfly, hand crafted by mama.

Hazel trying her best to grow straight.

We had a lot of fun trick or treating this year. We skipped last year so this was really the first time Hazel got to go. Bryan and I took them out twice, once to a special Costumes on the Corridor in West Reading on Thursday and then on Halloween just on our street. We have an insanely large amount of candy that needs to disappear fast.