Pumpkin Patch 2009

Alternate Title: Almost Wordless, Barely Still Wednesday

Whoa... it's almost Christmas and I still haven't posted our favorite Pumpkin Patch pictures!! Enjoy the slide show for what's left of Wordless Wednesday... this little trip was so long ago I don't remember much to write about it anyway.

Ella and Her Daddy

While the little girls and I were in Memphis, Ella and her dad had quite a large time. She stayed behind in order to not miss preschool class picture day, and because I wasn't sure I could manage 3 in the airport much less 4.

They did some local sight seeing and hiking and even sneaked in a quick visit with Scott's grandparents who were themselves traveling around our part of the state.

The did a little baking... cookies mostly, I think.

... and by her choice Ella slept in a tent in the living room the entire time.

She was glad for the girls and I to be back home, but I know she had a fabulous time having Daddy all to herself!

First Trip to Memphis

Another major trip of note from the month of October was Maggie, Kate, and Sarah's first ride in an airplane. Not just any trip in an airplane.... I took the three of them from Atlanta to Memphis and back to visit aunt Kari, BY MYSELF, flying standby no less! I was a bit worried how things would go, but they were great! I actually came away from the experience feeling like standby travel with 3 three year olds (well, at least these three) is completely do-able.

The girls each carried their own back packs, and I limited my bags to a single backpack as well. On the way there we sat across the very back row. Maggie, Kate, and Sarah carried their lovies in their bags and even got to use their pacis for the trip. I had some backup candy stowed away as well.
On the return flight we were in the row behind the business class. I was worried, but for no reason. On both flights the people around us were very complimentary and raved about how much fun the girls were to listen to and how well behaved they were.

*** disgusting mommy bragging ends now**

Once we arrived in Memphis we got straight to the fun stuff! Aunt Kari had collected a bunch of play dough and sidewalk chalk. We played in the yard with Zoe and Lila for hours and hours and got all caught up with Kari.

The sleeping arrangements were a little unconventional. On the first night the girls hogged the full sized bed, 3/4 of the corners at least. Then after spending that night on the couch crushed under the weight of Zoe, I squeezed myself in there with Maggie, Kate, and Sarah the next night.

We took the mandatory trip to the Pee-Potty Hotel (the Peabody) to watch the ducks make their march into the fountain.

We helped Aunt Kari and Uncle James pick out pumpkins for carving with their friends.

Aside from generally spending time with Kari and James and the dogs, the girls had a definite favorite part.... Kari's shoe closets! Maggie, Kate, and Sarah played for hours and hours uninterrupted with her bazillions of pairs of shoes. Come to think of it, I really should invest in tons more shoes for myself if it will bring the same level of contentment, enjoyment, and free time for me here at home!

For our last bit of fun, the girls got to paint pumpkins in the kitchen the evening before we left. It was the messy kind of fun that we don't often indulge in here at home. Maggie, Kate, and Sarah all had a blast!

Thanks a million Kari and James for being such great hosts and allowing us to invade for a couple of days just to see if we were capable of such travels. As long as we haven't worn out our welcome, we'll certainly be back!!

Four Silly Sisters On Weddings

Scott, Ella, and I had a night away back in October when we attended the wedding of one of Scott's buddies from Iraq. Ella was fascinated with the idea of weddings, parties, receptions.... remember all the talk about brides and brooms?!?

Ella and I really didn't know anyone there at the wedding except each other and Scott, but fortunately the groom had several cute little nieces who were excited to have another new friend to dance with.

Ella enjoyed the wedding ceremony. She soaked it all in and asked a bunch of questions. She has finally learned to whisper, thank goodness! She also loved dancing with her daddy.... but her favorite part was the wedding cake at the reception.

Scott had a good time hanging out with some of the guys he spent the last year with in Iraq, and I just enjoyed having a relatively quiet evening out with two of my favorite people in the world!

All the wedding talk leading up to our trip brought about lots of pretend play and dress up weddings. One afternoon when I arrived at Kay's house to pick up the girls I found them dressed as bride and bridesmaids. They quickly handed me a jacket, slacks, and black dress shoes so I could pwretend the broom.

Even still, over a month later they ask to play weddings and discuss it a bunch. We've even gotten out mine and Scott's wedding album and poured through it hundreds of times. As you can imagine one of the biggest questions they have is about the flower girl. At our family Thanksgiving gathering I pointed out the fact that my now grown cousin Callie was the little flower girl in our wedding. Sarah looked deep into my eyes and said, "Mom, if you'll let me wear your really, really, real veil and your really, really, real wedding dress when I get married I'll let you be MY flower girl"! So sweet... I'm sure it gives their Daddy heart palpitations to think about all the weddings in our future!!

Columbus Day

The Big Sisters

The Little Sisters

I had to include these photos of the girls' trip with Emily, Makayla, Beverly, and KayKay on Columbus Day because the early days of October were some serious Emily infatuation days. The girls referred to themselves as either Emily or Emily's cheerleader pals for weeks and weeks.

This little crew spent the entire rainy Columbus Day away from home... I think I got a lot of cleaning done that day while they had lunch and went to Monkey Joe's to play.

Catching Up

First of all I have to apologize for getting so behind in my blogging that the next several posts will be "old news" I just don't want to leave out.

Secondly, I should say that while I haven't managed to post anything on here for an entire week, I have posted a couple of interesting things on our review blog. If you are looking for a great way to help your kiddos memorize Scripture you'll definitely want to check this out!

Finally, if I didn't want to include so many pictures I would simply do one single catch up post, but managing multiple photos in blogger is not my forte. I apologize to those of you who read the blog through some kind of RSS feed... we'll be bogging you down for the next couple of days with many short posts. (They'll be short because it all happened so long ago now that my memory doesn't have many of the details left.... another great reason for keeping up!)

Oh yeah, and I think I've finally figured out why I have all but stopped blogging... these girls of mine don't nap anymore. Ever! But they are even more fun than ever, so I will just have to make a way to get this part of my job as family historian done. My memory stinks, and I don't want to forget these days for anything!!!

Fair Warning

The girls have been in bed and asleep since 6:30 pm. I have prepared an appetizer and a dessert for our Thanksgiving meal tomorrow, done my workout, and worked on Christmas gifts until I can't anymore.

Some day I'll be back to posting on the blog, but if when that happens I must warn you that it will likely commence with a boat load of photos and lots of stream of consciousness garble because I'm so dreadfully behind!