Monday, October 29, 2012

Pumpkin Carving

In case you haven't heard, there's a hurricane coming :P Unfortunately, being in Central New Jersey,we're in line to receive the brunt of the storm, most likely this afternoon. We're not TOO concerned right now - we're not in a flood zone, there are no trees on our property, etc but still, we don't really know what to expect. Other than the fact that we're going to be stuck in the house for a few days! We attempted to go to a birthday party last night for my friend Daria's children, but the party was 90 minutes from us and NJ had already started closing roads so we weren't able to make the drive. (But a HUGE thank you to Daria, who so kindly requested that instead of gifts for her children party guests make donations to Love, Annaleigh. How sweet is that?!?!) So instead, we stayed home and carved our pumpkin.The kids really enjoyed the whole process, especially Lily, who was very interested in the whole thing. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with our finished product! Now, what else can we do to amuse two three-year-olds indoors for the next two days?

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Our pretty ballerina

Yesterday Lily attended her very first dance class! Last week we had a play date with Charlie and Lily's friend Savannah. Savannah's mom was telling me about the dance class Savannah had just started so I asked Lily if she would be interested in taking a dance class too. She immediately jumped up and proclaimed, "Yes! I want to learn to dance!" I signed her up that very day and after nap we ran out to pick up some ballet slippers, tights and a leotard so she'd be all set for her first class on Monday. She was so excited to go and marched right into the room with no hesitation at all. When I peeked through the window during class I saw Lily laughing and happily participating with everything going on. Lily tends to be shy and a little standoffish, so this was GREAT to see. She came out of class happy and chattering away about all the things they'd done - she even demonstrated the somersaults they worked on. She can't wait to go back next week!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Fall Fun

I love when holidays roll around! There's always so many great things to see and do! We've been taking advantage of the Halloween season as best we can around here. I found some cute projects on Pinterest that I couldn't resist. Charlie and Lily got the biggest kick (pun intended, lol) out of making their footprints into ghosts, and they did a fantastic job with the candy corn counting - I didn't even need to explain it to them!
Last Saturday the kids and I joined my sister, Jill, at a local farm for their Fall Festival. It was a great time! Charlie and Lily are currently obsessed with bounce houses, so not only did they spend a lot of time in one at the farm but they also took many a ride on the giant inflatable slide.
Petting zoos are always a hit. Lily loves goats.
Of course, we took a ride to the pumpkin patch.
"Smile, Aunt Jill! You're going to be buying us a lot of pumpkins...."
We had to get a green pumpkin. Who knew they existed?
Charlie insisted on riding this enormous monster truck and got the biggest thrill out of it. Boys.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

First field trip

On Tuesday, Charlie and Lily went on their first ever school field trip to the apple orchard. Charlie was beyond excited to get to ride on a school bus. He'd have been happy skipping the orchard and just riding the bus around the parking lot all day.

At the orchard, the owner gave a cute presentation to the kids about life on a farm and apple/pumpkin season.
Then it was time to pick some apples!
Once the apples were picked, the kids got to see how the apples were washed and sorted by size. This part was a big hit.
The trip ended with a stop at the pumpkin patch.
Charlie managed to get his hands on the largest pumpkin available. Lily chose a more appropriately sized pumpkin.
All in all, it was a great first field trip! (And we clearly need to do something about Charlie's "say cheese" face...)


Monday, October 1, 2012

Love, Annaleigh in the news!

We were so excited to discover this picture on the second page of our local paper's Sunday edition! We hope this helps spread the word about Love, Annaleigh so we can grow our organization even more. We're starting to plan a special Christmas-time donation collection, so we'll make sure to keep you posted!

In other news, the kids are doing well in preschool (they have their first field trip tomorrow to the apple orchard!) and Joe is starting grad school classes this week - so we've been busy! But when we're home, Lily's favorite activity is anything art related. She loves to color, play with Play-Doh and paint. Last week I pulled out the easel and let them go to town.
Since I'm at work four nights a week, we try to make dinner fun on at least one of the nights I'm home. Last Saturday we hit up Cheeburger Cheeburger, which quickly became Charlie's favorite restaurant when the kids' meals arrived in cardboard cars!
We're also getting ready for Halloween. The kids are super excited this year because they really understand what's going on. We encouraged them to choose their own costumes, and Charlie immediately declared that he wanted to be Thomas (no surprise there). But we though the Thomas costume in the stores was kind of lame, so Joe decided to make him one. It's turning out completely awesome, and Charlie LOVES seeing Thomas develop with each step. Here he is helping Joe with the painting.
 And of course, we started baking some Halloween treats. Lily always has a great time decorating cupcakes. I think I need to invest in more sprinkles...and a bigger broom.