Happy Thanksgiving

This came home with Emma this week from school and I think it's perfect.  I am of course tremendously thankful today as I think about my family and friends.  A little too emotional to write a sappy post about how I really feel, so I'll relay a conversation I just had with Emma.

Emma: Did you grow William?

Me: Yes.

Emma: Then why did you go to the doctor?

Me: Because I needed the doctor's help to get him out of my body.

Emma: Oh.  So me and Ada could have him?

Me: Yes Emma :)

Then she continued on with her adorable sounds and tickling that had William roaring with laughter.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Three times around the sun

Our sweet, strong-willed, smart, funny Emma has turned 3.  It all at once feels like she was just born and has been here all along.  She is a wonderful sister and friend and while her strong opinions and determination does not always make my life easier as her mother, it will serve her well in life I think.

She loves to sing songs, some known to all, some known only to her;) She is flourishing in school and enjoys hanging with the bigger kids (she is in a mixed room with 3-6 year olds).  Emma is strong and runs everywhere she goes, seriously everywhere.  Swimming is her current outside of school activity and she is rocking at it.  And Happy bear still remains an ultimate favorite- although he has needed a few more repairs.

I love my Emma Roo so much it is impossible to put into words.  Thanks for making me laugh and being one of the best daughters a mama could ask for.

At school she did her Montessori sun celebration and Ada and I were both able to go.  It was very sweet.  They hold a globe and walk around a little sun and stop each year to reflect on what they were doing at birth, one year, two years, three years and all the kids sing a little song as the child walks around.  Clearly, she loved it!

For her birthday this year she declared she wanted to "go to the zoo with her whole famiyee."  So, we took the girls out of school for the day and headed to the Minnesota Zoo.  It was awesome!

All told an awesome family day!  Happy Birthday Emma!  We love you!

Halloween

This year has been rushing right along since school started and I'm mostly trying to keep my head above water between the kids and my own school work as a part-time grad student.  Last weekend my mom and Tony's mom came out to visit and stayed with the kids while Tony and I got away and celebrated the wedding of a truly lovely couple.  We are settling back home again and my mom has been able to stay for a bit longer so we go to celebrate Halloween together.

Last night we carved a few pumpkins together.  The girls each drew a design on the pumpkin they picked out.

Then we scooped out the insides and Nana and I carved where they drew.  Ada collected a few seeds that she decided she wanted to grow into new pumpkin plants and we gave the rest to the chickens.

As it turns out, nursing while one-handed pumpkin carving is now one of my talents ;)

William was mostly just hanging out in the K'Tan.

Tonight after swimming lessons, we all got dressed up and headed out to trick-or-treat.  William was pooped so after we got a quick photo he went into the stroller and fell asleep.  The girls got tons of candy and we all had fun.  So glad Nana was here!

I heart my husband

I'm pretty sure everyone who reads this knows my husband.  He's awesome.  One of the most wonderful things he has done lately was to give the girls a little mini vacation (actually 2 mini vacations) up to Door County to play in one of the greatest places on Earth.  They got to have a car trip together, play at the beach, eat ice cream, watched the sunset, and even go to the drive in (or "drive out" as Ada calls it).  I know the girls love this time with their dad.  The fact that Gramma Deb lives there in the summer is a ginormous bonus!

Here's a little snippet of the awesomeness of vacation with Poppa.

The secondary bonus was that I got to spend two whole weekends alone at home with my new little guy- restful, snuggly, quiet time for me and William:)

Ocean work

The shelves at home have been a bit neglected by me since William was born I think I've switched them over twice :(  But we had some ocean work out for a while. I collected a bunch of coloring sheets from the Twisty Noodle with ocean animals, and found other inspiration that I collected on my Ocean board on Pinterest. This is what the shelves looked like.

Make a jellyfish, fish pattern work, shell stamp, play doh with lobster cutter, ocean stickers with # cards, ocean puzzles

And some ocean-y books.

Another tray that was out but rotated in was a water dropper work that Emma loved!  Basically it's some blue water, an old medicine dropper, two suction cup bath things, and a cloth to wipe up the spills.  A HUGE hit!

Waiting her turn :)

The fish pattern work was a mild hit with Emma, not so much with Ada.  That's okay though.

Ada mostly did the puzzles which I have no pictures of.  But here's one with William and a half completed puzzle in the background.

We made some little sailboats out of some corks, toothpicks, and foam sheets.  We floated them around and decided they were the perfect size for our fairy figures.  Win, win!

Counting 3 corks

It floats!

Adding fairies

 And all the while, there was William being awesome.