Turkey Day

Have you noticed that it's taking me longer and longer to get the blog updated? Or maybe you haven't because you haven't had time to check it! 'Tis the season!

Katie had Wednesday off from school, so I took the day as well to make the long weekend even longer. Katie got to join my for my weekly Rotary lunch which was fun. Many of the other members couldn't believe how big she has gotten! We also worked on our Thanksgiving assignment and baked a pumpkin pie.


On Thursday morning we headed to Indy where Jen and Billy were already busy working on the feast.

Here Dad and Billy show off their gross turkey/butter hands.
Meanwhile the girls ate snacks and Caroline made herself a super quadruple decker cracker sandwich.

Here we are ready to enjoy the dinner. It seems there was no good angle to snap a photo of the table!





After dinner there was more playing to be done. This visit, Caroline took a liking to playing with Emma. We think she thought she was her baby doll. She followed her around, handed her toys and occassionally tried to shove a pacifier into her mouth.

Bedtime was an adventure, as it always is with four little ones to get down. Emma was kind enough to give up her room, so that Miss Chatterbox (Caroline) could sleep in a room by herself, while Katie camped out on Hannah's floor. Most everyone got a decent rest although there were a number of people who were up at some point during the night- which made Jamie and me thankful that we were all the way down in the basement! We didn't hear a thing until the thundering feet stomped over our heads around 8 a.m.!
Here's Poppy entertaining two of the girls.

On Friday, we had a family birthday celebration for Katie. Here she is helping to decorate her cake- a giant cupcake!
Watching Cake Boss has really paid off don't you think?


Here's Katie all dressed and ready to open gifts!


She was delighted to get some early items off her Christmas wish list- Pixos, a giant Crayola art set and from us a karaoke machine (yes, we are insane), a cake decorating set and some clothes.

Katie was pretty entertaining with her singing, but she's asked if we can get some more current songs like Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus . . . I guess "My Darling Clementine" can only last so long!
After dinner we ate the cake and then got ready to depart. The girls rode home in their PJs and Katie fell asleep in the car, while Caroline managed to stay awake and request a new toy to play with every five minutes.

On Saturday Katie was anxious to break out her new gifts and once Caroline was busy elsewhere she quickly got to work on some new masterpieces!

We used the weekend to get our outside Christmas decorations up and are looking forward to having Jamie's step-mom Pam visit us later this week.

Jamma's Visit

It's been a busy week, but we don't have many photos to show for it! On Tuesday night Jamma arrived from Canada. The kids were very excited to see her and wasted no time in getting up early and going to wake her up on Wednesday morning!

It was parent-teacher conferences this week, so Katie had early dismissals on Wednesday and Thursday and was off on Friday. On Wednesday Caroline stayed home from school with Jamma and they had a blast, including three trips to the park.

Like the rest of us, Jamma now has her own bus story. The bus arived very early on Wednesday, while Jamma and Caroline were still playing at the park (which is on the corner right by Katie's bus stop) when Jamma heard the bus coming down the street. At the time, Caroline was swinging in a baby swing. Jamma tried to hoist her out, but Caroline's legs got stuck and the bus was there. She grabbed a neighbor boy and asked him to stay with Caroline while she ran down the bus! I think this is right up there with Jamie chasing the bus in his suit and tie!

Wednesday night we had Katie's school conference. The report was that she is doing terrific with writing, math and reading and is popular with the girls in her class, but needs to work on raising her hand before volunteering the answers and not always being the boss. We were pleased to hear that she's doing well and weren't entirely surprised about the things to work on!

Thursday Jamma had a little time to herself (which I think she spent doing laundry!) and then we picked her up to meet Katie at school for lunch at 11:15. When kids have visitors for lunch they get to sit on a stage in the cafeteria. Katie had told me that the kids call out when this happens, but it was funny to hear the kindergarteners yell "Katie, you're on the big screen!" After lunch Jamma and I went outside and stayed through recess.

Friday, Katie was home all day and we picked Caroline up at noon. Later that afternoon Jamie and I took off for a weekend in Louisville, while Jamma kept the kids VERY busy. They swam at the Y both Friday and Saturday, went to the park, had a picnic (where some ducks stole Caroline's potato chips!), took Lily for walks, and did a lot of art projects.

Jamie and I enjoyed our weekend and first trip to Louisville. Friday night we went out to dinner, then tracked down a homemade pie and ice cream shop that Jamie had read about online, which was very much worth the effort! Then we went out to a dualing piano bar and enjoyed the people watching. Saturday, after brunch we went to a glass blowing studio. I had hoped to make something, but we would have had to stay well into Sunday afternoon to pick it up, so that didn't happen, but it was fun to see. Jamie and I agreed that Katie would have loved it and Caroline would have broken at least half of the items in the gift shop!


After that, we went to Churchill Downs and enjoyed an afternoon of horse racing. It was about 70 degrees and sunny, so it was a terrific day for it. As Jamie tells it, before going I complained about spending the whole day there (of course he had mentioned 11:30 - 5:30 as a good time to go!), but quickly found myself standing and cheering as I got on a hot streak with the bets and enjoyed a few beers along the way. Then we went out to dinner, took a horse carriage ride around the downtown area and then went to a sports bar to watch the Notre Dame game. We made it home at noon on Sunday in time to relieve Jamma from nap duty!

After some rest, we drove out to a new park (pictured) and then went out to dinner.





Here we were all making grumpy faces in an effort to get Caroline to cooperate, which didn't really work!


Jamma left bright and early Monday morning- she and Jamie left the house at 4:45. Thanks for coming, Jamma! We had a great visit.

Happy Halloween!

Hello! It was a busy weekend of events for us. It started on Friday afternoon with Katie's school party. I was one of the volunteers and it was fun to see all the kids in their costumes. You can see that Katie is a Notre Dame cheerleader.

My job was to lead a Halloween shape game and when Katie finished her craft and came over to my table, she was horrified to find me acting like a teacher as I explained how the game went. Her exact words: "Mom, you are acting like a teacher and being bossy!"

After the party I headed out for another volunteer commitment. My Rotary Club's 5K Halloween run.

Jamie brought the girls out to the event once it was underway and Katie was delighted to march around with my clipboard. Here she is showing off the mayoral proclamation. All was well until she dropped the clipboard and all the papers went flying!

Here are Jamie and the girls hanging out with friends from Tim Hortons who sponsor the race. You can see our two donut testers are in fine form!

It was a successful run, but a long day!

On Saturday Jamie took Katie to urgent care to have her lingering cough checked out. It's not swine flu-related, but it hadn't improved at all in a week, so we were glad to get a perscription to help get rid of it. Meanwhile, Caroline helped me get ready for Halloween and was delighted to run her fingers through the mounds of Halloween candy!

Once they were up from rests, we decorated some of our other pumpkins. Katie painted hers while Caroline and I added some "organic" details to her little guy using up some stumpy carrots from our garden.

Then we had our traditional Halloween dinner of "bats and cobwebs" pasta, scary salad and black cat cookies. It was nice to trick or treat on a Saturday and have time to eat a real dinner.

Finally, it was time to pu costumes on- both quite easy this year. My only project was pig tails and a face decal! The girls decided to do a little pre-trick or treating in our ow basket before heading out.

Caroline was delighted with her Care Bear costume and quite warm in there!

Both girls did great with the trick or treating. This was Caroline's first year on foot and not in the wagon. She did great and made it until 7 p.m. at which point Jamie was ready to get in place for the Notre Dame football game.

Katie and I went back out and took our neighbor Miranda with us.

On Sunday we headed back to Indy, for Miss Hannah's third birthday party. The girls played very nicely and it was all pretty calm until the sugar from the frosting-laden cake kicked in and everyone got a little wild!

Uncle Jamie was quite pleased to open up Hannah's new set of musical instruments- payback for a gift that Katie received from Jen and Buddy several years ago! Before we left, we made sure Hannah knew how to play all of the instruments, particularly the cymbals!

Emma was all smiles and didn't mind letting Hannah be in the middle of all of the chaos.

By the time we got home everyone was very ready for bed. Caroline was asleep within two minutes of me leaving her room and Katie didn't even ask for her books. A busy weekend!