Thanksgiving

 We woke Thursday morning to more falling snow.  

                                                                                                                                                                          

                                                        









                                                                    

Maddie built her first snowman . . .                                                

 

Emmie watched from inside. . .

 Maddie kept building. . . 

 And Emmie kept watching. . .

And at long last. . .Success!

                                                                            

                                        

But sadly, the accessories weighed too much for Maddie's snow friend and his head sort of fell off when the hat was applied.  So being the dad that Chad is, he and Maddie set out to build a new and improved snowman.                                                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                             

Success!!!

                                                                                

 Here's one of my snow angels:

 After warm showers and baths,

we sat down for a HoneyBaked Dinner.

Emmie's First Snow!

We got our first snow of the season!  It was wonderful because it really shortened my work week.  Maddie also had 2 snow-days which tied in with Thanksgiving vacation.  The snow started Monday morning:

Chad was able to play alone with Emmie for a little after walking Maddie to school.  It was a good thing Maddie has a.m. Kindergarten, because around noon, the school was releasing students and canceling p.m. Kindy.   Chad told me how much fun Maddie and her friends had walking home from school in the snow.  There were snowball battles, snow-angles, and snowflake catching.  Once they got home, Maddie swept the back porch and she and Emmie played in the snow. 

Start them Early

Right.  So Fisher Price actually markets a pretend vacuum cleaner - and I think it might even have some suction to it.  I say give them the real thing and let them be productive.  Emmie loves the vacuum! 

Our 'good' cleaner broke so we were using this goofy one until our new DYSON arrived.  That's right, a Dyson.  Chad was more excited than I about the new cleaner.  I even got a text upon it's delivery.   I don't know when I'll get pictures of anyone other than Chad using that machine and presently, he won't pose. 

Halloween in Washington

Next to her birthday and Christmas, Maddie looks forward to Halloween.  Who wouldn't?  It's free candy. Maddie had a field trip with her school to a farm and she get 2 little pumpkins there - 1 for her and 1 for Emilie.

We didn't cut those, but we got some bigger pumpkins that Maddie wanted to make into Jack-o-lanterns.  First we had to agree on a face.  

 

Then Chad got busy carving.

And Voila!  The finished product!

Before Maddie went trick-or-treating on Sunday, she did a little jumping with her friend Lily at Jump Planet.  This place is great!  But it was PACKED on Sunday!  There were tons of people there for the special jump sessions and low-scare haunted house.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        





                                                                                     

Emilie even got in on the fun.

                                                                                                                                                                                  

And we rounded out the night some good old fashioned beggin'.

Maddie came home with enough candy to last us for 3 years! 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          



Maddie's New Bed

So much is going on and I am so behind in this blog!  I have no idea how my brother and cousin do it.  Maddie turned 6!  I know!  I can hardly believe it myself.  She's so tall and beautiful.  Instead of a party, Maddie decided on a Doll house loft bed (found on Craig's list!). 

So, on a Saturday afternoon, after soccer, we went and collected the pieces of the bed.  The people from whom we bought the bed were awesome.  The woman actually drove the kids and me home in her car as we followed Chad who was driving the van.  Maddie wanted to build the bed right away (so did I), but I couldn't find the Ziploc bag of hardware and the instructional CD.  Now the woman handed me this bag right away and explained that everything was there and the directions were not too difficult.  I remembered her giving me the bag.  What I couldn't remember was where I put it.  After tearing apart the van, I had to suck it up and call the woman.  I got her voice mail , explained our predicament and assured her I wasn't as flaky as she undoubtedly thought I was.  After hanging up, I went out to the van one last time and of course I found the bag of loot.  I sent her an email and Chad and I set to assembling.  I should have had Maddie take pictures of us during the first assembly (that's right - FIRST), but she was busy entertaining Emilie.  I don't know if you can really tell in the picture, but the bed is pretty tall. Actually, it is 94 inches tall.  And our ceilings are around 91 inches.  Whoops.  We had the pieces cut so the bed would actually fit in Maddie's room and then reassembled it. 





And finally, the bed was together!

Maddie LOVES this bed!  It's really hard to tuck her in, though.  And we had to move the cat tree in her room so the cat could get up there - she also loves the bed.

Let me point out "Happy Monkey Ball" at the top left of Maddie's bed - Thank you, Grandy - and on the left, it's her Unicorn Pillow Pal - Thank you Ouderkirks.  So, does Maddie like her bed?

Ohh Yeah!