Halloween Cast 2011 - Alice in Wonderland

Megan: Alice in Wonderland

Bridget: The Queen of Hearts

Tessa: Tweedle Dum

Annie: Tweedle Dee

Mary:  a  flower

I managed to sueeze one more "theme year" out of these girls!  This probably isn't a desirable result for most people, but I love having them all coordinate with each other when they're this small. Apparently, my persuasive powers are pretty good, because they're all in love with their costumes.  Even better, Alice and the Queen have pretty equal footing in this house, so neither big girl felt upstaged by a better outfit.  In fact, these leading ladies are still having way too much fun acting out their parts from the movie.  "Yes, you're highness," with an appropriate curtsy, and "Off with your heads!" are their favorite things to say right now.

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, on the other hand...well, they're way cuter than the movie version.  And, I'm sure I'll feel guilty someday about making one of my daughters dress as Tweedle Dum (Tessa chose Tweedle Dum, for the record), but I'll worry about that later. For now, I'll just enjoy my full cast of little characters. 

Little Pumpkins

We made our annual trek to Wheatland for our little friend Lorelai's birthday party a couple of weeks ago. This party was at Bishop's Pumpkin Farm.  It's in the middle of nowhere, and it has got to be the biggest pumpkin patch in the world, or close to it.  Definitely bigger than our local patch in San Francisco, where I took the girls a few days ago to get pumpkins. Somehow we neglected to buy pumpkins the day we went to Wheatland.  But we made up for it with other fun activities, like:

Napping in the car on the way there,

Riding on Daddy's shoulders, and Bjorning (is that a verb?) around the patch,

Holding hands with a favorite cousin, comparing pumpkin colors, and carefully avoiding any "smooshed" pumpkins,

Enjoying the birthday treats,

Grinning from ear to ear, so glad to spend time with her Joey,

Sliding three at a time,

Riding on Daddy's shoulders again,

Taking it all in,

and celebrating in style on a train ride with the birthday girl!

While we didn't think to buy pumpkins that day, we did remember to get a family picture.  There's a whole lot of craziness going on in that front row!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Tessa and Annie are officially world travellers now. They flew for the first time today, down to Orange County to spend five days with Mop and Pop. Mary and I accompanied these girls for the journey south, and we were quite the sight I'm sure.




In my (albeit twisted) mind, this outing was just slightly more adventurous than a trip to Target with these three little ones. I wasn't worried about the logistics of this trip. As it turned out, we have three good flyers. Of course, Tessa and Annie will probably always assume that, no matter the airline, Max and Ruby will be airing twice in a row at the exact time they depart. Let me tell you, this was beyond fortuitous, despite the fact that these episodes were watched with no volume since I didn't spring for headsets for them. Have I mentioned how easy to please they are?

We began our airport adventure watching (other) planes fly away.





And once we made it to our plane, these two announced to all of our fellow passengers, "We're going to Mop's house!! We're flying in the sky!!". Mary was less impressed, but she was awake for the entire flight, which I hadn't counted on. I also didn't count on a bottle of water being poured in my lap. Thank you, Tessa. I think I planned for every other contingency -- changes of toddler pants, more Dora undies, extra outfits for Mary -- but didn't bring extra pants for me. So, it did appear that I was the one to wet my pants on the flight. Nice.








Annie was not the least bit cramped in her window seat. Tough life.





After a fun lunch with Mop once we arrived (during which both twins repeatedly asked if they could just go to Mop's house already), it was finally time to say goodbye. I've never seen such half-hearted waves as I saw from Mop's car all loaded up with my girls. I guess undivided attention (and Disneyland!) beats out their "normal" days at home. I hope they miss us a little!





I sit here at the airport ready to make the return trip home. I've shedded a duffle bag, a double stroller, and, oh yeah, two toddlers. Mary and I are enjoying some peace.




I think I'm as giddy as the twins for this change of pace. (Okay, they're slightly more giddy, but c'mon, they're going to Disneyland, and I'm still going home to three kids!) I'll take these next few days to soak up some one-on-one time Mary, and miss my munchkins a little!

- posted from my handy-dandy iPhone, with Blogpress

Joey's Park Without Joey

Before our beloved Cecchin cousins moved (oh so far away) across the Bay Bridge, we made a pretty frequent habit of playing at their neighborhood park - Parkside Playground. The girls have always lovingly referred to this popular spot as "Joey's Park." Sara and I met here on countless mornings for more than four years, coffee in hand and kids bundled up (I wonder why they moved to the sunny East Bay!), and prepared many a picnic lunch here, in the hopes of returning to our respective homes with sleepy kids and clean kitchens.  The older kids all perfected their sliding and swinging here, manned their pirate ship, and dug to their hearts' content in the sand pit.  While I don't frequent this park nearly as often now, we do still play here occasionally, especially since it's so central to both of the girls' schools. And even though Joey doesn't live down the street anymore, we will still always call it Joey's Park!

I hit up Joey's Park with the twins and Mary a few days ago when we had a couple hours to kill, and they had a blast!  They are almost self-sufficient at the park now. (Oh, how this has changed in the last year!!)  It's a lot of fun to watch them chase each other from one play structure to the next, and it's extremely handy that they always have a buddy at the park (and everywhere they go!).

 

 






 


Mary was content (as always!) to watch the action, and to make some cute little expressions for me :)




- posted from my handy-dandy iPhone, with Blogpress

Blessed

Little Miss Mary was baptized almost two weeks ago!  We are definitely blessed to have another healthy, happy little girl to love, and expecially blessed that she has such a big, loving family to welcome her and guide her in life, and especially in her faith.

Okay, if I look at this picture objectively, I can kind of see how poeple think five kids is...a lot! We kind of look like a big family here. Yikes!

The older girls behaved pretty well during the baptptism itself, and they looked pretty cute, too :)

Mary behaved while everyone took turns holding her,

including Grandma and Grandpa,

and Mop and Pop.

Since this blog doesn't go as far back as the girls' baptisms, and because I never blogged about the twins' big day, here's a little walk down memory lane, blog style:

Megan's Baptism 2006

Bridget's Baptism 2007

and a bonus picture of Bridget snuggling with Ma afterwards

and then there were four!

Tessa's and Annie's baptism 2009

My Recipe for a Cute Kindergartener

Take a big heap of this adorable ingredient...

add just a little of this...

and voila!  You get this cute little girl! 

Controlling Our Emotions

Raising five little girls is akin to riding a roller coaster. The emotional drama here is unpredictable with it's ups and downs, and the situation isn't going to get any better as they get older. Plus, Mary isn't even really swimming in this pool of estrogen yet. I pray that she's not as "spirited" as some of her sisters.

We talk a a lot about controlling our emotions, and making a conscious decision to be good girls. Well, of late, I have been having the hardest time with this. While I'm a pretty even-keeled gal most of the time, I turn into a crazy lady when it comes to messes, especially pee and poop messes, which are a frequent occurrence in this house. I think my reaction to messes like these has rubbed off on the girls. Yesterday, after we discovered that my coffee had leaked all over the quilt we were loading up for a soccer game (a mess that didn't bother me at all, I'm ashamed to say, considering how I react to other accidents) Annie put her hands on her hips and announced, "Mommy, I am so mad at you right now!"

Oops. Apparently, I'm the one who needs to be controlling my emotions.

I will not lose my cool when someone poops in their bed.

I will not express my disappointment when someone "forgets" that they needed to pee.

I will not freak out when someone poops in their pants in the middle of someone else's soccer practice.

I will be a good girl.


- posted from my handy-dandy iPhone, with Blogpress

So you want to date Bridget...

This post is about 13 20 years too early, but after my delightful little lunch date** with Bridget on Friday, I thought I should set some ground rules that are not likely to change before then.


1. Hold her hand. She's a lot of fun to hold hands with.  Plus, as you stroll along, you'll definitely want everyone to know she's with you.

2. Treat her to whatever she wants to eat. She'll surprise you with some quirky choices, and then savor every bite...at her own pace. Build in time in your date for this excruciatingly slow activity.



3. Be prepared for some sweet conversation, but don't be offended if she spends the majority of the meal not-so-subtly people-watching. And don't blame her --- this is an unfortunate genetic malady she inherits from her mother.

4. Take her shopping. She will want everything, most notably shoes, jewelry and accessories. Humor her and tell her she may get these items for Christmas. Although, if you're smart, you'll get her whatever she wants, whenever she wants it. (I am not smart at all, incidentally.)




5. Give her a kiss and promise to take her out again. If you know what's good for you, you won't keep her waiting for the next date.

**Our lunch date was a surprise for little Bridget when I picked her up from preschool. Matt had the twins, Megan was still at school, and we were chaperoned by Mary sleeping in her sling. I loved every minute of this one-on-one time with her, and it's something I'm determined to schedule for all of the girls now!

- posted from my handy-dandy iPhone, with Blogpress