Halloween.

Halloween started for us a week early this year with our Ward Halloween Party. Avery was a princess again and Camryn was a ladybug (although she didn't keep her costume on long!) I thought it was a good idea that they had coloring sheets and crayons on the tables for the kids during dinner. Then they had activities like face painting, a Halloween craft, and a table full of playdoh. Here's Camryn trying to get in on the playdoh:
After the activities, they had families each decorate and man a door around the building and the kids did trick-or-treating. One group had a spooky room all set up and it was so crowded I sent Avery in. I thought Merrick was helping her but he came out without her and she had been loading up on the candy for a while! Too bad it was mostly Laffy Taffy. :/ We had a fun time at the party and it was great to see all our friends dressed up. My Chipotle Chocolate Chili I made in the chili cook-off was a hit!
The next day Merrick came down with the flu. Within a few days we all had it. Probably H1N1 although we never got officially diagnosed. It was no fun, and we're still recovering. The biggest bummer was that we didn't get to go trick-or-treating. It was a cold night and Avery actually got a 24 hr case of croup on top of the flu so she just couldn't go out. I still dressed up the sickies in their costumes and we did some mock trick-or-treating with them. Oh and I did take Avery to our duplex neighbor's door and she loaded us up, so that was nice. She actually was a good sport and didn't get too disappointed, although I was let down after having told her three trick-or-treat stories every night for the past month to get her ready!

Yesterday Avery started talking about NEXT Halloween already and what she wanted to be - a cat or a witch. So I decided to get it over with so we can move on. I made her hair into some cat ears and drew whiskers on her face. She was positively delighted. I also made her a witch hat out of construction paper, cardboard, and staples and she rode around on my kitchen broom for a while.

We're all starting to feel better now and I'm secretly glad/sad that we don't have a mountain of candy to eat! Hope your Halloween was fun!

19 Months

Camryn is 19 months today. Doesn't she look adorable? Well, she really is. However, she is officially a menace because of this one skill she learned this month - Pushing chairs around and climbing up on them. Hello, little monkey! This gives her access to all my kitchen drawers which she can empty with alarming speed. I quickly learned to hide all my scissors because I would hear the bonechilling sound of scissors: open-close-open-close-open-close. This would send me sprinting into the kitchen only to find Camryn practically beaming at her discovery - "Look Mom! I can work the scissors!" She has also learned how to climb onto the toilet without a step or chair. With a chair, she can get into the sink and onto the top of her changing table. It is not uncommon for Avery to come to me saying, "Uh oh, Mom, look what Camy's doing!" I'm surprised she hasn't broken a limb yet.

Camryn's favorite game is called "Jo" (aka "Joooooooooo!"). It's where she stands at the top of the stairs and chucks a toy down while yelling "Jo!" Repeat until parents intervene. Avery loves to play too, but she's able to make a bigger mess even more quickly. We think "Jo" is her word for "throw" or "go". Silly girl.

Well we sure love her a lot. Even though she drives me nuts sometimes. She really is adorable.

My Date with Avery

Occasionally we like to take Avery on "dates" with just one of us. Merrick has taken her to a few movies and it helps give her some attention away from Camryn. This time I heard about the PERFECT date for me and her: A Fairy Tale Day at the Bayshore Mall. The Milwaukee Ballet Company is putting on Cinderella next week and some of the ballerinas came to the mall in costume and the kids got to dress up like princesses and take pictures with them, etc. It was awesome!

Here is Avery posing with Cinderella herself:

This is her with an Autumn Fairy Dancer:

And her personal favorite - the Spring Fairy, who was her favorite color - GREEN:

The event consisted of pictures with the ballerinas, the kids making their own wands, a reading of the Cinderella story, coloring a Cinderella page, and TONS of little girls dressed up like fairies and princesses. Here's Avery with the wand she made:

We had a great time together! And it really made me want to go see the ballet (I think this was kind of the point).

Lathered Up

We had some friends over for dinner last night. While we were eating dessert, Avery and her friend Nate (who has the same birthday as her, incidentally) were upstairs. We thought they were happily playing with toys while we chatted, until Nate comes running downstairs with some dots on his pants and face. We realized it was lotion and easily wiped him off. I headed upstairs to check on Avery. This is what I found...


A whole bit bottle of Cetaphil lotion DUMPED into the sink and lathered all over Avery - her clothes, her face, her legs... The mirror was wiped all over with it, the whole counter had a nice layer of it.
At least we know she'll be moisturized right? Hehe. It was actually hilarious. I was secretly relieved I hadn't scrubbed down the upstairs bathroom in preparation for company - I have to clean it all over today anyway! (And I was also glad it wasn't on the carpet- that would have been a nightmare). After her quick bath, Avery was good as new.

A couple of three year olds plus a bottle of lotion is not a good combination!

Wisconsin Apple Pickin'

Don't these apples just look delicious? I sure hope so, because we've got a lot of them! Merrick and I took the kids apple picking this morning before Conference. The Honeycrisp apples are in season and we definitely wanted to take advantage of the local U-Pick farm.

Camryn and Avery had fun trying to get them off the trees, although they had a little trouble picking the best ones (according to Merrick). It was a nice chilly October morning!

Merrick and Avery with our big bag of apples. Boy, you can fit a lot of apples in that bag. Of course on the way home we had to try them out. The result...

Happy kids! They both chomped away on them all the way home. They were super juicy, crisp... probably the best apples we've ever had. And I'm pretty sure they were some of the freshest apples we've ever had too! Here's to apple pie, apple crisp, applesauce, apples and peanut butter... Mmmm....

Pumpkin Patch

For preschool this week we went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch (Jim's in Germantown), did a hayride, corn walk, the whole deal. It was really fun! (except for the above picture, where Camryn started bawling for no reason)

My little pumpkin with hers!