Leaf Raking

There are still a ton of leaves on the trees, so there really wasn't much point to us raking them, except the weather was glorious and you can't find a fun & free activity for the girls much closer to home!

And, if nothing else, if it snows tomorrow, we can at least says we raked some of the leaves before the second snow of the season!

LEAVES!!!!

No, Annelee, leaf raking is serious business ...

Ok, maybe not that serious after all!

Daddy got in on the action, too.

11/11/11

Now, some would say it's a shame Vivian wasn't born 7 years earlier so she would be turning 11 on 11/11/11; but (a) I am most certainly not ready for an 11 year old yet, and (b) Vivian has grown so much already since her last birthday, that I'm happy for her to slow things down a bit.

So, instead she's turning 4, and - while she's not really aware of how cool the date is or how long it'll be (other than 12/12/12 next year) until such a cool date comes along again (01/01/2101) - she is very aware that her birthday is coming up.  Despite the fact that Will and I keep pointing out that her birthday is not until February and that she'll turn three.  There's no fooling this girl  ;)

She took cupcakes to pre-school yesterday (she doesn't go to pre-school on Fridays) and when she went to bed last evening and I told her she would be 4 when she wakes up, she got a big grin on her face.

Today, we'll be skyping with Omi and Grosspapa and Ullalalala, doing some shopping for tomorrow's party, open gifts, and I'm sure we'll be trying out that new scooter that she's finally getting.

Tomorrow, we'll have a little party with her (and our) friends at our house. Probably the last time that we can decide who is coming  ;)

Looking at the photos from just after her 3rd birthday, I can hardly believe that was just a year ago.  She still looks so toddler-like there (although at the time I thought she looked big, of course).  That's all gone.  She's truly a girl now.

She's all into princess stuff and playing doll houses, painting finger nails, Barbies, and imaginary play.  Lots of singing of songs, both real and made up, but also running around, climbing, dancing.

She's an expert negotiator (we fully expect her to become a famous lawyer) that never forgets anything.  Just the other day, she decided she could take a handbag to daycare because "it's not a toy" (and we don't allow toys at daycare).  She almost had me convinced.

Her favorite TV (well, DVDs) is the "Signing Times" series that we started watching again to teach Annelee some signs.  Vivian practically knows them all and actually uses them to have conversations with us.  She even chooses Signing Times over Disney cartoons in the morning!

She continues to be a fabulous big sister; and is always able to make Annelee giggle with her antics.

Happy 4th Birthday, my big little girl!

Her previous birthday posts can be found here:  One, two, three.

December 2010

January 2011

February 2011

March 2011

April 2011

May 2011

June 2011

July 2011

August 2011

September 2011

October 2011

November 2011

Art for Kids

Katherine texted me the other day that she was taking Emma to a kids-art-thingamajig at the Frick Arts Museum on Saturday.  And who could possibly resist a thingamajig   :)  So, at the last minute, I told her I was joining her, and this is how we found ourselves in the Faberge exhibit at the Frick, trying to spot the animals in the exhibit.  The whole event lasted not quite an hour, but was done quite well for children of Emma's and Vivian's age.  As an introduction, they talked about the size of the artwork, the kinds of animals, the materials, which ones would be harder to work, etc.  Then, they spend about 20 minutes in the exhibit looking at some of the work from Faberge.  After that, it was back to the lecture hall where they could create their own master pieces out of pre-printed paper, markers, scissors and fake gem stones.

Emma and Vivian had fun!

Vivian and Emma painting their masterpieces

Full concentration

Vivian's comment of "Mommy, I'm really good with scissors" failed to reassure me.  But she did indeed do just fine.

Annelee got in the action, too

Abby was checking things out

Annelee was NOT amused when I decided she'd wreaked enough havoc tipping out the containers with the markers!

Virginia Wrap-Up

Remember our trip to Virginia last month ... well, here are finally a couple more (random) photos from that trip.

Serious noise protection

Cookie Monster wants COOKIE!!!

Not sure we can let Aunt Susan babysit anymore  ;)

Feeding a goat at Cox Farm

More hungry goats to be fed

Annelee in the kiddie zone

Who knew babies were hatched from eggs!

Shucking corn

Wheeeeeee ... Vivian and the Birthday Girl on one of the many sack slides

Cruise Control

Apparently, Annelee needs a bit of pressure to get moving.  We were at Gymkhana yesterday, watching Vivian do her gymnastics as we do every week.  The benches there are perfect for cruising, but so far, Annelee had just been standing there and holding on, not moving even an inch.  This time, another little girl came up to her and started grabbing for Annelee's binky.  Annelee turned her head away.  The little girl wouldn't give up.  So Annelee took a couple of tentative steps to the side.  The girl followed.  Grabbed for the binky.  Annelee moved ... I think that was officially the first time she cruised along furniture.  All hail her binky addiction and little girls that want to steal binkies!

In the evening, Annelee was fussy at dinner out at a local restaurant.  I took her to the waiting area which had a long padded bench.  Put her down at one end and then went and sat in the middle.  Again, duress (can't be separated from Mommy!) did its thing and Annelee started to cruise toward me.  I think she enjoyed it, so hopefully, she'll even start to cruise voluntarily, soon.

Jack'o'lanterns

The pumpkins in our house were worked in both the traditional way (carving - Will & Franziska) as well as painted (Vivian & Annelee) and even Mr. Potatohead managed to get in on the act of pumpkin decorating.

Painting pumpkins is great for the kids ... I think I will steal that idea not just for this year, but probably the next few.

Very tentative beginnings

Getting in the swing of things

Her paper towel is just as artistic as her pumpkin!

Who needs paint brushes!

Making sure to use every color we have.  And that the stem is painted, too.

And from one second to the next we are All! Done!  Mommy!!!

The final pieces of art

Franziska's Pumpkin

Will's Pumpkin

Our final Halloween display

And finally, a quick video of our two artists at work:

If you can't see the video above, click here to launch it.

Halloween 2011

All year, Vivian had been announcing that she would be a cat this year for Halloween.  I was mentally already planning what I needed to do to make a costume when she suddenly changed her mind about 2 months before Halloween.  She was now going to be Rapunzel.  Really no surprise there - she's Rapunzel a lot of days. 

I had big plans on crocheting a cap and making a braid, but my attempts failed and she ended up with just a braid with a ribbon to tie around her head for her first Halloween event.  I made a cap that evening, but she wanted nothing to do with it the next day, preferred the ribbon. 

Annelee was going to be a ladybug, we already had a very cute hand-me-down costume.  So we were all set. 

There was a weekend full of parties for Vivian ... starting off with the Daycare Halloween Party on Friday.  On Saturday, she was invited to a Halloween Party at a Daycare friend's house. She was the only girl, all the boys were dressed as superheros and a vampire.  They played that the vampire was trying to get the princess and the super heros saved her.  Talk about re-inventing stereotypes! 

Sunday was the Halloween parade at church (gotta love a church that embraces Halloween!) and Emma's fourth birthday party, also with a Halloween theme.

Then, finally, Halloween itself rolled around on Monday.  At six o'clock on the dot it started to rain (trick or treating in Mt Lebanon is 6pm-8pm).  So, we changed our plans and I stayed home with Annelee (who hated her costume anyways) and Will took Vivian out.  They stayed out for over an hour and came back with a bucket full of candy.  Apparently, after every house, Vivian would say "I want to go home".  Then she'd spot a jack'o'lantern somewhere and say "No, I want to go there!". 

One of a very few shots of a smiling ladybug

Rapunzel and her long hair

I may have to work on my make-up skills

Not the picture I envisioned, but it makes me laugh every time I look at it.  I hope Annelee will forgive me one day for taking it  :)