So Much Fun

This holiday season is kind of crazy for us. We are at the tail end of an incredibly drawn out cross country move. It would be easy to focus on the fact that we only see Tim every other weekend, or that all of our Christmas stuff is in a storage bin or that we can't buy Cate and Timmy some of the larger items that we would like to because we don't want to have to get them to Arizona.

Luckily for us, we have a two and a three year old who are so excited about the Holidays.

They don't care that their stockings will stay in a box this year or that their special ornaments won't make it to the tree. They are just so excited about everything Christmas related.

We went to a tree lighting ceremony the day after Thanksgiving. Santa arrived on a fire truck to light the tree. For Timmy, it was the best thing ever. A noisy fire truck and this Santa character? Awesome.

On Saturday, we put up the tree. We waited for Timmy to get up from his nap. I thought that he would be a little bit lethargic and just watch at first.

He dove right in. That tree has never been decorated faster. Cate and Timmy were running back and forth from the tree to the ornament box. They were so excited and so much fun to watch.
My tall Timmy even got to put the angel on top of the tree.

Once all of the ornaments had a place and the lights were lit, we got out the matching Christmas pajamas and read the newest, "Llama llama" book. It was a much needed relaxing Thanksgiving weekend.

Meet me in Des Moines

In our continuing saga of negotiating life while living in two cities, last weekend we hit the road and met in Des Moines. Nana Diane was graduating from her Master's program, so Uncle Rusty made the 5 hour drive with me, Cate and Timmy. He earned his uncle stripes on that ride, let me tell you. The nose wiping alone was a daunting task as Timmy has had a cold for two weeks now. Tim flew in from Phoenix just after we arrived and we got to spend the weekend together.

On Saturday we went to the mall to ride the train and see the Christmas decorations. Cate and Timmy loved the train ride.
We talked about Santa all the way to the mall. Cate was very excited to get a look at him and to tell him what she wants for Christmas (a new FANCY kitchen and a new bucket of Halloween candy because hers is gone). Never for one second did I think that she would get near Santa...and she didn't. I had to hold her as we got close to the line, but she watched intently while other kids rattled off their wish lists.

We did admire the decorations and lights that led to Santa and then of course, we made a visit to the play area.

We are so excited to get ready for Thanksgiving and to have Tim home for 5 days!

Hanging out and Getting Ready

We've been in a bit of a holding pattern. We have been in the process of moving for almost eight months. It seems to be coming to an end. We are hoping to close on our new house in Phoenix by the end of the month. We are praying that there are no snags, no logistical issues, no red tape.

In some ways, this is the calm before the storm, because moving across the country will be a storm. Everything will be new and a challenge and probably somewhat exhausting.

On the other hand, it will finally be an end to many months of only seeing Tim every other weekend and that has been a storm too.
Since the weather in Chicago is turning decidedly Winter-like, we have been doing a lot of coloring...
...a lot of cutting and pasting...

...and a little bit of painting.

We have been making the rounds to our favorite playgrounds when it's warm enough...and sometimes even when it's not.

We've started to get ready for the Holidays and my Christmas cards even arrived in the mail yesterday. This is a huge organizational feat for me. We are looking forward to a few (easy) holiday projects and to Cate's Christmas program at school which is less than a month away! Crazy!

A Scary Start

Our Halloween fun started with Cate's preschool costume party and parade on Thursday. See the cute little girl holding her Mimi's hand, not wearing a costume, not looking at anyone with a camera? That's Cate. I signed up to help with her class's Halloween party. I thought that she would like to have me in her class and I wanted to be sure to help with a party before we moved. It totally threw her for a loop. Things did not improve much after the parade and we all needed a nap when we got home.

So, I didn't know how trick-or-treating would go. But by the time Monday rolled around, she was ready to go. It was a complete turnaround.

Cate asked to be a pink butterfly this year and when I saw the cheeseburger costume, it seemed like a good fit for Timmy...a.k.a. TT Burger.

Timmy started out the sugar fest by stealing a few pieces of candy from our own bowl. Cate found this out as the above picture was snapped. She was not happy to start the candy collection two twizzlers behind.

Once they got going, they did a great job. They knew their lines and Cate even introduced herself and and her brother to a neighbor. A far cry from her party when she would barely speak at all.
After just a few houses, they couldn't believe how much candy had accumulated in their pumpkins. Cate said, "Maybe we should go home now and show Mimi all of this beautiful candy!" We finished the block then went home to take inventory.

They were both very excited about a little bag they received with Halloween pencils, erasers, writing pads and rings. Timmy was very intent on whatever he was writing for quite awhile.

After a bath, Timmy enjoyed his very favorite candy, M&Ms.

Just to be festive, I decided to make pumpkin bars in the afternoon. I have never made them before and used this recipe. Sort of. After I made the bars, but before I frosted them, I suddenly remembered that the recipe called for four eggs. I didn't put any eggs in. I got distracted and made them without any of the FOUR eggs. So before I made the frosting, I had to cut some out and find out if they were edible and worth frosting. Surprisingly, they were. I'm not sure what they would be like with eggs, but they are quite good without them! Happy Halloween!

Painting Pumpkins

I am not good at crafts and projects. In Kindergarten I was in the special, pull out class for bad cutters and pasters. I don't think it helped me much. But my little Caterpillar loves a good project, so I decided to give it a try. I saw an example of how to paint pumpkins using painters' tape on one of my favorite blogs and decided that even I could probably handle this.

I wasn't excited about the prospect of carving pumpkins with a 2&3 year old. What is there for them to really do? Plus, again, I am bad at things like that and Tim is not here, so I gave that idea up awhile ago.

So, while Timmy napped, Cate and I got to work. We put the tape all over two pumpkins and then carved out a jack o lantern face for her with an exacto knife.

That process took me 45 minutes, so Timmy got a much easier giant T on his pumpkin.

When Timmy woke up, I gave each of them a lovely palette on a paper plate.

Timmy's face cracks me up. I imagine that he is thinking, "I can't believe that she is giving me all of this messy paint!"

I told them that they could paint with whatever colors they wanted and do whatever "designs" they wanted to on their pumpkins.

Cate painted her hand, as she's done in school, and gave her pumpkins a few handprints. Timmy needed to be hosed down a few times during the process.

When all of the paint finally dried, we pulled up the tape and voila! Two cute pumpkins.

Two confessions. One: I did go back and doctor their pumpkins a little bit. They used so much paint and mixed it so much that it really just looked like they painted their pumpkins brown. So I tried to go back and add some color. Two: I clearly did a bad job on the mouth of the jack o lantern. It's way too big and his top tooth is hanging somewhere in the middle of his mouth. Oh well. This is pretty good for me.

Enjoying the Fall

I love Fall. Cool, but not cold weather, pumpkins, falling leaves, apple cider. I do not particularly love Halloween. My mom called me a Halloween scrooge. I'm not opposed to kids dressing up in cute costumes and having fun running around, but it's just not my favorite holiday.

There are also a lot of images that are difficult to explain to a two and three year old. For example the neighbor who has hands (as if coming up from the grave) sticking up out of his grass. Timmy notices them every time. Then there are the friendly ghost and witch stickers on another window. Cate and Timmy wanted to know what the witch was. I said, "Do you know who usually is known for flying around on her broomstick?" Timmy replied instantly, "Mommy!" Ok, well, also witches.

A bicycle not built for two.

Haircuts and Cupcakes

Usually Tim takes Cate and Timmy to get their hair cut. I reluctantly did the job last week because they were looking pretty shaggy and Cate's preschool picture day was the next day. I told the woman that I wanted a long bob, just past chin length, for Cate.

She is as adorable as they come, but come on. This is cheekbone. What would a short bob look like? Just grazing the eyelashes?

Don't you just love the sass in this picture? Gotta love the three-year-old attitude.

I have been wanting to work on some pumpkin recipes with Cate, so we decided to make this cake, although we made the cupcake version. Timmy ended up "helping" too. He had a great time and actually did a decent job of not making a mess. By that I mean that he didn't spill the whole bowl of batter or put his whole hand in the frosting. The kitchen was a definite mess. Unfortunately between making a new cake and frosting recipe and managing Cate and Timmy at the counter, I didn't get many great pictures of these cute cupcakes.

I did get a picture of Timmy making what we call the "piggy" face. He was thoroughly enjoying his cupcake. In this eating picture of TT, I not only used my standard black and white feature, but also blurred the edges to soften the effect of disgustingness.

I think that it was at about this point that Timmy started trying to get me to re-frost his cupcake.

The Aquarium and The Pumpkin Farm

And it's only Tuesday. This has been a busy week for us. I don't like to pack our weeks too full of activities because we all just end up worn out and cranky. Especially me.

Tim was home for a long, three day weekend though, so we decided to go to the Aquarium. We tried explaining it to Cate and Timmy the night before. We explained that they would see everything that lives under the water. Timmy kept saying, "There's horses there?" No. "There's piggies?" No. "There's cows?" No. You'll see.

First we visited the big tanks.

Then after a quick lunch, it was time for the dolphin show. When the music signaled that the show was about to begin, Cate put her arm around Timmy. I imagine she was thinking, "Ok Timmy, time to find out what they brought us here to see. I'll decide if we like it."

I think that their favorite part was the "Polar Play Zone." We visited it twice before we left.

Then this morning, before Tim had to go to the airport, he let C&T help him make eggs. Timmy loved it because I usually try to avoid having him in the kitchen.

Waiting in line to get on the bus. Who is standing quietly with her hands folded, looking at the teacher? My little rule follower.

Timmy and I met the class after he ran around like a maniac trying to pick up all of the pumpkins.

The haystack maze.

Cate's first class picture.

We stayed a little bit late so that Timmy could see all of the animals and so that they could go through the corn maze. We got apple cider donuts and juice for the ride home and called it lunch. After this much excitement, we might be calling it a week too.