Santa visit

We had the letters written a few days ago, so today we headed out to visit Santa. As we were getting ready to head out Alexa decided that she wanted Chloe to give Santa her letter. Chloe has always been my braver girl were these things are concerned. however when we got to Santa Chloe felt too shy to go talk to him either. I finally persuaded Chloe to walk over with me and hand him the letter. I don't believe in forcing your children to sit with Santa for that coveted holiday picture so I settled with the shot from the other side of the Christmas decorations.

Trust me Santa is just on the other side of those trees...

We did find that on Church Street today they were giving free miniature pony rides. That the girls were game to try. So here they are trotting around with Snickers.

It even gained them a pair of reindeer ears. So now I am spending my day with a couple of reindeer.

Sewing Buddy

When you are the younger sister you often find yourself watching with envy at all the things your big sister can do. This past summer I taught Chloe to sew. She loves it and often spends her free time rifling through my bag of fabric scraps finding things to create. Alexa is fairly envious of this skill. She hasn't asked me yet, but she just seems to know she isn't old enough to be entrusted with a needle and thread.

So imagine her glee this evening when we came home and Chloe told her she would make something for her. Just like that... out of the blue. Alexa was thrilled and the next thing I knew they were planning on making a pink giraffe. Chloe spent about 45 minutes just cutting out the pieces for her planned creation. She has everything from polka dots, mouth, and tail pieces. She is planning to sew them together for Alexa tomorrow while she is home with Grammie Sharon because her school is closed for parent conferences.

It is so nice after a 30 minute drive home today riddled with, "Don't touch my foot" and, "Stop looking out my window." That she so willingly want to create something for her sister.

Of course, my living room looked like this after all that creating, but I was willing to overlook that after all that harmony.

Dear Santa

I mentioned to the girls that I had seen a sign this weekend that indicated Santa would be at the mall downtown starting next weekend. This started a frenzy of writing. Chloe dove towards the table and started writing down her requests.

Alexa got upset because she can't write yet, so I wrote for her as she found her requests then she signed her letter and decorated some pictures for Santa. I have to admit I kind of like the early letters. Once the letter has been delivered to Santa there is no going back. It gives the elves in this world time to ensure things are in stock and delivered on time.

Doggy Diet

We have come to own one of the more pathetic dogs on the planet. As a rescue dog sent up from Texas there could be no more pathetic sight than that of a shivering, whimpering, Boston Terrier in a sweater having to go out in the snow to pee first thing in the morning. At least that is what I thought, until I took Cabbie to the vet on Saturday. Now he is a pathetic, whimpering dog on a diet.

Our fuzzy little friend's tendency to love food with a passion that knows no boundaries has landed him a six pound weight gain in the last year. Enough to have the vet indicate that it was time to drop a few. After looking at the posters on the wall of the over weight pets I couldn't deny that he bore a striking resemblance to them. So now we are in diet mode around here, and Cabbie is restricted to a mere 1/3 cup of food two times per day and no snacks. The girls and I are now stalked around the kitchen by a short fellow with pleading brown eyes. Hoping that we will relent and crack the lid off the goody jar.

For anyone who has ever had to take off a few, it just makes you feel bad for the little guy doesn't it?

Talkin Turkey

In an attempt to save the dog from any further decorating. I directed the girls to making paper turkeys. We put them up on the front door so Chloe can rest at ease since we are now properly decorated for the holiday.

So now we are decorated for the holiday!

Scrubbed and Clean

I got new tires on my car Saturday. I know desperately exciting. Considering the chunk of money I shelled out; I would have rather had something more exciting. I did, however, need them and thus is life when you get all responsible and stuff. I figured it would be a little busy at the tire place. What with all the people getting their snow tires on and all, so I called first. The man who answered the phone told me it was slow and to come right over. What luck I thought. I headed right over and made it in about 10 minutes. Upon choosing the new tires and signing the paper work I was told it would be about three hours. "But what about come right over... it is slow?" I asked.

"Can't think of who would have told you that," he said, "we are packed."

I was, to say the least, disappointed. At that point there wasn't much I could do. I needed the tires, and I was already there. So I wandered off having left my cell phone number with them on the off chance that I looked pitiful enough, and they would get my car in sooner. The tire place is located near the mall, which I usually avoid like the plague on a Saturday. Spending my weekdays with preadolescence I try to avoid any hangouts that they may congregate to on the weekends. I didn't have much choice though since I wasn't going to just sit in the waiting room at the tire place for three hours.

I wandered my way around various stores, heard enough Christmas music to want to choke a reindeer, and witnessed some women offering friends the worst fashion advice I could possibly imagine. Through my travels I came upon a sale item that I couldn't pass up... bath puppets!

I usually have to drag my kids up to the bath tub at night. It gets so tiring. I thought maybe the purchase would be the right incentive, and it worked! Look at them! Don't they look clean and smiley?

They scrubbed with a vengeance and Chloe actually said, "Mommy I can't wait for bath tonight." I know, tomorrow will be a battle again, but for one night I didn't have to argue and that people was four dollars well spent. And even better... my car was ready in just over an hour!

A Tale of Three Feet

Our house has wood floors. I love the wood floors. It was one of the first things I liked about the house when I first looked at it. I love that you can clean them. Kids and pets have done everything (and I mean everything) to these floors, and I always manage to save them with out too much fuss.

The only thing I don't like is how cold they are in the winter. I have cold feet... constantly. From the months of October around about to April my feet are akin to Popsicles. It has led me to make an investment every year for all three of us. Slippers. Warm, fuzzy slippers. The only way to survive an old house, wood floors, and a Vermont winter.

Chloe

Alexa

Me

Welcome to a girly house. A girly house with warm feet.

The Forgotten Holiday

The rush to rip down the Halloween decorations is on. Some stores have had Christmas decorations going strong for some time. It may seem that the poor holiday of Thanksgiving is falling by the wayside. Where are all the turkeys and corn stalks marking the season? Well, just to prove the Thanksgiving is not all forgotten Chloe decided to decorate for the event.

Of course she decorated the dog.

I present to you Cabbie the corn stalk. Can't you just hear him sighing?

Leaf Compactors

Somewhere in the middle of playing in the leaves the girls invented this game. They took the giant bouncy balls and were flattening all the leaves. I am thinking of renting them out to help people make space in the compost piles.




It's also a great way to ensure an early bed time.

A Warm Fall Day

When the tempertures reach 61 degrees and the sun is shining in November, you just can't help but head outside. In Vermont that meets playing in the leaves. The girls like to rake them all to the bottom of the slide (sometimes piling them up the slide) and then slide down into them.




It also doubles as a great incentive to get the kids to help raking!

Clothes Monsters

It is hard to tell how it all got started. I remember reading books to Chloe about school and one of the characters always laid her clothes out the night before. Knowing how slow Chloe moves in the mornings and how much she enjoys control. I suggested that this sounded like a good idea. She readily agreed and thus began our tradition of her picking out her clothes for school the night before.

All was going along just swell and Alexa even picked up on the tradition. She dutifully picks out an outfit each night after bath and before teeth brushing. How that all got morphed into a creative endeavor I really don't know other than to say it began with Chloe.

She began hanging her clothes off the knob on her dresser. That wasn't such big deal until she started to make them into things. Alexa, again, picked up on the idea and now it seems to be a nightly event. Every night the girls make a monster out of their clothes hanging on the dresser.

Here we have Chloe's creation...

something to do with an ocean theme.

And Alexa's...

he considers hers to be more of a princess. The tights are apparently her hair.

I don't know. I had envisioned a neat little clothes pile all folded up with fresh socks and underwear on the top. I guess I really don't care as long as they are still OK with taking them apart and putting them on in the morning.

Preschool Video

I have tried about four times to post this video of Alexa's school performance. I tried it out for the first time. I guess persistance pays off. Please note the rather shy kitty on the right. I have the long version on the tape at home for those I choose to torture with home videos. Please excuse the poor camera work. I was actually using two cameras at the same time.

Distractions

There are four times a year when my stress level reaches a higher state than it normally is. It is shocking to imagine since I am normally juggling about twelve plates in the air just to survive, but there are times when it is worse. Next week Friday is the close of the marking period. That means a lot of extra work to average grades and fill out report cards. I brought home a lot of grading this weekend to make sure that I have as much graded ahead of time as possible to try to make the process as smooth as possible.

It gets a little tricky to balance the whole parenting/ work thing though. That led me to make an investment. Call it a peace and quite investment. It has worked well. I was able to grade an entire pile of writing journals. The trick? Two buckets of stickers.

Look at those faces. Totally fixated on creating. As long as you don't mind your entire kitchen table being buried in sticker backing your guaranteed a chunk of time.