Baby Ava Love

Just because she's so cute, and I can't believe she's 3 1/2 months old!

Fall Fun 2010

We have done a bunch of fun fall activities this year, and the girls have loved all of them! In mid-Septemeber, we went apple-picking at an orchard near our house with our playgroup. You were supposed to keep all the apples you picked, which meant we went home with more apples than we could possibly need and even after eating them for snacks, making apple pie and apple crisp, we still have some left! Here are a few pictures from our apple-outing:

Then, last weekend, we went pumpkin-picking with some good friends at the same farm. It was the perfect fall day, cool enough for a sweater, but still beautiful and sunny. We have had the best fall weather this year! And, since we went of a Friday afternoon/evening, the farm wasn't crowded at all, and we basically had the pumpkin patch to ourselves. As with apple-picking, they loved riding on the tractor best. The girls took the job of picking a pumpkin very seriously, and walked all around trying to find the perfect ones:

And finally, this past Sunday, we met some friends at the zoo for their annual Halloween celebration. We feared the night was ruined at the beginning, since they had the characters from the movie Shrek in costume, and Elle, my child who is afraid of everything, had a panic attack when she saw him. She wouldn't let Kyle put her down and kept screaming and pointing to the zoo entrance, "Take me home! I want to go home!" And we were at least 50 feet away from Shrek during this whole time! We kept moving and once she got her first piece of candy in her trick-or-treat bag, she decided this wasn't so bad and was okay the rest of the time. She even decided that she wanted to pose with Woody and Buzz and loved getting to meet the princesses at the end, although you can't tell from the pictures! After she took a picture with Cinderella, who she was also dressed as, I asked her if she was excited about meeting her, and she looked at me very seriously and said, "Mommy, I'm Cinderella too. We're both Cinderella." I forgot that this kid lives in make-believe land pretty much all the time. She also told her teacher at school that she's a real princess, not just a pretend one, and she's going to marry a prince and wear a real princess dress. Got to love the imagination of a child! Lauren also had a blast at the zoo, and I loved hearing her tell people she was Snow White (especially since I don't remember Elle being so aware at that age). She looked so adorable in her costume, and I can't wait to see the girls in their princess dresses again!

And a few funny/cute tidbits from the girls recently:

"Mommy, you look so cute!" from Lauren as I'm getting dressed.

"That's cool, Elle," from Lauren as Elle tells her we are going to the park.

"Yeah, sure, mommy," Lauren's response to me after almost any question I ask. How old is this kid?!?

"Elle Kafren! No run away! You listen!" from Lauren after Elle ran away when I told her we had to leave the park (apparently, I already only use Elle's middle name when she's in trouble!).

"Mommy, Lauren's the fairest of them all," Elle referring to Lauren being Snow White for Halloween.

"Mommy, me and Lauren are both going to be princesses. What are you going to be? I know, you can be the mean witch!" Thanks Elle.

"Mommy, I think I'm going to die!" from Elle after she got shots at the doctor. Later she told me, "I'm not brave, Mommy, I'm not! I'm just scared! And I'm never going to the doctor again, and now, my heart is broken!" Academy Award anyone? She is definitely our drama queen!

A conversation between me and Elle recently (She's been obsessed with getting married lately; I'm guessing it's all these Disney movies she's been watching, but it's so funny to me to hear my 4-year-old discuss who she's going to marry!):

"Mommy, when I get bigger, I'm going to marry daddy." (Elle)

"Well, you can't marry daddy because he's married to me." (Me)

"Okay, then I'll marry Papa." (Elle)

"Well, Papa's already married to Nana." (Me)

"Okay, then I'll marry Uncle Josh." (Elle)

"You can't marry Uncle Josh because you're related to him." (Me)

"Fine, then I'll marry Sam (a friend of Elle's)." (Elle)

"Okay, but what about your other friends, like Drew or Kyle or Peyton?" (Me)

"Well, they can come to the wedding and you and daddy can come too, and I'm going to wear a real princess dress!" (Elle)

Monsters and Make-up

My three beautiful girls

Baby Ava at 12 weeks

Can't believe I haven't posted anything since March, but once I get behind on something, I tend to avoid it altogether because I don't know where to begin on getting caught up! I have so many things I could but may or may not post about Ava's birth and my letters to the girls on their birthdays (Lauren turned 2 and Elle turned 4 in September) and their joint Princesses and Pirates party, but I will start with a few pictures from this week...

I've started a tradition of having a themed family fun night once a week. I'm sure it will change over time, but I really wanted at least one night a week where we spend intentional fun time together as a family. I never thought we would be so busy when are kids are not even in school, but between Kyle's work schedule and dates nights for us and dinners with friends with the kids, there are plenty of nights where we are not all at home for dinner together, or even nights where we are home but tired in the evenings and not really up for doing activities/playing games before bedtime. I want to make sure we always set aside time where it is just us and time where we are doing something fun as a family. The girls have absolutely loved these nights so far, and Elle helps me plan for it during the day. Last week, we did an apple theme, and if I get a chance, I'll post those pictures too. This week was monster-themed, but as Elle said, "Not scary monsters, sweet monsters who don't roar!" We colored monster pictures and made monster masks before daddy got home, and decorated with some shape monsters we had made earlier in the week:

After dinner, we played Pin the Eye on the Monster:

We made monster marshmallows for dessert:

Then, the girls' favorite part of the night...we played monster tag, complete with some monster feet. Elle did not want to stop, of course, and I haven't heard the girls laugh so much in a while!

Then, to calm down before bed, we made playdough monsters:

We finished the night with a not-so-scary monster story. So simple, but so fun for all of us! And to end, here's a picture from this morning of Lauren putting make-up on her sister. I feel fortunate that they really do love each other...most of the time...and it's so sweet to see them become friends in addition to being sisters!