Santa visited

Emily's tear-inducing ornament

Gingerbread house

Emily made this gingerbread house at school today--she was very, very proud. It was also pajama day (I don't remember why...they had been good or something). She managed to wait until I got home, grabbed these two pictures with my phone, and then she and Ellen devoured it.

Santa 2011

The first two are scanned pictures from our local mall Santa. Their printer could use a little love.

Then Michelle helped with a little color correction so that the clothes didn't seem quite as outrageous. A lot truer to the actual colors.


Thanks, Papa & Grandma, for our cute matching outfits!
(And the other clothes that aren't pictured.)

Decorating the tree

There are more pictures on the good camera, but these should hold you until I get to those...

Kids' table practice

Waffle Wednesday

The girls are sometimes easier to serve Benihana-style...

Pigtails

I want to make money off of this picture

Thanksgiving

We went to Ontario for Thanksgiving with the Steeles, and somehow I hardly took any pictures. Abby enjoyed her first "real" Thanksgiving meal, and Emily and Ellen LOVED playing with Lily & Porter. It was a fun weekend!

Belated birthday pics

A few weeks ago, I had a birthday. Kim brought a cake over and let the girls decorate it. It was amazing. It's a good thing I love sprinkles.

Jessica and her girls came up to celebrate, and we had a great time hanging out.

Cake aftermath

Clean-up crew...

Look--all three are looking at the camera!

"I ate so much that my belly is hanging out!"

Sugar crash

Cake

Pre-party

Link to more Halloween pics

Sarah took some good pictures from Halloween. You can find them here...

Halloween

We didn't get too many pictures from trick-or-treating, because, well, it was dark. We headed over to the Budds' house (which has become tradition), and after dinner we headed into the neighborhood. All of the kids had fun--especially Ellen. After each house, she would come running down the driveway, yelling, "Mom! Look what I got!" or "Mom, I got (insert candy name here)!" And she insisted that we keep going until her pumpkin was full. Later she told me that she had a thousand candies. Both Emily and Ellen LOVED their Rapunzel costumes; Abby loved being a ladybug so much (even in a 3-6 month costume) that she wore it for a couple of days in advance.

Soccer awards

Emily finished her first soccer season. The last day they received medals, popcorn, and juice. Then there was a parents vs. kids game. Yes, I participated. Yes, I scored. Yes, I scored on 4- and 5-year-olds.

Ellen does not like to have her picture taken. You have to sneak up on her.

Classic Abby.
She's a sneaky one.

Ellen desperately wanted to be a part of everything.

We let her play in the game. She just kept running around, beehive style, yelling "I'm doing it! I'm doing it!" I think the ball accidentally hit her feet once or twice. She told Jon that she caught a goal. Once, she got too close to the game next to us, and kind of merged into that game, and I had to retrieve her. Oh, did I mention Ellen was clutching her bag of popcorn the ENTIRE time?

What was Abby doing, you ask? She was stealing the girls' juice boxes and finishing them off. Snacking on a little grass & dirt. Helping her dad with pictures.