Mischief

Just rounding up some pictures of my favorite mischief-makers:

Daphne says, "I will do absolutely anything you do."

"How about if I climb on the kitchen?"

"I will do that."

"But I'll wear a helmet."

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here! We had a very busy weekend after thanksgiving, but we still managed to get a few decorations up. We are looking very forward to decorating the front of our house this week.

Felt Xmas tree for the girls to arrange ornaments:

Slipper advent calendar from Mimi and Papa (the girls LOVE it!):

Give thanks

We hosted thanksgiving for a lot of family this year! I cooked the meal, so consequently I have very few pictures on my phone. I think I took some pictures of the food and our family with Erik's phone, which I will upload later. It was a ton of work to cook and clean it all.

Here are the pictures I have from various thanksgiving activities: 

Daphne joins the class at Violet's Thanksgiving concert and party:

Our cornucopia of thanks:

Thankful for books and snuggles:

Mommy and Daphne at Thanksgiving:

Daphne

...turned 20 months yesterday. She doesn't say, "no," she says, "nnnnnnope!" and it's easy to underestimate what an incredibly cute difference that makes. If you ask her a question sometimes she will say, "uuuuuhm" before answering. Also very cute. And if she asks you a question (like when she woke up from her nap and asked, "Sissy?"), and you answer her ("She's at school."), she replies, "Oh." Unbelievable. Like she's a wee grown up.

Nandhi needs a dress!

Nandhi is getting married! We went dress-shopping with her, and it was an absolute blast. I wish I could post the pictures of Violet helping her with her dresses here, but that will have to wait until next August. We were there for almost 3 hours, and the girls were awesome. It was so fun to help Rushika find the perfect dress (which she did! PERFECT!). Looking very forward to her big day.

Cheers! A celebratory sparkling drink (Elderberry Presse from Amy, in fact):

We made little favors because Nandhi loves white chocolate:

A wedding and a weekend at Mimi's

We went to my friend from high school's wedding this weekend. Violet was so sweet as a flower girl, and we had a lovely time. Daphne and I were very very sick, so Daphne stayed home from the wedding, and I toughed it out! Stomach bugs don't have a calendar.

(Gorgeous) Flower girl:

Photo booth fun:

The Happy Couple:

Violet and Mommy playing photo booth by our table:

Slumber party at Mimi's!

All of the flower children plus a ring-bearer:

Rain and fun with cal trans

Much to Violet and Daphne's delight, we woke up to a rainy day and about 25 Cal Trans workers cleaning up the vegetation across the street. I'm not sure who was more entertained: the girls or the workers. After this photo was taken, the girls put chairs on the porch (out of the rain) and watched in amazement for about an hour.

Halloween and surrounding activities

Halloween keeps getting more fun every year! We did a much better job this year at pacing ourselves with activities. Here are some hi-lights and costumes from this year:

Halloween day lunch:

Violet (cake-baker) and Daphne (cupcake) at the trunk-or-treat at the Ames' church:

Knock knock! Daphne learned how to say, "TRICK-OR-TREAT!" which she said as we were walking around. She Never said it at the door, but when we got home she fell asleep still saying her new favorite word.

Our neighborhood gave out really good candy, and a lot of it. We have to step up our game next year! All of this went to Erik's work...

Cupcake!

Baker! (Isn't she the coolest 4 y/o??)

Halloween dinner:

Did you notice that she wasn't wearing her cupcake costume in her trick-or-treating pictures? She absolutely hated it and I didn't want to ruin her night. Here she is as a very happy flower fairy, improvised from the dress-up bin.

We carved some pumpkins, too:

Pre-trick-or-treat (notice that Violet insisted on carrying her Mary Poppins carpet bag from last year, even though I had made her a flour and sugar sack for this year):

Happy Halloween 2012!