Indiana Trip!

Well, we made it back from our whirlwind 4-day trip to Fort Wayne!  We left on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) and came back yesterday, Sunday.  The girls were so good in the car, even though we wouldn't let them watch a whole lot of DVDs due to carsickness (Anna has had trouble in the past and Erin threw up on the way there).  Kids' Dramamine seemed to help too.  We got there on Thursday around 6pm after 11-1/2 hours, got to be a part of the Lothamer Thanksgiving (50 people!), then got the girls' rooms settled and went to bed.  Friday, Bob went to see his friend Mike in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while we girls hung around Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Friday evening, we made the perfunctory trip to Meijer, then out to dinner at Bandido's.  Saturday was Katie and Matt's wedding!  It was beautiful and wonderful and they looked so happy.  We were able to let the girls take a 1-hour nap between the ceremony and reception so they were ready to party.  And party they did!  They loved the party food and the dance floor.  Anna particularly loved the pink cake, and Erin had 3 plates of fruit salad.  It was a wonderful time, and we had so much fun!  Yesterday, we got back in 12 hours including lunch and dinner stops, and they did so well.  We had a great time!  

I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I did on our trip last year, but here are a few of the wedding:  

Belated October

I realized that I've posted about the 2 most important happenings in October - Erin's birthday and Halloween - but did not update on the rest of the month!  As usual for us lately, we had a busy month.  Erin was tracked out of school for the first 3 weeks, so we had a really great time together.  We started it off with Anna's last dance class (that Erin got to attend too) on the 4th and a very fun outdoor family concert on the 5th, at which Erin really shook her tail feather.  We love watching her dance!

The next day, we had a fun baby shower for Sofia at our house coupled with an "emergency" vet visit for Bella's ruptured cyst.  Two weeks of oral and topical antibiotics (plus sporadic cone-wearing) later, she's as good as new.  Here are most of the shower attendees:



We sustained flu shots x 3 (Bob refuses to get one and I refuse to pay for Bella's) with minimal tears. Mommy and Daddy had their first-ever getaway to Niagara Falls from the 12th-14th.  Erin and Anna stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Ambrosini, to whom we are very grateful!  The girls did really well with them, and we had a great trip.  My only stipulation was that I did not want to go anywhere hot, so that's kind of how we ended up going north.  We had lots of fun and could definitely take another trip without kids; hopefully it will be sooner than 4 more years until the next one!



We had Erin's birthday celebration in Asheboro on the 20th, family/4th birthday portraits on the 21st, and back to school on the 22nd.  Daddy went camping on the 27th-28th and made it back in one piece.  It is always uncertain if that will happen with his man trips that involve hatchets, pocket knives, and bows and arrows!  Then we had a fun Halloween week to wrap up the month.

I'm trying to do some structured activities with Anna when I can work them in.  She is really interested in cooking projects and some crafts.  We made bird feeders, which was really just her eating peanut butter. 




So, all of these events, plus quality time with Cole, trips to the Y, library, parks, Bible Study, church, playing outside, helping out our neighbor friends, doctor appointments, chores, and errands filled up our month for sure!  Some house projects just never seem to get done because we have many more fun things to do.  Anyone want to paint Anna's room???  How about stain the deck?  We had a great one and are looking forward to the upcoming holidays!

Halloween!

Well, I'm only 5 days late for posting about  Halloween...not bad, right?  We had such a great time!  Erin got to wear her (actually, Logan's) Nemo costume to school for "Dress as a Book Character Day" since Halloween is evil and public schools cannot celebrate any holidays any more.  Anna was homemade Dory, thanks to Grandma A.!  We chilled out after school and then got ready for fun.  The girls got their costumes on and we took salad and drinks over to our neighbor friends Nina and Lily's house and had pizza with them.  They inhaled their dinner and then hit the street.  We also had Nick and Laney with us because their parents were stranded in England due to Hurricane Sandy.  Drew and Ella met up with us too, so we had a nice group of friends together!  The kids probably went to about 8 houses and they all did so well.  Nobody was scared and everybody stayed together.  Erin was leading the pack, and she even ate a sucker for the first time ever!  Their most favorite treat was glow bracelets from one house...until they woke up the next morning to no more glowing, which made them very angry.  After trick-or-treating, we went back to Nina and Lily's driveway and the kids sat around the fire pit eating candy, drinking juice boxes, toasting marshmallows, and watching all the other kids come to the house.  It was such a fun time, and the kids had a ball.  I loved it because this was the first year we really got to enjoy it, since it rained last year and every other year we had a baby who didn't like it.  Anyway, that was our fun night, and Anna has already proclaimed that next year, she will be Belle and Erin will be the beast.  We'll see what Erin has to say about that!