Well.......

It seems as though I've reached the allowed number of pictures for my little blog.  I have a big Thanksgiving post ready to go, only I can't attach pictures, something about maxing out my limit on Picsa.  I have no idea what any of this means, other than I tried to delete some pictures and they are now gone from the blog (like these).

Soooooo, until I figure this out I won't be posting.  Hopefully I can get this figured out sooner rather than later.

If anyone out there knows a way around this or some other solution please let me know!

Holiday Shopping

Clare and I braved the crowds and went to the mall this afternoon, I was shocked how unbelievably busy it was!  We only visited two stores but we still had to navigate around people and fight for a parking spot.  Clare is an excellent shopping partner; she listens well and stays close to me when she isn’t in the stroller.  Only once did I panic about where she was, and we only lost Baby once but we found her a minute later relaxing in a comfy chair at Pottery Barn Kids.   

Possibly the most exciting part of our shopping trip was discovering that Hanna Andersson was having a 35% off sale!  We went in for 1 pair of leggings and came out with a little bit more, it was too good of a deal!   I didn’t realize it at the time, but apparently I bought hats and not pants. 

She looks like an elf with those pants on her head. 

When we got home Jeff was listening to Christmas music on the radio and making beef stew, it was all I could do to not go get the Christmas tree and put it up.  I’m really looking forward to decorating this holiday season. 

Yellow Lab

Clare received this puppy from two of my staff.  She thinks it's hilarious that he enjoys eating various wild animals, tonight he enjoyed zebra for dinner, although occasionally he spits it out.  This puppy is a lot like our real puppy, he whines a lot and barks when you tell it not to. I think I like this puppy better though, I have yet to vacuum up any of it's fur or clean up any messes.

No Handprints

I don’t recall posting about this originally, so here’s a little backstory to explain the significance of this picture.

Within the first few weeks of school there was an art project that consisted of the teachers painting each child’s foot white and then making a ghost footprint for Halloween.   Jeff was doing pick up and was told that Clare flipped out at the idea and refused to have her feet painted, Ms. Shaddy suggested maybe we wanted to try something similar at home to get her used to the idea and feeling.  He and I both laughed because she couldn’t be more like us, neither of us would want to paint our feet to make a footprint ghost either.  Another funny thing about the footprint ghosts was that for three days after she talked about how she didn’t want to paint her feet; I would find her in her bed rubbing her feet and saying she didn’t want to paint them.   

So, today as I stood in line waiting for the sign-out book to come down the line I noticed that Ms. Shaddy was handing the daily art project to the first mom and it was two green handprints on a blue piece of paper, I immediately wondered if Clare made any handprints or not.  When Ms. Shaddy handed me her paper we both laughed, I knew it!  Ms. Shaddy said that when it was Clare’s turn she told Ms. Shaddy that she didn’t want to put paint on her hands.  She did however happily participate in the counting activity that followed the handprints. 

Frankly I’m fine with Clare not wanting to make hand or foot prints, it’s not a required skill in life and I’d much rather her not want to cover her limbs in paint, but that’s just me.  GG also thought it was no big deal, nowhere in elementary education is painting your hands/feet necessary.   I’d much rather her be the polite little lady that she is than be covered in paint.

I guess we won’t be making any hand print turkeys or Santa’s this year.  

Vera Meow

Grammy sent us a package this week after her trip to the Vera Bradley outlet.  While waiting in line at the Post Office I asked Clare what she thought was going to be in the package, she was sure that Grammy had sent us a puppy.  Much to my relief there wasn't a puppy in the box, but there was a kitty hidden in one of the bags.

Oh, and of course this bag is now Clare's, I suppose it's appropriate since the name of the bag is Clare.  

Happy Halloween!

Well, I think we can safely say Clare ‘gets’ Halloween this year.  Jeff and I had talked about it and decided that we weren’t going to buy a costume; she wasn’t going to be trick-or-treating anywhere or going to any big Halloween parties so her Mizzou cheerleading dress would do for a costume.  This plan worked great for us, until Clare announced that she was going to be Cinderella for Halloween, we tried reminding her that she was going to be a cheerleader and say ‘Go Tigers’ but she wasn’t having it, she wanted to be Cinderella.  Being the sucker of a Mom that I am I asked Jeff to stop at Wal-Mart, I needed to get a few things to make treats for her school party, and I would just buy her the dress up dress.  When we finally found the dresses she chose Rapunzel over Cinderella.  Clare was thrilled with her new dress, so much so she wanted to hold it in the car and put it on immediately upon arriving home.  The dress is huge on her; I used 3 safety pins to keep it up so she wouldn’t trip during her party.  It was nice to see her so excited about her costume.

Clare and her friends had a Halloween party at school on Tuesday, they all wore their costumes and walked around the rec center trick-or-treating.  Having seen the different classes trick-or-treat for the past 7 years it was fun to be on the other side with my child.  I don’t know that she really knew what the point was, but she had fun.  I was a proud mama when she told each person thank you after they gave her a piece of candy, she was the only one in the class I heard say thank you. 

After trick-or-treating they went back to their room where they sang two Halloween songs, aren’t they cute!!

The best part of the party came after the trick-or-treating and songs, the treats!!  After reading the list of treats hat people were bringing I decided a healthy treat would be appreciated, so I made mandarin orange cups with pumpkin faces on them and little witch hat cookies (not so healthy).  Both seemed to be enjoyed but the Cheetos were Clare’s favorite treat. 

Watching the kids eat their treats was fun; they were so excited to have so many choices of sweets.  There were cupcakes, cookies, rice Krispy treat pumpkins, Cheetos, cups of dirt with worms (chocolate pudding with crushed Oreos and a gummy worm) and other sugary goodies.   Jeff and I watched the kids eating the cupcakes become COVERED in dark purple and dark green frosting, it was all over!  Fortunately Clare didn’t ask for a cupcake more than once, and accepted my answer that we weren’t going to eat one today (I doubt she would have eaten it anyway, she doesn’t like cake) but I was not going to let her get covered in that frosting!! 

Overall it was a fun day filled with sweet treats and fun, thankfully Clare didn’t ask about going trick-or-treating, I’m not sure what we would have done as we don’t live in a neighborhood or area where that could happen.  I suppose we’ll figure out what kids do for Halloween up here in a few years, I’m guessing the schools host a trick-or-treat event rather than having kids hike from one house to another. 

First Snow

We had our first snow the other night, I love waking up to fresh snow, I just wish I didn’t have to drive in it.  Fortunately the paved roads weren’t too bad making the trip into work relatively painless.

Today Clare wore one of her new Hanna dresses and wanted to show it off, she's getting pretty good at smiling for pictures :)