"Meeting" Curious George

Most people know how much Maggie loves Monkeys. Her pal Monkey goes everywhere with us (with blanket) and he is becoming a part of the family by getting his teeth cleaned at the dentist and everything. I have visions of them going in her backpack to preschool and I still shudder when I remember foolishly taking her to get her flu shot without her loveys. Not a good plan, eh?

Anyway, back to George. We love Curious George and are thrilled that we get to see him on PBS. (When Katie was her age they still showed teletubbies and boobah which were just odd. I'll leave it at that.) Elizabethtown library has a "Snorey time" program that kids come in pjs to hear stories and meet characters. And Curious George was coming!!!

We signed up a month in advance but nothing went right. Becky was about 6 weeks old and delayed us a bit. Then Maggie delayed us further with an opinion about footwear. (No you cannot where dress up high heels in the cold, Margaret.) So we would have been on time, but no spots in the parking lot. We went to the municipal lot...all full...so we drove to another lot and got a space as someone was leaving. By the time we parked, unloaded, and walked to the library and up the stairs the librarian finished 2 of the 3 stories.

Maggie spies the giant George and immediately started to whimper into my pant leg. So thankfully Becky was asleep in her car seat because I had to cuddle Maggie (and blanket and Monkey) to assure her that it was OK that George was as tall as Mommy. (Seriously people, would the man in the yellow hat be the same size as George? Think about it, of course it scared her.)

So thankfully it was time for a craft (Monkey puppets.) Maggie wanted to glue first, but we had to listen to Katie's discourse on the merits of coloring first and gluing second. So George is ready to leave and thinking of all the trouble we went to get get there, I try to talk the girls into a picture with George. I get a "uh-uh" from Maggie (she is looking at me like ARE YOU KIDDING ME?) and Katie tells me that she is too old for George. OK. So I do what any other neurotic mom would do and get them to stay in front of me with George safely 15 yards behind them holding the puppets just so I have a shot of them with George.

Mr. Postman bring my free cards to me....

Wait Mr. Postman!
Ever since we learned the joy of online bill pay, we find that we don't use stamps much. Usually they are reserved for occasionally mail or the bill that we sometimes find that there isn't a way to pay online (gasp!). I am determined to send out Christmas cards this year. We have a rather spotty record with getting cards to the mailing stage. Usually it is because I don't have any stamps...or stamps any higher than a 42 cents. (What are they up to now, anyway?)
So it is December and I've been thinking for a month and a half that I have to get started on my Christmas cards...Enter Shutterfly. I love Shutterfly because I can send out a picture (or pictures) of our girls as the card instead of buying separate cards and slipping in snapshots. The quality is wonderful, so when Christmas is over, if you want you can cut the card and put it in a frame. So I start to browse through the cards when I see a blog post from my friend Liz about free cards.
Wait...free?
Yep....seriously...Shutterfly is giving away 50 free cards.

We love free, especially if it was something we wanted to buy anyhow.

I am a huge fan of Shutterfly's photo cards that we had the invitation for my parents' 30th anniversary party made with a picture from their wedding day. We just thought that they (and everyone else) would enjoy the picture of them leaving the church smiling. It is one of my personal favorites.

Wouldn't it be fun to personalize invitations for your next party with a picture?

We still haven't made up birth announcements for Rebecca Jean (See previous post about Maggie's lack of participation...) but now that we have a few photos we need to get on that...she is only 2 months...it isn't THAT bad...yet....:)

But I have to say that I LOVE the new story cards they have! It combines the letter that I always would like to send out with the pictures so they aren't separate. I am so torn between collage cards and the ones with a story line inside. There also is a great one called a Year in Pictures that could be wonderful for a birthday invitation that has a photo from each month.

Want in on this awesome promotion? Check out Shutterfly for more info!

Grandma's Leaves

I love this last picture...

Sister photo session

We were trying to get a picture of all three but this was the best one with Maggie in it. Yep, not interested at all. Maybe we would have had more success telling her to get out of the picture or to frown??

Biggest with the littlest. Katie wore that outfit for her first Thanksgiving.

Becky taking a break on her new blanket...Thanks Mom for taking these pictures!

One week

It is amazing how much time is flying by with our little Becky, Maggie and Katie. Within the last week, Becky went on her first car trip to Grandma's to visit Uncle Doug and Brittany, Aunt Glenda, and lots of other friends and family. She did really well (thank you Doug for the batteries from Walmart for the swing...) It was a short visit, but Thanksgiving will be here soon.

I love how Becky reacts to her sisters' voices, how she can look at us with an amused expression (so this is my family?) and she started to suck on her right hand, so yep, my guess is that we will have a trio of thumb suckers.

Katie's busy in first grade, loving math and learning about shapes and vertices, and writing in her diary. We are getting in a great routine, sometimes only going out in the evening for choir and dance class...well, since Katie gets home from school around 4, there isn't much time for homework, supper, bath and playtime as it is. Maggie gets lots of big sister practice in the morning while Katie is at school and today she happily went with me to BJs for lunch (uhhh...free samples....in my defense it was chicken tenders, meatballs and bread and she fell asleep on the drive home) today. She loves having her hood up, and strings to tie on the waist of her pants, and collects bouquets of leaves.

So in one week we:
eat roughly 28 bowls of cereal
change about 140 diapers
scrub the kitchen floor three times (at least under the kitchen table)
do 5 homework assignments with Katie
trip over mommy's shoes several times when I kick them off in the hallway instead of putting them away.

A week isn't long (except when it is, and you know THOSE weeks...) but when it is 1/5 of Becky's life, I'm sad that it is moves so fast....

Pumpkin Carving

Katie and Maggie got to carve their first real pumpkin at Grandma's with Uncle Doug and Brittany.

Hook Girls at 1 Month

Betcha can guess who is who!