Sunday morning donut run

William loves donuts. Maddie's never been a big fan but William on the other hand, he loves them. Mikos and Wil ran down to the donut shop early Sunday morning before church for some tasty treats and fresh coffee. Williams' favorite are ones with "tinkles" on top. Yum!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year: Yummy food. Tasty wine. Special mini pumpkin pies prepared by Sonja just for William and Maddie. Beautifully set tables- one for the adults and one just for Maddie and Wil. Delicious turkey dinner prepared with love by Papa. Desserts to die for made by Sonja. 75 degree weather. Lots of family. A few friends too. Lots of fun. Lots of love.

Disneyland Madness

In retrospect, I'm not sure what we were thinking but the week before Thanksgiving, Friday night after a long work week, we decided to head over to Disneyland for a little impromptu fun. It was a chilly night and I remember saying to Maddie that maybe the park would be empty and we could jump on lots of rides with no lines. Boy were we wrong! The park was PACKED! I guess everyone else had the same idea we had to take advantage of our annual passes. I think it was especially busy as well because of the holiday fireworks and "snow" show. Despite the craziness of the night and the fact that Maddie refused to go on Small World Ride, we had a good time. I won't even get into the fact that we ended the night with a trip to the ER...I've almost happily forgotten that aspect of the crazy night!

Thanksgiving Program...take 2

The Friday before the week of Thanksgiving, we were lucky enough to attend Maddie's Thanksgiving Program and subsequent Thanksgiving Feast on the Preschool playground. The pictures from inside the church didn't come out very well but I don't think I will ever tire of these adorable performances. Maddie's class dressed as pilgrims this year. They made their own hats and I'll let you decide for yourself but I think Maddie is the most beautiful pilgrim ever! What a happy and proud smile.Maddie was so excited to have us in the audience. It was so cute to see her file into the church and immediately scour the crowd searching for us and than the look on her face when she finds us waving franticly and proudly...awe...we are so lucky to be her parents. So lucky. I am loving these times so, so much. Stayed tuned as the Christmas program is riiiiight around the corner. :)

Rollerskating?

Maddie and Mike went ROLLERSKATING yesterday afternoon! It was a planned Indian Princess activity and Maddie was thrilled to see her new friend Ashley there with her dad. When Mike told me they were going rollerskating, I just started laughing. How cute but I have to say I expressed concern (ie. a little teasing) to Mike and told him not to be falling and breaking his back. Maddie had never been rollerskating before and frankly, I'm not sure that Mike had either! I hear Maddie was a bit of a handful at first. She was frusterated because she couldn't do it as well as her friend could but after a little practice, Mike said she started to do ok. Overall, they had a really good time. Maddie says she wants rollerskates for Christmas now so she can practice in the cul-de-sac at home. I think she's got a bit of a competative edge in her. Wonder where she gets that from?

William loves CATS!

I think William is the animal lover in our family...or at least we know he's the cat lover in the family. This is a collection of photos I've snapped over the last month or so. It seems everytime I turn around Wil is "loving" on our cat Lou. I have to remind him frequently to be gentle with Lou but he really does just seem to love her. Lou, ironically enough, doesn't mind all of the affection she gets from William. She's always been the cat that actually comes around the kids and never minds when they get a little rough with their handling.
I just LOVE this little guy! As crazy as he can be and as much of a two and a half year old he is, I think he's the cutest thing ever and I love him so!

Birthday parties galore!

Maddie has had a very busy schedule the last couple of weekends. We've had back-t0-back birthday parties for the last two weekends in a row and one Sunday, we had 2 birthday parties on the same day! Maddie and I left the house at 11:20 and didn't get home until 4:45 that night. We were exhausted but Maddie wouldn't miss a party for the world. We went to a party where they had build-a-bear come to their house and all the kids got to stuff their own bear and pick out an outfit too! Maddie picked out a hawaiian dress. It was really cute. They also made their own pizza's at that party which Maddie enjoyed but of course, did not eat. I wondered as I saw her loading her pizza up with mushrooms and peppers??? We also went to a fun party at Hullabaloos Clubhouse where the kids got their faces painted, had fun in the karayoke room and got sweaty running around the indoor playground. We also hit up a party last Saturday at Pump-It-Up. That was a blast of course... lots of bouncing and goofing with her friends! I think the birthday party horizon is a bit flat for a couple of weeks. Maddie can not wait for her party in January! She keeps asking me, "Mom, when is it MY birthday?"

Trick-or-Treat

Halloween just seems to get more fun each year! Maddie and William had such a great time trick-or-treating. They got right into it and were so cute running up to each door, ringing the doorbell and yelling "trick-or-treat" in their cute little voices. Such great fun. William was the cutest pirate I've ever seen and Maddie was a be-a-u-tiful butterfly! We had the whole family over for a lasagne dinner and to enjoy the evening with the kids. Both sets of Grandparents were there and Aunt Sonja and Maddie and Wil's new baby cousin Lucas! It was such a fun, fun night. I can't wait for next year!!!

Pumpkin carving

Grandma Jeanne and Papa Mick came for the Halloween weekend. They flew in on Thursday afternooon and Maddie and William were so excited to see them! It was great having Halloween fall on a Saturday this year. We carved our pumpkins late Saturday morning and it proved to be a family affair.

Maddie enjoyed taking the pumpkin guts out......and William helped Papa Mick pull out the pumpkin seeds that we roasted the next day.

I appreciated Mikos taking charge of the creative duties of carving.

The end product... one mean looking pumpkin with a scar face (William's) and one happy pumpkin (Maddie's) with a heart nose!

Halloween Fun

The Halloween Fun began about a week and a half ago... just a few pictures of our quick trip to the Pumpkin Patch. It was a HOT Thursday afternoon. So much for that beautiful fall weather I was blogging about recently. We headed over to what looked like a cute little pumpkin patch on the corner of a major intersection in Yorba Linda. It was OK. It was more of a rip off than anything else. Over priced tickets and a bunch of dirty bouncers. Oh and way overpriced pumpkins. Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the patch, Maddie and Wil seemed to have fun running from jumper to jumper and petting the animals in the petting zoo. (Yuck!) I told Maddie we'd get our pumpkins from display outside of our local Ralphs store. She didn't mind at all and the pumpkins were HALF of what the patch was selling them for. I think I'll be a little more selective about what pumpkin patch we visit next year. Maddie was given this Halloween sweater when she was like 3 years old. I tucked it away in the closet for the day when Maddie would wear a size 6 and that day is here! She wore it to school Friday morning, the day before Halloween. She looked so cute!