Our Christmas Tree

The first best thing about Thanksgiving is the food and the second best thing is putting up the Christmas tree. We put our tree by the living room between the loveseat and couch where it would be safe from little hands. Sydney was really into it taking out the ornament boxes, adding the hooks and finding the right spot to hang each one. Andrew and I kept giggling because she would add 4-5 ornaments on one little branch. It was too cute. We told her all of the branches get a turn and have to share :) We added ornaments Sydney made last year in preschool and it was amazing to see how much she has grown in a year.

 

 Lying down on the job :)

Maddie loved the garland! It made it easier for us to focus on the tree.

 Playing "Row Row Your Boat"

 Our beautiful girls and our beautiful tree.

Splashing with Daddy in the Pool

We took the girls to the pool Saturday afternoon. This year the water has been warm and you can actually feel the heat on in the building, unlike last year. Both girls love the water so we're glad we can take them here year round.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This year we had Thanksgiving dinner with the Anderson Family. It was nice to not deal with traveling or hosting yet still enjoy good company and of course good food! I made my Mother-in-law's sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole dishes. Her recipes are favorites in Andrew's family and have become favorites in mine as well. Here are pics from our dinner. Somehow I only got pics of the kids, no grownups. Oh well! :)

 

 

Maddie eating a dinner roll while the table is being set.

Waiting to begin our dinner...Sydney was happy to share her table for the "kids table."

 Silly faces!

 

Time to eat. Everything was delicious.

I don't think Maddie had a favorite. She loved everything (except Mashed Potatoes) on the first try. Here she's starting out with stuffing.

Sydney tried everything once but the dinner roll was her favorite!

 The girls in their outfits. We had a great Thanksgiving and the girls quickly fell asleep at bedtime!!

Maddie's Discovery

Maddie was playing with the pipe building set when she figured out that if she put a toy down one end it will appear at the other end. She was so fascinated by this concept that she sat and repeated it about 20 times. Luckily she didn't mind doing it again for the camera.

Harvest Celebration

This morning Sydney's preschool had a Harvest Celebration for families. Sydney was so excited that Maddie and I would be spending time with her at school. We had breakfast first then Sydney's teacher, Mrs. Cullen, invited the children to meet her for circle time. They sang the "hit" song of the week, "Hello, Mr. Turkey." I say "hit" song because Sydney and her friend TJ have been singing it nonstop and my friend Kristen posted a video on Facebook of her daughter singing it too. It is catchy! Here is the video of the class singing it.

After circle time Mrs. Cullen had a craft for the kids to do. They had to make a picture of what they are thankful for and then decorate a frame for their picture. Maddie was so interested in the craft that Mrs. Cullen offered her materials so she could make her own picture. 

We had a great time and it was nice to see other classroom families. And, of course, it's always great to see what Sydney has been doing at school.

Family Time

Our weekend was pretty uneventful...just much needed family time. Sydney has dance class on Saturdays, so Andrew took her and then treated her to Panera for lunch. Maddie and I stayed home and played in our pj's. We sat for almost an hour at the play kitchen drinking tea, eating dessert, mixing in bowls and so on. I couldn't believe her attention span. She is really into playing with Sydney's toys--no more baby toys for her. It was great to spend the morning with her and I know Sydney appreciated her Daddy time. Normally when I leave for the commissary Sydney cries if she can't come. This time she said "That's ok, I'll play with Daddy." It melted his heart.
Today we also stayed home. We baked pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon icing. Oh myyyy...they are sooo good!!! It is a mix from William Sonoma and it came with the icing recipe. We had them for snack in the afternoon with Honey Vanilla tea. I bought sugar cubes which Sydney loved adding to her cup. She brought over her cups/saucers and spoons from her play kitchen (we wiped them clean first) and we had a tea party. I will look for the mix next time I'm at the mall because they were incredibly yummy!! I think Maddie's cupcake spoiled her appetite because she wasn't hungry at dinner. Tonight I'll enjoy one with a cup of coffee with pumpkin pie spice creamer. A nice way to end a great weekend.

The best part of the post are the pictures, of course, so here are some from the last few days...enjoy.

Maddie at gymnastics...yes that is her little ponytail :) 

 

Big sister's toys are always more fun...

Getting ready to watch Toy Story 3 for family movie night. You can't see Sydney well, but as soon as I brought the camera, Maddie shouted "CHEESE!!"

 Yup she fits!

 Sydney ready to help bake pumpkin cupcakes.

 Waiting for me to bring the batter to fill the cups.

 Stirring her tea. It's the first time she's had it. We went to the commissary and she picked out Honey Vanilla tea. It was really good.

 Maddie enjoying her cupcake. Her favorite part of baking the cupcakes was watching the stand mixer.  Every time I would turn it on she would call out for me to pick her up so she could watch.

 Offering me a bite.

Her new favorite spot. I'm glad we have a gate!!

Maddie video

Here is a video of Maddie that I took yesterday. No more crawlers at our house!!

Playdate and playground...

This morning we had a playdate with my old neighbor/friend Jen and her 2 1/2 year old triplets, Alex, Rylee and Cole. It had been a couple of months since we had seen each other so I was really happy to have them over. Sydney was excited too, saying "They're coming today??" They've grown so much and Jen and I had a great time catching up. After the playdate I gave the girls lunch and then we went to the new playground behind our house to play. It's a "tot lot", only for the little ones, but luckily Sydney is still small enough to enjoy the infant swings and the small slides. As usual we spent the first 20 minutes at the swings. Sydney is starting to figure out how to pump her legs and Maddie just grins and grins when she gets a new push. In the evening we went over to the Anderson's for dinner and to stay for Erin's pampered chef party. The consultant made yummy desserts which was perfect with so many kiddos there. I purchased the "cookie press" which I'm looking forward to using at Christmas in MD!!

Pictures of the girls on the swing...

 

Music Together

Monday mornings mean Preschool for Sydney and "Music Together" for Maddie. Maddie loves her music class and her teacher Mr. Tom is wonderful. Each session you sign up for includes a CD with Music Together songs. Some are original, others adaptations of well-known kids' songs. This session's CD is "Flutes" which is played throughout the CD. When Sydney was in the class, her CD was "Bells." Mr. Tom is great at getting the kids and parents into singing and dancing. He plays an African Drum (Djmebe) which he can play loudly or softly during the lullaby song. At the start of the session Maddie was only crawling so I would help her choose instruments when Mr. Tom would empty a box of them onto the floor. Now that she's walking she likes to go over by herself and pick them out. When Mr. Tom laid colored scarves on the floor, Maddie exclaimed "ohhhhh" and waddled over to find one. It was so funny. The mom sitting next to me said "Now that's something she's interested in!" Here are a couple pictures of Maddie playing along to songs. It was a challenge trying to point, focus, shoot with a busy toddler but I got a couple of shots in!

Happy Birthday x 2

We went to two birthday parties today...one for Sydney's friend Lyndley who is turning 5 and one for our friend John who will be 33 years old tomorrow. Each party was quite different, but so much fun. The first was Lyndley's party which was themed as a "Princess Tea Party". The girls came in their favorite princess costume. Sydney wore her Mulan outfit. The tea party was amazing. Eric, Lyndley's dad who is also Andrew's classmate, made all of the desserts and Megan gave the girls the choice of mint or mango tea. Sydney chose water in her tea cup and loved the sprinkled cookies. Maddie enjoyed a bacon and cheese quiche shaped like a cupcake and a slice of chocolate torte. After tea time the girls decorated paper crowns with stickers, markers and glitter paint and then it was time to open presents. That is when we left to go to our second party. 

 

Megan serving the girls tea.

 Eric's delicious chocolate torte!

More delicious desserts...

Sydney enjoying her first tea party. She loved it. Her favorite treat was the sprinkled cookies. Megan sewed the napkins out of fabric and let the girls take them home as a souvenir.

 

Craft time...decorate your own princess crown.

 Sydney making her crown. 

John's party was an Italian Pizza making party. Yvonne and John prepped the dough ahead of time and had toppings including fresh diced tomatoes, fresh basil, sauteed mushrooms, mozzarella and feta cheese. John demonstrated how to make the pizza dough and then others took turns. The kids shared a tomato/basil/cheese pizza and a plain cheese pizza. They enjoyed it. Maddie was doubling fisting between her pizza slice and a fried rice ball appetizer. The adults were more adventurous with a mushroom/onion/feta combo among others and a calzone at the end. then Maddie was getting tired since she missed her afternoon nap so we left the party before everyone sang Happy Birthday to John. We were disappointed to leave early but with such a busy day it made sense to call it a day. Yvonne gave us four take home servings of the kids cake which was mini Boston Cream Pies made from yellow cake mix and pudding.

John showing everyone proper pizza making skills...

 Andrew giving it a try...

Dinner time!

 Maddie enjoying her meal. Guess we'll have to stop buying frozen pizzas!!!

We are very blessed to have such great friends!

Our Week So Far...

The last few days have been kind of quiet so I haven't posted anything. Andrew has been pulling all nighters here and there since last week for a project he finally finished yesterday. He missed class yesterday so he could have time to do the homework he had put off trying to finish his project. He is asleep next to me on the couch, Hazel is asleep on the floor and the girls are asleep upstairs...Love it.
I had planned to take pictures of Maddie at Music Together this past Monday but Mr. Tom, her teacher, called saying he was sick and had to cancel class. I'll post pictures from the next class. Yesterday we went over to Erin's house to bake "Turkey" sugar cookies. Erin rolled out the dough, then the kids (except Maddie) took turns placing their hands on it while she trimmed it with a knife. The dough ballooned up in the oven, Erin said like baseball mits, lol, but they were cute and the kids enjoyed decorating/eating them. Tomorrow the girls have gymnastics. I am hoping to be able to take pictures. Maddie is so quick now that I know I will have my hands full, but I will try.

Over the last few days the girls have been saying some really funny things. I thought I would post them.

Sydney: "There is the mall! I can totally see it!!"

Maddie: "What's that?"
Sydney: "Princess Bell"
Maddie: "Cool" (Miss Ari and I both heard her say it and were doubling over with laughter)

Sydney: "If you are not with us, you're a dentist!" (Attempting to quote Beauty and the Beast)

(Sydney and TJ and I were holding hands leaving preschool today when TJ started playing and pulling Sydney's hand making her laugh)
Me: "TJ be careful, if you keep pulling we'll all fall down on the grass and we'll look like we're having a picnic!"
Sydney: "And we don't even have any food!"

Me: "Maddie, let's leave the shelf and play with your toys"
Maddie: "No no no!"

TJ: "Sydney guess what I'm gonna be when I grow up?"
Sydney" "Five?"

I can't wait to hear what they will say next.

Sydney's Last Soccer Practice

Today was Sydney's last soccer practice with Start Smart Soccer on base. She's really enjoyed it. I went to the first, third and today's last practice and I'm just amazed by how much she has learned. These pictures are from today.

 Sydney "trapping" or stopping the ball with her foot and then kicking it to three friends.

 Maddie getting in her kicking time too.

 

Game time!!

Doing the final cheer...

 

 Go team!!

Sydney and her friend TJ showing off their medals and certificates. Great job!!!