Hide and Seek "Princess Style"

During Sydney's bedtime routine we always have to make time to play "Princess Hide and Seek". After Sydney is ready for bed, she goes to her room while Andrew or I hide her plush princess dolls in different rooms upstairs. We turn off the lights and Sydney will use her flashlight to search for the hiding princesses. I read about this game using Teddy Bears in a toddler activity book over the summer and I've been waiting and waiting until the days were short enough that it would be dark by bedtime. That was about a month ago and we've been playing it ever since. Until then the princesses were laying in a bin and I wasn't sure what to do with them. Well they are very popular now. Sydney has gotten really good at finding them. Initially we would place them on a shelf or a chair, but now we'll hide them in a dresser drawer with a hand sticking or from under the bed. We'll play 1-3 rounds depending on how much time we have and it's a good motivator for cleaning up our toys and heading upstairs to bed!
Tonight Maddie was hilarious while Sydney was searching for the last missing princess. Andrew hid Tiana in my dresser and we were trying to give Sydney clues (hot/cold). She was standing right in front of the dresser but couldn't see her so I said "I can see her!" and Andrew added "I can see her too!" Then Maddie started calling out "Ah! Ahh!" We said "Maddie sees her too!" Then she started slapping her forehead with her hand as if saying "Doh!" All the while Sydney was trying her hardest to find that last princess until finally her flashlight landed on Tiana. Too funny!!

Happy Wednesday!

Wednesdays are super busy at our house, but somehow it works. Sydney goes to preschool in the morning--I drop her and TJ (my friend Erin's son) at school. Then Maddie and I have some time together before her nap around 10:00. At 11:00, Lynn, Maddie's occupational therapist, comes for an hour. Afterward I fix lunch while Erin picks up Sydney and TJ from school. Then it's lunch/playtime at my house until 1:30 when Ari, another Early Intervention specialist, comes for her hour with Maddie. Then Maddie goes down for her afternoon nap and it's Sydney and Mommy time. When Maddie wakes up, I start getting dinner ready and then Andrew is home by 5:00. I'm exhausted by the time he gets home but I feel like the girls get enough down time during the day. I also enjoy my one-on-one time with each of them.
Tonight Andrew came home at 7:00 when the girls were in bed but he did get a chance to say goodnight to both of them. I hate making the girls go to bed so early but Sydney has to get up for preschool by 6:45 and she no longer takes naps. Maddie wakes up at the same time on her own, which is great to finally have their schedules in sync.
Maddie is fussy right now so I am sitting in her room blogging while she falls asleep. I can hear Andrew cleaning up the kitchen downstairs which means once Maddie is asleep I can go downstairs, make hot cocoa for Andrew and I and wait for Modern Family to come on. I'm crossing my fingers it all goes to plan!

Haunted Houses

We made haunted houses this week and they turned out much better than I imagined. Sydney's is on the left, then mine, Andrew's and Maddie's (which I painted). I found them at Michael's craft store. They had two designs so I picked up two of each, one for each of us. We painted them the first night (Maddie had crayons and paper while we painted). We let them dry overnight then added Halloween stickers and used cotton balls for the webs. We also used battery operated tea lights to make them glow.
We don't go all out with decorations, but we always do crafts that we put around the house. This year we made Stained Glass leaves with tissue paper and used Halloween stickers on contact paper that we taped to our front glass door. Neighbors have gone all out putting haystacks, life size scarecrows, giant spiders, blow up pumpkins and such in front of their houses. I was tempted to do something similar but I just don't want to store haystacks and scarecrows in my garage only because there would be no place to put them. Sydney, my four year old, has other plans. She told Andrew that we need to decorate our house. She said her friends TJ and Keira have decorations so we need more decorations. We'll do more for Christmas!!

extra photos

Here are the pictures of the leaves and the Halloween stickers. I wanted to add them to the Haunted House post but it's hard to organize that many pictures with text.

Sydney's funny thought

Today Sydney told Andrew "Do you know what Mommy called me when I was in her tummy? Supper!" That had us laughing for about five minutes, lol!

Happy Halloween!

Wow what a day. Andrew is cleaning up downstairs while I sit on the couch and relax. We had our friends the Andersons and Galle-Bishops over for dinner/dessert tonight before we went out trick-or-treating. Our morning was spent grocery shopping and cleaning and then cooking in the afternoon. I made Andrew's mom's Chicken Pot Pie recipe and Andrew made Pizza Pot Pie. Our friends brought the appetizers and desserts. All of the kids looked adorable in their costumes! Sydney was Mulan and Maddie was Princess Leia. I was also Leia and Andrew was Han Solo. Trick-or-treaters started coming to our door before we headed out and the kids were so excited to pass out candy. Sydney passed out two pieces to everyone and her friends were eager to help. Even Hazel, who usually does not eat from the table, stuck her nose in the bowl looking for goodies to eat. It was very cold out tonight so everyone bundled up and the kids took turns riding in Sydney and Maddie's two seat wagon. We only went far enough to fill everyone's bucket once, but even so we had a great time seeing all of the decorations. Everyone really got into it! Some neighbors turned their garages into mini haunted houses and handed out candy. When we got back to the house I made hot cocoa for the kids so they could warm up. By then all of the trick-or-treaters had gone home as well which worked out nicely. It was fun spending time with great friends!! Happy Halloween!!

Walden Pond

I can't believe how long it's been since I've blogged. I have many half written, almost finished posts but I think it's best I just move forward. I miss blogging, facebook has taken most of my time, but I really need to get back to writing all of our memories down before they are all a blur! So I will start with today. We took our dog Hazel to the groomers today. It's been over two months since her last appt. and she very much needed a trim. We took her to Petsmart in Woburn and had lunch at Bertucci's. Sydney wanted Panera but the parking lot at the Woburn Mall looked like a zoo. I told her Panera was full to which she replied "One person just left so now we can go!" Yeah, just like the morning when I woke her up for preschool and she said "Mrs. Cullen just called me and said it's a stay home day!" So we went to Bertucci's and ordered our usual: The Bertucci Pizza and The Penne Margherita. So good everytime!

Then we went to Walden Pond. Last year we went on Sydney's birthday, Oct. 23rd, but most of the leaves were still green. This time all of them had changed and the view around the pond was just gorgeous. We walked the trail around the pond, didn't do it last year. It took at least an hour. The first half we spent taking pictures and collecting leaves and pine cones. The second half we carried the girls, trying to make it back to the parking lot in time to pick up Hazel. The groomers gave Hazel a Halloween bandana and Maddie said "hi" when Hazel jumped in the van. She petted Hazel the whole way home.