halloween weekend continues...

tonight was family fright night at the botanical gardens. lamely, our camera was out of battery power, so we didn't get any pics. but do not despair, mom and dad brought their camera, so there will be photos, just not tonight. tonight you'll just have to make do with my words, and let them create a picture in your mind. :-)

nina was the wicked witch of the east, maggie was pinkie pie (you know what that looks like), nick was charlamegne, and i was queen desiree (his first wife. it didn't work out i guess). nick had an awesomely authentic replica of the crown of the holy roman empire, which i made, and i had an awesomely original crown that nina made. we looked rockin. mom and dad were hippies.

it was tons of fun! lots of food, lots of fun (but not scary!) decorations. there was a costume parade with judgement (boo), which was dumb because the girls didn't win. maggie was so sure she had the best costume and would win best overall, and she was really disappointed when she didn't! she said, "i guess i'm not the bestest." heartbreaking. i told her i thought she was the bestest. then she said she should have worn her ming ming costume, since that won cutest last year. how the heck did she remember that?!! this kid is amazing. i told her that her costume stands a good chance of winning at the opera house on monday. i hate when kids with purchased costumes win prizes, i think prizes should only go to homemade costumes. but perhaps that's my bias speaking. i didn't tell maggie that though, i told her that since she'd won last year, it was nice that someone else got a turn to win, and she really liked that. so it's all good now.

nina didn't win anything either, as there were several witches, and i think the wicked witch of the east thing was too subtle and just went over the judges heads. maybe the opera house...

it's raining right now and we still have power, but who knows about tomorrow! it's supposed to switch to a heavy, wet snow (with all the leaves still on the trees, that could really bring a lot of them down), plus some strong wind. i'll keep you posted of course!

halloween weekend begins!

maggie loves her rainbow dash pinkie pie costume! she wore it to story hour today and kept it on the whole time!

i'm not sure everyone realizes what a milestone that is. maybe you all do. but i'll expound on it for a moment, because this is a big deal. maggie has worn pajamas about 80% of the time for the last year. she loves her pajamas. she's particularily fond of her strawberry shorts and t-shirt pajamas set. it initially came with 2 shirts and 2 shorts, but one of the shorts now has a hole in it (she's been asking me to patch it), so we're down to one of those. i made a second pair of shorts by cutting down an set of "longs" (as they're called around here), and she was ok with that.

ANYWAY! i digress again. she usually screams, wails, cries, and gets thoroughly bent out of shape at the mere suggestion that she put anything but her shorts and t-shirt pj set. but she loves her pinkie pie costume so much that she was willing to wear it, even though it's got long sleeves and long pants, the whole time we were at the library AND at hannaford! i am so, so excited.

she wore it again this evening when we went to the coast guard for their bounce house and haunted house. the bounce house was a hit, but the haunted house was too scary, so the girls didn't do it (i previewed it just in case it was ok for them, but it was definitely too scary. people jumping out and yelling boo, dark hallways, scary faces). but, it was worth it for the bounce house. they were thoroughly exhausted by the time we got home!

oh, also at the story hour halloween party, miss mary handed out some napkins that said "boo" on them, and maggie looked at it and said, "it says boo. b-o-o, boo." go maggie!

an interview with nina

1. What makes you happy?
snuggling with you mama.

2. What makes you angry?
not snuggling with you mama. when somebody calls me names (me: does somebody call you names?!! maggie: i do! nina: yeah, maggie does. me: true)

3. What makes you laugh?
maggie saying potty words

4. What do you want to be when you grow up?
a doctor

5. What are you really good at?
jumping rope

6. What are you not very good at?
making spiders

7. What is your favorite food?
tater tots!!

8. What is your favorite drink?
lemonade. no apple cider. actually, the thing i'm worst at is pumping. (me: pumping what?) pumping on the swing (me: you're great at pumping!!) ok then i'm horrible at getting my own things up on top of the refrigerator.

9. If you were a cartoon character, who would you be?
aviva

10. What do you and maggie do together?
um... play (maggie: computer!) computer.

11. What is your favorite color?
purple and pink!

12. Where is your favorite place to go?
ebb tide.

an interview with maggie

1. What makes you happy?
din-din-din (pointing to naneys). nanas. this makes me happy! before i was sad and then i had naneys and now i am happy.

2. What makes you angry?
you. cause you yell at me too much (!!! i don't yell!!).

3. What makes you laugh?
you! you do funny things. (me: does nina make you laugh?). yeah. so write N-I-N-A. (me: what does she do) like, blllbllbl (sticks out tongue.)

4. What do you want to be when you grow up?
an angel! (licks her arms) um, to fly.

5. What are you really good at?
playing computer

6. What are you not very good at?
playing frisbee. i always put it right here and throw it like that. but i'm getting it.

7. What is your favorite food?
spaghetti!!!

8. What is your favorite drink?
juice!

9. If you were a cartoon character, who would you be?
i don't know. (me: which one is your favorite?) curious george!

10. What do you and nina do together?
play ponies!!

11. What is your favorite color?
i don't know. all the colors!!

12. Where is your favorite place to go?
the fish playground

and one for papa

scroll down to the post below for the story with these 2 posts.

1. What is something papa always says to you?
nina: nina honey, just stay away from my work area
maggie: no no no go to grandma's

2. What makes papa happy?
nina: me and maggie
maggie: ming-ming

3. What makes papa angry?
nina: when we climb on his chair when he has his new computer
maggie: playing sad

4. How does papa make you laugh?
nina: when he does the clown and falls down!! (laughter)
maggie: riding the rockey horsey!!

5. What does papa do when you're not around?
nina: work
maggie: checking his email

6. If your papa becomes famous, what will it be for?
nina: being daisy butt the flower butt clown
maggie: being a clown

7. What is your papa really good at?
nina: being daisy butt the flower butt clown
maggie: caillou

8. What is your papa not very good at?
nina: chutes and ladders
maggie: clifford!

9. What does your papa do for his job?
nina: make money so we can buy stuff
maggie: working

10. What is your papa's favorite food?
nina: tacos
maggie: soup

11. What is your papa's favorite drink?
nina: beer
maggie: water

12. If your papa were a cartoon character, who would he be?
nina: he would be nick (from the cat in the hat) because his name's nick
maggie: martha (editor's note: martha is a talking dog)

13. What do you and your papa do together?
nina: we play kids on stage
maggie: play poisson rouge

14. How are you and your papa the same?
nina: 'cause our voices sound the same
maggie: i'm a boy!

15. How are you and your papa different?
nina: he's a boy and i'm a girl
maggie: because i'm a girl

16. Where is your papa's favorite place to go?
nina: hanging out with uncle erik and aunt isabelle
maggie: grandma's

an interview from a year ago...

i can't believe i didn't put this on the blog! i had totally forgotten about this, and found it after i accidentally clicked on "notes" in facebook. so, here's an interview with the kids that i did on october 28, 2010. nina would have been 5 and maggie almost 2 1/2. it's so cute!

i found this on one of nick's friend's pages, and it was so funny. i had to see what my girls would say (i interviewed maggie separately from nina so she wouldn't just repeat her answers)

1. What is something mom always says to you?
nina: i love you (aww!)
maggie: you say, "maggie! where are you??!"

2. What makes mom happy?
nina: listening (as in, when nina listens to me. true!)
maggie: naney. and bird makes papa happy. papa makes you happy.

3. What makes mom angry?
nina: not listening
maggie: computer games

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
nina: by being silly. silly dancing.
maggie: rocking on the rocking horsey

5. What does your mom do when you're not around?
nina: clean!
maggie: sewing

6. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
nina: dancing
maggie: sewing

7. What is your mom really good at?
nina: hugging
maggie: playing computer games

8. What is your mom not very good at?
nina: dancing
maggie: stamping

9. What does your mom do for her job?
nina: clean the house
maggie: sewing

10. What is your mom's favorite food?
nina: won ton soup
maggie: noodles

11. What is your mom's favorite drink?
nina: juice
maggie: water

12. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
nina: hmmm... lemme think think think... the cat and the hat
maggie: sally (from the cat in the hat. she answered this independently from nina, so i guess there's something to it!). but don't make the sounds, just do it quiet.

13. What do you and your mom do together?
nina: play games like chutes and ladders
maggie: play poisson rouge and playing starfall. drinking coffee and i drink water.

14. How are you and your mom the same?
nina: we both have brown eyes
maggie: i don't know. good.

15. How are you and your mom different?
nina: i have blonder and you have black hair
maggie: i'm purple and you're green

16. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
nina: chuck E cheeses
maggie: at the fish playground

some more pics of the girls

maggie playing with her dinosaur and blueberry

nina making a silly face on the slide

with a witch in salem!

sisters hugging

our sleeping beauties in boston.

one more!!

oops, i forgot i'd already posted pumpkin photos! these were the ones nick took with the camera, but the ipod did a better job getting the glow of the candles inside just right. but i'm in this one! and you can see that maggie is wearing her snow white dress. she might even wear it on halloween. fingers crossed, because she looks so cute in it!

one more foliage post.

happy fall!

fall, glorious fall!

it's not a great year for foliage, but there are still some spectacular leaves in the woods out back. behold the grandeur of autumn! (can you tell i downloaded pictures this evening? more to come!!)



i can't get enough of these pink and purple leaves. the color is really true to life. they're so beautiful! unfortunately, they're restricted to some really small bush-like trees, so we don't get to enjoy a giant pink and purple tree.

i think they're maple trees? they don't all have quite the same shape though.

i don't remember these leaves in the backyard when we were kids. the first time i saw this bright pink and purple color was last fall. so, so cool!

a porcupine!

a few mornings ago, we woke up and saw a porcupine sleeping in a tree in the backyard. it was so neat! it was sitting on its haunches with its head in its paws, sound asleep. adorable! we sneaked up really close and got a good look at it. we couldn't get too close, it was up pretty high, probably 25 feet off the ground, but as close as we could. i didn't get a picture though, it probably would be a let down anyway... lots of branches and leaves and then a furry brown lump in the middle.

oh well what do you know! nick took a picture of the little thing climbing back up. suspiciously what i thought it would look like...



but, that's not the end! we had already seen it waddling around at dusk a few times, so we knew it was around. but then the other day, i saw some damage to our pear tree--bark nibbled away and branches down, with the ends cut at an angle. behold, the damage:


damage to the trunk


missing branches up at the top!


the branches, cut at an angle


so i naturally thought to myself, did the porcupine do this? the branches are so narrow, could they support the weight of that fat little guy? but, i checked, and professor google says it was squirrels, so that solves that.

poor pear tree! i told nina we might have to cut it down and she said, "but that will kill it! you can't!" so i guess that settles that. it's not like it's big enough to fall on something and damage us. our house will look so beautiful, framed by 2 dead trees. oh well!

a maggie sweetie

oma brought a box of our favorite cookies from austria, and the girls and nick were devouring them left and right (i only had one. really!). finally, we were down to the last cookie. maggie took it from the box and said, "oh, there's just one! i'll share it with nina."
then, she broke it in half. but the two halves weren't even (it was more like one-third/two-thirds) so she broke a little more off of the bigger one. but they still weren't quite even, so she nibbled a piece from the bigger one and then handed it to nina. so sweet!

wednesday already?

nina stayed home from school today because it's oma's last day. we haven't talked about that too much, so i'm not sure maggie realizes that at all. hm, i'd better tell her first thing in the morning so she has a little time to adjust.

maggie had dance again today, and because nina was home, she got to dance with her again. and i got to watch again, hooray! maybe next week maggie will dance all by herself. hey, you never know.

not too much to report really. maggie's new thing is that when nina's bothering her she yells, "mommy, nina is antagonizing me!" and it sounds really cute coming from a 3 year old.

oh, tuesday we went to the fish playground after school, that was fun. nina was a monkey on the monkey bars, but i made her stop before she got another blister like in boston. i've instituted blister checks every 10 minutes now when she's non-stop monkey-barring. good parenting call i think.

maggie has been really, really good to oma. whew! she didn't swear in front of her, didn't call her stupid or horrible (i got "horrible mom" a bunch of times though, so maybe anne wouldn't have been fazed by it). yup, she was a real sweetie! the only real down side of her visit is that we can't find snot rat for our little gag, and the girls wouldn't let me cut up squiggy-diggy to improvise. some day i'll explain what this means. after we find snot rat....

i downloaded photos from the ipod today

i didn't remember that i had brought the ipod with me at maggie's first dance class (maybe i thought i could use it while she danced. haha!). but luckily, that means i have pictures. isn't she just the cutest thing??

we carved our pumpkins today

maggie's is a princess, and nina's a scary face. boo!

we had a great time carving these today! first the girls drew the pictures they wanted carved into the pumpkins, then we scooped out the seeds and pulp (we know it's called pulp because nina brought home a book about pumpkins a few weeks ago. very educational). i did the carving, you can tell because it's so amazing. :-)

THEN, we toasted the seeds AND steamed and pureed the pumpkin we took out of the jack'o'lanterns and made 2 pumpkin pies! on top of those, we have enough pumpkin puree left over for at least 3 more pies. i'll save some for thanksgiving so we can have another fantastic pie.

overall it was a beautiful fall day. maggie did get mad at me for a minute during pumpkin carving (i took away her marker for coloring on nina's pumpkin). she stormed off into the house where mom informed me she called me a "horrible" mother and said she didn't "love me any more." fortunately, she forgave me not too long after, and she told me she loves me again. whew! i'm sure she called me stupid too, that's her number one insult. that and dammit, when she's really really angry.

oma is here!

the girls were so excited all day. and so far, maggie has been in a great mood! it was a close call this morning, the girls woke up for the day around 5:30 am so she was kind of tired and grumpy by 8. but she had a long nap and has been a total peach. whew! so oma can enjoy her wonderfulness before (maybe) meeting the other side.

nina is having a great time showing Oma her latest things and reading to her (she had to read her favorite funny part from deep trouble, one of the 3 goosebumps books she's reading right now, and the viper story from scary stories to tell in the dark). also, nina went to the pumpkin patch with her friends charlie and hattie duing maggie's long nap and picked up 3 really big pumpkins. so we'll carve them up soon and put pictures up. i know it's been a while since i've done pictures, it always feels like so much work in the evenings to download them from the camera, or phone, or ipod. and i'm so tired in the evenings!

anything else? i don't think so... yesterday maggie and i went with mom to brunswick to visit great grandma, it was a good trip. rainy, but we went to the mcdonalds with the indoor playplace. won another free medium fries too, i love when they're doing monopoly! then home for a half out, back out to pick up nina and jessie for a marathon tutoring session, dinner and bed! kind of a typical friday.

a fun day at home yesterday....

.... and tons of rain today.

so, nina was home yesterday due to the water main break at the school. it was fun because she went to ballet class with maggie and danced with her. so i got to sit and watch like a normal mom! and nina was so sweet, holding maggie's hand and encouraging her to pay attention and not lie on the floor. it worked, somewhat. after class nina expressed her shock at what a terrible listener maggie was. i had to laugh and tell her that maggie had done a good job (for maggie!) that class.

the down side is that dance class always tires maggie out and she ended up napping, waking up grumpy (but finally cheering up) and staying up until 9 (which actually isn't so bad at all). nick wanted to take a shower, and came into the room where maggie and i were playing wearing his bathrobe without his lounge pants underneath (the green robe over his lounge pants are kind of a nick uniform). but instead, he came into the room with just his hairy legs sticking out from the robe. maggie stopped what she was doing to look at him and announced, "who is that weird guy?" it's even funnier because she says "weird" like "wee-ahd."

no school tomorrow!

apparently a water main broke over at the elementary school and it'll be closed tomorrow. the girls will be so excited! and hopefully will both sleep in.

they actually slept wonderfully last night. i think maggie is finally coming through the other side with regards to dropping that last nap. for the longest time she was grumpy in the evenings if she didn't nap (understatement!) and then slept badly at night. but if she did nap, she'd be up til 10, so it really felt like a lose-lose situation (though i preferred a nap and bed by 10, because she'd sleep so much better at night. nick preferred that she nap, but since he wasn't the one being woken up 10 times per night, he didn't get a say there). ANYWAY, now, she's not napping AND sleeping well at night. fingers crossed that i'm not jinxing this and we have another good night tonight.

ironically, there's a little critter in our attic that had me awake from about 3:30 to 5:00 last night, so i didn't sleep very well. the trap is going in the attic tonight with some crackers, so hopefully it'll be quiet tonight. i'll be sure to update in the morning. there's nothing like a battle with a chipmunk or squirrel in the attic to spice up a blog!

maggie was also totally adorable today. she's such a happy child when she's well rested. i think she only talked about shooting nick once today, and that was after 6:30 when she was exhausted.

she was asking me today why some things stick to the walls, and you know that's a really hard question to answer. glue i had a pretty easy time explaining (well, i think it was easy, i'll have to google it and see if i'm right), but tape, not so easy. i was speculating that the molecules that coat a strip of tape might covalently bond with the molecules in the wall when maggie interrupted to suggest that "tape probably just has a lot of stick-ish-ness."

yup, that sums it up much better. :-)

anyway, it turns out i was wrong! check this out: http://www.whyzz.com/why-is-tape-sticky

remind me to explain it to her tomorrow.

if you don't want to click on the link, i'll give you the quick answer: tape works by suction!

this is really some october we're having!

it was in the low 80s yesterday and must have been in the high 70s today, if not 80 again. i could get used to this!

well, we got back from boston late saturday night. we stopped at one of those all you can eat chinese food buffets for dinner and the girls loved it. maggie has been asking multiple times per day to go to "the place where you get your own dessert and crawfish." yup, they had crawfish there, and maggie loved them. i guess we'll have to go new orleans with her eventually!

yesterday we did the fall foliage festival and then a cookout at nina's friend emery's house. it was fun and we stayed out way too late, so we slept in a tiny bit this morning and then bummed around the house, enjoying the warm sun.

not so much is planned for this week, just getting back into the routine.

!

it's so hard to keep track of the days over these long weekends. ahh, yes, it's saturday!

we had a very fun day yesterday. in the morning i took the girls to the playground next to erik's house. they had a great time, nina is a champ on the monkey bars. she was going forward, backward, alternating hands, and spent so much time on the bars that she developed a blister and ripped it open. :-( poor girl! she didn't notice the blister until it opened, and by then it really hurt. right in the middle of palm of her hand too. it hurt a lot, so we went home to put some ice on it. thankfully i had the boat bag in the car, with the new boat first aid kit that erik and isabelle had gotten for us, so i was able to antibiotic ointment and bandaid it right there at the playground.

but, before long nina was feeling better, so it was off to boarderland with erik and chester for a nice long hike. chester even rolled in poop! what fun! but then he went for a swim and it all came off, so it was all good.

after that the girls were kind of tired (at least, they weren't hopping around the house for a few minutes), but nick and i wanted to squeeze out the last bit of energy, so we took them to the playground in sharon (in the morning i'd taken them to the one closest to erik's house). after that we got some ice cream. what a day!

needless to say, the girls were out cold by 9. they probably would have gone to bed earlier, but they were so excited to hang out with erik and isabelle a little longer, so we let them.

another big day today, i'll update again in the evening if we're home early enough!

a harmonious household!

that's sarcasm, because right now the girls are fighting over a glow-in-the-dark rat (a rat whose tail is about to fall off, this is not going to go over well), and maggie just called nina STUPID!! however, that's pretty tame for maggie. my favorite is when she gets really mad at nina (or anyone) and says "nina you're dammit!" i know, it's poor language, but she thinks dammit is an adjective, and that is kind of funny.

so, not so much going on today. my dryer burnt a load of clothes, so that sucks. dad says he'll take it apart this weekend and see what happened. i'm afraid there's a mouse nest in there or something, and they/it will just move to the washer and mess that up. we'll see. in related news, i know what i'm getting for my birthday. haha. the good news is that i smelled the smoke when i was getting maggie into the car to go pick up nina, so we turned off the dryer before it burnt the house down. yay for not burning the house down!

yesterday was school picture day, that was exciting. stay tuned, i'm sure it's going to be the most beautiful school picture lifetouch has ever taken!

oh, and i had dance class today. i mean, maggie had dance class today. but since i have to dance with her (because maggie does not tolerate me being more than an arm's length away), i kind of consider it my dance class. i haven't taken ballet since i was three, but you know, it's coming back to me. hee hee. that's a joke. but really, i actually enjoy it. i like the stretching, i'm so not flexible that it's really good for me. i'm trying to stretch every evening now, we'll see if i can touch my toes by the end of the class. probably not. i'm flexible like a lead pipe is flexible. which is to say not at all flexible.

and, what else... monday was a good day i guess, i tutored a new girl, so that was fun. i think it'll work out, mom is home on mondays so the girls can go there if they're not leaving me alone, or just play here while i work with her if they (maggie) are feeling cooperative. it's advanced math/pre-calculus, so something a little different from what i've been doing with jessie, which is fun.

no school tomorrow or friday, it's teacher inservice days! then of course no school on monday (colombus day for my out of country readers), so she has a 5 day weekend. woo hoo!

rain, rain, rain

what a weekend. total washout! but, we've been having fun just kicking around the house. we only went out for church and sunday school today, and then just stayed in and relaxed. mom and the girls and i watched the wasp woman on netflix, nina loved it. and mom had actually not seen it before, what are the odds? seriously though, it is so great that she and nina have another thing in common. whenever nina wants to watch some B-horror, she has a friend to watch it with. i love it!
(by the way, if you click on that wasp woman link, you should know that the cover is entirely misleading--the wasp woman had the face of a wasp and the body of a human. kind of like a female the fly.)

yesterday was a busier day though. nina had a birthday party, we had our road association meeting, i had to do sexual abuse awareness training for the church in order to be a sunday school teacher (moral: the perverts are everywhere, and they don't always seem like they're going to be perverts. trust no one!) AND i tutored jessie in the morning. busy busy busy. but it rained most of the day, so it was good to have stuff to do.

nina had a field trip on friday, so that was fun. her class went to see a dolphin tale at the harbor theater. she really liked it. she said it was happy, sad, and funny. she gave us a good run down of the plot but said we have to see it for ourselves. maybe when it comes out on netflix.
also, she had a good week at school, but she's still not excited to go tomorrow. i mean, who's excited about another week of school on a sunday night? i know it's totally normal. but she was saying she didn't want to go tomorrow, and i asked her why, and she said, "i'm busy tomorrow..." and i had to chuckle. busy! hehehe.

ok nick wants the computer back. oh but one last thing: a few weeks ago, maggie wanted to add a new rule to our list of family rules (there were 6 but she insisted that this be rule number 8, so it just skips). rule number 8: no shooting anyone. but even though maggie is the one who proposed this rule, she still talks about shooting people when she's angry (especially when she's angry with nick. there's just something about him that really gets to her sometimes). so now when she says she is going to shoot him, i say "rule number 8, no shooting anyone." and so she has taken to saying "i'm going to gun you" instead!
that girl, she obeys the letter of the law, but not the spirit. now if you hear her threaten to "gun" you, you'll know what it's about. you're welcome.