New Year's Eve

For New Year's Eve this year, we made crowns for the girls and had a fun fondue dessert!
Adelaide couldn't make it to the toast, but Matilda and Evelyn stayed up and we had fun:

Christmas 2013

Eric, Kim, Ensley, Jim and Joanne all joined us for Christmas this year.  Santa came, the grandkids were spoiled and it was wonderful to see all the cousins together!  Between nursing baby allergies and Joanne's health issues, we had a variety of dietary restrictions, but I enjoyed the challenge of creating holiday dishes that we could all enjoy together.  I don't know if I was always successful, but it was an interesting puzzle.



We got together and booked a photographer to take family pictures as a gift to Jim and Joanne the day after Christmas while we were all together.  That was a circus! But we did get some really cute pictures. We had a nice Christmas and are looking forward to the new year.

Ed wins the Lenovo Consulting Competition

Ed went to Chapel Hill for his December school immersion.  He and his friend, Andy are on a consulting team with the STAR program starting in January, and they competed in a consulting competition in December, and won!

The client was Lenovo.  They won this tablet for their suggestion that Lenovo buy a cell phone company.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!

Late Thanksgiving left me both chomping at the bit and a bit unprepared for Christmas season activities.  But, we plow headfirst into my favorite season, solidifying old traditions and trying out new activities.

The baby has her "First Christmas" PJs, courtesy of Great Aunt Mona and Great Uncle Joe (and I hear her cousin and 2nd cousin have matching pairs!)

To mark our first Christmas celebration in our new home, we got a real tree this year.  We have put our fake tree outside, but we'll talk more about why we would do that on another day.

Fancy dresses have come out and we "dress" for our tea parties (and have gingerbread men or other pretend Christmas confections, of course!)

The big girls are talking up Christmas at school.  This week they made ornaments, clove studded oranges and gingerbread men as well as reading the gingerbread man stories.  I thought it might be fun to make a gingerbread house at home, but I wanted something less expensive than a kit and sturdier (and less work) than baking the walls myself, so we constructed a "gingerbread" log cabin out of pretzel rods!

First, we used a serrated knife to cut the rods approximately to size and glued the structure together with a hot glue gun.  (Yes, I glued it.  You shouldn't eat the walls anyway, that kind of thing just gets you kidnapped by witches!)

Then, I piped some frosting in as "mortar" and to fill in gaps while Evelyn spread "snow" on the baking sheet we used as a base.

Then the girls went to town decorating with sprinkles and gum drops and pretzels and marshmallows

It was a great way to spend quiet time.  They even made little marshmallow snow men, a gum drop path and a pretzel fence!  They were so proud of their work and we will have it on display until Christmas, as long as they don't eat it.

Princess Post

I have been trying to encourage Matilda to practice her writing by sending mail.  However, she thinks of so many things to say she gets discouraged and tired before she finishes writing them all and I don't always have time to spell out every word one letter at a time for her, so we tried something new with her latest letter--she dictated, I transcribed, and I left blanks for her to fill in.  She enjoyed it and got some practice and seems more eager to write letters again, so I think we'll do this for a while, slowly leaving more and more blanks.

I found an article that claims that if you mail a letter to a Disney Princess at this address you will recieve a Princess postcard in return.  Checked it out and it seems legit.  I haven't told her about the return mail yet, that will be a nice surprise in a few weeks.

Her letter says:
Dear Rapunzel,
I saw your stage show.  I have a toy tower just like your tower.  Maybe you could visit my house.  I would like to show you my fairies.  I drew you a map.
Love,
Matilda

Sewing

I have been sewing some dresses this summer and between that and Barbie Fashion Fairytale Matilda has become very interested in sewing and designing clothes.  I gave her a big bag of scrap fabric and scissors and tape and glue, but she REALLY wants to sew with a needle and thread.  So, we sat down and gave that a try the other day!  She was very excited to try out sewing and made a little jacket for her barbie, although she says what she really wants to do is make a human size ball gown for Rapunzel to wear.  She insists she is ready and I am holding her back.

Her finished product

Sewing

Showing off what she made, for Daddy.

Back to School

Today the big girls went back to school!  They had a great time, as we assumed they would.  Construction continues, so the teachers have set up an adorable space in the great hall that will function well as their classroom until construction is complete.  There are a few new children in the class this year, and Evelyn is one of them!  They enjoyed circle time and meeting new friends.  Their teacher said that the girls barely spent any time together, they were so interested in different things and different people.  It will be really interesting to see how they develop throughout the year.
Adelaide, on the other hand, was not at all happy about her sisters going back to school.  You'll note her sulking in the background of some of the back to school pictures.  Once the girls left, she threw herself on the floor screaming and crying for at least 5 minutes.   After a little time alone, she calmed down and then started to realize that being able to play with ALL the toys and having Mommy mostly to herself might be alright after all!
After school, we picked up the big girls and took everyone out to lunch to celebrate--they chose Tom and Eddies and we had a nice time!
Also, today was the day we updated their measurements on the pocket door--they have all grown so much!
Matilda is 45 7/8 inches, she grew 3 inches in the last year.
Evelyn is 42 1/2 inches, she grew 3 3/8 inches.
Adelaide is 34 1/4 inches, she grew 4 3/4 inches.
Cecily takes the prize at 22 inches, having grown 22 inches in the last year!

Cecily is Still Cute

Cecily had her first doctor's visit on Monday August 19 (her due date!) Appropriately, she was back up to her birth weight of 7lbs 11oz.  The doctor declared her healthy and perfect and, in his professional opinion, exceptionally cute.
She loves to be held, and eats quite often.  She seems to be settling into a routine of waking 3 times at night to eat, but is very unpredictable about how long she'll be up.  Sometimes she'll eat and go back down within 35 minutes, more often an hour, and some nights, like last night, she'll just never really go back down (we were up for the day at 2:30!)
She is becoming more alert, opening her eyes more often.  They are VERY dark blue right now, I think they may already be starting to turn brown.  And her dark hair gets so fluffy every time I wash it.
She has a loud cry.  She laughs and smiles in her sleep sometimes, she sneezes when light gets in her eyes (just like Matilda), and she gets hiccups several times a day.
She's soft and dark and smells so sweet and new and is just a perfect, beautiful baby.  There is something about her that makes me want to dress her in nothing but vintage linens and surround her in antiques--like she came straight out of a Jane Austen novel.
We all adore her!