Christmas Card Photo Shoot

So I was unsure how the Christmas visit with Santa would go this year, since Claire had been telling me for about a week prior to our scheduled visit that she was not going to sit on his lap.  Plus Brynn has stranger anxiety now and loves Mommy and Daddy, a lot.  So I concocted this plan to get pictures for the Christmas card.  I got the idea from some web site. I wrapped a box and put B in it.  I gave Claire the lid and told her to look surprised.  They are pretty hilarious.  This is what we came up with:

Then we decided to get some solo shots of the girls.  Marty decided to join in the fun.  I've learned it is hard to get a three year old to look at the camera and to capture an almost 9 month old on film.

I think that's enough guys!

Claire and the Playmobil Nativity set.

Why buy toys?  A box will do.

Thanks for reading,

Katie

Claire's Christmas Concert

I really should be sleeping but I am up, researching Christmas party ideas for my students and now writing a blog post.  Claire's concert went really well.  They had four classes that night, two preschool junior classes (3 year olds) and two preschool seniors (4 year olds).  It was jammed packed and very hard to see anything. I had to sneak up to the front side to take pictures.  Claire sang very loudly, Mark could hear her from the back, and she did all the hand motions she was supposed to. 

 Go Tell it on the Mountain!

 Jingle Bells

 Daddy, Nana and Claire

 Brynn, me, Papa, Gaga, Claire and Ms. Meg.

Family Picture

After the concert we went to Mass since it was a Holy Day of Obligation.  I was thinking so many people would be going to mass from the concert since the school kept reminding us it was a Holy Day. ( Catholic School-UCS doesn't remind kids of Holy Days:) Nope it was just us and one other family from Claire's class.  We stuck it out and went to church.  It was a very nice actually.  The priest had a good homily and even worked Brynn into the homily.  He asked her name and when I said "Brynn" he commented on how he doesn't know names now a days.  I realize I have to enunciate Brynn's name really well when telling them her name to someone new.  You won't believe how many Brynn's I've seen in the last 9 months, at least 3 or 4.  I think that's a lot.

All in all we were very proud of our singing Christmas girl.  Claire did a very nice job.

Thanks for reading,

Katie

Our little Christmas Elf

Halloween

Claire was very excited about the idea of Halloween but when it came down to it she was more excited to pass out the candy then go trick or treating.  Claire and Mark went out to about 14 houses before she decided she wanted to go home.  It was a chilly night and she was fighting the sniffles (we still seem to be fighting it).  Before she went out we made a giant Halloween cupcake together.  It worked out really well since she could really only eat about three pieces of candy from her haul due to her lovely peanut/tree nut allergy.  

Brynn hung out with me and handed out candy dressed as a little chick (or possibly a duck you can make the final call.)  She did pretty well in her costume.  It worked nicely to keep her warm the Saturday before Halloween.  Our subdivision always has a great Halloween parade.  They get a contingent of Royal Oak's High School band who leads the kid and parents through the streets in our subdivision.  Claire loved it she was a witch this year. (She wore the costume my mom made for me as a kid.)  She rode her broom through the streets of our sub and waved at no one in particular but she loved it.  The duck costume and a few blankets kept the Brynnsinator warm.

Chick or

 Duck?

 Sisters

 The parade before we joined

Clairsie witch

"Daddy pick Mickey Mouse up from the TV..."

Claire called Mark yesterday on the phone while he was doing bottle returns.  She was talking about how she wanted Mickey Mouse to come play at her house. She was going to show him all her toys and they could "play all day!"  She told me to ask daddy to pick up Mickey.  The girl loves Mickey Mouse!  We called Mark and put it on speaker phone so I could hear his response.   She babbled on for about two minutes and this is how the conversation went:
Ring Ring
"HI Claire."
"Hi Daddy I need you to go to the TV and get Mickey and drive him here because I can't go to the TV and I need him to come here so I need you to drive to the TV and get Mickey and bring him here to play with me.  So get Mickey okay."
PAUSE
"Oh well I'm not sure what to say--I don't know if I can drive to the TV."
"Yep Daddy drive to the tv and get Mickey and bring him here"
"Well that is a really cool idea Claire.  Mommy what do you think about that?"


Then I told Claire about how Mickey lives in Florida and California and he is very busy because so many boys and girls go see him he probably can't come see us. 

"No Mommy he CAN come see us."

"Well lets right him a note and we'll mail it to him."

"Okay."  And that is what we did.  She even kissed the letter twice.  Although when Mark got home she asked him:

"DADDY!  Did you bring Mickey home?"

She really loves that Mouse!!

Here is are some pics of Claire's visit to Disney at 16 months old.

 Meeting Daisy Duck

 Playing in Winne the Pooh's house

 Daddy and Claire

 Entranced on It's a Small World.

 She was so excited to see them. 

I think Mickey Mouse may be her first crush!

Thanks for reading,

Katie

Just For Fun

Hanging at the mall.  Checking things out.

I think she looks like a pro at this!

Mahna Mahna

Claire is in love with the Muppets mostly the Mahna Mahna bit.  It calms her down, which worked today since she slipped on the wet tile at Olga's and chipped her tooth.  She was so very upset, but she calmed down, and then get upset again.  Thankfully - Gaga, Papa (this is what Claire calls my mom and dad) and Ms Meg (Claire and Brynn's babysitter and family friend) were there to help distract her when her teeth hurt.  Mahna Mahna helped too.  I do believe Claire may be seeing the Muppet movie that comes out this fall.  She wants to but we'll see.

Completely unrelated but a cute picture (in my eyes) nonetheless.

Speaking of The Muppets--The Muppet theme song calms down a crying Brynn.  It worked for Claire too.  Especially when Mark would act it out.  It cracks me up!  Miss B does not enjoy the car so Claire, Mark and I are usually singing it to her, or the other song Mark came up with to calm her down.  Soon I do believe our twenty pound little miss will be switching carseats.  She's still within the weight and length limits but not for much longer! 

Brynn is scooting/ crawling all around now too!  She made it up the step yesterday actually all by herself. She's a baby on the go!  She loves the toy organizer too.  I have to have eagle eyes because everything goes in her mouth.  Claire is not a big fan of Brynn putting her toys in her mouth.  We are trying to teach her how to trade a toy for Brynn, so she doesn't leave a crying baby behind in her wake when she catches B chomping on a book or play kitchen food.  She's starting to get it. 

Look what I can do!

Thanks for reading,

Katie

Claire and Brynn Photo Shoot (Again)

We took the girls last Sunday to Portrait Innovations again to get their pictures taken.  Claire's 3 year pics and Brynn's 6 months pictures.  I am sorry but the lady took what felt like a million pictures!  There were over 209 pictures taken of the two of them.  She was having a lot of fun photographing them. 

The girls did pretty well.  Claire wanted to help make Brynn smile so there are some impromptu ones of her and Brynn together.  It felt like it took  forever to go through them all.  Fortunately Nana met us up there to play with Claire so we could pick out pictures.  Brynn slept through that process.  Here is the link to most of the pictures.  I put the goofy ones in too because they are funny to look at.  You don't have to sit through all six thousand of them but if you have a free moment, here are some pics of our girls.  Also if you want a digital copy just email me and I send one to you.

Claire and Brynn pics

Have fun, I'm going to bed now!

Katie

Preschool Here We Come!

Claire's first day of preschool was today.  I was sort of nervous for her.  She's never been in a school setting like that before and she's slightly attached to me a little bit.  We try to prepare her the best we could and get her ready.  She didn't go to the bathroom all morning even though we tried a few times. So that added to my nervousness. She was just so excited. We got ready and played a little bit.  Claire's health form,epi pen, change of clothes, and homework were all in her backpack ready to go.  While we were eating breakfast...well Claire was eating and Brynn was having a bottle.  Claire said to me:

"Mommy when I go to school and you leave you don't have to cry okay."  

How unbelievably cute it that?!  I said to her: "Okay Claire and when I leave and give you kisses you won't cry?"  She thought for a minute and said "yes"

We were off to a good start!

She had her big backpack on and was ready to go.  I dropped her off and got her nametag on, next time you see her ask her what animal is on her nametag...its a kangaroo.  She sits on the kangaroo carpet square.  She was all set to go.  A little boy gave her tools to play with and she was having a grand old time.  I had to ask her for a kiss goodbye.  "Oh ya, Mommy!"  and a picture for Daddy:

 She's looking around at everything and doesn't really look at the camera.

Off Brynn and I went waiting and wondering how the next two hours would go.

Brynn and I went back to pick her up at ten.  Poor B, I had to wake her up from a nap to pick up Claire.  We were waiting with all the other mommies and daddies.  I think Claire's class is filled with first born children.  There were a ton of babies waiting with us.  We saw the class walk in a line and we had to wait for the kids to be walked out to the lobby.  Claire was waving at us with a big smile on her face.  When she walked out she was smiling from ear to ear and gave me a big hug.  

We went to play on the wee wee set at the school afterward and she told me that she went potty two times!  Then she said the teacher told her she needs to sit down:)  

Claire loved it .  She was talking about her teacher, Ms Jordan, at bedtime tonight.  She can't wait to go back and play again!

Claire after school.

Muncie, Indiana, Munice, Indiana, Muncie, Indiana

About a month ago we went to Muncie, Indiana.  (I sing it like the song from Music Man) Mark had a writing conference and the girls and I tagged along.  Here are some of our adventures.

Getting ready to go in the pool.

Our Excursion to the Laundromat

Brynn made her car seat a little messy on the trip to Muncie.  So Claire, Brynn and myself experienced a laundromat.  Claire said it was like the book A Pocket for Corduroy. We had been reading that book a lot around that time.  Claire loved the Laundromat and Brynn did too. 

Minnetrista

We had lots of fun here. It was the Ball family estate and it has become a cultural center and gardens.  We had lots of fun here walking the gardens and exploring Casey's Clubhouse.  It was a little room in the cultural center set up to look like a clubhouse with a million and one things to investigate.  Claire had a blast, she even filled out a field journal entry.  She told me what to write and I transcribed for her.  She did the drawing.  She got a couple of prizes doing that as well. Brynn and I hung out and enjoyed the clubhouse as well. 

We liked exploring the gardens and grounds too.  We actually went back two different times.  On the first day I discovered that Minnetrista used to be the estate for the Ball brothers and their families. Each brother built a grand home on the river within a couple hundred feet of each other.  This family owns Ball glass canning jars.  They moved from New York to Muncie for the family business.  I have to admit that it took me until the second day to realize that Ball State University is named after the family.  Honestly all these years I had no idea why Ball State was named Ball state and it took me two days to figure it out..Geez Louise.  Here are some of the homes and pictures of us frolicking in the children's garden.

 The Muncie Children's Museum

We also visited the children's museum.  Claire loves museums now and talks about going to them occasionally.  This place was great so I can see why she fell in love.  They have a pint sized grocery store and kitchen that was perfect for her she didn't want to leave.  There was a 'fishing' area where you fished for paper cut out fish.  Claire liked that. She thought she was like Papa.  A musical instrument area where Claire played the washboard and cowbell.  Brynn mostly chillaxed in the stroller laughing, eating a bottle and peeing.  Claire also peed too but in the potty and well once in the toddler sized ant tunnel.  But come one would you leave the child sized and tunnel to pee? We left shortly after that:)

 And that was our trip to Muncie, Indiana.  Not that you needed the play by play but I guess (if you made it to the end) you just experienced a modern slide show of our trip.

Thanks for reading,

Katie