Tea for you, tea for me

Nana Dean and Pappy Stan came up for a visit this past weekend. It was such a nice visit, and the girls enjoyed hosting a tea party for their grandparents. I personally think they just enjoyed carrying the dishes back and forth as opposed to sitting and actually having a tea party but hey, whatever keeps them entertained!

Nana and Pappy brought some awesome crafts for the girls and since the girls love to paint, they were beyond excited. But of all the wonderful things Nana and Pappy brought, the girls favorite thing by far was their own hand sanitizer. I guess the H1N1 has us all concerned :)

Thanks for a great visit, Nana and Pappy. I am sorry we didn't get any pictures of Pappy Stan but the girls sure loved seeing you both!

Laney hosting the tea party



Her favorite tea party guest



A girl after my own heart.
Ella was helping clean up and stacked all the dishes
according to size and whether or not they were breakable.
She is so my daughter!

Craft time!

The final products



We love you guys!

Show us your Cans!

This past weekend was the second annual Grace Community Church Outreach Weekend. The church closes its doors all weekend to encourage its congregation to serve in our community. Some people sign up to build playgrounds, paint shelters, help with mailings for local organizations, etc. Our small group signed up for the can drive. We did this last year and loved that we could involve our children and show them a hands on experience of how it truly is better to give than to receive.

We met at the local park and then divided up our area.
Kids were put in their wagons and strollers and off we went.
After we all met back, we filled up a HUGE van to give to the local shelters.

What an awesome day!!!

And the troops were off!

Although you can't see it here, my van was full;
and this was not even 1/4 of the food we collected.

The kids loved participating.
It was a wonderful way for all of us to serve together.

The Hostetlers, Jason and Joel



If the family didn't put any food on their porch,
we would send Jack and Laney up to their porch
and cry for food. Ok, we didn't go that far :)
At least Troy smiled for me!

Our group alone filled up this whole van.
It was packed with food.
Jason found about 10 more bags on peoples' porches
when we drove through the subdivision later that afternoon
and when he took them to the collection point, he said the amount
of food all of the subdivisions had collected was overwhelming.
What a blessing, and we felt blessed to serve!

Trying to get a picture of the food.

Awesome!!!

Stuckey Farms sure was yucky!

Today was my first field trip with Ella and Laney's preschool classes. I give the teachers and school an A+ for organization but the field trip itself really wasn't that fun. I know, bad parent thing to say. But it was wet and cold and THIS mom had her children (and myself) not dressed appropriately. They were in heavy fleeces but needed to be in their winter coats and hats. We were all very cold!

The girls and I had to pick which class to tour the facility with (Ella or Laney's) and we picked Ella's. Laney was upset from the beginning of the apple tour because she didn't get to go with her friends. Although Laney's teacher said Laney could go with her, I really wanted to spend time with both girls as mommy/daughters time (silly mom!).

This field trip sounded so much better on paper but nonetheless, it gave us something to do this morning :)

This was about the only smile Laney had all morning.

My poor baby really was so cold!



Learning about turning corn in popcorn,
corn meal and Indian corn.



Intently listening



Ella was front and center at the bee exhibit.
Behind the speaker was a cage full of bees they got to look at.



The next stop was the apple barn.
Here they learned about peeling, coring, slicing apples and then
the highlight of the trip was tasting the apples and the apple cider.



They tried a jonathan apple and a macintosh apple.

Bottoms up!



The difference is their attitudes today was so vast.
Ella had a great time and enjoyed seeing her friends.
Laney was upset most of the time
and would rather have been home.



The assembly line

They had a nice store where there were more kinds of butter than I
could ever imagine.
Sweet potato butter? Sounds fantastic!

The farm really was nice but since the weather didn't cooperate we missed out on a hay ride (where each class was going to pick out a class pumpkin) and picking apples :( If only I would have dressed the girls better, maybe it would have been a more enjoyable field trip. Someday I will get this motherhood thing down!

Just so you know--

Adapted from my friend, Kelly's, adorable post about her daughters

Ella

--You like crafts and would do them morning, noon and night if we let you.
--You are amazingly independent (making your own sandwiches, taking a shower by yourself, helping your sister get dressed, playing in the backyard alone)
--There is more to lunch than PB & Js!
--Who needs to wear anything other than dresses?

Laney

--Pizza makes you incredibly happy causing you to eat more than Mom and Dad
--You love your big sis and follow her around. But here is a piece of advice: don't follow everything Ella does. She sometimes has you do things that she knows is bad/wrong.
--I love some of the words you say and the dialect you have. Her word "today" comes out with an English accent. I LOVE how she says this word.
--You don't need to bang on your bedroom door at night time. Just go to bed...in your tent (but the tent sleeping is a whole 'nother issue).
--You are potty trained but I still love how excited you get when you go poop on the potty. If everybody got that excited, it would be a much happier world.

Matthew

--You don't need to cry at 3 AM because you are on your back. Just roll back over.
--I love how you smile at me when you are done nursing. Like....ahhh...thanks mama!
--You can pull your socks off, but why? There is no benefit to it. Seriously, there isn't!
--Think big! Since you dropped from 95th percentile to 75th percentile in weight, mama worries that you aren't gaining enough. Think big for your 4 month appointment in a few weeks.
--You don't need to pee on me!

Pumpkin Fun Pendleton Style

On Sunday afternoon, we headed out to Pendleton to go to a Fall Festival with our friends, Erin and Steve and their children, Madeline and Jackson. For those that have not been to Pendleton it really has such a quaint, small town feel. I grew up in a small town and sure do miss these types of festivals. The girls got to pick out pumpkins (free ones!), ate popcorn (free popcorn!), painted crafts (free crafts!), got balloon animals (free!) but the only thing not free? The ice cream...but that is worth any amount of money if you ask me.

Laney and Madeline picking out their pumpkins

This is the pumpkin Laney wanted until we told her
she had to carry it to the car.
She thought about it and opted for a smaller one.

The final choice

I love this pic.
How did I get Ella to smile so big?
I told her that if she smiled, she would get ice cream :)

Madeline and her lady bug balloon

Ella waited so patiently for her balloon but I guess if I
was eating popcorn, I would wait patiently too.

Walking on hay--'cause that's how they roll in P-town

Madeline and Ella had so much fun together!
Madeline and Laney (who are about 2 months apart) didn't
play together at all but Ella sure loved playing with her new friend.

Ella asked Steve if she could bury him in leaves.
Who could resist that?

Laney, be gentle with Erin. Yes, that is Jackson in the sling!

Thanks for a great time, Erin, Steve, Madeline and Jackson :)

M & M Playdate

This morning while the girls were at school, Stephanie and her daughters, Josie and Maggie, came over to play with Matthew. Maggie is about two weeks older than Matthew so it's fun to watch them get bigger together. Although I love having playdates when the girls are here, it was so nice to not have to break up "fights" and just let Josie play (and Maggie and Matthew drool at each other). Thanks for coming over!

Maggie is one smiley baby!

Thanks for coming and playing, Josie and Maggie.