The Finer Details

Victoria and Karissa have very good imaginations, as you may have learned. They are always in character. I never really paid attention to the details of their play, though, until recently.

Some examples:
- Before they "wake up" you always hear them say, "Tweet, tweet!" for the birds chirping in the morning.
- For the shinning sun they will turn the light on (they also use the light to sing The Little Mermaid's "Part of Your World" for when she looks at the sun above the water).
- After a huge cresendo, with head thrown back, eyes closed, and arms up high, they will say, "Dun!" for the final beat of a song.

There's never a dull moment with them!

Lately, Victoria's favorite costumes are her old baby blankets, tied around her as a skirt, usually with no shirt. We have about 20 beautiful costumes, yet she chooses to wear a blanket-- at least Karissa is getting into the princess stage now and makes use of all those costumes.

Which reminds me of this morning's 55th tanturm of the week for Karissa. After putting her to bed last night without her picking out her church dress beforehand because she was having a huge tantrum, I picked out a nice poofy dress for her, since I knew they are her favorite. This morning, after she was dressed, she had another huge tantrum because her dress was poofy. Of course we had no time to change her so I brought her breakfast and put her in the car. We got there just in time for the opening song, which was "Home Can be a Heaven on Earth". I thought it was quite ironic after she went to bed, and woke up, with a tantrum. Aren't the "terrible two's" great!?

P.S. Our computer crashed and I have no pictures on our laptop, so no pics today.

October is Fun!

I love October, especially with kids. This last week we went to the zoo on Columbus Day, hoping we would hit it while the weather was cool, but not too cold yet. Well, as you can see from the pictures, it was pretty cool, but it wasn't crowded, so that was a plus.



We also went to the apple orchard and got our pumpkins there, but, again, it was too cold so we didn't go on the hayride into the orchard. (Actually the real reason was that, unlike the zoo, it was way crowded and we didn't have time to wait in the line before we had to get Victoria back for school.)


Victoria had her Princess Tea Party on Saturday. The girls had a blast dancing, making a princess craft, playing with balloons, getting their nails done, and playing in the basement with all the "girly" toys. Of course the best part for them was dressing up. I made sure to make a "note to self" that I should never plan a party for younger kids where eating anything is involved. I thought they would all love the heart-shaped sandwiches, the flower shaped bread, the grapes (not too exciting), and the fancy dishes, but they just wanted to dance and eat the candy bracelets. They didn't even finish their cake and ice cream!

Victoria enjoyed her presents. I thought her reaction to The Littlest Pet Shop was funny. After we set it up she looked at the miniscule pieces, that I'm sure anyone over 50 couldn't even see, and said, "What do you do with it?" My thoughts exactly! Karissa knows what to do with it though, she loves those kinds of things.

Speaking of presents, Austin got his Christmas present early. He loves sitting up with support, so I got him a Bumbo seat. They are a new hot baby item. They are designed according to a baby's posture so that a baby can sit on his own, though it can be used from when the baby can hold his head up to around 14 months. It's won many awards, including the pediatric and orthopedic awards (blah, blah, blah...). Anyhow, he likes it, and I didn't want to waste two months without using it 'til Christmas, so we're all happy, even Karissa, as you can see from the picture.

(As you can also see, Karissa has officially entered the "princess" stage and wore this princess dress many times this last week!)

My Little is 5!

Today was Victoria's 5th birthday! It's hard to believe she's already 5, yet it seems like she should have been five years ago. Since we're having her Princess Tea Party next Saturday with just s, we invited her best boyfriend and his family over for dinner today. Brayden is kind of like her cousin since his uncle is Brad Strum (Jason's best man at our wedding), so it worked out well having them over for the "family" birthday celebration of pizza and cake. Of course Victoria was extra excited and all over Brayden and in his face, like she usually is around him, but everyone had fun and Brayden didn't seem to mind the harassment too much, though he did almost fall out of his chair while leaning away from her while she talked to him like two inches from his face!
Over all, I think she had a good day and she is grateful for all the cards and gifts that everyone sent. Thanks!

My Big Boy

You might have noticed Austin's chubbiness in his pictures yesterday, well here are his stats, according to his well-baby appointment this morning, to prove it:

length: 27 1/2 in- 98th percentile
weight: 16 lbs. -70th percentile
head: 40 1/2 cm -50th percentile

He's the complete opposite of his sisters, big body, small head. I think he takes after the Lund side, what do you think?

Also, here's some pics of our house after we rearranged it for the piano, for those of you who have been here. I haven't finished changing wall decor and the coffee table is temporarily gone, but you'll get the gist.

What a Week!

Here are some of the happenings of this last week:

-I drove to and from Victoria's school every day, 30 minutes away, with 5 kids in the car.
-I discovered I have carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand, and so had many sleepless nights. (I know, it makes me sound old!)
-Due to car naps, Karissa slept so well at night that one night she did what I used to do, rolled off her bed and crawled underneath. After hearing a loud "thump", I went up to investigate to find a little pink bum over two little pink footies sticking out from under the bed. Like mother, like daughter!
-Austin hit his 4 month mark. He loves being held in a sitting up position and he loves laughing at his crazy sisters!
-We got a piano for free from someone on freecycle. It definitely needs tuning, but since no one really plays it, it works for now. We all have greatly enjoyed it, though. I have even broken into my "Heart and Soul" and "Chopsticks" pieces to impress the kids and they really are impressed! (Kids are so easy to please!)
-Karissa had her first parent-and-me gymnastics class. Daddy said she had a pretty good handstand.
-Of course we enjoyed conference on Saturday and look forward to Sunday's sessions. Victoria couldn't wait for it to start and listened fairly well so she could fill out her bingo card with candy!