Happy Halloween!

My friend, Emily, took these great costume pictures at our playgroup last week!

Peek-A-
Boo!

Heading out for some trick-or-treating...Hannah could have kept going all night. As we were walking away from a house she would say, "Mama, I want to do more!"

Back at home, sharing their loot!

We had a costume playgroup earlier this week at our house, and the kids enjoyed decorating pumpkin cookies.....

drinking spooky smoothies....

eating....

and licking their plates!Snow white and the apple....Clara dramatically acts out taking a bite of the apple and falling to the ground in a deep sleep, only to be awakened by "a kiss on the lips from a prince". She is very into the princesses and fairy tales these days and acts out the stories daily!

Carving pumpkins with Daddy

And again at Daddy's work party that night...

We had a fun week of Halloween, dressing up and spending time with good friends and co-workers!!!

Here come the holidays!!

"Oh, Christmas tree, Oh, Christmas tree....."

No, we're not starting to celebrate Christmas yet! We spent Sunday afternoon at Molbak's and watched a theater performance of Hansel and Gretel. We learned that they do a different- themed performance every October. We'll have to mark our calendars next year, as the girls really had fun watching-even Hannah sat for almost 45 minutes! Then the girls enjoyed exploring the rest of Molbak's and the many holiday displays and decorations.

We've definitely hit the "2 year old smile" stage with Hannah. She gives us the funniest expressions when she smiles for the camera. These will be fun to look back on!

Another moment to look back on......when they are arguing over borrowing clothes and who is hogging the bathroom!!!

Work and Play

My mom and sister, Julie, came to stay for a week to help us get organized and ready for baby #3. We started the week with a beautiful, sunny day at Remlinger Farms...

First stop, Pony rides!

These friendly (and hungry!) goats ate right out of their hands

Train ride around the farm
Canoe rides
Even Julie's dog, Teanne, got in on the fun!
Both girls started out on this ride together.....
But after one trip around, making all the stops to load the other cars that left the girls swinging high up in the air.......

Clara ended up riding alone!

Hannah was much happier on this ride! She was quite a bit below the height requirement to go on these horses, but when she fell apart in devastated tears because she wasn't big enough, they let her give it a try, and she held on tight!
Daddy and his girls on the way to the roller coaster
Clara and Daddy gave it a try while the rest of us watched. If you look closely, you can see Clara's hands up in the air-she LOVED it!!! Rooooaaaaar!!

My mom got the honor of escorting the girls up this enormous bouncy slide....one more perk of being "too pregnant":)
After a day of fun, it was on to sorting, cleaning, and organizing (my mom even did a little painting too-we finally have the kitchen finished!) Aunt Julie spent most of the week babysitting. She read books, watched the girls' favorite movies, and faithfully watched them play for hours so that we could get our projects done.Here are the finished bedrooms......organized and ready to go!
Clara and Hannah have a new closet organizer system and have loved getting their clothes out of the bins and off hangers that they can reach!
Two big girl beds:) Joe and I love listening to their conversations over the baby monitor in the morning (yes, we still have the baby monitor, even though their room is only 3 feet across the hall from us!)Back to cribs and changing tables.....our guest room is gone, but we have a great air bed for anyone who will come stay with us!!!

A HUGE thank you to my mom and Julie for all their hard work this past week!!!

Brrrr....

The weather is definitely changing this week. The mornings and evenings are REALLY cold, and this morning was the first time that I had to wait for the ice to melt off the front windshield before I could head to Starbucks:) We took a walk to the park earlier this week, and Clara picked out an outfit somewhere between summer and fall......

Blowing kisses...


The girls bundled up in the stroller with blankets for the ride home from the park, and we made hot chocolate to drink with dinner!

Baking and Eating...

I seem to do A LOT of baking during my pregnancies! This pregnancy has been fun in that I have two "helpers" in the kitchen during my bake-a-thons:) Last week we made chocolate zucchini cake and banana cookies. The girls love to hold the measuring cups and dump the ingredients in (or near!) the bowl. Cracking the eggs is also a highlight-I'm almost able to keep up with both of them cracking their egg simultaneously!

We discovered that zucchinis are incredibly easy to peel with the peeler. Clara was very helpful with this task.
Hannah helped out by tasting everything!
Can you guess which muffin Clara decorated for herself??? The instruction was to put 3-4 chocolate chips on each one:)
One last summer picnic
Goofy girls!