Colds. Blah.

The girls have had colds the last week. One of the things no one tells before you have kids: how much time you are going to spend wiping snot off your children's faces.

They are happy as always though. Once again, photos courtesy of Grandpa Tom. He takes better pictures than I do. And about ten times as many.

Hailey:


Riley:


Don't worry, Hailey doesn't have blue snot. She just colored it blue with marker.


Balloon in one hand, marker in the other, and Riley being very serious about her artwork.


My babies:

A boo!

This weekend we went to a little pumpkin festival sponsored by the YMCA, with face painting, a free pumpkin per kid, apple crisp and ice cream (yum!) and bowling with pumpkins. We didn't stay long, but the girls had a good time and love their new mini pumpkins. They've been walking around the house hugging them for two days.



They got their face painted for the first time. Both girls got a ghost on their cheek, or "A boo! A boo!" as the girls like to call them. Here's Riley; she loved her Boo, but was very serious during the painting process:


And Hailey, who I think is trying to look at her Boo:


Here are some photos from last weekend. While Chris was off celebrating our five year wedding anniversary with his college buddies in NY, Arlinda, the girls and I went to hang out with all of my central Mass family members. Saturday we stopped by Grandpa Tom and Grandma Susan's for a bit (and had fun with stickers):


Sunday we went apple and pumpkin picking with Grandma Gerry, Grandpa Scott, Aunt Sandy, and cousins Jordan, Nicole and Tyler:




That's all for now!

Dress Up Time

The girls must be practicing for Halloween!


(Riley on the left)


(Hailey on the left)

Little Patriot

I'm on a blogging roll this week. I just think this is a cute one. The girls liked walking around with their hands in the pockets all day.

Again, they are looking way too big and too old. I am in total denial that we are anywhere near the 2 year mark.


(Riley)

LaLa

Many readers have asked where the Arlinda post is. I am ashamed to say Arlinda has been with us for one month and one day, and this is the first time I'm writing about her!

Arlinda is a wonderful addition to our family, and I know I've said it before, but we love having an au pair. Especially good au pairs! We've been so lucky and I'm excited for the next 11 months with Arlinda. She is already an expert on the Boston subway system and has found all the good places to shop in the city!

LaLa, as the girls call her, is already teaching the girls Swedish. They can count to two (in English we are up to 13) and they know head, eyes, nose, mouth and belly. Chris and I are trying to learn too, but the girls pronounce the Swedish words much better than we do!

Here they are having a jam session.


Here are some other cute pictures from the weekend. Other fun events this weekend were: swim class again (the girls LOVE swimming and this week learned to "jump" off the side of the pool, the term "jump" used very loosely), some shopping and a very fun dinner at the Rainforest Cafe with Grandma Gerry, and of course, our pumpkin carving.

Because it's hard to tell, this one is Riley:


And here is Hailey:


And another of Hailey, looking like she's about 5 years old:

Pumpkins!

Things are about back to normal. The girls are pretty much back to their normal sleeping schedule, thank goodness. It was still a weird week though...I had jury duty, actually got picked for the jury and served as Foreperson! (For the record, not guilty of assault and battery.)

The girls carved their first pumpkins this weekend. Well, they scooped out their first pumpkins. Ok, they stuck their arms into some pumpkins and scooped out a little bit of pulp and a couple seeds. But they still had fun.

The "cheese!" face. Riley looks like she's being tortured.


Hailey in awe of the inside of the pumpkin:


Riley takes scooping very seriously.


The finished product (by yours truly):