Oma the Artist

I took the girls to the book store after Cassidy's haircut. I was hoping to find some books on Thanksgiving, but the girls were more interested in running around. Until Cassidy found the thumb print book for Christmas designs. So you get a stamp pad and it teaches you how to use your thumb prints to make things like a stocking, santa, and his sleigh. Yesterday Jeremy and I were trying to watch the Penn State game, and to keep Cassidy busy. Jeremy busted out the book with Cassidy, and the proceeded to stamp away. Jeremy made a nice sleigh, and asked, "How's that?" Cassidy said, "Oma could do it better." Us, laughing! "C'mon, that looks pretty good." Cassidy tapped the sleigh and gave Daddy an "I have eyes, Dad, let's not fool ourselves."

The latest preschool fad

Cassidy's preschool schedule has been reduced. She was staying 4 days 9-3 and Fridays 9-12, but she couldn't cut it. Seems she was getting too tired in the afternoons. Was taking a rest in the book corner and was fussy and was not doing any work. So we reduced her to two full days instead of four. Today I picked her up early, so it was a LONG afternoon. While waiting for Jeremy to get home, I decided to have a glass of wine while the girls ate dinner. Well deserved. Cassidy wanted a juice box. I asked her if the other kids at school got juice boxes. "Yeah, but not all of them." "What do the other kids have?" "Angelina has milk!" "Oh." "And some kids have wine." "Oh really?" The same kids who have boob jobs for graduation presents is my guess.

Argh! Pirates in the kitchen!

Keira loves her Daddy. A lot. So she has a very difficult time letting him out the door in the morning. The only thing that seems to work is a show called The Backyardigans. Where they do lots of singing and dancing numbers. One with pirates, who say, "Argh!" And Keira and Cassidy now gladly say, "Argh!" when you ask what a pirate says.
While driving in the car yesterday Cassidy asked where her Halloween pencil was. I said, at home, on the island. She was quiet for a few. Then said, "Mom, what if the pirates get it?" "Why would the pirates get your pencil?" Another pause, "Pirates like islands, right?" "Yes. Yes, they do."

The Grandpa-Only Store

Jeremy is off to a screenwriting class this weekend, so I would be flying solo with hte girls for about 4 days, except I called my parents and begged them to stay with me. Instead of being a weekend where the girls torture me and I wonder how I will keep them entertained it has been a whirlwind of adventure for all of us. I specificaly wanted help to remove the hideous wallpaper from Cassidy's walls, and Fiday night we went to Home Depot to gather up some supplies. Saturday, the fury started, we went out to check on the salmon run in some small creeks. We didn't see any salmon, but at least made a trip to the animal farm. Then it was back home for Keira's nap and the removal of everything from Cassidy's room. The removal took quite some time (about 4 hours off-and-on for 3 adults) Yikes! It was a lot of work. We were ready to go eat after that and headed to the Downtown Center. They have a candy store there that Cassidy figured out what it was a few visits ago. When she asked to go in, I thought I was being pretty creative when I said, "I can't go in there. Only Grandpa's can go in that store." So as we are telling Cassidy what restaurant we are going to, she asks, "Is that where the chinese food restaurant is?" "Yes" "Oh. Is that where the bears you can play on are?" "Yes" "You know what that means? This is where the candy store that only Grandpas can go in is. And I have Grandpa!" Steel trap for a brain! Thankfully Grandpa was obliging and took her in and let her pick out ONE thing. One huge lollipop about as big as her!!

Dancing and Heart Beeps

Keira is a dancing, singing, music machine. She loves music, and kids shows that feature music. Backyardigans in particular. She tries to sing a long with the opening number, and will let Jeremy and Cassidy leave the house in the morning in and only if Backyardigans is on. She also loves, to turn on the boom box to find out what is playing so she can 'dace, dace'. Usually she gets static and she still manages to get down and shake her tail feathers. And the ABC song is like an old classic to her. She loves to sing that one, and I am guessing she will know her alphabet soon.

Cassidy had an interesting experience when we went fishing this summer. They cleaned the fish in front of the kids and explained the intrenal organs and such. Tonight while reading a book on bears, there was a picture of a bear catching a salmon as it jumped from the water. Cassidy asked about it, and I told her what it was. She said, Eww. I told her that it wasn't bad, after all, she eats salmon. She said, "But I don't eat them when they have their heart beeps. He's naughty to eat them when they have their heart beeps." No swallowing gold fish for her in college. Woohoo!

Pumpkin Patch Blahs

Saturday we had some friends over for dinner and cards. Keira went down at a good time, but Cassidy was up late. Wouldn't have been so bad, but the next morning we had to head out to the pumpkin patch with Cassidy's preschool class. It was a potluck lunch at a farm. For some reason, Jeremy and I were exhausted too, so it was all we could do to get there. We showed up and headed on to a tractor pulling hay to take us to the field. We picked up some big pumpkins and the girls had fun walking through all the mud. Yeah, it was fun for the exhausted parents *sarcasm*. In my state of exhaustion I made some comment to an Indian or Sri Lankan to the effect of, "all our names must sound the same to you" since I had confused her name with someone from Mothers&More. Ugh! I forgot the camera, so I don't have pictures either. At least we have 55lbs of pumpkin to remember the day.

I can't wait to be a grown-up

Tonight Cassidy said to me, "I can't wait to be a grown-up". "Why is that?" "Because I'm a little girl." "Okay. But why can't you wait to be a grown-up?" "Because I'm a little girl." These arguments are so circular. "Okay, what do you think you will do that will be so fun when you grow-up?" "Umm..Teach kids how to play piano." What's not to love about that answer??

Sibling Rivalry

We had a late night on Saturday as we went to a friends for dinner. Cassidy didn't go to bed until 9:30. Yikes. And she started her full days of preschool this week. She has been running pretty tired. Yet I wasn't expecting what happened yesterday. On our ride home from the school, Keira started shouting, "Aahh" for no apparent reason. I thought she was playing with Cassidy, but then I realized that Cassidy wasn't saying "Aahh" back in a playful way, despite Keira's giggling every time she did it. Cassidy was upset. Then it happened, "Mommy, Keira keeps saying 'Aahh' and I don't want her to." I almost started to laugh if it wasn't for the crying and Keira's random "Aahh"s. When did I become the one listening to complaints instead of making them??

Salmon Days 2005

We have been going to the Salmon Days Festival in Issaquah since our first October out here. It's become our tradition, and we LOVE it. Besides the kettle corn, ribbon fries and other food items they have lots of local crafts and artists and a parade. It's a fun day. The forecast for this weekend was RAIN, but we headed out anyway (put the umbrella in the trunk, but left it there instead of taking it onto the bus with us). We set ourselves up on the parade route, and had a great time watching the marching bands, waving to princesses on floats and seeing the horses go by. The girls must have looked extra cute, because one of the princesses looked at me and said, "They are soo cute" and Jeremy caught one of the horse riders getting another rider to "Look over at the little red heads". It rained during the parade, but we were under a tree, so it wasn't bad. We headed into the festival and got some kettle corn, and got stopped AGAIN. "Can I just stop you and stare at them for awhile?" from a nice woman, who was just in awe. It started to pour and we found an overhang to hide out under. Well, we headed out when it looked like it was slowing down, got pretty wet, and decided to leave. At least we did the parade. I took one picture, but not of us, of the rain. I'll try to post it later.