Pizza Night

Another long standing tradition in my family is pizza night. (Basically we eat well ALL weekend long!) My uncle Brooks makes the most amazing pizza, and we have been enjoying it during Thanksgiving weekend for as long as I can remember. Grace loves getting to help Uncle Brooks in the kitchen. She even got to help plan the menu this year...no salad, no Nancy's cottage cheese and homemade vanilla ice cream!

Grace learns how to pat out the dough.She gets the "yauce" on just right.
Mmmmmmm!
Both Grace and Charlie had a great time getting to know their family a little more. My cousin's daughters, Emily and Katie, loved holding Charlie and playing with Grace. We only see them once or twice a year, which is a shame because they get along so well! I don't know how I ended up without a picture of Grace and Katie together because they were playing together non-stop. It probably had something to do with the fact that they were constantly on the go!

Charlie and his Great-Aunt Skipp

Charlie, Emily, and Katie

Oodles of Noodles

I'm not sure when the tradition of Noodle Night began, but for as long as I can remember, my family has enjoyed my Mom's homemade noodles the day after Thanksgiving. This year we had over 25 family members join in...that's A LOT of noodles! My mom roasted several turkeys using the carcass to make broth and saving the meat for the soup. Grace, Charlie, and their cousin Jacob got to help Grandma and Momo (my sister Megan) make the noodles. It was quite the production!

The entire island as well as the counter behind it are covered in rolled out noodle dough!

Charlie wasn't too interested in the noodles this year. =)

A Musical Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving day with Jeff's family. We enjoyed a relaxed afternoon of spending time together, a delicious feast, and watching Grace in her greatest musical performance to date. About halfway through dinner, Grace decided to sing instead of talk. She started by singing, "What are you eattttttting?" to guests around the table who responded in a similar operatic style. I wish I had a video of it because I honestly cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard, but it's hard to describe it in words. My favorite part of our "opera" was when Grammy sang, "Did you like your turkey" to which Grace responded with a resounding "NO!" in true finale form.

A Day at the Zoo

We couldn't let the beautiful weather slip by this weekend without doing something outside to enjoy it. We decided to head to one of Grace's favorite spots...the zoo.

We adjusted the stroller so that Gracie could stand on the back and easily hop in and out to see the animals. She enjoyed her new form of transportation, but still opted to walk most of the way around the zoo.

She was especially interested in this fox. As soon as we told her it was a fox she said, "Swiper, no swiping!" Swiper, Dora the Explorer's archenemy, is one of Gracie's all time favorite characters.

Charlie, in his normal laid back style, enjoyed the ride through the zoo.

Grace wasn't too sure about these animal statues at first. She kept asking, "Are they real?" Eventually she posed for a few pictures with them.

If You're Happy and You Know It...

Jeff and I both agree that this little toy is some of the best money we've ever spent. Charlie LOVES this thing. I haven't seen him react this way to any other toy. Who can blame him? He gets to watch himself in the mirror, shake a microphone, and listen to some pretty good music. (I'm serious. As far as kid toy music goes, this is pretty groovy!) He squeals with delight when he's playing with it. And he's learned a new trick!

One of the songs it plays is "If you're happy and you know it". After seeing us clap with the music, he joined in! Now every time he hears any music he starts clapping. Not only does he clap, but he gets this huge, proud grin on his face as if he's saying, "Check me out! I can clap like you!" It is seriously, seriously cute.

A True Washingtonian

The rivers may be flooding, and the wind may be howling, but nothing will keep this two year old from playing outside. Yesterday morning she asked if she could put on her raincoat and boots to play in the backyard. It wasn't just the usual Washington drizzle; it was a complete downpour. Who am I to stop that sort of determination to enjoy the great outdoors? Besides, Grace learned a few things while playing outside.

Wet sidewalk chalk works much better than dry sidewalk chalk.

When you go down a wet slide, your bottom gets really wet. (This seemed to surprise her for some reason.)

Playing outside in the rain sounds like more fun than it really is. She only stayed out about 5 minutes before she was ready to come in and dry off.

Two Year Old Politics

It's not official yet, but it looks like we have elected a new president. And if you show his picture to Grace, she can tell you exactly who he is...Baracko Banana. That's been his name in our house since the Democratic National Convention. Grace asked who he was and Jeff explained that he wanted to be our next president and told her his name. Now every time she seems him, she says, "It's Baracko Banana!" (I promise we' haven't been reinforcing this name calling...wink! wink!)

I guess we'll have to teach her his real name before she heads to kindergarten. Which will happen during his term. So, so, so weird.

Grace's Christmas List

I asked Grace what she was hoping to get for Christmas this year. This is her list. I'm not really sure how I feel about it.

A duck

A toy stop sign

A ladybug

A pretend mommy (a big one that walks)

Halloween Fun!

We packed about as much fun in one day as we could yesterday. We started out by having our playgroup over for a costume party. Take a look at our darling cheerleader and the cutest little cow ever...

Grace was not interested in having her picture taken AT All. These were the best shots I could get. =)

Charlie, on the other hand, LOVED his costume and was happy to smile for the camera. (Although he didn't like it much when I took his hood off. )
Grace had a great time playing with her friends. We tried to get all the kids together for a picture, but trying to get that many two and a half year olds to sit for a picture is pretty much impossible. This is the best one that I got.After playgroup and a "nap", it was time to carve Grace's pumpkin! This turned out to be a very funny study in our kids' personalities. We thought Grace would have a great time pulling the "guts" out of the pumpkin, but she ended up being very timid about it. Jeff eventually coaxed her into pulling out a few seeds. Then we let Charlie start planning in the gunk. He dug right in, and then Grace didn't want to miss out on the fun. They ended up having a great time playing together and making a big mess. Charlie needed a bath by the time they finished.



After getting cleaned up, we got ready for our friends Ryan, Cheryl, and Eli to come over for dinner and trick-or-treating. Eli and Grace are just two months apart and have been friends since birth. They had a great time going door-to-door accumulating a very large amount of candy. Charlie and I stayed back to pass out candy to the neighborhood kids. Charlie loved playing in the bowl full of candy, and he was a big hit with everyone who came to our door. After trick-or-treating, Eli and Grace had such a fun time playing together and having races through the downstairs. We all stayed up way past bedtime just because they were having such a blast together. It was such a fun evening!