Movies for Hillary

Aunt Hillary taught the kids a special dance this summer, and here they are performing it for her.

As you can see, somebody found his Halloween costume.

And somebody else found her way into her brother's closet.

(She also found the last pair of squeaky shoes that I forgot to take the squeakers out of.)

You gotta look good

Joe and I had a date night tonight. Sam was up in my room with me while I was getting dressed. (I decided maybe going out to eat without children deserved something other than my usual athletic pants and t-shirt.)

Sam: Mom, you and Daddy are going on a date. So you have to look pretty.

Me: Yep.

Sam: And Daddy has to look handsome.

Me: Yep.

Sam: And I have to look cool!

Speaking of wearing Sam's clothes

She loves his old pajamas so much that I finally just started buying matching pairs.

Preschool, Take 2

It was Sadie's 1st day of preschool today - again.

Last spring she qualified for a program called Preschool For All, which provides 5-days-a-week preschool for children with certain risk factors. However, she was not enrolled in the program this fall since the state had not funded it as of the first day of school.

However, last week I got a letter in the mail saying the district now had received the money from the state and Sadie would start today with the 5-day program (instead of the 4-day program both she and Sam were currently in).

However, the change in program would require a change in classrooms. It also requires her to go on Mondays while Sam stays home.

I was worried about how the change would go - both to a new teacher/classroom and to going into the building without her big brother by her side - but she did wonderfully.

Here are a couple pictures in her new room.

(Notice I did manage to get her out of Sam's clothes before we went - thank goodness it was 85 degrees by that time and too hot for his old sweats!)

And I have to give credit to Sam for giving her a pep talk this morning, which I happened to overhear as I was getting out of the shower.

"Sadie - you get to go to new teachers today."

"Uh-huh."

"And Sadie, you know that I will always come back. Just like Mommy and Daddy always come back if they go somewhere."

"Uh-huh."

"Because you go to new teachers all by yourself today. So you have to be brave. But I will be there when you are done."

"OK."

Bless his heart.

I deserve this

When I was little, all I wanted was a pair of pink shoes. I even managed to con my dad into buying me some once. Anything to not have to wear my brother's hand-me-downs (or have to have acceptable shoes to hand down to my little brother).

So it serves me right that despite all my efforts to deck Sadie in pink from head to toe, she prefers her brother's old clothes.

Example 1: Spidey undies.

Example 2: More Spidey undies.

Example 3: And even more spidey undies.

(Well, I guess technically those undies weren't hand-me-downs, but they were purchased so she could match her brother....)

And I could go on and on and on....

So this morning, it wasn't a huge surprise she said she wanted to wear Sam's clothes.

She headed out of my bedroom and into his.

Where I found her perilously perched on the arm of a chair - stark naked - rummaging through his underwear drawer.

For safety's sake, I helped her in locating a pair of Handy Manny's and headed downstairs, figuring she could handle the rest.

Eventually she came down looking like this.

Fine.

Whatever.

Just ignore the closet full of cute clothes in your own room.

In the meantime, Sam managed to get himself in quite a bit of trouble and was sent up to his room.

He refused to go, which meant that I carried him up the stairs and deposited him on his bed.

He continued with hysterics while crying into his pillow, never even looking up.

Eventually he settled down. I was about to head up and see if he was ready to talk about all that had happened to get him in this spot, when all of a sudden the hysterics started again.

I may have not so nicely said something to him about how he could come down when he was done crying about getting in trouble.

All I heard were more cries, followed by

"WHEN DID MY ROOM GET SO MESSY!"

and

"WHAT HAPPENED IN HERE?"

and

"THAT'S WHY I'M CRYING - JUST LOOK AT MY ROOM!"

It seems his sister rifled through his entire closet to find her outfit that morning, and apparently left the rejected articles of closing strewn all over the floor.

And we know from a previous conversation he likes the floors of bedrooms to be clean.

Making Grandmommie proud!

Last week we went to visit some friends and the kids managed to dig out the makings of a "band" from their toy closet. Wouldn't Grandmommie (the music teacher) be proud of us?

All those years playing the flute came in handy.

And doesn't Sadie look like she's waiting for a cue from me?

(Thanks to Maddi for the picture!)

Apple Picking

We made our annual trip to the apple orchard with our adoption playgroup last weekend.

Don't the kids look thrilled?
She makes apple picking look painful.
At least he looks happy now.
Grandma and Papa got to come with us.
Showing off her big bag of apples.
Sam and my parents are posing for the picture. Sadie didn't want to be in it, instead insisting on having her picture taken "ALL BY MYSELF!" Little did she know I got her in this one anyway.
Pretending to drive tractors is always so entertaining. You'd think that the novelty would wear off....

Again...apple picking appears to be painful....
The requisite photo. If you look at last year's (see link below) it appears my children have shrunk. (Or maybe they didn't pound the sign close enough to the ground....)
Here are the pictures from last year.

Just checkin' my email

Thanks to Uncle Matt for the new (to us) computer. Now Sadie can check her email while Mommy checks hers!
And, yes, those are Christmas jammies on Sadie. She is currently obsessed with wearing Sam's old clothes and found these in the "too small" pile in his closet.

The girl likes her 'roni

I promise - I really do feed the girl at home.

Take Sam out to the ball game!

Joe and Sam headed to Wrigley today to catch a Cubs game - think they are just a little bit excited?
Almost as exciting as the game was getting to ride the train into the city.


2 train rides later and they were there!
The view - thanks to our friend Dave for the great seats!

Not sure what this is (well, other than the obvious oversized eyeball). Apparently it was on the way....