Trick-Or-Treating

Nicole and Chris took Mia and Bennett into Westwood this afternoon, then called us to say some of the businesses were giving out candy. The street wasn't closed off like last year, but it was still fun to let the kids go into the businesses.

Mia and Reagan leaving the Gap

I had a smudge on my lens, so some of these pics turned out a little bit blurry :(

I don't know what Reagan was doing here, but I thought it was kind of a cool picture

We left the business section of town and headed back toward Chris and Nicole's to do some trick-or-treating in their neighborhood.

Reagan's very first Trick-or-Treat house :)

I had so much fun taking Reagan from door to door trick-or-treating! This used to be my favorite holiday when I was a kid ... a whole night to get FREE candy! It always amazed me. Nicole, Chris and John were making fun of me and how into it I was. Whenever Reagan had a choice, she always picked the lollipops, despite my requests for some chocolate!

Great Halloween, but I'm happy it's over ~ I'm BEAT!!! Goodnight!

Playgroup Halloween Luncheon at Nicole's

Halloween turned out to be a fun, but exhausting day! I started out the morning with Reagan refusing to put on her Jessie costume because she wanted to be Super Girl again. Whatever - it wasn't worth the fight, you know? I just found it funny that she made such a big deal out of wanting to be Jessie for the last couple months, then I pulled out last year's Super Girl costume at the last minute yesterday and it turned into the big hit! I'm sure this is just a taste of all the last minute decision changes that are to come in the future ~ inevitable with raising girls.

I took Reagan to preschool, then took Avery over to Nicole's for the playgroup Halloween party.

Here are Sandy's kids, Julia and Jack, both monsters - so cute!

"What am I doing in this silly costume??"

Such a big girl!

Meredith couldn't come to Nicole's this morning, but she sent me this picture from tonight and I just had to post it. Quinn and Avery are 6 1/2 weeks apart and they both wore the same costume today. We never got them together to get a picture of both in their costumes, but we might have to stage one at a later date!

Avery just had to touch Max's binkie

I stayed for about a half hour, then had to leave to pick up Reagan ... Avery was in need of a nap, so I figured she'd fall asleep in the car ride to Ms. Lisa's. Sure enough, she didn't fall asleep until we were 2 blocks from Ms. Lisa's, then woke up as soon as I stopped the car.

When I arrived, I couldn't see Reagan and I figured she was inside ... then I realized she was wearing a pink princess gown instead of her Super Girl costume. Because Ms. Lisa has a daughter who loves to dress up (Nicole), she has a large collection of dress-up clothes, which Reagan loves to help herself to. Don't you love the red boots with the pink dress? Before I put her in the car, I had to take off the princess dress, then put the Super Girl costume back on her.

We drove to Nicole's and Avery finally fell asleep again just before we arrived. Right around the same time, Reagan started saying something about "not liking to throw-up." She seemed absolutely fine when I picked her up and she was very happy on the drive to Nicole's. Then as soon as I parked the car, she told me she was going to throw up. So I rushed out of my seat, ran around to the other side of the car, opened the door and tried to get her out of her carseat ... but I was too slow. Just as I was unbuckling her, she threw up. All over her Super Girl costume. And my hands. And the car seat. Lovely.

I got her out of the car and started stripping the costume off of her, all while she was crying and saying, "I don't like throwing up!" Once I got the costume off, I asked if she wanted to go home. She looked at me like I was crazy - how could she miss the Halloween party? It was like flipping a light switch - one minute she was sick and the next minute she was extremely happy, ready to play with her friends! I guess she must have gotten car sick? That happened one other time when we were in Utah, on our way to Moon Lake ... but I figured that was due to the high altitude. I have no idea what happened today, but she was absolutely fine the rest of the day.

We went inside and Nicole was nice enough to give her some of Mia's clothes to wear, as well as a "princess" costume.

When we got back to the party, they were making the kids into mummies, using toilet paper.

Maribel & Joaquin ~ Maria and Max

William and Mary ~ Sandy and Julia

Nicole made up a fun craft for the kids to do

Everyone brought something to contribute to the pot-luck lunch and we all just kept munching. It was a wonderful party and Nicole was the perfect hostess. Thanks for having us over!

Trunk-Or-Treat

We had such a great time tonight, going to our first Trunk-or-Treat. It was held at Mia's preschool and Nicole helped organize it. We were supposed to decorate the trunk, but I was just proud of us for getting there on time, with two kids in costumes. Some people went all out with the trunk decorations!

Doesn't Avery look cute in her elephant costume?

What are Avery, Reagan and Mia looking at? Their face expressions above are pretty funny, right?

They were looking at Tweety Bird, who was JP and Kaitlyn's grandma Connie! We were happy to see Diane and her husband Jack come (Nicole and I went to their lake house in September)

About a week after we returned from the lake house with Diane, she informed us she was pregnant with #3! We couldn't believe how good she was at keeping a secret that weekend! I'm so happy and excited for her :) Next week, she'll be 20 weeks along with a baby girl. She hardly even looks pregnant! With my second pregnancy, I was already huge when I hit 20 weeks.

The Heid Family

We were also happy to see the Wilkin family. Harrison fell asleep on the way there, but woke up in time to enjoy some chocolate!

Jen and Sawyer Wilkin with Nicole. Nicole and Jen met last year at Music Together, while Jen and I met because Harrison and Reagan were in Ms. Lisa's preschool together. Then we discovered we all knew each other ... what a small world!

I asked the girls to say "Cheese" and Mia struck this pose ... too cute!

RV First Friends Halloween Party

At River Vale First Friends this week, Reagan got to put on her Jessie costume (from the movie Toy Story 2) and go to her first Halloween party of the season! All the moms brought treats, then we placed it in baskets on chairs around the room and the kids went trick-or-treating.

Of course, being the flakey mother that I sometimes am, I forgot to bring a bucket/bag/basket for Reagan to fill with candy ... so I improvised and gave her this reusable grocery bag that I keep in the car (a gift that my sweet neighbor Lizzie brought back from the UK for me). Oh well, it beats the pillow cases that my sisters and I used when we were kids, right?

This is Sagiana ... doesn't she make an adorable Dorothy? Too bad you can't see the sparkley red shoes! Sagiana's mother Jackie noticed that Reagan's rain boots weren't the best match for her Jessie costume, so she told me Reagan could borrow a pair of Sagiana's cowboy boots. She was nice enough to drop them off for us later that day and the next morning, Reagan found them when she woke up ...
This picture cracks me up; I hadn't done laundry in over a week, so we were down to the summer pajamas in her pajama drawer. For those of you who know Reagan, this isn't a big deal, since she runs HOT all the time ... even in the winter, she sleeps out of the blankets and manages to sweat. It's crazy! As she got into bed the night before, she tried stalling by asking for a drink of my water ... of course, it spilled down her white shirt with berries (that matches the shorts), so I changed it to this pink shirt. Once she put the boots on, she just had to put the Jessie hat on too. And I love the bed-head hair do. She was walking around saying, "Howdie Pardner!" and "Yee-haw!"

A picture worth a thousand words ...

This is one of my all time favorite pictures! Click on it so it enlarges in a new window so you can get the full effect. This was taken last year on Halloween in Westwood. They closed the street off to cars and let the kids go trick-or-treating around the businesses. Meredith and I were both very pregnant (I went into labor 24 hours later!), so we loved the contained environment. Unfortunately, they're not doing it again this year. Anyway, I just love the facial expressions on Timmy and Reagan here. Despite this picture, they had a really great time last year!

Reagan usually goes to preschool on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday mornings ... today, there was an open spot (someone was sick), so Ms. Lisa let Reagan come and make up the time that she was sick. Since she'll be wearing her Jessie (from Toy Story 2) costume tomorrow to preschool, I pulled out last year's costumes and let her choose ... Little Red Riding Hood or Super Girl? She was SO excited to be Super Girl! I took the above picture before she left this morning. The costume was really big on her last year, so I figured it would fit perfectly this year. It was still big on her - go figure. Maybe the Halloween candy will fatten her up a bit! Just kidding.

While Reagan was at preschool, I watched Nicole's son Bennett ... what a cute kid he is! He's almost 19 months old and just a chatterbox! When I told him to sit down next to Avery so I could take their picture together, he said, "sit on Avery's lap!" Avery wasn't too happy about the idea, so she did her best to push him off.

Ms. Lisa said she had some errands to run after preschool, so she offered to take Reagan with her, then drop her off. When she got here, she said she took Reagan with her to Rite Aid to get someone a birthday card. As soon as she said the word 'birthday,' Reagan immediately told her that Avery's birthday was coming and she needed a card for Avery! So Ms. Lisa was nice enough to buy a birthday card for Avery and helped Reagan sign it. She also let Reagan pick out a gift for her to give to her little sister. When I brought it inside, Reagan generously gave Avery this little frog. It was so sweet! I just love my two little girls :)

Power Outage

We had a rain storm yesterday (Saturday) afternoon that brought some pretty strong winds. Around 5:00, I was sitting next to Reagan while she was watching "Little Bear" and I was talking to my mom on the phone. Suddenly, the power went out and I had to hang up on my mother because I was having a hard time explaining to my hysterical 2-year-old that I couldn't turn "Little Bear" back on (I guess she's a little too attached to her TV shows!). So, we just patiently waited for the power to come back on ...

... and waited

... and waited

... and waited some more.

About an hour later, our next-door neighbor Lizzie came over ... she was in need of her spare key, since they were locked out! They had just come home, but couldn't get their garage door to go up, due to the power outage. Thank goodness we keep their spare key at our house :) When it was dinner time, I was very thankful to have a gas stove on which to cook! It wasn't exactly easy to cook by candle light and flashlights, but I managed to made it work. I strategically made a list in my head of everything I needed to get out of the fridge, so I could open it as few times as possible, just in case the power was off a long time.

When John and I tried to put the kids to bed, that was a little challenging too ... Avery is in this very difficult stage where it's nearly impossible to get her to stay still while changing her diaper. Poopy diapers are a challenge under the best of circumstances, but when there's no light and you're trying to hold a flashlight, it gets pretty tricky! I think it's pretty funny that it took two of us to pin her down and get her diaper changed last night before bed! Once I went into Avery's room to put her to sleep, I realized how quiet it was. Because of our 3 noisy dogs, we have sound machines (we prefer the sound of rain) in the bedrooms to drown out any noise from the house that could wake up the girls. But since there was no power, there were no sound machines. Luckily, everyone adjusted to the silence okay and there were only a few wake-ups.

Reagan, John and I watched Shrek 2 on the portable battery-powered DVD player before bed although John fell asleep halfway through. I think we were all asleep by 9:30 ~ pretty early for our house! But what else were we going to do? I wanted to read, but lighting was an issue.

Avery woke up rather early for her (6:30 AM), and I was pretty annoyed to discover that we were still without power! At least the sun was coming up and providing some light! Around 8 AM, Avery realized she woke up way too early and was ready for her morning nap. I put her down, then hopped in the shower, only to be frustrated with the realization that I couldn't blow-dry my hair. That's about the same time my iPhone died and I became completely detached from the outside world. I got dressed and came downstairs to do my menu-planning and grocery list for the week ... suddenly, our alarm went off (a malfunction, due to the power outage), waking up Avery prematurely from her nap. By this point, I just had to get out! John and Reagan were still asleep, so I threw Avery in the car (luckily, John's car was parked out front, since I couldn't open the garage to get mine out!) and went to Starbucks. I ordered my Chai Latte and a pumpkin scone, my favorite seasonal item, then found a table where there was a power outlet. I sat down with Avery, plugged in my iPhone, then enjoyed my treats while my phone charged and life felt a little more normal.

Not exactly sure where I'm going with this post ... part of it was therapeutic for me - a place to vent my frustrations about the fact that we live in the year 2008, yet it took 17+ hours for power to be restored. And the other part is to admit how guilty I felt that I really struggled without all of my modern-day conveniences for those 17+ hours! I missed the computer, the lights, the sound machines, the video monitor to watch Avery in her crib, the freedom to open the refrigerator to browse the contents for something to eat, the electric can opener, the hairdryer, the garage door, etc., etc. When I was young, I thought it was so much fun when the power went out. I guess it was fun because it was always a short adventure. A power outage in Utah was never longer than an hour. 17+ hours without power when you have 2 small kids isn't exactly an adventure, but more of an annoying pain in the butt!

So there you go ... I'm addicted to electricity and all the joy and simplicity it brings to my life!

Mystic Connecticut Continued

Rather than editing the original post, I figured I'd create a new one. I took about 450 pictures on our short trip to Mystic (Monday - Thursday), so it's taken me a while to sort through them all. As you can probably imagine, it was difficult to narrow it down to only a handful of "blog-worthy" photos, so I decided on 46 of my favorites. Yes, 46! For those of you who are familiar with Blogger, it took me HOURS to upload all of them and format them ... so you better enjoy them!
We left on Monday afternoon (October 13th), just in time for naps ... Reagan fell asleep within the first 3 minutes of being in the car (no lie!) ~ we had barely left the edge of River Vale and entered into Old Tappan. Reagan is addicted to her stuffed animals, so it's no surprise she fell asleep with one in each arm. The drive was absolutely beautiful. I couldn't help myself from snapping pictures of the view from inside the car.We especially liked these trees that were bright red on top, yet still green on the bottom ... I cropped the above picture to give you a better look at the tree:

We checked into the Residence Inn in Mystic which was perfect. We had a 2 bedroom suite, and they serve a complimentary breakfast and dinner. My dad and I took Reagan swimming the first night, after I put Avery to bed.

On Tuesday morning (10-14-08), we went to the Mystic Aquarium. The biggest attraction were the white Beluga whales - they were beautiful.

Reagan loved watching the sea lions and listening to them bark.

Nana and Reagan, watching the penguins

My dad let Reagan use his binoculars and she was very much attached to these the entire trip. Half the time, she looked into them from the wrong end, but she loved them nonetheless.

Beluga Whale Feeding Time

Avery and Amanda during Sea Lion Show (this was the first time I had put her "bangs" up into a pony tail ... not sure yet if I like the look or not)

Reagan, Amanda and Avery, watching the Sea Lion Show

You can't go to Mystic and not visit Mystic Pizza, right? This restaurant was a shrine to the movie ... there were flat screen TVs everywhere, playing the movie.

My parents, Rod and Michelle

Mystic Pizza - can you see Julia Roberts on the screen above?

At one point, we were trying to get Avery to fall asleep in the car, so we drove around and happened to see this old car on the side of the road ... my mom insisted that we stop so we could get a picture of it.

On Wednesday (10/15/08) we spent the morning at the Seaport. The above picture is probably my favorite picture of them all ... isn't it beautiful??

Amanda and Reagan at the Seaport

Reagan at the entrance to the Seaport

My dad and Avery

I love this picture too.

Reagan loved exploring the inside of this ship

Reagan and Nana

I usually don't ever take "Scenic" photographs. Growing up, my dad refused to take pictures of things unless there was a person in the picture, so I guess I picked up this habit. But I couldn't help myself from taking scenic pictures in Mystic ... it was so picturesque and beautiful.

Reagan had fun throwing little white shells into the water

Grandpa and Avery

After we ate lunch, Reagan walked over to Avery and wrapped her arms around her (completely spontaneously!). Avery started to laugh and I got these adorable pictures of my sweet girls together.

As usual, Avery was trying to eat Reagan's face.

After the Seaport, we went back to the hotel and the girls took a nice long nap. Once they were asleep, my mom and I left in search of a salon for a pedicure. We found one, but couldn't get in immediately, so we took a detour to the ice cream shop that was located on the drawbridge.

We took these pictures, got our ice cream, then watched the drawbridge go up so a large sail boat could pass through.

After naps, we rushed back to the Aquarium and let Reagan pet the stingrays again. She LOVED this, as did I.

Her other favorite part was holding the small hermit crabs

Here's video of Reagan and the crabs ... she loved picking them up, then letting them crawl around on her hand. I love that she had no fear!

Here's my mom feeding Avery ... my parents couldn't believe how much Avery could eat at dinner each night. She definitely consumes more than double what Reagan eats each day! It's crazy!

Before putting Avery to bed that night, I tried to take some video of her new skill of standing and taking a step or two ... Reagan decided she needed to tackle her with hugs instead! This video is sure to make you smile :) When John saw it, he couldn't stop laughing.

After another night in the pool, Reagan let Nana comb her hair after her bath

There was such a beautiful tree in the parking lot of our hotel. As we were leaving the hotel on Thursday morning, I decided I just HAD to have some pictures of it.

Before driving home on Thursday, we decided to go back to the Aquarium one last time (this was our 3rd day there). This Beluga whale was hanging out in this very shallow section of the tank, right in front of this window where kids could crawl up to get a close look. It was spectacular to see this whale so close up, practically standing still. It really seemed as if the whale enjoyed the social interaction with the children in this spot.

As you can see in this video, the whale was hardly moving at all. Each time we saw the whales the previous two days, they were constantly moving, swimming all over the tank, so this seemed uncharacteristic. Of course, I'm not a marine biologist, so what do I know?

One of Reagan's favorite parts of the Aquarium was the tank where she got to touch the sting rays. We spent almost an hour here on the last day, since we practically had the place to ourselves!

We watched the penguins again

Then we went back inside so Reagan could see the crabs again. Avery enjoyed watching the fish swim around in the tanks.

It was such a wonderful trip. For those of you who have never been, I highly recommend Mystic as a destination, especially in the fall. I'm sure I'll make this trip again, especially because it was a rather short drive (just over 2 hours). Thanks Mom and Dad for such a fun time!!