First Friends Christmas Party

Today was our holiday party at First Friends ... we had a good turn out and I was happy to go, since I missed the last two weeks (Avery had a fever two weeks ago, then we went to DC last week to see my mom).


I straightened Reagan's hair with my flat-iron this morning ... she looked so grown up!

Kathleen with her twins: Katie and Cole ... I actually met Kathleen on my very first day as a subsititute teacher in River Vale, 4 years ago. She was so kind and tried so hard to help me "learn the ropes". Then we ended up being in the same RV First Friends group last year. When it first started, over a year ago, Katie and Cole were so little and only crawling, so it's fun to see them so grown up this year. Since Reagan's birthday is in November, she's one of the older ones in the FF group ... these are all the kids she'll end up going to school with when she starts Kindergarten in River Vale.

Rocco and Sagiana

Christine and Tina

At snack time, all the goodies came out and the kids went nuts. Brownies, donut holes, candy bars, muffins, cookies, etc. Enough sugar to wire any kid!

What's inside those cheeks? A donut hole! She shoved the whole thing in her mouth and tried to chew it. She was a maniac, eating everything in sight!

One of the moms, Nicky, just had a new baby 3 weeks ago. This is her third child and she named her Cadance. As we were standing there watching her sleep, she started smiling, so I grabbed my camera ... Nicky said I caught her first smile on film!

After the kids loaded up on sugar, they started running around in circles on the carpet.

Avery was in heaven! She stood in the center of the carpet and watched all the big kids run circles around her (literally!). She was laughing hysterically, all the while trying to figure out how to "run" instead of just walk. She was actually doing fairly well.

Bed Head and First Friends

Last night was a rough night for Reagan ... she took a nap during the day (only because she woke up at 6 AM and was passed out on the couch by 11:30 AM!), so she tried every stall tactic before finally going to sleep around 10:30 PM. Then she was crying at 2:30, again at 4:00, and once again at 6:00 AM. She finally slept in and I had to wake her up at 10:30 so we could go to First Friends. When I went into her room to wake her up, I couldn't believe her hair! She had a bath last night, right before going to bed, so believe it or not, she went to bed with beautiful clean hair. I often put a pony tail on top of her head at night because she moves around so much that her hair is constantly in her face. Anyway, I think this picture shows just how rough her night actually was, since she obviously tossed and turned enough to cause the biggest rat's nest I've ever seen!
Luckily, she woke up in a good mood and I tamed her hair to look pretty for River Vale First Friends. I was in charge of the craft and snack today, in honor of Reagan's upcoming birthday (Thursday, November 27th - Thanksgiving Day this year!). I kept it simple and we painted turkeys using "Dot Art"


It was a nice group of 8 little girls there today, so we did our craft and then ate bagels.

I was up until 2 AM making cupcakes (so you can imagine just how rough MY night was, since I went to bed LATE, then Reagan kept waking me up!) ... everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Reagan and I wish I'd gotten a picture of her huge grin as she listened happily!

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!"

River Vale's Octoberfest

It's Thursday and I'm just getting to this post about what we did on Sunday ... it's been a busy week! I've been trying to get the house ready for visitors, since my parents will be arriving tomorrow night. They'll be staying for a whole week and we'll be leaving for a few days to New England to enjoy the fall foliage. I'm sure I'll have tons of pictures and stories to share ...

Last Sunday (October 5th) was River Vale's annual Octoberfest/Fall Festival. First Friends has a bake sale booth, so I had to make cupcakes for that. We went last year and had a great time, so I wanted to go this year too. The weather was dreary on Sunday morning, so John said he wasn't interested in going. The clouds cleared and the rain stopped, so Nicole and I decided to take Reagan and Mia for a quick hour before it ended.

While walking down the path, they actually posed for this picture! As you can tell, they were wearing matching rain boots ... Mia wears a size 9 and Reagan is only a size 6, so Nicole gave us Mia's size 7 rain boots from last year!

Right when we got there, we walked over to a big crowd of people who were watching a hula-hoop contest. When I looked at the participants, I noticed our next door neighbor, Hattie Trimm! As you can see by the expression on her face, she was very nervous. The judge was having them do all sorts of difficult moves, like jumping up and down, lifting their legs up, etc., all while keeping two hula-hoops around their waists!

I don't know why she was so nervous ~ she was a pro! She took first place and won this prize. Congratulations, Hattie! After we walked away, I guess her older sister Emily took first place in her age group as well. The funny part is the story their mom Lizzie told me 2 days later: They went to Octoberfest last year, just 1 short month after moving here from the UK. They were mesmerized by the hula-hoop contest, since they had never tried it before. So, they bought hula-hoops, practiced, and won the contest this year! Pretty impressive, if you ask me :)
Reagan and Mia wanted to go down the big blow-up slide, so we waiting in line forever. When it was finally our turn, she insisted I go on it with her. We had to take off our shoes and when we tried to climb up the "ladder", it was an absolute joke. It's too bad Nicole wasn't videoing this, because I could have sent it to America's Funniest Home Videos and won some money! It was so slippery and steep, that Reagan couldn't pull herself up ... so I tried to climb it, while carrying Reagan. I just kept losing my footing and sliding back down. I must have looked so pathetic! Finally, the guy working the thing told me I'd probably have an easier time if I took my socks off. Duh. Why didn't I think of that? And more importantly, why didn't he tell me that after the first time I fell, instead of letting me make a fool of myself trying over and over? Oh well. At least I got Reagan to the top and we had 2 seconds of fun sliding down to make up for the difficult climb :)

I ended up running into so many people I knew, which was a little surprising and a little bit gratifying. I've lived in River Vale for 4 years now and I'm happy that I've met so many nice people. Luckily, we saw Ms. Lisa (Reagan's preschool teacher), we saw Meredith's brother Jim, we saw lots of moms and kids from First Friends, and then I saw several students and parents with whom I worked at Woodside Elementary. It was crazy to see some of the kids that I worked with when they were kindergartners ~ they're now in 4th grade and so grown up! It made me miss working in the school.

Fun Filled Friday

What a busy day we had today! This morning was another successful TPG with a really fun "Music" theme. Maribel (John's cousin) was this week's hostess at her home in New Milford.

Avery and Taylor

Mia and Bennett

Reagan dancing to the music

Everyone was supposed to bring an instrument, so Mia played the drums while Reagan danced (and ate a pretzel)

Reagan, Avery, Taylor, and Mia

All the girls: Reagan, Avery, Taylor, Mia and Grace

I looked over and noticed that Grace had sat in the drum ... when I pointed this out to her mother Audra, we all got a good laugh.

Maribel was such a great hostess ... she compiled empty containers and various food items so the kids could make their own musical instruments. Reagan filled her container with Yogo's and raisins, but did more eating than music-making.

We left TPG a little early to make it to the River Vale First Friends end-of-the-year Carnival. We hung out with our friends from our weekly FF playgroup and we were even lucky enough to run into Ms. Lisa, Reagan's preschool teacher!

Since we were there early to help set up, Reagan received the very first balloon ... this may not seem like a big deal, but if you saw the line that soon formed and only got longer and longer, you'd realize why we were happy about it!
Amanda and Avery

Happy Avery ... you probably can't see it, but I actually managed to get a very small amount of hair into an elastic band on the top of her head today! She's wearing an outfit that was Reagan's, so I just had to find a picture of Reagan wearing it. It's pretty scary that I knew exactly where to find it, since I remembered she wore it to Moon Lake, two summers ago. Here's Reagan and my little sister Camille on 6/23/06 which means Reagan was 7 months old ~ exact same age as Avery now. Not sure if you can tell, but there was a lot more room in the outfit when Reagan wore it ... it's pretty tight on Avery and I doubt she'll ever fit into it again.

Reagan and Camille at Moon Lake 6/23/06

Back to the present. Ms. Lisa's daughter Nicole is the girl on the right (her friend Maeve is on the left). I told them to smile and I thought it was so funny to see Nicole strike a pose!

Some of Reagan's First Friends, L to R: Tammy and her daughter Elizabeth, Caitlyn and Christine, and Jessica and Tina.