"All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth"

Yesterday Paige lost her first teeth!  Her bottom two teeth had been starting to get a little wiggly.  But last night during baths, Molly took those teeth by force.  Paige had been playing a funnel like a little horn, and apparently it was annoying Molly.  She reached over and batted the funnel out of Paige's mouth, taking her bottom teeth with it.  All this was happening as I was getting ready to leave for a client meeting.  All of a sudden I heard Paige scream in pain, and Molly scream "Oh no!  There's so much blood!".  Apparently when teeth get knocked out before they're quite ready they bleed... a lot!  I got Paige calmed down and Molly removed from the scene, and was only ten minutes late for my meeting.  Phew.  Needless to say, Paige got TWO little stuffed animals for her first lost teeth from a sympathetic tooth fairy.  These photos were taken a few weeks later when her new teeth were already starting to come up.

The best part is that she was missing her two front teeth just in time for Christmas, so she could sing this song...

Thanksgiving!

What a fabulous Thanksgiving!  The Savage clan kindly hosted this year.  It's always fun getting together with them because us adults enjoy eachother's company, and the kids play so well together.

Christie has some crazy awesome cooking skills and brined the organic free-range bird for a couple days in a honey bourbon mixture.  They they smoked the bird on the Traeger all day.  I have to say that it was the BEST tasting turkey I've ever had.  The food was amazing and I fell in love with the butter that was shaped like a turkey.

We brought along a Canadian tradition and got Christmas crackers for all the kiddos.   We all ate too much food and enjoyed one another's company.

Molly and Hailey got to do the wish bone and Molly won this year.  It was a flashback to our very first Thanksgiving with the girls down at Grandma Shirley's house eight years ago!  I think there's a photo of them as babies with the wishbone!

We have so much to be thankful for, but this year we appreciate the gift of living near the Savage clan.  What a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Learning Letter Sounds

There's nothing much cuter than Paige singing her kindergarten letter sounds song.

Halloween 2015

What a fabulous Halloween we had!  There was so much excitement leading up to it... including our annual pumpkin carving.  The kids were allowed to do it all on their own.  Paige pretty much did the entire thing herself.  Molly was into the designing and carving... but had someone else clean her pumpkin out.  Garrett cleaned his entire pumpkin out himself, but wanted help with the design and carving.

Here's the finished masterpieces.

We even got Hawk into the festive spirit.  He didn't mind the Halloween bandana, but was way less excited about the Chewbacca costume.  He has now been dubbed "Chewhawka the Woofie".

The kids each picked out their own costumed and I completely relinquished control (which is always hard for me).  Molly was Elsa from Frozen to match with her BFF who was dressing up as Anna from Frozen.

Paige was a pop star. We saw her costume at Costco and she was immediately sucked in by leopard print, hot pink and sparkly sequins.

Garrett was Obi-Wan Kenobi.  It was a perfect match to Hawk's costume and I was amazed that I actually got a photo of the two of them together!

And here's the three of them... completely in character!

That evening we went to our neighbor's home for a party before we headed out for trick-or-treating.  We enjoyed some awesome Halloween food, and I even got my costume out of the closet for the occasion.

Then we headed out with the herd of children to go get candy.  The kids did great, although the little ones faded pretty fast.  Molly and her friend's little sister were a matching pair of Elsa's and Molly took her under her wing the entire evening.  It was pretty adorable!

All in all... it was a fabulous day!  So much fun!

Pumpkin Patch

The Saturday before Halloween Garrett had a soccer game.  But after his game, we decided to go get our Halloween pumpkins.  Thankfully, Christie told us that the local plant nursery was having a sale... $0.99 for a pumpkin of ANY size.  So off we went to Al's Garden Center.  The "pumpkin plan" ballooned as we got excited about the the cheap pumpkins and by the time we had left we had bought THIRTEEN of them.  Oh well... it made for a pretty display on our front doorstep!

But the kids felt like they didn't get the full "pumpkin patch experience" so we stopped at Baggensto's Pumpkin Patch on the way home.  The kids got their tractor ride, hay maze, and farm animal experience.

School Fun Run

Today was the elementary school fun run.  This is one of the biggest school fundraisers of the year, and the kids have so much fun seeing how many laps they can run.  They separate out the runners by grade, so the first group off was the kindergarteners.  First off... the warm up!

Then it was time to get running, making sure that they stop and get a mark for every lap!

Interestingly enough, Garrett and Paige ran the same pace and each did seven laps.

Then of course it was time for a team photo.

And then celebrating with otter pops and friends!

And then it was time to do it all over again with the third graders!

Last Warm Days of the Season

The kids are enjoying some of the last warm days of the season.  We are so thankful for the great weather!