Deer me!

This year Cam got one of his deer right across the road from us.  He came home, got the girls, and we tracked this dude as a family.  When Cam got home to get us, Maggie squealed with glee yelling "we going to have a deer to eat!  We going to have a deer to eat!".  The girls thought it was great fun to look for the blood drops.  When we found him, the girls wanted to watch Cam field dress it.  I couldn't believe how interested they were.  We inspected the contents of the stomach, identified organs and their function, and talked about the sacrafice this animal had made for us.  They were so fascinated.  It was a fun time and a great lesson for the girls.  We have since started reading the Little House series and it strikes me how much the girls have in common with these pioneer children and I love it.  Cam has been dusting off his fiddle more these days as he identifies with "Pa". 

My good friend Bonnie's birthday was this month.  She just got hitched and got a new set of Fiestaware turqouise dishes.  I thought she probably needed a new matchy table runner and matching napkins.  I found this beautiful hummingbird fabric at Joann and it called Bon's name.  I do hope it found a new happy home in California. 

Halloween

 It seems impossible that it has been almost a month since Halloween.  I have been trying to blog since then, but my connection seems to have taken a speed nose dive.  I have several things I'd like to share, but on top of my slow connection, I have been working a lot more since Cam's work has slowed down, so there you go.  

We had a great time this year.  Our Halloween tradition has been to have pizza with the grandparents and cousins followed by trick-or-treating in my old neighborhood which is Nana and Opa's current neighborhood.  The cousins weren't able to come this year and we missed them, but the girls really had a blast.  They both really understood how this whole thing works.

Up until this year, my mom and I made the girls' costumes including a cow, skunk, turtle, and pea pod.  This year, however, Lila wanted to be a fairy princess.  (yawn)  Maggie of course wanted to be just what Sissy was going to be, just in a different color.  We ended up buying their wings and wands at The Dollar Tree.   I went into the fabric store to by tulle to make the tutus and found them premade for $8 each and just couldn't pass them up.  We had the pink leotard and the pink tights.  The only difficulty was finding a lavender leotard.  Who knew they were so hard to come by?  I borrowed a sleeveless one from a friend for our trick-or-treating at the zoo a couple weeks earlier, but didn't think it would be warm enough for Halloween night.  I ended up ordering one from Amazon. 

Poppy goes all out for Halloween attire.  I seem to remember him wearing this to one of my elementary school parties when he was unemployed and serving at "Room Dad" with my pal Melissa's dad.  You can't see it clearly, but his tie is a skeleton arm. We all dig it.  

We barely got Lila out of the house.  She was so fixated on watching a movie when we got back (a fairly rare treat) that she just wanted to stay in and skip straight to the show.  However, once we finally dragged her out, she said several times, "This is the best Halloween ever!  I'm having so much fun!".  Geez.  I guess I'm glad I forced her into it.  Maggie stuffed one piece of candy after another into her mouth and ended up sick early the next morning. But, what's the first thing she asked for when she woke up?  Candy, of course.  Ahhh Halloween...

Disney Part 3: the final one, folks. =)

Days 3 and 5 were spent at Magic Kingdom, my personal favorite.  We got to ride all the classic rides including The Carousel, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Small World, Haunted Mansion, etc., etc.  Maggie hung in for all the rides she was big enough for, even through the mildly scary parts!  

Lila was a little adventurer!  She was into the big rides!  She rode Splash Mountain (twice) and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (more than twice!).  She had a blast.  The last time we road Big Thunder Mountain, she squealed and giggled the whole way with her hands way up in the air!  It was so fun to watch her on that one.  We watched the parades (although Maggie slept right through them). Both girls really enjoyed the street shows and music.  Thursday night, the girls donned their costumes again and we did Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween Party.  For me, it was more crowded than was comfortable.  There were limited candy stops (I think 7 in the whole park), and it was a bit stressful for me.  If I had it to do over, I think I would skip this event which was extra anyway.  But, it was the only parade that Maggie was awake for and the girls did seem to enjoy it.  

Our 4th day was spent at Animal Kingdom.  This was my first time in the park.   My favorite thing we saw was the Lion King live show.  It was really wonderful.  It had a relatively small audience and was done in the round.  The cast members did dancing, singing, gymnastics, and the like.  The costumes were really great, of course.  We also caught the Bug's Life 3D movie, the Finding Nemo show, and played in The Boneyard which was a giant playground made to look like a dinosaur dig.  My little adventurer and I also rode Kali River Rapids which left us both soaked! 

We did get in a couple swims, although it was just a little cool.  We didn't stay in too long either time, but the girls associate swimming with vacation and I couldn't disappoint!  Overall, we had a really great time.  I was quite proud of my mothering that week.  October was a fabulous time to go- crowds were low, weather was beautiful, prices were right.  Thanks for all the fun, Mimi!