LIght Up Lantern Festival

We walked up and down a small street, where a famous local art gallery resides, looking at all kinds of lanterns. The girls saw a pirate ship, Thumbelina, a teapot, Alice in Wonderland and all kinds of other lantern creations. As we walked up and down, they just looked in amazement and made a few creations of their own.

Let the lantern parade begin.....

My favorite girls sitting on a piece of art.

Thumbelina was standing on Dawson's other side as she was peeking in on Tinkerbell.

Hiding under a mushroom lantern in front of Alice in Wonderland's display.

We did get to create a firefly lantern. Dawson put the eyes on, made a face, added pipe cleaner wings and put a mini glowstick inside the container.

This was a coloring booth with glow in the dark art supplies. We weren't into coloring on the table but we did like using the black dry erase board.

I drew the pumpkin on the right first and then Dawson drew the one on the left. I thought her pumpkin was cute!

The girls even drew with 3-D chalk. They would draw something then put on the glasses to see what happens to their art. Fun!

The festival had another station where the kids could decorate their own lanterns. We liked the stickers and the markers for our decorations.

Crafty Sunday

Lynn and Grace came over today for a few crafts. The girls were painting lanterns for the Light Up Lantern Festival next Saturday night. We will be parading around the festival looking at various lanterns focusing on the theme "Tell Me a Story." From what I have read, these are quite elaborate and extremely cool to see. We just wanted the girls to create something of their own at an age appropriate level! They were perfect lanterns for two four year old girls!

When they were finished, we turned on the battery powered lights and put them in the bathroom. Both Lynn and I were trying to get pictures of the lanterns in the dark but, couldn't get the flash on our cameras to stop flashing. We will have to figure that out before the real festival.

When the lanterns were done, I caught a few quick Fall photos. Check back next week and see some pictures from the Lantern Festival. We can't wait!

School Picture

I've never been a fan of school pictures because I don't like poses. Of course, even if I don't like them, I must buy them to share with my family and keep track of her school years. Last year, her preschool had walk in photos on a day we did not have school so she was not interested at all in sitting down and posing for a picture. We didn't get a single picture! This year, she got to go with her class and her teachers and we did get a picture. I see a little smile peeking through!

I think they are cute but, I am her mom!!!!

Where Have We Been????

Sometimes I don't know where time goes! I think about blogging all the time but, can't find the time! So sorry I've missed the last month! What have we been up to you ask? We are both back to school. Which in case you were wondering, Dawson LOVES her new school.

Here she is after a hard day of school. Couldn't even make it up to bed this night!

Last week she asked to get out the Halloween stuff. I did get one box out and immediately she pulled out her first Halloween costume and "stuffed" herself into it! No, this is not our costume for this year but, she still looks cute as my little pumpkin!

We are packing our weekends full of fun stuff to do including spending a weekend in Columbus to celebrate Breea's 13th birthday. My girl sure likes hanging out with teenagers....she thinks she is one. As you can see from the pictures, she dressed herself for this party!

We had fun helping Breea celebrate her birthday!

Summer Skating

Our days of summer are coming to an end quickly. Each day I ask Dawson what we should do. Today she totally surprised me by suggesting "ice skating." I wasn't sure she really wanted to go but, we did and it was tons of fun. Its a little different digging out the winter clothes to go skating in the middle of the summer but, it worked out!

She was able to skate holding on to me or to the wall. Not bad for a 4 year old!

I just wish that wall was a little bit lower for her. She had to stretch to reach it. As for now, she is still sleeping. After an hour of not leaving the nice, I have a very tired girl! By the way, I'm tired too..it's hard skating for an hour straight...holding someone up!

Meet "CHUBBY"

Our new pet hamster, Chubby, joined the family yesterday. He is better known as a Syrian Bear Hamster. He will live about 2 years (we hope) and will get to be about 5-7" long. I had to do a lot of research to figure out what kinds are best for younger children. Many of the smaller hamsters bite and are much more squirmy then the larger ones. After looking at 4 different ones, this is the one Dawson picked out! He's very cute! Miss Dawson has been begging for a cat so this is what we came up with instead. We didn't think Ella would like to share her house with a cat!

She was brave holding the box and walking out the store for a little while until......he started moving around and scratching the box. Then Dawson decided to set it down for a few minutes!

She wanted to look inside to see what was going on.....

And finally...Chubby. The hamster has to stay in his cage for 2-3 days without being picked up or taken out of his cage. Supposedly, the get stressed easily (and can die) if there is too much trauma too soon. It's hard keeping Dawson away from trying to hold him. One more day of waiting!

Movie Under the Stars

These past few nights have been perfect for an outdoor movie night. We invited a few friends, ordered some pizza and set up our sleeping bags. At the beginning, everyone was watching the movie but, as time passed, some silly friends decided to have some fun on the swing set, mostly the slide. They would slide and slide and sometimes stop to catch a glimpse of the movie. I loved all the giggles and smiles.

Unfortunately, the bugs came out biting us over and over again so we headed inside to wrap up our night. Within a few minutes, I had a sleeping girl!