December Fun

We have been having a wonderful December. We are mostly settled into our new house. The girls enjoyed their annual gingerbread house making with Gramma and Trekker. Edith had to be watched carefully because she likes to nibble on the gingerbread pieces as you help build her house. Addie and Trekker showed a little more restraint.

On Saturday we went to the Old Sturbridge Village 12 nights of Christmas celebration. We had a nice time finding neat things in each of the houses. We tried gingerbread, fruit cake and some cider. The cider was warmed with a hot poker dipped in the pitcher. The girls had a fabulous time leaving Brian and I behind to have fun exploring with Gramma and Grampa. One of the buildings had a bunch of gingerbread houses to look at. Gramma was showing them to Edith and then realized Edith had leaned over and started gnawing on one of the displays. Oh my!

Addie has been enthralled with the story of Jesus' birth and one of her new favorite games is to play "Mary and Joseph." Here she has the whole family set up with my nativity set along with a few extras, a sheep and some beads (cookies according to Addie).

Perfume

Well the people who lived in this house before us shopped a lot. Or at least I guess they did from the huge amount of catalogs and fliers we receive. Today we got a set of fliers with about 10 different little perfume inserts. I set them out so Addie could play with them. The funniest thing is how Addie describes the so called perfumes.

1: Stinky bathroom ick
2: Orange stink
3: Strawberry ickys

"They all smell bad."

An untrained and honest nose.

This reminds me of the last time we went in a port-a-potty. Addie opened up the door and went inside. Then she said something about how it smelled so wonderful. It was overly deodorized rather than stinky, but I just cracked up.

Sisterly Love

This evening while I am making dinner the girls are playing rather wildly. Then I notice it is awfully quiet. This makes me wonder what are they into that they are not supposed to be. I knew I had left a bunch of buttons and such out for a sewing project I am working on. Well what did I discover but the girls snuggled on the couch peacefully looking at a book together. Awww.

And another scene of love. Edith had fallen asleep in the car. Addie was then holding her hand and decided to pretend to be asleep herself. What a wonderful thing it is to have a sister. I know I will always treasure my own and I see that these two girls will have lots of memories together as well.

Little Shopper and The Best Doll

Addie continues to be an amazing shopper. I took her with me while I shopped for a new pair of jeans. She loved helping me pick out which ones to try on and telling me which pair looked the best. Then she wanted to keep shopping and shopping when I was ready to go home. She did complain that the kids' clothing store was boring and wanted to go look at more Mom clothes.

We went again today, this time with Edith. She had the best time and did not want to go home. "Let's keep shopping, Mom." The funniest thing was that she scolded me for taking too long in the toy store.

In other news, Addie has discovered that she can dress Mabel. Mabel is not thrilled with this but has learned to listen to Addie's commands and tolerate being made beautiful. What a sweet dog she is. I am so glad the two are such buddies.

Thanksgiving

We had a nice day out at my parents celebrating both Thanksgiving and my sister's birthday. The girls were absolutely tuckered out the next day. Edith enjoyed her pie sampler and both girls ate a lot of food.

The Lord has blessed us in so many ways. My favorite is our wonderful families.

There be tall pirates here.

We have noticed that Addie has had a huge growth spurt. Her ankles are getting cold hanging out of her pants. Here she is wearing(for the last time) her favorite hoodie she got this summer. Just look at her wrists poking out! That is a lot of growth in a few months.

Addie is delighted with her face paints that she got for her birthday. She asks to use them almost everyday. We all had fun painting our own faces. Addie made herself a pirate (I helped with the bandanna), Edith had fun making herself a rainbow person (?), and I even gave myself a little crown (with a few green accents from Edith). Addie is showing off her best pirate face, Arr. Face painting also demonstrates how Edith is obviously right handed as she basically just paints the right side of herself.

Artist Addie

Today Addie decided she would draw one of her favorite babies. She tried to trace her head and then had me come help her. Then she colored her in. It was real cute to see her keep picking up Baby Ann to look at her to see what she should draw next. She did struggle with the eyes because brown marker does not show up well on top of brown marker or the same color. The black ring around the eyes is the mouth. Impressive, Addie! What was great is that Addie did all of this without any prompting from me. All I did is supply the requested white pencil for the eyes.

Two Birthdays and Halloween

Well Birthday Bonanza has come and gone. We enjoyed a great visit with all of Brian's family. Lots of fun and a little bit of work getting our house in an unpacked state. Thank you to Gloria and Leith for all of their help unpacking, shopping, and driving our stuff around. I made 4 cakes in 6 days and surprisingly enough we only have a half cake left.

On Halloween morning the entire Butler family went to the Davis Megamaze in Sterling, MA. We had a great time solving the maze and enjoying the various activities within. We ended up leaving at the halfway point because Addie and Lily were plumb tired. After a nice lunch we headed home and started carving pumpkins. We had to work in shifts because 12 pumpkins cannot be carved simultaneously. Then it was time for trick or treating. We went to a small subdivision next to us and hit about 8 houses, the perfect number for our little ones. Edith wore her Thomas costume for the picture only and then wore a Santa hat for collecting candy. Addie was Dora the Explorer. She was funny because she was confused about how her costume could possibly be made from her real clothes. I had to explain that Dora is a girl just like her and wears normal clothes. We spray painted her hair black and she was ready to go. It was fun to have the cousins to go along with the girls.

Grandma and Grandpa had a cousins sleepover at their hotel. The three girls had a blast, staying up late and giggling. I had fun going to bed early.

The grand finale was Addie's first concert, The Wiggles. We dressed her up in a pink shirt that read "I'm the Pink Wiggle." Addie asked that morning if she had to go on stage because she was the pink wiggle. Very cute. She did great at the concert although was a little nervous for the first half. She was in total disbelief when the first Wiggle came on stage. She seemed surprised that they were actually real people not just people in the computer. All in all a great concert although Addie complained it was a little long. We came home and had one of Addie's favorite foods for her birthday dinner, Campbell's Dora soup. Addie was exhausted and insisted on finishing her second bowl of soup before blowing out her candle. Then she didn't even finish her cake and just wanted to go to bed.

Another full week

How much can happen in a week? Quite a lot. Here it goes.

Sarah and I celebrated my birthday by visiting my favorite museum, De Cordova, in Lincoln. It was quite chilly so we tried to keep the kiddos bundled up. Unfortunately the museum was between exhibits so there wasn't a whole lot open inside. I was inspired by the childrens area and may try to replicate it for the girls room. Luckily my favorite part, the sculpture gardens, can not be closed. We wandered around outside and had a great time. Edith was quite the character, not wanting to stop her rest on the tower sculpture and calling both this head and the red man, "Daddy."

Then we celebrated my birthday with my parents and Sarah's family with a nice dinner at my moms.

Then we did some packing and more packing and more packing. Then the packers came and packed up the rest of the house. I had taken the girls to church and then came back to help after leaving them with my parents. They had already packed my spare shoes so I spent the day packing in my heels. The next day the movers came and moved all day long. I was greatful that I didn't have to move any heavy boxes. Addie was real cute saying as one of the movers went by, "Wow. He has big strong muscles."

We are now starting to enjoy our new house. Hurrah. Lots of space. We still have a lot of work to do unpacking but I already feel that I am home. Our first full day in the house was my birthday. Couldn't have had a better present. The girls also survived dinner out through dessert which was also especially nice. Now we just need to locate the hardware for Edith's bed, the girls' socks, and a few other essentials.

Addie and Edith are thrilled to have Grandma and Grandpa visiting us. All yesterday morning Edith was chanting "want Grandma Gloria" over and over again. We are looking forward to the rest of the Butler clan arriving this weekend to celebrate the girls' birthdays.

And a very Happy Birthday to Aunt Casey, today.

Catch Up Post

So I have forgotten to post about many things as I have been busy with moving related tasks. (move date Oct. 19) I will start off with today and go backwards.

1. I love the mannequin game. When we are at the mall, I have Addie look around for certain kinds of mannequins to buy me a few more minutes or to keep her moving. I ask her to look for ones with no heads, or no feet, or her favorite, kid mannequins. Since she likes mannequins so much, one day when I wanted some peace and quiet I created the mannequin game. Here is how it works. I tell loud wiggly kids something like "be a running mannequin or be a swimming mannequin." Said kids freeze into the required mannequin pose. After a while I request something else and then kids start naming their own and I can get something done. Always a crowd pleaser and today Addie requested it.

2. My best buddy was up visiting her family and we actually managed to squeeze in a nice morning walk at the reservoir. We even got to hop the fence because the gate was closed. Addie took this picture of Bess and Beth, dynamic duo. Also featured is Bess's nephew, Austin, and Edith's pigtails.

3. Scarecrow Festival: We headed out to Leominster to the scarecrow festival. I wanted to be there early before it got too crowded. This was a bad idea because how the festival works is people bring their old clothes and then make scarecrows with the provided frames and hay. This meant there were only 6 finished scarecrows to look at. Not wanting to just leave I bought the girls a pumpkin and we made a jack-o-lantern. The girls scooped it out and gave input to how it should be cut. (While Addie complained continuously about how windy it was). And again Addie decided to name her pumpkin diarrhea. Lovely. (that is also what she named her pumpkin last year and of course it made everyone crack up)

4. Celebrating Dad's Birthday: We had lunch and cake to celebrate my Dad's birthday. Edith wore her new I love Grandpa t-shirt. She loves this shirt and has since asked to wear it everyday. Cute. I guess the elmo shirt is now in second place for favorite. Dad was happy to have parsnips as part of lunch as he really likes them and doesn't get them at home, and I was happy to have someone be pleased that we were eating parsnips. He turned 1 year old. (I only had one candle that wasn't an inacurrate numeral)

She'll be coming round the mountain

Today's lyrics to "she'll be coming around the mountain" courtesy of Addie

She'll be bending all the jewelry when she comes....

She'll be blowing up the anchor when she comes...

She'll be poking all the trees when she comes...

She'll be eating cake on the lawn...

Who knows where all this stuff comes from. Al1though I suspect blowing up the anchor is taken from a pirate song about pulling up the anchor.

Sweet Addie

Hurrah, we have bought our new home. We will be living in Brookline, New Hampshire and hopefully this will be our forever home. Addie has some funny thoughts about the whole home and moving thing. The funny one is that she tells us that she will be moving out when she's 17 to get her own house. I guess if she can afford to buy her own house at 17 that's ok.

The sweetest thing Addie said was yesterday when we were driving there.
Me: We are going to our new house.
Addie: Don't call it that. Call it home.
Me: Ok, we are going to our new home.
Addie: No just call it home not new home.

And anyone who wants to visit is more than welcome. We have lots of space. No pictures yet because I forgot my camera yesterday.

Apple Picking

Friday morning we had a nice day apple picking in Berlin. The weather was beautiful. The kids enjoyed the crooked little houses and running in the orchard. We sampled 4 kinds of apples and are still working on eating them all up.

Edith was very silly with her apple. It had a long stem which she decided was perfect for carrying the apple in her teeth. "Look Ma, no hands."

Funnies

Addie has really gotten into drawing actual things. The one that made me laugh was when she described her drawing as, "this is the policeman. He is putting out the fire with his sword. He is crashing the house down." This just made me giggle because policemen don't carry swords and a sword can't put out a fire.

Yesterday we were hanging out in the girls' room. Addie said to me, " I want my room to look like a grocery store." I answered, "How does a grocery store look?" She replies, "well there isn't food lying all around the floor everywhere." Quite true. Grocery stores are probably one of the most consistently tidy and organized places. Addie and Edie's room is not tidy very often, partly because they don't have any shelves. This should all change (crossing fingers) when we move next month. We're not expecting grocery store tidiness, but maybe a few less toys on the floor with some storage shelves. So all you mothers out there, if you want to describe what a clean room looks like just say, "a grocery store."

And now for Edith's antics...

Today my mom and I were at the storage unit sorting through all my paraphernalia from high school. Edith was happily playing in our cars. Climbing all around. I went to check on her and the door started beeping when I opened it! Edith had dug around and found my keys and then stuck one in the ignition! Luckily just the mailbox key. Brian and I had already been talking about how Edith will be one of those kids who tries to take the car for a spin around the age of 5 or 6. We didn't think she would start her attempts so early. Lesson learned: always leave the keys in my pocket when I let Edith explore the car.

Addie being silly in Brian's alien mask and a pacifier.

First Day of School

Today was Addie's first day of preschool. The moms got to go too to help with the transition. Addie was a bit slow to warm up, but enjoyed playing with all the toys.

Before we left to go to school she was dancing around and singing in excitement. She picked out what she wanted to wear and requested that I curl her hair. I guess she knew it was a big day and wanted to look her best.

What a bittersweet moment for her to be off to school. I didn't even cry even though I wanted to. No guarantees on Thursday when she goes without me.

Eric Carle Picture Book Museum

Saturday the whole family headed out to Amherst to see the Eric Carle picture book museum. Addie really enjoyed seeing all the pictures. She especially enjoyed the artwork from Winnie the Pooh. Edith just ran around while I followed her. She only liked the 4 foot tall cake sculpture and that was the only thing that could console her when I took Addie to the bathroom. All of us each made our own painting in the studio. Brian snuck off to the gift shop and bought each of the girls a book while they were playing with the toys. Overall a great visit. Not so great listening to Edith cry and wail on the way home though.

A Post by Addie and Edith

Addie says:
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzxccccccvbnmasdfghjklqwertyiop


Edith says:
g b g mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmbb
k

Southwick Zoo

We finally made it to the zoo. Both girls really enjoyed themselves. We got to get amazingly close to the tigers because they were pacing right next to the fence. There was also a quite energetic baby mandrill baboon that entertained us for quite some time. And of course we all enjoyed the elephant show.

Love and Marriage

This morning when Addie and Edith came to snuggle we had the following conversation.

Addie: "Edith and I are going to get married when we are bigger."

Me: Oh. Who are you going to marry?

Addie: Each other. Sometimes when the parents have two girls or two boys they marry each other. Like me and Edith, and Ross and Josh. Ross and Josh will get married when they are bigger. Me and Edith will get married.

Me: Dad and I don't have the same parents, why are we married?

Addie: Because you love each other. People get married because they love each other.

So I guess this was Addie's way of telling me she loves Edith. So sweet.

-

Maine Trip

All the girls headed to Maine last week while Brian was in Seattle for work. We had a great time and much fun was had playing in the sand. The weather was quite cooperative, but the water was mighty cold for swimming (for the adults anyways). We also enjoyed visiting a touch tank, blueberry picking, and of course ice cream.

Touch a Truck

Wednesday evening we headed out to Lancaster where the library was hosting a touch a truck event. The kids got to climb on and explore all the giant trucks. Addie's favorite was the giant army vehicle. Edith liked the tractor the best. Addie was real good about taking turns driving and even tried to lift Edith up into the trucks for her turn. It was quite cute.

Thursday afternoon we went for ice cream. Edith enjoyed it wholeheartedly and was covered almost from head to toe in it.