Happy Halloween!

MC was suppose to dress as what she wants to be when she grows up for PreK today so of course she wore her train engineer outfit. After school our friends were kind enough to let us be their neighborhood crashers again this year. The girls had an excellent time trick-or-treating and like last year will still be enjoying Halloween candy on Valentine's Day. MC insisted on trick-or-treating in her "skellybones" costume while MR wore her can-can girl dress, Anna Lin went as a beautiful princess with unbelievably lovely curls and Miss Autumn enjoyed her first Halloween as a feathery witch. Miss Angi warmed them all up with hot chocolate after the trick-or-treating.

Introducing Miss Ruby & Miss Sapphire!

We are usually encouraging at least one of our children to keep their dress down and to quit showing off her panties but as MC put it, "PoPo made us fancy drawers so we get to show everybody!" We did Boo at the Zoo tonight and the girls debuted their can-can girl costumes. Miss Ruby even did a little show for the zoo crowd - yikes! We can already picture her as a teenager and it is a little scary! It was really chilly but our wonders refused sweaters until after it was dark and no one could see the dresses anymore. The girls got lots of candy and I was pleased to hear several people remark on how cute the can-can girls were - I was afraid they'd be mistaken for street walkers! We warmed up in the 3-D theater and by the fire pit. Miss Ruby's favorite part of the night was her costume; Miss Sapphire's was the marshmallows! We were reminded of Mary Clare's first trip to Boo at the Zoo in 2005 when she was still dealing with oral aversion and instead of actually eating candy spent the night walking around picking up the used candy wrappers. Things had changed by 2006 when she couldn't wait to get back to the car with her haul and declared loudly, "Let's eat da chocat!"

Sister Love

I had a meeting in town yesterday so Mary Clare stayed home. We all 3 got to pick up Margaret Rose from school and the sister reunion was just too sweet for words. Margaret Rose jumped up from the group she was playing with and came running to meet Mary Clare. They hugged and hugged and Margaret Rose picked up little sister and twirled her around. They truly do adore each other. They get along so well that when they do have a sister spat it's really startling. The last time they got into a snit about something I told them that they couldn't play together any more that day and you'd have thought I threw away all their toys such tears and pleading I heard. I have no idea how long this sister love will last but I know the girls will always be blessed to have each other.

Jack -o-lanterns

Tonight was carving night and the girls hauled in the pumpkins that we'd been keeping out in the yard. They went out to get them together but it appears that Mary Clare left all the heavy lifting to her sister. Miss Amy sent the girls these great carving tools and with a little help from Baba they were able to do their on pumpkins. They were SO EXCITED!

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace...

as I have seen in one autumnal face.
-John Donne
The girls and I went to North Carolina this weekend. A tragedy in our church family kept Lee at home but the girls had looked forward to the trip for 2 weeks and I really hated to disappoint them. They shut Tweetsie Railroad down with Pa and Grandma on Saturday and then the three of us had some fall fun on Sunday afternoon. They had the best time playing in the leaves! I love the pictures of Mary Clare with leaves all through her ponytails. She looks likes some mischievous wood sprite and she certainly has the personality to match. Margaret Rose was determined to make the biggest pile of leaves she possibly could and bury her little sister in them.

Mary Clare is just an animal magnet. They follow her everywhere. This cute little thing refused to go back to its owner preferring our Nibblet. It even headed down the trail with us when we were leaving. We had to stop and let its owners come and get it. MC really wants a dog of her own. Margaret Rose is fond of the idea of a dog but is not fond of slobber or dog hair. Lee picked the girls up at PoPo's house last week and found MC playing with mom's maltese Sadie and MR playing with a stuffed maltese.