Once Upon A Dream

Here are a few cute pictures of the girls at church (Gabby, Gillian, and Isabella).

Gillian experienced something different this weekend.....undivided attention from mom and dad for a whole 24 hours. We took a quick trip up to the Albany area, and Gillian came with us. Gabby stayed home and had a sleep over with Grammy because she had school and dance class. Gillian stayed in the hotel, went to the mall, ate at the Cheesecake Factory, and tried to party all night long. She had a blast, but she missed her big sister.

We had our usual day of Gymboree and school. The girls were so goofy today. I think it was the October heat.

Here are the girls spending some time with Aunt Mandy. I went to drop Gabby off at school, and Gillian was layered in dress up clothes when I got home. When mom's away....Aunt Mandy will play! Gillian really liked it. Here is another shot of the three girls reading their newest issue of "Your Big Backyard"....Aunt Cheri out in Ohio ordered this magazine for them! Thanks so much....you can tell that they are totally captivated! By the way, has anyone noticed that Gillian's eyes are no longer blue? When she turned one, they were hazel, and now...they are mostly greenish brown. I guess time will tell. She is 16 months...I thought they would be done changing by now!

Dave and I went up to the Boston area to go to my cousin Joe's wedding. Gabby and Gillian had a big fun weekend with Grammy, Aunt Lena, Uncle Tony, and Isabella. Gabby slept over at Lena's house, and Gillian stayed home with Grammy for a sleepover. There were so many activities...let's see if we can post about some....These are Aunt Lena's pictures.....Thank you! These pictures are not in order...sorry!

Gabby baked cookies with Aunt Lena, and everyone took a walk.

They made candy apples....There were sooo many toppings. They went out to eat at a restaurant that had a big chalkboard.

They did a ton of fun projects including giving the princesses, fairies, and mermaids a bath. They also went pumpkin picking and had a hayride. There was so much more......What a fabulous weekend.

Here are a few video clips that were taken at Joe and Melissa's wedding this weekend.

We took Gabriella out to celebrate her Student of the Month award. She recieved a free meal from Chevy's restaurant.

We started the day off working on some monster puzzles....mini's for Gillian. Today was Grampy's birthday, so we celebrated by taking him out tonight.

We had another day packed with fun fall activities. We were going to go back to Sesame Place, but there were too many pumpkin festivals on Staten Island, today. First we went to the Chocolate Factory on Staten Island. There were rides, crafts, food, and lots of chocolate.

After the chocolate factory....and naps for two babies....We went to another pumpkin festival....This one had marionettes, face painting, wheelbarrows, and a petting zoo! Woo Hoo!

After that festival, we went back over to Lena and Tony's house. Aunt Lena gave the girls the newly released Jungle Book DVD. The girls watched the movie while playing, eating pizza, and decorating miniature pumpkins with craft glue and sugar crystals. Gabby was playing a bowling game on the Wii (video game system- for the non-gamers). You can create a visual profile/character of yourself while you play, and Uncle Tony made Gabby with a beard, mustache and mole on her face. She thought it was hysterical.

After church, we spent most of the day outside. Gabby went bike riding with Dave while Gillian took a nap. We finally got a chance to fly our kite that we got at Easter. It was so much fun. We should have gotten two because they both wanted to hold the kite the whole time. Then we came home for some bubbles and sidewalk games....tic/tac/toe, hopscotch, and some beautiful sidewalk art done by Gabby....yes she colored all those rectangles...and it had to be in a certain pattern. She finished and said, "Hey mom, it looks like candyland!"

Gillian is 17 months today. She is a happy, healthy, active toddler. We are so proud of her and love her so much. Aunt Amanda took these pictures the other day. She also took pictures of Gabby and Gillian in their Halloween costumes. We will reveal those by next weekend. It is so exciting!

You can see how much Gillian adores her big sister. These two have their moments, but in the first picture, Gillian looks like she is thinking...."If I could only just touch Gabby's shoe....". Later that night, she took the opportunity to plop herself down on Gabby's stomach while she was laying on the floor. They are so funny together.

These are the pictures that Aunt Mandy took of the girls in their costumes. In case you do not know or cannot tell, Gabriella is Jesse the cowgirl from Toy Story 2. Gillian is JoJo the clown from JoJo's Circus (Disney channel). They love their costumes, and we think they are too cute!

Gillian has had a rough few days. In the last week, she has been like a trainwreck that just keeps crashing. She had some unexplained dizziness and vomitting that we will call a 4 hour stomach virus.....because we don't know what else it could have been. (The following is unrelated to the previously mentioned dizziness). Later in the week, she fell outside while walking around the block and skinned her hand. Yesterday she did a face plant into the carpet while trying to climb something, and gave herself these beautiful facial scabs....let's hope they don't scar. Secondarily....you may also notice a mosquito bite on the arm and another tiny scab under the bangs....that appeared after naptime. All of this makes wiping our runny nose like a whiney adventure. What is going on?

We went to Elms farm near Ballston Spa this weekend. We stayed in a hotel also, and Gabby and Gillian made a friend named, Naia....at the hotel desk. They swam....loved it, but the farm was really the highlight. There was a huge corn maze that you could really get lost inside. You had to take a 10 foot flag with you so that you or your group could be seen in case you were stuck in the maze. We opted for the less stressful but equally as fun - kiddie maze. It was long, but impossible to get lost inside because there were no tricks/dead ends. There was a huge jumping pillow....which we had never seen before, and the now famous (to us) cow train....which Gillian calls "moo moo choo choo"!

Introducing Gabby and her fantastically friendly pumpkin that she made at school today and some cute pictures of the baby girls from Gymboree (Gillian and Isabella).

Despite the pitiful weather today, we went to Historic Richmondtown for the fall festivities. The girls had a great time dressing up in their costumes and seeing Isabella (Belle) and Gianna (TinkerBell). We came home muddy and wet, but not before we had a little fun!

We had some interesting experiences carving pumpkins today. We made the girls sit inside one, and it was cute- but a little cold and clammy. Gabby had trouble getting her legs back out. It was all good fun...especially pretending to eat the pumpkin guts. Later in the day, we made pumpkin cupcakes. Gabby helped and Gillian stuck the candy corn straight down into the tops of the cupcakes. It was funny! The girls both carved the letter "I" into their pumpkins this year....(this is Gabriella's 5th pumpkin and Gillian's 2nd)....

The girls received a halloween package in the mail today from Grandpa Mike, Grandma Cathy, and Aunt Lauren in Ohio. They were so excited, and Dave couldn't get the box opened fast enough. There were goodies, spookie headbands, cards, and coloring books. We had to pry the crayons out of Gabby's hands to get her to go to bed. Thanks G'pa and G'ma. They loved it!

We went to the Children's museum in Manhattan today, and we saw a few exhibits. We saw Dora and all of her friends...including the Grumpy old Troll. Gillian went crazy on that floor. Then we saw the Greek exhibit.....featuring a huge Trojan horse....and you could actually climb around in his belly. The girls spent most of their time in the learning/play lab. The were driving the bus and pretending to be Uncle Kevin. Before long...someone started to get very tired....so we came home...Here are some of our pictures from the day.

The vague title for today's entry is just a way to say that we had too many unrelated episodes...
First of all...the girls got another Halloween package in the mail. This time it was from Meme and Papa. It was full of great stickers, bath toys, and candy! They were so excited just to see the box. Gillian is really starting to catch on to a lot of everyday life things, and she lets us know by her words...which seems like such a big girl thing to do. Here are a few funny things that she has done recently that I don't want to forget....

1. When asked, "who wants to open the surprise box?"....Gillian will scream, "me" and run for the surprise like she has joined the running of the bull.
2. She wants to wear big girl underwear so bad that she gets into Gabriella's drawers and puts the underwear on over her clothes. I have a hysterical picture of this, but it is out of focus.
3. When she passes gas....I say, "Who did that?" and Gillian says with a smirk on her face, "Gabby." (We realize that this joke is extremely old, but she came up with it on her own.)
4. She swiped Gabby's costume hat and wig and paraded around with it today. She was so proud!

Here is the picture of Gillian with Gabby's costume. Gabby had a party today at dance class. All the girls looked so cute and sweet. Her friend, Samantha, was dressed as Buzz (We owe the whole Toy Story infatuation to her)...so it is fitting that they were both dressed this way.

After dance class, we ate dinner with Aunt Mandy and Uncle Steve. The girls used their new crayola bath fizzies from meme and papa. Tomorrow is Uncle Steve's birthday. He is turning 29! Happy Birthday!

How funny are these? I think the photographer took the picture before Gabby was completely smiling....either that or he/she was too late. Oh well, it is still adorable. The group shot is missing Gabby's little boyfriend. He had a fever that day.

We had one hilarious incident after Gymboree (Gab, Ms. Fran, Gillian, Ben, and Isabella) and school today. We had a gingerbread house kit that we put together. It had black and orange icing to use instead of the traditional Christmas colors. The girls had a lot of fun putting the kit together, but Gillian mostly had fun eating the black icing. She actually looks a little like a zombie in these pictures. She was a mess. I gave her a candy corn to try, and she put it in her mouth for a couple minutes and took it out. Then she smeared it into the cemetery of the gingerbreadhouse....giving us our candy corn grave yard.

"Treats" would be an understatement. The girls made out like bandits this Halloween thanks to their grandparents and aunts! Gabriella had a party at school today. They had a class picture taken in the back schoolyard. They had a fun day! After school, we went over to Aunt Lena, Uncle Tony, and Isabella's house. We ran into Ben and Gianna. The girls went around the neighborhood getting lots of goodies. Then they saw Isabella's cousin, Mike, and Snow White! After going up and down the block, we came home and went to some neighbor's houses. The girls got huge gift baskets from Aunt Lena, Tony, and Bella.....and gift bags full of books from Grammy and Grampy! Thanks so much! We had so much fun today!