Once Upon A Dream

Hooray for Gabby. She finished her 1000th book last night. We had a little book celebration party with popcorn as we read the final book...which happened to "Hang On Hopper". This was so exciting because we have been enjoying these books since the middle of January 08. Gabby got to fill in her home made chart (the final block was rainbow stripes). Today we all went to school together to watch her receive her award from Mrs. Sogoian. We had to drop off our last two red bags and complete our school chart. Gabby looked like a little sunbeam receiving her trophy. She decided to take her trophy to kindergarten this afternoon for show and tell. We can't wait to hear all about it when she gets home. Congratulations and great reading....Gab.

Gillian made Happy Feet in her toddler class today. They danced, sang, dressed up, and played in the water table with the ducks and turtles.

Grammy came to visit us this weekend. We had so much fun...and we are so exhausted. We started out early on Saturday with a big breakfast and some soccer. It was really cold!

Because Gabby completed her 1000 Book Club, we let her choose somewhere fun to go to celebrate, and she chose Jeepers. We were not surprised. We made Grammy come along with us....and ride all the rides. I tried to get pictures of Gabby going down the slides, but both me and my camera were too slow.

After church on Sunday, we went to Ellms Farm in Ballston Spa. It is one of our favorite fall places to go. They have the most beautiful farm with tons of great activities for kids and kids at heart. The weather was a little chilly, but we had a great time....especially trying to solve the Maize Maze. This years theme was outer space. The corn maze included the planets...and sun. To complete the maze, you had to find nine puzzle pieces located in mailboxes throughout the maze. We were pretty successful on all but #4. It was too hard for us....and lots of other people who were roaming around in circles like us. In the end...we had to get help, but we completed the maze. Here are lots of pictures from the farm.

I got to go to Gabby's school today to help during center time. Some children went to a small math group with a math teacher while another group went to reading group with Mrs. Bacchia. The last group of students came to the art center where we made Chicka Chicka Boom Boom paintings. The letters in their names were climbing up the coconut trees. It was a really fun project. I had a great time working with Gabby's class. Next time is Dave's turn. The girls are getting ready to go ice skating. Do you think our skates will fit in this bag? Thanks Grammy!

We didn't know how this skating trip was going to turn out, but it went really well. Gabby ice skated once when she was three, but had to be held up the whole time. We were so happy that she was able to skate by herself today. Gillian....we had no expectations what-so-ever. There was a three/four year old class, but she really wanted to skate. We let her try and she was buzzing all over the place with her little bucket. The teachers said that she did great and that she should stay. The teachers think they can have her skating on her feet without the bucket in a couple weeks. Thank God for helmets and good luck to those people.

We started the morning with a little breakfast and a lot of paint. The girls had so much fun trying to paint something original. They tried really hard. Gabby finished her piece...and said, "Mom, is it good enough for the museum?" I told her that it was beautiful...and to prepare herself because there could be high demand for more. After we got ready for the day, we went outside and planted tulip bulbs and Iris bulbs. The girls did a lot of the work. Gillian eventually abandoned her post to collect worms. After relocating the worms to new areas of the gardens, she ran off to the swing set. Gabby pondered the outcome of the bulbs. What will happen if these bulbs don't come up? What will happen if they grow really high? Can we take them back next spring if they don't work......????? Hmmm I kinda wonder that myself!

Gillian did a lot of apple and leaf activities at tumbling tykes today. The theme today was all autumn related. She loved tossing the leaves around on the parachute. This was a perfect warm fall day.

After naptime, we went to the Crossings with the girls.. It is a park that we love, but we didn't find out until recently that they have a hedge maze. We played in the park, went through the maze, and watched the remote control sailboats on the pond.

We went down to Staten Island to visit and celebrate Grampy's b-day. We drove straight to Willowbrook Park because they were having their annual pumpkin festival. Aunt Lena bought one huge pumpkin for the girls to paint together. Here they are posing with some of the pumpkins. Thanks for the sweat suits Grammy!

After Willowbrook we went over to Bella's house. Aunt Lena made a great dinner, and we had cake for Grampy's birthday. The girls played, and after bath, they had a story. Bella had an "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" storybook with puppet. The puppet eats all the animals that the old lady eats in the song. So Aunt Lena read the story...while Aunt Mandy held the puppet, and the girls took turns putting the animals in the old lady's mouth. It was funny. There had been face painting at Willowbrook, and Bella got a Rhino on her cheek. The girl who did the painting didn't know how to do a Rhino so she guessed. It turned out so funny that Dave got a big one on his forhead. You can probably see it in the picture.

We took a trip to Battleview Orchard in New Jersey for apple picking. We had so much fun because it was a beautiful day, and we met up with Dave's cousin Karyn and her family (Kelly, Kaitlyn, and Aiden) (so sorry if I spelled wrong). We also met up with Anita, Teresa, and Gianna. The girls were going crazy in all that wonderful fresh air. After all the fun and photos, we went back to Bella's house for some more fun.

Back at Aunt Lena's house, we waited for Daddy and Uncle Tony to get back from the Jets game. When they got back there was more eating.... cake and doing crafts. Here are a couple photos of the apple stamping, fist print pumpkins, and pumpkin painting.

Gabby got moved up to the next class because she was gliding so well on her own. Gillian was hugging the bucket again this week, but she let go several times and skated with Dave and I while we held her hands....until she got tired and proclaimed, "Help!, I'm done!"

We have decided to try some small and easy science experiments at home with the girls. It is all part of our scheme to get them interested in science and math. We'll see how it works. No this is not our first experiment....it is just the official post of one.

What will melt first....an ice cube or a scoop of ice cream?
The girls in our house said, "Ice Cream will melt faster".
It was a tie at the 10 minute mark.

Both completely melted around the 20 minute mark.

Gillian made cookies today (she calls them tooties). Yum...perfect for fall.

Sorry...our email and photo blog have been down for the last couple days, but everything is back to normal. Now we have a million posts to catch up on! Here is a pic that Aunt Mandy took recently!

Gillian's class at Tumbling Tykes was really reminding me of our old Gymboree days. We still miss Ms. Fran! We were catching bubbles with leaves. Ms. Fran used to give us cups.

We are really loving Gabby's elementary school. The PTO sponsered a Harvest Hoedown on Friday. There was so much to do....pumpkin decorating, face painting, hay rides, ghost town bowling in the dark with a black light, a DJ for two hours, a donut eating contest, a scavenger hunt, and I could go on. I was really impressed. The kids had a great time. We brought Carol and Barry along with us....Gillian enjoyed doing the chicken dance with Carol. One of the funniest things about the night was watching all the elementary students get down to Cotton Eye Joe. The principal read a shadow story at the end of the evening. We can't wait for the next event.

Here are the soccer shots from last weekend. Aunt Mandy likes to see the pony tail action.

We spent a good portion of Saturday....raking leaves. The girls were able to jump in them and enjoy fall in a way that they never did in NYC. I could barely pry them out of the piles. They were sad when we had to put the leaves in disposal bags. To their surprise and my dismay, there were plenty of leaves replacing the old ones the next morning.

Gillian detached herself from the bucket at the ice rink tonight. She was so brave. She still used the bucket a bit and the wall and the ice...hahaha. We are so proud of her. Gabby was doing maneuvers around frisbees and learning to skate backward. Then she was trying to teach us. Carol came over this afternoon to watch Gillian so that we could go to the parent/teacher conference at Gabby's school.

We got a spooky package in the mail from Grandpa Mike, Grandma Cathy, and Aunt Lauren. The girls loved all the surprises. We have already read all the books, and the stickers and marshmallow pumpkins were a big hit also. The hats fit perfectly. They are so cute. We are going to use them at skating lessons this week! xoxoxoxoxboo!

We are in the midst of a very busy weekend over here. First of all...we are getting lots of company. The first wave to hit was Meme, Aunt Becky, Uncle Louie, and Kailey. We had gymnastics, and Meme decided to do Mommy and Me with Gillian. She looked really cool pretending to be a squirrel...etc.

Here are Gabby, Kailey, and Gilli....being themselves.

The next two waves of our company came in on Friday. Our cousin, Pam, came in the afternoon followed by Amanda and Steve in the evening. We woke up in the morning and went to Gabby's soccer game. She was so excited to have so many people cheering her on at the game. It was muddy and rainy and a lot of fun.

Whenever my mom used to do any type of sewing, she would always put her initials on her work....MGC. Over time she took a lot of teasing about her initials from many members of the family but mostly from Amanda and me. I don't know how many different combinations of descriptions we used for the initials MGC...but Mary G. Crafty...is the one that's stuck over time. Well Meme was living up to her nickname this weekend. She had activities, crafts, and baking....galore. Here are only a few of the things that we did while she was here....drum role!

We decided to try the corn maze once again...but this time, we took along our map from last time. We went through much more quickly this time, and we didn't really get lost or wander for hours like last time. It was still a lot of fun. That farm is just so enjoyable. If you are ever in the Ballston Spa, NY area at this time of the year...it is so worth it to check out this farm.

There were six pumpkins in our kitchen yesterday according to Uncle Louie. We carved three of them and baked pumpkin seeds. The girls got a package in the mail from Granddaddy and Nana Karen out in California. Thanks so much for the bags and headbands. They are really adorable. The outfits are from Meme and Papa! XOXOXOXO

Which is heavier in your hand...10 grains of rice or 10 pennies?

They all said pennies.

We toasted pumpkin seeds after carving our pumpkins, and they turned out great. We sprinkled them with a little cinammon. We made so many that we ate some and did projects with the rest. Here is some of the artwork.

The Watoto Children's chior from Uganda sang at our church last night. They were amazing and the children all had amazing stories. The girls loved hearing the singing and trying the dance moves. You can learn all about Watoto at www.watoto.com.

We got our first snow yesterday/last night. Perfect weather for skating.

Gabby is Little Bo Peep and Gillian is a sheep. I know these costumes are not spooky...unless you are the wolf. Bo Peep is pretty ferocious with that staff. More pictures to follow after tomorrow's....CRAZY festivities.

Here are a couple shots of the girls from the other night. Gillian and her little friends, Darlena and Lizzie, were doing a squirrel dance. Gabby was practicing on the high bar.

There was a costume party at Gillian's school today. Some of her little friends came dressed in costumes. They played games and got little treats.

There was a Halloween parade at Gabby's school today. All the parent's were invited. There were some interesting costumes. Gabby's teacher, Mrs. Bacchia, invited Gillian to march in the parade. Mrs. Bacchia was dressed as Glenda the good witch. Mr. Anders, Gabby's principal, was dressed as the soup nazi. There was also a very good version of Obama and McCain. After the parade, we went into the classroom and had snacks and played games.

We went around the neighborhood after school today. We had a lot of fun seeing friends and meeting new neighbors. The girls scored a lot of candy. We came home early and watched the Great Pumpkin. I forgot how cute Snoopy is when he laughs.