Busy Black Friday

I am one of those crazy people who get up at a ridiculously early hour to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving.  Well, I am mildly crazy. I only go to one store. JoAnn's. I go for the flannel.  It is the best sale of the year and I stock up on enough of it to make my kids' pajamas for the rest of the year.  I spent $61 yesterday, and saved just over $180.  To me that makes the wait worthwhile.  I had a knitting project with me, so I sat and knitted while waiting for my number to be called, and I watched my fellow shoppers.  People watching is very fascinating on Black Friday.  It seems to be evenly divided between those who are excited and happy to be getting a good deal, and those who are ready to have a tantrum because they have to wait for more than thirty seconds for their turn.  Which once again supports my theory that everyone should learn to knit, just for those occasions when you are going to be stuck waiting somewhere.  That or they could learn to adjust their expectations that the world revolves around them. (It would probably be easier to teach most people to knit...)

Once I left JoAnn's I picked up Caite and then headed home to get Evie and we went out for a "Girl Day"!  Evie commented every two minutes or so that it was "...the best girl day EVER!"  I'm guessing it was because Aunt Caite was with us.  Anything is more fun when Aunt Caite is involved, she can even get my kids to clean their rooms without whining. 

The first stop of the day was Cookiecutters to get Evie's hair cut.  The lady was so nice and even took the time to put Evie's hair up into special braids when she found out that we were having a special day out.

Then we went and saw the new movie Tangled.

I don't know if watching a princess movie or having her own popcorn was more exciting for her, but she had a big grin on her face for the entire show.  It was great love story and we laughed and even all cried a little at the end. We would rate it a perfect chick flick.

After the movie it was time for lunch.  This is always a crap shoot on these special days with my kids, because they get to choose where to go.  Evie actually opted for the food court, and I was relieved because then even if she picked McDonald's (again) I could have something different.  But then she surprised me again and picked Panda Express. She was really enjoying her noodles.

Another example of why Caite is way cooler than mom, she can actually use chopsticks. She was teaching Evie how to hold them correctly.  Evie even got a bite or two this way...

...before she got a little impatient and went for function over form. I'm not judging though, this is what I would look like if I had to eat with chopsticks.

We spent an hour or two window shopping and completely wore Evie out with all the walking.

Once we got home Caite helped us pull out the Christmas decorations and start to set up the tree.

The decorating was done by 8:00, the kids were fed, bathed and tucked in bed by 8:30, and I was in bed by 9:00, happily reflecting that everything I had wanted to accomplish that day had been done.

"Best day EVER!"

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope your day is full of family, food, and fun.

I'll be hanging out with this bunch of turkeys!

A new toy vs. the box it came in....

Tonight Lila discovered my bag of fiberfill.  She grabbed a handful and started rubbing it on her chin and cheeks.

"Ohhhh. Fluffy. This my fluffy!"

A piece of the "fluffy" fell out of her hand. She grabbed it up off the floor, brought it to me, and said in a sad, little voice, "Fluffy broken."

(The pouty lip she is pulling here cracks me up. This is the face she makes when she is concerned about something...)

Once I showed her how to fix it, (i.e. smush it all back together until it sticks...) she spent the next twenty minutes or so pulling the fluffy into little bits and then sticking it back together again.

She really loves her new fluffy.

And all I can think is, "Awesome. I just spent the better part of last week knitting an adorable baby doll for her birthday when all I really had to do was wrap up a bag of fiberfill.  Just awesome..."

My "Karate Kids"

Proof that it's a guy thing...

Tonight as we were getting ready for bed there was an "incident" with Jacob that as a parent I felt needed to be discussed.  (i.e. If you kick people in the neck or shoulder when they tickle you, don't expect to be included in the next round of tickling...)  The discussion ended up being a half an hour lesson on how we can appropriately communicate our feelings with our family members. I was feeling quite proud of my parenting skills, that I had taken a moment that could have ended with frustration, yelling and hurt feelings, and turned it into a teaching moment that would start my son on the path to being more in touch with his emotions and better able to express them.

 At the end of our talk I cradled his head in my lap and said, "Jake, I love you more than anything. And even when you make a wrong choice I never stop being proud to be your Mom."  He heaved a heartfelt sigh and said, "I just wish I had never brought this up."  Feeling concerned that he was still upset I asked, "Why honey?"  He looked in my eyes and replied, "Because then I would be sleeping already."

Grow little hairs! Grow!

Last night we pulled out the old sponge curlers and went to town!

We even tried them in Lila's baby fine hair. She actually has quite a bit of natural curl, but it tends to frizz out once it's dry. So I thought I'd see what happened if we curled it overnight...

The end result was a pretty, fine halo of tight curls, except for one big loose curl in the back where a curler fell out sometime in the night.  And then she has all those uneven baby wispy bangs and in the back too.  It's so strange to me because when Evie was two we were doing all kinds of braids, and ponytails, and out right elaborate hairdos, but Lila gets a choice between one pony or two...  Oh well, she does have curls.

And pretty brown eyes.

It was fun to see Evie in curls again, she hasn't let me put her hair up in curlers for months. It is my favorite hairdo for Sundays since you do most of the work the night before.

I have also learned it's best to snap a shot of them all dressed up before church and the inevitable rumpling that happens when you are trying to keep three small people quiet and well-behaved for three hours.

P.S. I knit Lila's leg warmers. Love, love, LOVE self-stripping yarn and all the pretty colors it comes in.

P.P.S. I got asked many times today if I had made Evie's dress, but I didn't. I did make the hair bows she is wearing several months earlier and ended up buying the dress because it perfectly matched the hair bows... 

I asked Jake to look contemplative.  

I love this handsome boy.

A lot.

How to enjoy a beautiful fall day.

First you rake all the leaves...

into a great big pile...

you can even use a broom if you run out of rakes...

make sure everyone helps to get the pile as big as you can, and then...

you run and jump!

or run around it in circles...

or watch the clouds drift by as you soak up the last of the season's warmth...

and when you're done scatter the leaves around the lawn again.

Mom won't mind as long as you've had fun.