What happens at YMCA after-school...

Self-portrait, age 3

How cute is this? Annie drew herself and Abbye. We went through several versions of (very similar) renditions of other members of the family but the funniest one was a version of this that had "hair" sticking out in all directions! Annie wouldn't say who that was.

See how swollen the right side of Annie's face is? I guess it's a little hard to tell from this angle, but this is significantly better than Wednesday. And as you can see, children's ibuprofen does wonders for pain and fever. And yes, I've been wrapping Christmas presents (in the background).

Where the Wild Things Are - Galveston!

Ballet curtsy

Misc weekend highlights

Tiny ballerinas...


And we all love flamingos! (Trip to the Houston Zoo)


And finally, two pink groundhogs in amongst the brown!

Videos coming in a separate post...

Hey Mom...

...it's 19 degrees and snowing in Perm! BRRRRRRRRRRRR

two places at once?!

The days where both kids have to be at different places at 0900 are challenging! My two usual helpers are out of town this morning too, so I had to do it solo. Did I say challenging?

Not to mention the rest of the insanity at my house this morning. The housekeeper was here. The guys finished the work I was having done on my house, which included replacement of all the cheap fiberboard siding with hardy plank, repainting, repairing all the trim and woodwork outside (which was a lot), painting my storm blinds and miscellaneous other repairs. AND... one of my friends dropped off her two dogs, who are staying with us for a few days while she goes on a trip! The painting crew did not speak English and I could not make them understand that I needed the front door and all the gates TO STAY CLOSED because of kids and dogs, so I was constantly running around closing gates behind them until the boss got here and clued them in.

But it is done. The house looks great, inside and out. The dogs are all settled down. My cats are PISSED. And the kids are napping. Now me!

Happy Halloween!

Getting ready to go.... (Sam, how did I do with my improvised pirate garb?)


First glimpse of other trick-or-treaters...


Inspecting the loot...


GOOOOOOOOD stuff! (Gee, thanks, Louie!)

As always, too many good pics to post, so click on any one to follow the link to Flickr! and see the whole set.

We need drugs

Now everybody in my house is sick! Annie probably gave me round #2 of whatever this virus is. She also has conjunctivitis, which is probably viral and I'm trying to wait it out and hope that it is better by Monday without having to start her on antibiotic eye drops. Around here, it doesn't matter what it is... if their eye is red, they're not coming back to school/daycare until they've been on antibiotic drops for 24 hours. So we'll see how that develops. J is coming down with the respiratory symptoms and so far Abbye just has a cough. So one of our errands this morning was to stop by Walgreens for the various kinds of cold medicine... nobody wants to make any decent combinations anymore, so we'll concoct our own.

Meanwhile, we've been to ballet lessons and the grocery store. We've had lunch and the girls are down for a nap. I'm trying to decide if I need to do that too. Probably.

The agenda for the rest of the day includes a party this afternoon and of course trick-or-treat tonight. That will be pretty simple. Just a few houses on our street. We already have enough candy from school/daycare parties to keep us supplied for six months!

Stay tuned for photos tonight! Hopefully I won't be too worn out to post them!

Pumpkin carving, courtesy of J!

Would you just look at the expression on Annie's face?!





It looks like a grand success! The girls obviously had a good time. And the pumpkins turned out great too. Now our house is decorated for the holidays. :-)