Aidan's Gymnastics Class

Aidan started gymnastics this afternoon and LOVED it! They did somersaults, walked on the beam and practiced jumping onto the vaulting board. There was one other boy in the class which was good although I doubt he would have minded being the only boy!
Poor Emmy spent the entire time with her nose pressed against the window in the door watching the class. It didn't help that it was right across the hall from where her ballet class was yesterday. I think I'm going to have to sign her up for gymnastics next month!

Emmy's First Ballet Class

Emmy took her first ballet class this morning! I signed her up for a month of classes - once a week for 45 minutes. This month is only 3 classes because of Thanksgiving but I thought it would be a good way to see if she even liked it. Well - of course she LOVED it. Loved everything about it - the tights, shoes, leotard, pretty teacher, music and of course, the dancing. We weren't allowed into the studio but there was a tiny window that the moms took turns peering through. For the most part they all paid attention and did what the teacher said - it was so cute to watch all of the little girls follow their teacher around like a flock of baby ducks.
Emmy came bouncing out of class at the end full of energy and new and interesting information. After she had told me all about class and that they had to practice first position for homework she said, with a tinge of disappointment, "Mom, this isn't REAL ballet. It's fun but when I get bigger I want to learn REAL ballet with REAL ballet music."
I think we'll stick with this for now. There are girls in her preschool class in "real" ballet - 3 times a week! Can you imagine? These are THREE YEAR OLDS! They are babies! Let's just have a little fun, meet some new friends and get a little exercise.

Emmy before class - she would like it if there was a law saying you could ONLY wear ballet clothes all.the.time.

Lining up before class:
Listening to the teacher:
"dancing"!!

Pot Roast and Homemade Rolls

I made Pot Roast (click for recipe) and homemade yeast rolls (click for recipe) yesterday for dinner. It was delicious and so easy - just what we needed after the first real weekend of autumn! The kids ate so much I thought they were going to burst. There's not much better than a dinner without complaints.
I didn't get a picture of the roast - everyone was starving like they hadn't eaten in ages but here are the beautiful rolls!!

Happy Halloween

Fort Campbell did Trick or Treating one day early this year. Aidan dressed as Ironman, Emmy was a black cat and Aoife was a bumble bee. They were adorable - I LOVE Halloween! The kids had a great time - Aidan got tired about an hour into it so we turned back toward home. Emmy kept telling us how much she LOVED trick or treating. It's so funny how much she gets into it each year. I always forget how much fun she has. Aoife had her first real Halloween - she was only 6 months old last year so she didn't get to go Trick or Treating. She had a really fun time and loved her costume. She kept turning around and around in front of the mirror checking herself out and pulling on her wings. She figured out how to say "Trick or Treat" and then would say "Thank You" at each house. So cute!!
Most of the houses on our street have a parent deployed so the people with older kids put out a table in front of the house and handed out everyone's candy on the street so we could all take our kids around and not worry about handing out candy. We took advantage and both went with the kids - it was great! Since Trick or Treating was only from 6-8 the street bought pizzas and we had a pizza/fire pit party on the cul-de-sac afterwards. It was so much fun - we are so lucky to have a fun neighborhood!
We took this picture this morning just before lunch time. I really wanted a nice picture of the 3 of them in their costumes and I knew that if I waited until right before Trick or Treating I would get this:
or this:
Here they are - starting off on their way!
All the houses are really close to each other and people do a really nice job decorating!


The crowds were insane - at some houses the kids had to wait in line!A view down the street:
Dumping out the loot:



This is what Aoife looks like after an overload of sugar and being up an hour and a half past her bedtime!!

Happy Halloween!!

Daddy's Home...

Brendan's home - for a little while at least! We surprised him at the airport on Wednesday - he thought we'd be waiting in the car and he was so happy to see us inside! The girls were so excited to see him (so was I!). Despite what it looks like in this picture, Aoife has actually had the hardest time and won't let Daddy out of her sight. Poor thing - it's so hard because you can't really explain what's happening to her. She just knows that all of a sudden Daddy disappeared for a month - imagine if that happened to you!

Emmy's Halloween Party

Here's Emmy's preschool class at their Halloween party - Emmy's on the bottom left! Sorry about the picture - I took it off of Facebook!

Cookies!!!

So I have been up to my ears in cookies this week - and it's been really fun!! I made an order of cookies for my friend's daughter's 15th birthday. She lives in Alaska so I REALLY hope that the cookies all made it in one piece after all that work!!
I also made Halloween cookies for Emmy's class party and for Aidan's class. I forgot to take a picture of them all before they got bagged up but they were really cute! Purple cats, ghosts, pumpkins and moons. By all accounts they were enjoyed by all!
I have also been doing a lot of cookie research online. Who knew that there were entire blogs devoted to cookie baking and decorating?? If you're interested, check out these!
Sweetopia
Bake at 350
A Dozen Eggs
Bakerella