Party Pictures

We always have cupcakes on the kids' actual birthday, and I do a bigger cake for their party. I finally got to try out my giant cupcake pan. It is so fun!

I just love how excited the girls get when we sing Happy Birthday. Their eyes just sparkle.

We got Maggie and Cassie scooters. They were very excited! They have had fun practicing zooming up and down the hallway. Maggie only slowed down for one picture.

Cassie happily posed for pictures.

I don't know where this pose came from, but I think we are in for it when the girls are teenagers...

Nate also had fun chasing the girls with his truck.

Cassie wanted a pink princess cake again, and Maggie wanted a dinosaur.

And the aftermath. We decided to color the cake mix this year, green for Maggie and pink for Cassie.

They had fun, which is good. Now we just need the weather to get a bit warmer so we can scooter outside.

Happy Birthday!

Wow, time goes by in a blink! It seems as though just yesterday Maggie and Cassie were born, and today they are 6.

We are so very blessed, they are such good girls. It has been so much fun watching them grow and turn into little people.

Happy Birthday my beautiful girls!

Mostly pictures

Things have been busy. I have been trying to get the house organized from being sick, the kids have all been sick (our first ear infections ever) and just stuff going on. Here are some pictures (I finally emptied the camera!) I need to get my sewing area organized, so that I can create....I haven't sewn since Christmas time :(


From Valentines Day. I copied Delphina's hairstyle. The girls loved it!




This is what happens when Maggie won't play dress up with Cassie. Luckily, Nate didn't mind too much. (Lino just shakes his head)

The tooth fairy has been to our house 4 times in about the last 2 1/2 weeks. Cassie lost one on the bottom, then the top front left tooth a couple of days later. About a week after that, one of Maggie's bottom teeth came out. Then two days later another on the bottom came out too! They are seeming like such big kids now... ::sniff:: Cassie, with her new smile:

Yesterday the kids all wanted some temporary tattoos put on. The girls thought that Nate looked 'like a grown up' with his. Lino had him do some "tough guy" poses.

Yeah, big tough guy.....


Lino had stopped at Whole Foods on his way home from work one night. He got two loaves of incredible bread. One was for sandwiches, the other was a garlic bread (so yummy). He made a sandwich, which he thought was a perfect one....

It was huge!

That is it for now. Gearing up for Maggie's and Cassie's birthday. Still trying to decide if I am brave enough to invite the class over for cake and icecream....Maybe towards the end of the month.

Dance Fever

Maggie, Cassie and Lino had a super time at the Father-Daughter Dance. (Nate was excited for the girls, but also didn't want them to go) Lino said the food was good and the girls actually ate. I had called the caterer to check if it would be safe for Cassie, and it was, except for the desserts. Additionally, one of the PTO board members gave Lino the labels that the caterer brought with him. It is so nice to know that other people get it, and help to look out for Cassie's safety.

Lino said that the dance floor was just filled with screaming girls. He said it was funny, how loud and rambunctious they all were. At one point the DJ told the girls to go get their dads for a dance and Lino said that all the girls went running for their dads. How sweet. Maggie and Cassie were extremely excited by the souvenier they received, a crystal rose. They are already talking about next years' dance.

They came home about a half hour early, Cassie wasn't feeling well and Maggie was getting tired. Maggie came down with a double ear infection last Sunday and is on the mend. We had been nearly 6 years without any ear infections, I think that is pretty good. I just feel bad for her, she doesn't like the ear drops, and the drops are making it hard for her to hear us.

Cassie was running a very high fever Friday night into Saturday, and woke up with a sore throat. I took her to the pediatrician and he said it wasn't strep throat. (phew) She spent the weekend just resting. I asked if there were special rates for being in the office 3 times in a week (Maggie on Monday, Nate on Thursday and then Cass on Saturday....). There aren't. The doctor thinks that they will build up a germ immunity by 2nd grade. Fabulous.

Finally starting to feel better....there is hope!

So after a month of being sick and in extreme pain and not being able to do anything, I am finally starting to feel better. After my trip to urgent care, it seemed as though the antibiotics worked for a few days, but halfway through didn't seem to be effective. Blah. I was able to find a regular doctor, and she seemed to think that I had a few different things happen at the same time: sinus infection, migraine and stiff neck (she had never heard of stiff neck being a symptom of sinus infection)

She gave me some anti-inflammatory meds, and after I asked, some medicine for the pain. I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but the neck/head pain made it nearly impossible to sleep and was really affecting how I managed to get through the day....which was barely. I spent the better part of the past month just existing on the couch, not able to play with the kids or do much of anything. So, I needed something.

Luckily, Lino had 3 days off in a row, which allowed me to take pain meds and sleep to try and shake this. Finally this past Saturday, I woke up with my head seeming a lot better (the headache is still there, but mild in comparison) and the neck pain nearly gone. Finally. It feels as though I lost a whole month, there is so much I didn't get done! Did I mention that while all this was going on, the kids and Lino have each been sick with some fever/stomach thing? Yeah, it has been fantastic.

Nate's birthday was Sunday. Lino went shopping after work on Saturday since we hadn't had a chance to go together. We always spend the kids' birthday days as a family, no parties, and I like it that way. The party with my dad, sister and Lino's parents will be next week (that gives me a chance to get the house back in order!

Nate liked his presents. As he opened the cards and presents, he would get all excited, "Look, it's this!" He got a Mater Shake and Go car, a fire station to go with the train Santa brought, a Transformer Bumblebee and Wii Mario Kart. (we totally scored on the Mario Kart....) We will need to exchange Bumblebee, since he wasn't made nicely, but in all, Nate was excited. This year, Nate was very excited about blowing out the candles, and he actually let us sing Happy Birthday at cupcake time! (I will do a big cake for his party, he wants a Thomas cake)

In between opening presents and making cupcakes, they wanted party hats. So, we made hats.

At bedtime, Nate was convinced that when he woke up today he would be 4. Not quite, buddy. Slow down with the getting bigger....it goes too fast for Mama.

PS- Did you notice his hair? He had 'bedhead' for these pictures, but you get the idea. We were forced to go short when we tried to trim his bangs. We cut too short. But, he was pleased, now he has short hair like cousin Leo, which he has been asking for since we saw them at Thanksgiving! I do miss his wild curly hair, but, I think the short is cute too.

Cassie's New Look

Doesn't she look adorable? She has been saying for a couple of months now that her eyes are 'kind of foggy' when she looks at things. At first, I wasn't sure if she meant it, because she didn't really act as though she was having trouble seeing. However, I called to make the appointment when I noticed she would stand right next to the tv to watch and still said her eyes were foggy when she tried to look at things.

We had the appointment yesterday. Lino went into the exam room with her. Apparently she has astigmatism in both eyes, and she is farsighted. She was very brave when the doctor put the drops in her eyes, and patient while we waited for them to work. The doctor told Lino that the prescription she gave her isn't full strength, I guess that if she gave her the full strength, it would be too much for her eyes. So we go back in three months to recheck.

We were all very excited that they had those pink frames. They are perfect for her. She wasn't sad at all about needing glasses, and picked that shirt today because it matched her frames!

Halloween fun

The kids had so much fun on Halloween. It was great to see them so excited. I was able to finish the costumes and was very pleased with how they came out.

The dinosaur (in Maggie's favorite colors) is purple waffle fleece with a green poly blend belly and spines. The pattern instructions weren't terribly clear when it came to the feet, and I lost a lot of sewing time trying to figure them out. I moved on to other parts figuring that the next day maybe it would become clearer. (Lino was able to help me figure them out). If I ever do another dinosaur, I know things that I would do differently, but overall, I liked it and Maggie loved it, which was good.


Nate's tiger costume is a jersey (cotton) print with orange fleece belly and ribbed knit for the cuffs. His was from a pattern by Simplicity, Costumes for Dummies. Those instructions weren't terribly thorough, and if I were a complete beginner, I wouldn't have known how to do some of the steps (it just skipped some parts completely!) If I ever do that hat pattern again, I will do the ears differently. They wound up being hand sewn on (I really dislike handsewing! I am just not neat with it....) But, the hat is cute, and Nate loved it. (I am actually thinking of making him some animal jammies, using this pattern as a guide!


Side view.

Back view, tails and wings. Maggie's tail is quite heavy! it dragged on the ground. Lino tried to wire it, but the wire was kind of pokey, and we didn't want Maggie to get scraped. The tail held up well, though, from all the walking, it still looks good.

At the neighbors house. They looked so cute walking down the street! I guess there were a few people who asked if Maggie was Barney. (she wasn't, purple and green are her favorite colors). Lino was able to deflect it by telling Maggie that they must not know as much about dinosaurs as she does. She agreed with him.....

Lino and Nate took this one. It was kind of cool that night, and Maggie was plenty warm in her fleece, Nate was double layered, but Cassie was kind of chilly by the time they got home! (though when Lino asked her while they were out she was fine! ) We did add a long sleeve tshirt to Cassie's for warmth. I had offered to make her costume, once I saw what it looked like, but she fell in love with the store bought one. It is very thin though, and I will probably wind up reconstructing it at some point.

Nate was a bit disappointed that Maggie and Cassie were taking mini cupcakes to school for a party and the cupcakes wouldn't come home. When I went out to get Halloween candy I picked up some cupcakes so we could have some, too. He was extremely excited, he loves cupcakes!

Because of Cassie's allergy, the candy we pass out is completely peanut/tree nut free/safe. She likes to help pass out candy, too. We also buy candy just for the kids, to trade with them when they get home. I filled an entire gallon bag with unsafe candy! (I did eat 2 Reese's peanut butter cups after the kids went to bed....it has been a long time since I have had any...and felt really guilty for eating them....) I sent the 'bag of death' to work with Lino today, to leave on the break room table.

It was a good Halloween. Next year, if they want me to make costumes, I will start earlier than a week before!

School Pictures!

Maggie and Cassie came home with school pictures today. I was super excited! The class picture wasn't included, I guess that will come after Retake day, so all the kids can be in it. I thought that was nice.

I am very pleased with how they came out. The pictures scanned a bit darker, you can see all the pigtails in the actual pictures.

Fevers, voting and football

Cassie is on the mend. Her temp has been pretty close to normal, she still has a cough though. She is back to her usual happy self, just with the cough. . Maggie never really got sick, just slightly elevated temp and that is it. I was fully expecting her to get the "spots" that she gets when a cold is in the house, but so far she is spot free. (The mysterious rash that the doctor always deems as just a "rash") Nate is currently in battling the fever stage. I think it peaked last night, though. He wasn't happy about getting medicine before bed. I hoped it would help him sleep better, but he was up around midnight wide awake.

I didn't sleep well as a result. But then woke up at 4:37 and woke Lino. I have no idea if the alarm did or didn't go off at 3:55.....I don't remember moving to shut it off (and I am still getting used to the buttons, so I really don't think it is my fault....) I feel bad, though. Lino hates getting up in a super rush for work.

No school for the kids today. It is primary day, so later on we will go for a walk to go vote. There are only 2 democrats running for mayor, so whoever wins today will be the mayor. They have run against each other before, each having won. I like some of the things the current mayor has done. Not a fan of some of his ideas for the future, though. The opponent was mayor before we moved here, though I am not sure what he has done.

Our across the street neighbor is running for town council. We might be inclined to vote for him if he would ever say hello. He occasionally will wave if we are outside, but he has never had a full on conversation with either Lino or I.

And football. I love football season! To quote one of the sports guys, the Patriots' 1 game losing streak is over. Yay. You probably could have heard the collective Patriot Nation stop breathing though, 7 minutes into the game......Brady is going to be out for the rest of the season. UGH. I hate watching knee injuries happen during games. They always look so painful.

I have faith, though, that the Patriots will be able to persevere and still go out and play the best football that they can, and win most of their games. The schedule seems to be an easy one, so we will see. (Although next week is Favre and the Jets) I think that Bill Belichek is a brilliant coach, and there is still an entire team consisting of some very, very good players. Wishing a good recovery for Brady.

Kids are cute.

After Nate and I returned from the bus stop this morning, he watched (for the 4th morning this week) Backyardigans Mighty Knights while I caught up on headlines.

At one point he came over to me and we were talking and this is how it ended:

Me: "Okay, buddy, Mama has to go do some chores and make my list"

Nate: (in a small whisper) "For Santa?"

He cracks me up. I wish it was a Santa list. Just a to do list. Then he was all "I just kidding Mama"

Maggie and Cassie had another good day at school. I had been wondering how long we would go before any sickie germs came home. We have been pretty lucky, they are 5 and very rarely get sick. (knock on wood) Well we are at the end of week 2, and Cassie has a very barky cough and a slightly elevated (for her) temp. I still had her go this morning (was that bad? I didn't think she was bad enough to not go.) It isn't a constant cough, but she coughed once in bed and once while getting ready. I am just glad that it is the weekend so she can rest up. I added another gallon of orange juice to my grocery list, though. Every little bit in the germ fight helps.

Long weekend over, back to school

Maggie and Cassie had a 3 day weekend. Back to school today. Cassie got upset that she couldn't bring her stuffed kitty with her. It was quite a process, actually trying to get her to stop crying. I hope that she is okay in class.

Lino went back to work today, so it was just me getting us all ready to go. We did fine. Made it to the bus stop early, but not too early. Maggie and Cassie were the only kids there today. We have seen some other kids, another set of twins (first grade) and an older girl (4th or 5th grade), but they haven't been there everyday, and when they do take the bus, they appear just as the bus is arriving.