It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

12-18 inches of snow they are calling for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay - well it was more like 12 total but Rowan loved it and Parker loved our neighbour with the snow blower.

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree..

The tree is finally up and done!



The outside of the house last weekend when it snowed and looked all Winter Wonderlandy..

The Elf on the Shelf

Have you heard of this? It is, in a word, brilliant. It is an Elf that shows up in your home one day and is sent by Santa to watch to make sure everyone is being good before Christmas. Every night the Elf returns to the North Pole to report to Santa and is back before everyone wakes up in the morning. Every morning however the Elf lands in a different spot than the day before so every morning the hunt is on for the Elf!

Rowan's Elf showed up under her covers when we went to the tree lighting ceremony in Hatboro last Friday night. Rowan wanted to name it Marshall but decided the Elf was a girl so her name is now Marshelle.

Marshelle seems to like landing on or near our inside Christmas decorations, I guess that is because she is used to the North Pole.

I gotta give Rowan credit though - the first morning she looked in the fridge and then the freezer for Marshelle assuming she liked the cold!

It's the most wonderful time of the year

And the busiest which is why it has taken me until now to update from Thanksgiving! It was a wonderful 4 day weekend that would only have been better if someone had been able to go shopping with me on Black Friday - but I am getting ahead of myself..

Wednesday before the long weekend started the girls had their Thanksgiving Feast at daycare. Parents are invited and I have never gone before but this year I figure it being Rowan's last and Lily's first I would surprise them. Rowan was not as surprised as I hoped she would be but I think that is because when she saw me she was told by her teacher she was not allowed to leave the room to see me yet :( Lily was indifferent about the whole thing and only seemed concerned with getting as much food in her mouth as possible!






Thursday was the annual trek to Aunt Karen's for more food than should be allowed by law. Rowan unfortunately was not feeling well and slept on the couch through dinner but perked up a little after a rest and became a bingo fanatic with the ladies.



Friday - Black Friday - WhooHoo!!! Last year my mom was here and the two of us went out shopping - this year I was on my own - and out the door at 430am thank you very much :) Did pretty good, it was actually more fun by myself than I thought it might be, I hit a bunch of places, got some pretty good deals on things and was home by 9am!

Saturday the outdoor shopping plaza called Valley Square in Warrington had its annual tree lighting ceremony and this year there were free pictures with Santa - off we went! The wait for Santa was easy, the wait for the pictures was forever to the point where they suggested taking your own pictures so we did that too :)





This year Rowan had no reservations whatsoever about sitting on Santa's lap or telling him what she wanted - she even asked him how old he was and how all the toys get made! Figures - the year we don't do the mall Santa she becomes a Chatty Cathy.

Christmas Portraits 2009

Once again we went to Portait Innovations where they take the best pictures ever.

Final baby days

Lily is in her last two days in the baby room at daycare - she will graduate from the Tadpoles to the Minnows this coming Monday. She is so ready - walking everywhere, sitting on chairs, eating real food - I think it will be great for her but at the same time makes me a little sad. My little baby Lily - now officially a toddler. *sighs*

Rowan gets her ears pierced!

Are you kidding me? I can't believe she did it either!! We went to the mall yesterday to get her a new winter coat - Parker and the girls wandered out of the store as I was paying...I come out of Children's Place and Parker says, Rowan wants to get her ears pierced...WHAT?! Turns out Claire's is right next door to the Children's Place - she saw it and decided the time was right....so I took her in to look around, asked if they had two people on staff to do both ears at once...yes....took her to the front and away we went! She picked out purple (of course) studs...looked a little nervous as I was getting all the directions on how to take care of her little ears after the fact but kept saying she was not going to change her mind....I signed my life away, we got our picture taken ahead of time - and boom it was done...I flinched more than she did. She didn't even make a sound. Then she got the "I just got my ears pierced" sticker to wear and could not have been more proud. I could not have been more proud of her. She decided she was ready, never backed down and never cried. My baby.






Prior to that we had wandered through Macy's from the parking lot and they had a letter to Santa writing station set up - in true 4 year old fashion she sat down to write Santa a letter - it was awesome. BTW we have a camera on us at all times now because we got Parker a little compact one - we got lucky today to have it on us for both of these situations!

Halloween and other Misadventures

Today is Tuesday Nov 3 - first I cannot beleive it is November already and second, I am home with Rowan for the second day in a row. First things first...



Wednesday I get a call from daycare as I am leaving work - Rowan has a temp of 100 and with the new H1N1 rules for daycare anyone with a temp of 100 or more has to be out for 24 hours - so I keep her home on Thursday. Friday she wakes up fine, I take her to school - it is Halloween parade day at school so she is all excited. We all show up for the parade and Miss Shannon comes out in the parking lot to tell me Rowan has a temp of 102 - I go running in to see her, she looks miserable but wants to walk in the parade as best as she can - does not go well but she tries, Lily gets rolled out in the baby room buggy, we take pictures and we leave.






We get home, Joe and Diane come with us because we are going to Fred and Sams annual Halloween party that night - Rowan is laying around listless and out of sorts - Angela and Enaiya stop by to bring Rowan her Halloween art work and all of a sudden Rowan perks up and they run around together for about 3 hours. Nice. Angela and Enaiya leave, Parker and I get ready for the Dead Celebrity themed party next door. I go as Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and he goes as Billy Mays.



Fred as Ernest "Know What I Mean Vern" and Sam as Farrah Fawcett


Saturday is the annual come in costume and have fun at gymnastics day - Rowan wakes up feeling great, no fever, ready to take on the world.





After gymnastics we go home, rest a bit and Angela and Enaiya come over again for some Halloween fun and games and creepy food and then the best part - Trick or Treating!!

First we carved some pumpkins..


Then we had some creepy food - I was over inspired this year for some reason..

Mummy Dogs..

Fingers and eyeballs..

Graveyard dip..

The table..

Bug cupcakes..


Then - Trick or Treating!! It started to rain, then pour so we ended early but we did the whole street this year and Rowan got enough candy to last Parker and I, I mean Rowan, the whole year ;)





All was right on Sunday again then yesterday I took Rowan to school and she was sent home after a couple of hours with a fever again, I took her to the doctor and she has walking pneumonia and ear infections on both ears....poor thing. A couple of doses of antibiotics later she is feeling better today but Joe will come down and stay with her again tomorrow to give her another day to get 100% better. We rented her the Hannah Montana movie so she is pretty content right now...that's right, we have moved on from Dora and Caillou to Hannah Montana already....*sighs*