Costa Rica: Trip of a Lifetime!

Cannon and Amy have cemented their position as the most generous people on the planet. They wanted our whole family to have a vacation in Costa Rica, but they knew everyone was of varying means. They didn't want anyone to be left out, so they paid for the entire vacation for all 29 of us, including airfare. Unbelievable. Almost as unbelievable as where we stayed. We went to Manuel Antonio and stayed in two large houses, each of which had a couple casitas. Each house had its own pool, as well as private chefs, who made us breakfast and dinner every night. We stayed in a house with Cannon/Amy/Greyson/Easton, with her parents and the DH in casitas on our property. Everyone else was at the other main house and its casitas. Every day around 5pm, we would meet by our pool for happy hour: a bartender had been hired (his name was Jonathan and he was great), so all we had to do was relax. Our property also had an amazing tree fort and every day monkeys would come to be fed bananas by the kids...we joked that the monkeys got to have their happy hour, too! We spent most of our time at the beach, but also had a lot of fun white water rafting and watching alligators, and sailing. It was over Thanksgiving, so we even had a full Thanksgiving dinner by the pool The girls were too little for zip lining and surfing, so we'll just have to go back again!

Happy Halloween and 1st Lost Tooth!

(note to my regular readers: the months of May through October are not lost. Every month has posts in varying stages of completion. I keep wanting to get caught up in order, but it's not happening. So I am going to start fresh and current, and then just keep doing the old ones as I have time. :) ) --It seems that every single friend of Delilah's has lost at least one tooth...most have lost several. The dentist told her she was right on track, but she's still been very antsy to reach that milestone. It finally happened this week! It was very loose Wednesday night, but it didn't seem quite ready to come out. Silly parents. We put the girls to bed and about 20 minutes later, Red came running down the stairs, squealing with joy, "It came out! My tooth came out! I lost my first tooth!!!!!" Happy girl, happy parents, and the tooth fairy came and left $1 under her pillow.

And if Noelle's birthday and Red's first lost tooth weren't enough excitement for one week, we had Halloween yesterday! It was a bit of a crazy day. Noelle is in two preschool classes (one morning and one afternoon), and each had a party and a parade that I went to. Delilah's elementary school also does a Halloween parade every year, at 1:45, followed by class parties with crafts and cupcakes. I was there for that, and Delilah was very happy Noelle wasn't with me. She and Noelle are best friends and adore each other, but lately Delilah has been really wanting alone time with Mommy. I knew she would love having me to herself, but it meant we had to leave the class party a few minutes early to pick up Noelle from pre-school. We literally left 5 minutes early, but you would have thought the world was ending by the way Delilah was sobbing about leaving her classmates. Then, what should have been a 4 minute drive to pick up Noelle turned into 20 minutes because there was an accident and everyone was being re-routed. So Noelle was the last one to be picked up, which has never happened (luckily, she loves her teachers and was quite content to have them to herself). We came home and relaxed for a bit before heading to Delilah's friend Liv's house. We ate dinner with Liv and her family and then spent a good hour or more trick-or-treating. Tons of fun and we were all exhausted. Some pics from the day and night: Delilah was a witch and Noelle was Maleficent. I especially love the pic of tuckered-out Noelle being carried by Daddy. :)

Happy Halloween!!!

Ellie Bug is Four!

Precious Noelle, this is my apology to you. Things were really wild for a bit in our house, with Mommy & Daddy both in school, then both graduating, then mommy finding a new job, and moving, and then the traveling we did. Long story short, many of the updates on this blog from 2014 through the middle of 2016 were not made until months (and sometimes years) after the events happened. Many photos were lost and among them are the pictures of your 4th birthday. I am so sorry, sweetheart. We spent your 4th birthday at the zoo. You said you didn't want a party with friends, you just wanted to go to Boo at the Zoo and ride the camel. So we did and you were so happy! You are precious and spunky and funny and I can't believe I get to be your mommy. Love you so much, sweetheart, and we didn't lose the pics from your 5th!!!!!! xoxo, Mommy

Best Weekend Ever

This weekend was completely packed, but oh-so-fun. On Friday night, I met Lauren in the city for a movie, dinner, and sleepover. Then I met up with Marra and her best friend Erika for a morning of shopping and a lovely lunch. Then Chris brought the girls into the city and we attended a princess-themed birthday party for some friends from Hampton Court. Then we dropped the girls at the monthly babysitting that Broadway Pres offers and Chris & I had a lovely date in the city. Sunday morning brought one of the cutest traditions Rye offers. All the elementary kids are eligible to sign up with a partner and paint Halloween-themed windows in the town square. Liv & Delilah were partners, of course, and were thrilled when they made it into the local paper!!

Apple Picking and a Haunted House

We went on our annual apple picking trip at Wilkens Farm and added a visit the next day to Lasdon Park. Lads Park has an annual Halloween Train show, and an Area 51-themed haunted house that is just scary enough for the girls. Add in a hay maze and hills to roll down and our girls are happy campers! And this first shot is the end of the weekend, with Delilah as she prefers to sleep: surrounded by as many stufties as possible!