Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from 2 of our little turkeys!

H

Andantino

TinyDancer is flying through her violin book! She recently (hmmm - not sure if I can still say "recent" since the recital was the day before Halloween 8 ) ) played this piece for her recital. It is called 'Andantino'.

Since the recital was the day before Halloween the kids were allowed/encouraged to wear their costumes. She was so excited to wear her witch costume.

Enjoy!

7 months old

RainbowBaby is 7 months old. I can't believe it!


She's got two teeth and recently had a double ear infection. We've managed to survive both. Hopefully she will go back to sleeping through the night in her own bed. If not, Stranger and I will once again have a little alarm clock sleeping with us. 8 )

Halloween 2010

Happy belated Halloween!


The girls had a great Halloween this year. TinyDancer wanted everyone to have matching witch costumes this year. I found a pattern for a tinkerbell costume on one of the craft blogs that I like. We used that pattern/idea but made the costumes black with a purple glittery tulle skirt instead of the tinkerbell colors. We used the girls bathing suits to make the pattern for the leotards. Once we figured out how to do the leotards it was easy! Here are some pictures of the girls in their costumes:


TinyDancer - alwasy willing to pose

EasternStar - not too sure what this is all about yet. She caught on pretty quickly this year! The poor thing - we cut her leotard a little to small. She didn't seem to mind though.

RainbowBaby was all smiles. She got a suprising amount of candy! She didn't get a brim on her witch hat - we thought that would be too overwhelming for her little head.

Charity Walk

Every year our local children's hospital has a big fundraiser. A BIG one. We've participated the past few years to raise money for the hospice program that helped us with SleepingAngel. Hospice of course is not a big money raiser for the hospital. Or any money raiser at all as all (or at least most) of the services are provided free of charge to the families. It is an organization that is close to our hearts.

Here are some pictures of us before the walk. The walk is pretty easy - just a flat 1 mile or 2 mile walk around a historic amusement park in the area. I'm so proud of EasternStar - she insisted on walking the entire course!

You can see that we made special shirts for SleepingAngel. RainbowBaby wasn't big enough for a picture of SleepingAngel so she just had a picture of a flower on her tummy. The girls shirts say "My little sister" and "My big sister". On our backs we put the quote from her memorial card:

"A beautiful flower
Lent not given,
To bud on Earth
and bloom in Heaven"



After the walk there are art activities for the kids, lunch, and you can ride some of the rides. The girls chose to get their faces painted first. EasternStar wasn't too sure about it, but TinyDancer was eating it up!

There wasn't much for RainbowBaby to do, so while the big girls and Stranger rode the rides, we hung out and played in the leaves.

SleepingAngel's Birthday

I took a little unplanned vacation from blogging. Good thing this is just a hobby and not my real gig! Over the next few days I hope to catch up. There are some pics of EasternStar's party and Halloween that I hope to post soon.


Here are some pictures from SleepingAngel's birthday back in October. We try to celebrate the day and the special time that we got with her.

We started out by getting bagels from our favorite bagel store and then heading to her special park to leave balloons and flowers at her special spot.

Flowers and balloons

We always get enough flowers to bring some home that way we can enjoy her special birthday flowers too.

Stranger with our flowers to bring home

The girls have also decided that they need matching flowers to bring home. They've asked for bud vases to put on their dressers for their flowers. Of course by they, I really mean TinyDancer. She does a lot of talking for EasternStar. 8 )

EasternStar with her roses to come home

TinyDancer with her roses

We usually bring a cupcake to leave on her stone. This year the cupcakes weren't ready in time so we got special chocolate chip cookies instead. We left her half of one "since she's a baby".

Birthday cookie

Our hospice program gave us a lot of suggestions on how to 'celebrate' the day. One that we really liked was to have a balloon launch and send balloons to Heaven with messages attached. We didn't do messages this year, but we had a lot of balloons!

Even RainbowBaby picked out a balloon

There they go......

Almost gone!

Cupcakes decorated by TinyDancer and EasternStar

We made it through the day and what we think of as SleepingAngel's "special time" - the two weeks that we got to spend with her at home. I guess that we are getting through it better each year. The first year I made no plans during her time. It was too hard. The next year got a little better. This year, a little better. That two weeks is still a touchy time for us. The emotions run closer to the surface. If only we could escape the real world for a few days.

A trip to the pumpkin patch

We signed up to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm this summer. Every Thursday we picked up a bag of fresh produce from the farm at our local farmer's market. The farm invited all of their customers (are we "share" holders?) to the farm for a day to see where they grow our stuff and to pick out pumpkins from their pumpkin patch.



After reviewing my photos, I didn't get that many. Hmmm......must have something to do with these three kids that keep following me around! Here's what I did get:

Everyone loves inflatables, right?

Our first stop was their hay barn. I guess that's what it was. A big barn - full of hay. 8 ) They had bales of hay spread out to make a track and little tricycles that the kids could ride around on. One of my girls was too big and one of my girls was too little.

Too big, huh? Not on your life!

If only I could reach the pedals!

There was also a maze made out of hay bales and some hay bales that you could climb on. EasternStar wasn't too sure about walking on the hay. I think she was a little unsure because it was slippery and uneven. She's not too keen on uneven surfaces. She was willing to climb up and take a picture with Daddy though.

Cheese!

Then we went to the animal barn. TinyDancer deemed this "stinky" and insisted that we leave immediately. 8 )

They had pony rides, but EasternStar is terrified of ponies (up close, but she likes to look at them from far away) and TinyDancer is still reeling from almost falling off of the horse the last time that she rode one (don't get me started on that debacle). So, if was off to wait for the tractor ride. Don't the look excited to be waiting for the tractor?

Wheeeeeeeen is it going to beeeee heeeeerrrreeeee?
Can't you just hear them? 8 )

RainbowBaby was not excited at all to be on the tractor ride:

You can't take a baby on a hay ride!

It was fun to see the farm and to pick our pumpkins fresh off of the vine. Somehow, I don't have a picture of the pumpkins. Guess you'll have to wait for Halloween and see them carved. 8 )

Classy!

You know you are raising some neat eaters when your oldest stands up during dinner, tilts her chair and exclaims "I've got to get some of these crumbs off of my chair", brushes off the offending crumbs onto the floor and then sits down to resume eating.

Classy!

Paper bag pumpkins

A few days ago we started on some decorations for Halloween. This craft was making pumpkins for our mantel using brown paper bags. We painted the bags orange (obviously) and used popsicle sticks for the stems.

I am so proud of EasternStar! She helped to stuff the bags and then tie them with green pipe cleaners. Then when I busted out the paint, she knew just what to do. She had her own ideas of how to paint - dip the brush in the water, then the paint, then the water again. 8 ) But, she got the job done in her own way.


We have four cute pumpkin bags on our mantel. One for each of my darling pumpkins. 8 )

Look at how proud she is!!

Beautiful work baby girl!

Matching jammies!

What's more fun than leopard print???



PINK LEOPARD PRINT!!!



How about three sets of pink leopard print??



The girls love their matching jammies. Stay tuned for their Halloween jammies. Hopefully we'll have a photo shoot this week.

Notice how RainbowBaby is always on alert when she is photographed with her sisters. Hee hee hee!

3

Every year October seems to sneak in. And with it comes the increase in the neverending ache. The grief. The girl we were only meant to know for a short while. The what ifs and the why nots. The foot stomping and the heart breaking all over again. The desire to lay down and throw the mother of all tantrums. Would it help to roll around and pound my fists into the ground like EasternStar does? The heaviness as we force our bodies to plod through the day. Focus on the chores that need to be done. Focus on meeting the need of the child that is standing in front of you and crying. Focus on checking off the tasks so that you can make it through the day. The days grow shorter and our bodies grow heavier. It could be seasonal drepression - 'cept that this always used to be our favorite time of year. We used to be in our element - energized by the crisp air, the falling leaves, the hint of wood burning in the air. Now we just feel tired and old. Old. Tired. If we can just make it to November we'll be ok. Don't think about what we should be doing. What would we get her for her birthday? Which weekend would we have her party? What would she be into?



Even without consciously thinking about it our bodies feel it. Why do I feel so crappy? You look a the calendar. And it hits you. It's coming. Even TinyDancer feels it. Out of the blue, after days or weeks without mentioning her, SleepingAngel becomes the center of her artwork. Suddenly, where she drew princesses and castles; now she draws angels. Lots of angels. Only angels. Are you talking about angels in school? No. I just felt like drawing them. The focus of her questions. What is she doing up in Heaven? Is she watching us?


Three.


Three years today. Is it three years old today? Do you say that someone is three years old if they died at only two weeks?


There has been healing for us. Finding our daughter EasternStar, giving birth to RainbowBaby. There has been healing. But some wounds never heal completely. Call me greedy, but I want all three of them. Why couldn't we have all three of them. Together. How much fun would it have been to have all four of them?

Happy Birthday sweet baby.

We love you. We miss you. We wait to spend an eternity with you.

6 Months Old!

Can you believe that RainbowBaby is 6 months old already? Me neither!

She is the perfect baby - easy going enough to be drug all over town for her older sister's activities with just a touch of crankiness to keep us on our toes.


Here are some fun facts that we've learned about her:

- Stranger took her to the doctor today for her 6 month visit and she is cruising along in the 10% percentile for weight. What a change! TinyDancer was always at the top - between 90th and 95th!
- She loves to sing and dance. Most night she sings for her supper.
- She can fall asleep just about anywhere! A good trait for the youngest!
- She can eat her weight in squash.
- Carrots make her spit up. Good times! 8 )
- She prefers to be held facing outward. Gotta stay on alert! You never know when big sisters will attack with kisses.
- She has learned to roll in all directions and uses it as a means to get around.
- She loves her bath and could stay in the tub all night. A girl after my own heart.

Here are some recent pictures:

Lounging while EasternStar does a dance for her.

Just finished dinner. Pardon the squash on my shirt!

A new stage....

We've reached a new stage in our house.....it's called "Crayon in the nose". For the past two days, every time EasternStar has colored, something has ended up in her nose.

I really want to take a picture but that would only encourage her more. 8 )

Princesses

I love coming home to this! RainbowBaby can't wait to particiate. They try to include her now but she usually just drops her wand and cries. 8 )

Super girl

EasternStar has recently started a super hero phase. I love to her her say "Super (her name)." Cracks me up every time!

Apple picking

Last weekend we went apple picking. The girls had a blast and we ended up with 50 lbs of apples. That's a lot of apples!!



So far we've made 14 pints of homemade applesauce and about 3 gallons of apple juice. I'm planning to also make a few pies. I hope the pies last until Thanksgiving. I might have to store them at my moms house to make that happen. Stranger is a big fan of pie! Although my dad likes pie more than Stranger likes pie, so the pies might not be safe anywhere! Poor pies!




EasternStar was much more excited about the apple picking than she was about strawberry picking. Apples are one of her favorite foods! I think she ate two or three right off of the tree. She was not happy about walking on all of the apples that had fallen off of the tree though. All of that uneven terrain was good PT though! 8 )

Success!! Can I eat it now?

RainbowBaby had a good time hanging out in the wagon.

TinyDancer found "the best" apple for pie making

Yum!!

Just waiting to be picked.

1/2 bushel of apples - enough to make 14 pints of applesauce!

A pot full of baby!