Pumpkin Patch 2011

This autumn Piper and Riley are old enough to enjoy fall festivities like their older sister Sophie. Their Grandma Cole joined us at the local pumpkin patch to capture the experience.

Grandma took over 200 pictures. Many of them look something like this...Riley being silly, falling off a pumpkin.

But Grandma just kept snapping away knowing that she just might catch this...



Sophie's Date Night With Daddy

One of the many great things about the two-day-a-week preschool Sophie attends is the way they include family members in special ways. Tonight Sophie and Judd went on a special date together at the preschool. Sophie adores her daddy and daily asks him to marry her (which means they dress up as a prince and princess and dance together). She carefully picked out her outfit tonight, made sure her teeth were sparkling clean (princesses want fresh breath and clean teeth), put on her lip gloss (ChapStick) and brushed her hair a million times. She even wore Mommy's best perfume too.

At school tonight they ate football shaped cookies, gave tours of the classroom, and completed some fun activities. Sophie's teacher sat down with her to have her answers questions like:

How tall is your daddy?  - 3 feet

How old is your daddy? - 12

... and so forth. All her answers were written on a little keepsake certificate for her scrapbook.

Daddy and daughter both had a wonderful evening. I know Judd continues to set the dating bar very high for any future boys who want to date Sophie (years and years from now). And that's one more reason I love him!



Shoe Organization - A Way to Reuse Toddler Toy Rings

About a year ago I decided my three girls would keep the bulk of their shoes in a faux leather bin sitting on our dryer. When we exit our home through our laundry room, the girls' shoes are easy to grab. It also means when we return, their shoes come off and go right in the bin so as not to drag grass and dirt through the house.

That's all well and good except for one little problem -- flip flops. We love them around here and in glancing I quickly counted eleven pair. Today it dawned on me to reuse the old toddler rings we have buried in the bottom of our toy boxes. Do you have any of these guys laying around?

I simply slipped the flip flop straps through the little slit in the toy ring.

Now we don't waste time rummaging through the bin trying to find the flip flop's mate. When we're wearing our flip flops, the empty rings are attached to the rim of the bin, ready and waiting for us to return.

I can throw all the "good enough to wear next year" flip flops in our summer clothes storage and won't have to waste time matching them up later I may even try this tip with their regular shoes too. I may have to fight my girls for these rings though since they like to wear them as bangle bracelets.