Thanksgiving Day 2010

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Evie and Gavin had a great day with all of their grandparents. Nana and Grandpa Cermak came over in the morning to entertain the kids while I worked on this year's Christmas card (every year it gets a little easier to snap a good picture of the kids).

Nana and Grandpa gave Thanksgiving cards to the Evie and Gavin. The twins LOVE opening cards!

I put Evie in a dress after her nap. Here she is reading with Nana (Evie was totally into the Christmas books that we brought up from the basement. She is ready for Santa!):

After Evie woke up and we got the kids ready, we all headed over to Grandpa and Grandma Cordes' house for dinner. Evie and Nana ate some pre-dinner chips:

Me and my awesome mom:

Gavin was very busy exploring Grandpa and Grandma's house. Usually he is so focused on exploring that I can't even get him to look at me, but yesterday I got a lot of cute photos of him:

Francis shows Grandpa how to operate Nana's new Nook reader:

Grandma made a turkey breast instead of a whole bird. Evie was very interested in watching Grandpa carve it. Notice Gavin watching from the doorway - he was not going to get any closer to the loud electric carving knife!

Evie wasn't sure about the whole carving procedure, but she ate A LOT of turkey!




Me and my favorite little guy:




We had a wonderful day. We have so much to be thankful for, especially our truly wonderful and loving families!

Pajama Day

Last week the twins had Pajama Day at school. Even the teachers wore pajamas! I thought back to all the times last winter that Gavin wanted to wear his pj's all day long, and I thought he would LOVE this day.

HA! Was I ever wrong. Who knows what goes through the mind of a three year old? When I went to put his coat on, he yelled, "Want clothes! Want clothes!" So I ended up putting him in jeans and a T shirt.

Evie was picky about which pj's she wore, but she eventually she decided on these ones with hearts. This picture was taken before we were putting our coats on - Gavin is still in his race-car driver sleeper:




Below is a picture from a different day. Evie and Gavin were sharing a bonding moment in their toddler chairs:

On The Mend

The kids are doing better. I am also better, but still trying to get my energy back.

The other day Gavin was playing with some controllers for the Wii. He decided that they were phones and shared them with Evie. Then he decided to "call" Francis.

In case you have a hard time understanding him, he says, "Daddy, hello Daddy. I'm sorry, I did break your stuff. I dropped two phones. Ga(vin) dropped two phones. I'm sorry Daddy. OK Daddy. Bye-bye, Daddy." So cute!

At the Infirmary...I Mean, Our House

Sorry for the lack of recent blog updates, folks! Evie and Gavin had coughs and colds last week, and then last Thursday night I got hit with a doozy: a "sinus infection with a touch of bronchitis," according to my doctor.

The kids are doing better than I am at this point. While we are recovering, here's a cute picture of Evie in a shirt from Auntie Clare (aka "Sassy")!

Little Fighter

For Grandpa Cermak's birthday, Francis found him a card that plays the "Rocky" theme when you open it. Evie liked it so much that Grandpa left it here for her to play with.

Last week she started dancing (her version) with the card. She sometimes closes it before the song is over, so the music stops and starts, but it's still pretty cute:

Gavin Cleans Up

Gavin loves the small broom we got for him at Target. This year he has been really interested in sweeping up leaves. Here he is cleaning out the playhouse:

Here's a short video of him sweeping up the house and then the lawn. He lets out an adorable "Whew!" when the house is done.

It doesn't hurt to also sweep the arbor vitae:




...and the oak tree:



...and the shrubs:

It would be great if this cleaning streak lasts into his teenage years! (Hey, I can hope, right?)

Halloween 2010

Back in September, Evie informed us that for Hallowen, she wanted to be Snow White (that's what she was last year and the costume still fits). Gavin told us that he wanted to be Woody from "Toy Story." OK, no problem, right? But when Halloween actually arrived, neither of them wanted to put on their costumes and go trick-or-treating!

Sigh. What to do....they're only three years old and if they miss one year of trick-or-treating, it's no big deal. They'll make up for up in the future, I'm sure!

Grandma Cordes got them each a cute Halloween T-shirt, which they loved and wore to school on Friday. Check out their huge smiles!

On Saturday, Francis helped the kids make jack-o-lanterns. They were excited to choose their own pumpkins:

We didn't get around to carving any pumpkins, but the kids loved the Mr. Potato head theme kits that Francis found. Evie made a pirate pumpkin:

Gavin made a vampire pumpkin. He told Francis exactly what order to put all the parts on. "Nose first, Dad!"

The finished pumpkin:

On Halloween day, Evie woke up first from her nap and proceeded to show Nana and Grandpa Cermak how to work her microwave:

Here is another Halloween outfit on Evie. She actually had this one last year, and it still fits!

When it was time for trick-or-treaters, Nana set up shop in the driveway. We thought seeing the other kids in their costumes would motivate the twins to get dressed up, but no. Evie and Gavin really liked handing out candy to the other kids. And in between kids, they worked on sorting the candy by brand. Gavin knows the names of all the chocolate bars and was teaching them to Evie:

Gavin peering down the block, watching for the next trick-or-treaters:

All that really matterered was that Evie and Gavin had fun, which they definitely did. Maybe next year we will get them to dress up!

At the Park With Grandma & Grandpa

Last week Monday was one of the last nice days we had, before it got too windy or cold. Grandpa and Grandma Cordes came over and we took the kids to Country Lakes Park to enjoy the great weather.



Gavin actually climbed this net all by himself, with Grandpa watching closely:





Evie loves walking on these elevated ramps that connect the slides and stairs:





Two things Gavin loves about this park are: jumping on these red and blue things (I call them "mushroooms" for lack of a better word)...

...and gliding on the pulleys. Grandpa got a workout helping Gavin have so much fun!

Evie loved this little play house: