Thanksgiving

We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving day at our house this year with a couple of our very best friends, Jason and Rachel. Plenty of good food, Dallas Cowboy football, good conversation and Scrabble. It was a fun day.

A few days before Thanksgiving, Lance and I were talking with Chloe and asked her what she was thankful for. Her response was, "Family. But, you can't fit a family in a cornucopia."

Words

Chloe's recent observation on reading:

"So, words are just the sounds of letters put together?"

First Game

Saturday morning at 7:00, my bedroom door swung open. I woke up to find Chloe standing in the doorway fully dressed in her soccer uniform. Her very first "game" was at 12:00 that day and she was ready. I talked her out of putting on her cleats until closer to game time.

In the 4-6 year old soccer academy, the teams are split up on game days and they play 3 on 3 matches on tiny fields. No score is kept and the coaches are on the field with the kids. It is a lot of fun to watch and Chloe is having a blast. Go Team Italy!

Good Morning, Chloe

I walked into Chloe's room this morning to wake her up.

I sat down beside her on the bed.

She opened her eyes, looked over at me and said, "It's really weird how boy dogs pee, isn't it?"

Chloe's First Day

School Days

Today is the first day of school. Today is also the first day of a new stage of life for me. I have a 7th grader, a 5th grader, and a kindergartner this year. The girls are all in school now, and I am home without any kids during school days for the first time in over 12 years. It's been a great day so far. The girls were ready for school and I was, too.

So, what am I going to do now? I have plenty of things on my to do list that will keep me busy, lots of projects and things to catch up on. But, those can wait. Today I'm just going shopping. Alone. It will be strange not having my shopping buddy with me. But, it should take a lot less time.

Haircut

Chloe got a haircut yesterday, and now she has bangs! She loves her new look, but was worried that her bangs were gone last night when they were brushed over to the side. She also woke up this morning and asked if her bangs were still there.

Rachel thinks that Chloe looks just like Hannah with her new look. Here are photos of Chloe with her new do and Hannah (at age 3 or 4) with a similar haircut.

My 5 Year Old

I had the following conversation with Chloe over lunch.

Chloe - "I can't wait until I'm 15."
Me - "Really. Why?"
Chloe - "I want to have a baby."
Me - "You're going to be a great mom . . . someday."

I'm glad that Lance was home to hear that one.

Party Pics

We had a party at McDonald's for Chloe's 5th birthday. It was the best of both worlds - the kids had a blast, and I didn't have to entertain a dozen 4 and 5 year olds at my house.

We were told that Chloe's Ronald McDonald birthday cake was put into the refrigerator upside down by an employee, so the picture on it was messed up. Oh well, our nice party lady didn't charge us for the cake, and she even found a plastic Ronald figurine to stick on it! You gotta love the Taneytown McDonald's.

She's Five

Chloe's 5th birthday was on Tuesday, April 8.

We had a great day celebrating her life.

Her dinner choice was pizza.

She loved all her gifts.

She requested yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting and a capital and lower case letter "C" on each one.

Dreams

I can always count on Chloe for some blogging material.

Last night as I was leaving her room after stories and prayers Chloe asked me if I had dreams. I said, "Yes." She looked at me funny, so I said, "The kind you have when you are sleeping?" She said, "No, the kind you have when you're awake." She then said, "You know how I wanted to be a fisherman when I grow up? Well, now I just want to be a plain old Momma with babies."

Cruella

We heard Chloe singing this song last night in the bath tub. But, her version went like this:

"Umbrella de Vil, Umbrella de Vil . . . Umbrella, Umbrella de Vil"

More 4 Year Old Wisdom

We had a dry summer here in Maryland and were having a dry fall. I mean, hardly any rain at all for weeks on end. In October, for the first time in a long time, it really rained. Chloe and I were looking out at the rain, talking about God giving us rain and how much the rain was needed. She looked at me with big round eyes and said, "We do need rain, because I heard there was almost a shrought."

Chloe got this little notebook in a bag of party favors. She brought it home, asked her sisters how to write Chloe's Diary, and spent about 10 minutes carefully titling her notebook with a marker. She likes to open her "diary" and practice writing letters and numbers on it's pages. The "diary" went missing somewhere in our house. Chloe sat on the couch the other day and found it behind a cushion. She was so excited, as she came running to me I heard her shout, "Mom, I found my diarrhea."

Chloe likes to help me find a parking spot when we go places. She didn't understand why we were passing up so many available open spots every time we went shopping. So, a while back I showed her the handicapped spaces, the signs, the stick figures in wheelchairs painted on the pavement, and explained what this meant, and why we didn't park there. This week as we walked into Wal-Mart, Chloe said, "Look, they're in the handicapped parking, they must use a wheelbarrow."

Happy Halloween

Halloween night was fun in our neighborhood again this year. Hannah and Rachel came home with unbelievable amounts of candy as usual. They have a tradition of trick or treating every house in the neighborhood, so we did. Chloe went out with us for a while, but really had more fun at the house with Lance giving out candy.

Fall Fun

We are enjoying the fall and all the activities that come with it.

We spent Sunday afternoon at Baugher's. We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins, enjoyed some Baugher's apple cider, and spent some time with the farm animals in the petting zoo. Next we went to Hoffman's for a treat. I tried their pumpkin ice cream and it was great.

We also went to the fall fest at Rachel's elementary school last week.

4 Year Old Wisdom

Chloe told Lance yesterday that "diarrhea is when your poop is melted."

Out of Control

Our power was out for a couple of hours yesterday morning. I had to keep telling Chloe that we couldn't do certain things because there was no electricity. It was fun explaining that to her and answering her questions.

Our microwave has been acting strange for a few days. Today it won't work at all. Chloe heard me say that it wasn't working and asked me if "our house had gone out of control again". She was referring to the two hours without power.

I feel that to some degree our house is always out of control. Especially without a working microwave. I just made lunch using the stove top and oven to heat up ravioli, chicken noodle soup, and left over pizza. Weird. I bet we make an appliance purchase today.

Creative Chloe

My Girls

They are the greatest. I love how well they play together and look out for each other. I found them hanging out on the hammock last night.

Crabs

Our girls have wanted hermit crabs for a while now. They are continually checking out the book Keeping Unusual Pets: Hermit Crabs from the library. They've read it so many times that they pretty much have it memorized. Saturday was the day. We went to PetsMart and invested in the crabitat, food, snacks, and other accessories. Then the girls picked out their crabs and named them - Shelly, Sunset, and Sasha.

We came home and got everything set up and were ready to let the crabs check out their new home. When moving them from the PetsMart container to the crabitat, Sasha (Chloe's crab) lost a leg. I don't think this is supposed to be life threatening for a crab, but Sasha didn't make it. Sunset (Rachel's) began waning today, and I think he/she (?) is gone too. Shelly (Hannah's crab) is looking good though. So, we're 1 for 3.