Thanksgiving

Um....so....yeah, it's been a while. This is me trying to catch up a bit.

THANKSGIVING!!!!

We made our annual trek down to North Carolina for Thanksgiving again this year! We got to see Dan and Gretchen's house....nearly empty, as it's on the market. Tanner greeted us:

 

What a good doggie!

Aunt Gretchen wrapped the girls up for a movie...

 How cozy do they look?!

Then we drove out to Bill&Kate's house for the main event.

The girls danced....

 The kitchen was busy and smelled oh-so-wonderful....

The boys were boys....

 Did I mention the kitchen was busy?

And FINALLY it was time to EAT!!! 

The 'big' girls sat up at the bar...

 The kiddos sat at the kitchen table (yes, Gretchen and I were honorary kiddos)...

 And the big people sat in the dining room. The food was fabulous and a great time was had by all......until....

 ....then next morning Danielle, Ashley, and I were sick. The NEXT day Bob was sick with us. Poor Bill, Kate, and Harper -- we weren't very lively house guests.

Apple Picking

I can hardly believe it, but fall is upon us! So in honor of the new season, the girls and I went apple picking a few weekends ago.

 We marched down the row into the orchard...

 ...and ended up getting a bag for EACH girl.

What a sweetie!

 Finding the perfect one....

 Yummy!

Sisters love each other!

 Too precious....

How cute is this?!?!

 One last shot with the three of us!!

First Day of SCHOOL!!!

Danielle has been counting down the days until school starts. Needless to say, she was super-excited when THE DAY finally got here.

The girls are ready to walk to the bus stop with Daddy! (and check out my handsome husband!!)

 So happy for school! And for her new outfit that SHE picked out!!

 Playing while we wait...

 Being silly because she just has tons of energy...

 Sisters!

And onto the bus!!!

Last day at the pool....

....and it's official. We have had our last day at the pool for the season. The girls had a blast, and Mommy and Daddy had fun just hanging out with them.

 Ashley found a ball that she had fun with...

Daddy's feet are always fun to hang out on....literally.

 Danielle is showing off how far she can go underwater -- 2 whole lanes!

How do you know you had a good day? If you have wrinkle-hands, of course!!!

We took a little walk....

Last weekend we decided to surprise the girls by taking them up to the racetrack for breakfast. Once we got there, we knew something was wrong. Pretty much because about 6,000 other people had the same idea? Or could it be that we just hadn't paid any attention and had completely overlooked that it was Traver's Day. Hm.....no, that couldn't possibly be it. Needless to say, we couldn't go in for breakfast (it was already a total zoo by 9am anyways), so we changed our plans to going on the carousel in Congress Park. Only problem, the carousel doesn't open until 11. Soooooo.....we took a walk around the park. 

We had breakfast on a nice shady bench after we chased all the ducks we could find...

 Sisters!!

 The 'pretend that you love each other' picture!

Awwww....melt my heart!

 

Girls and face paint....

You might be wondering (then again, you're probably not) what happens when lots of little girls get to use the face paint all by themselves.....and the parents are having too much fun socializing to really keep tabs on them.

 Um.....apparently Danielle found the black?

Oh well, they had fun!

A little peak at swim lessons...

So....in case you can't tell from the cover picture, the girls have LOVED the pool this year. Danielle had lessons again, and this year things 'clicked!' Not only did she master the high dive (yep, I said HIGH dive), but she discovered that she could have fun jumping off the side of the pool and practicing floats, etc. Ashley found out that water wings really do work, and by the middle of the summer she wore them in the 'big pool' and was jumping off the side right along with her big sister.

While lessons were running, this was pretty typical for Ashley -- borrow someone's float that forgot it and play with toys in the kiddie pool.

Danielle was the only girl in her class....

 ....and this is pretty much what I get to watch now -- jump, swim to the steps, repeat. About 50 times.