October

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. 

- Lucy Maud Montgomery

October was a month of adventure for us. We welcomed friends whenever possible, and we flew across the country to see another dear friend marry her beloved. Our trip to New Jersey was filled with, well, lots of praying Daniel would make it on flights (he was flying standby), entertaining our darling third wheel, and soaking in time with my college roommates. We are so lucky to get time with almost all of them (one of our honorary roommates lives many countries away). We've all changed, but stayed the same even more.

Then came our first snow of the year! It was heavy and wet, and Mlada refuses to wear gloves. We had 95% of the necessary snow gear... so really not too bad! 

In the proper Colorado way, the weather almost immediately became lovely again... at least lovely enough to go wandering out in the almost-melted snow in jammies.

Our reading and snuggling time has also ramped up in a perfectly wonderful way. Emílie's quilt gets pulled off the back of the couch a hundred times a day, and I love it. 

 Oh, and of course: dance parties. Mlada has been breaking out the moves. The time change and lack of light in our day puts us all in a mood at least a few times a day, so books and music are our go-to mood lifters. If all else fails, it's naptime or an episode of Little Bear.

We also said good-bye, or rather, see you as soon as physically possible, to one of our favorite families. As hard as it always is to see friends move away, they are going somewhere so wonderful that makes it a bit easier. 

We attempted the traditional pumpkin patch visit, but oh my, it was cold! We waited a bit too late in the month, our early freeze had destroyed most of the poor pumpkins, and the wind went right through these little sweeties. We came home with one lovely misshapen guy and a little one for each kiddo.

Anni had a two day "autumn intermission", so Daniel took the same days off to give us some extra family time. We made it to the zoo and it was really the best time I've had there in a long time! We explored some areas we hadn't been to, and with Mlada's newfound recognition of animals, it was just all joy. 

And finally, the month closed out with Halloween. Anni gets to dress up for school as anything they had studied, so she was autumn. The tattoos were probably a poor choice since we are still trying to scrub them off a week later, but it was such fun at the time!

Miss Mlada spent the day dressed up as her Aunt Tinie in one of  her namesake's shirts from her own toddlerhood, which was just fun.

The crowning jewel! Our little Moana (dressed for a chilly evening in Colorado rather than a tropical climate), a wee little elephant, and our very own Space Cadette Colette. 

And that. is that. Here's to the next month of adventure!

We are an Easter People

We headed up to my in-laws on Holy Saturday to begin our Easter preparations. Anni oversaw the egg boiling with Nonna (which is good, because last year our beautiful eggs were all undercooked!)

The girls carefully picked out their eggs and decorated them to their hearts content with the wax crayons.



Colette dyed this orange one, and, holding it in her sweet hands proclaimed, "I made dis one for Papa!" It then rolled out of her hands and smacked onto the ground.

Luckily, it was salvageable, and we kept it safe until Papa made it home from the Easter Vigil rehearsal. Cracks or no cracks, he claimed it was delicious.

Two more eggs bit the dust in very similar if slightly more destructive ways, but the rest of the batch went swimmingly.

Easter Sunday came bright and early after a night filled with a cranky toddler who couldn't seem to get comfortable. But, you know, Easter seems to heal all wounds.

After Mass where we amazingly managed to stay in our pew the whole time, albeit with some extra chatter from the littlest, we had lunch and snuggled in for a little rest.

Then came Easter egg hunting! Anni was going, going, going, and Colette was excited to find them, but even more excited to discover that there were things inside the eggs.

Finally, we settled in for an Easter feast to wrap up our weekend.

Alleluia!

St. Patrick's Day and a Baptism Anniversary

St. Patrick's Day was definitely not what I had planned this year. Colette spent at least half of the night previous throwing up (or rather, trying desperately not to throw up, and forcefully shoving the bowl away with a, "NO. I don't WANT it") so my plans to make Bangers and Mash again this year got put on hold. And these, this was the one of the few photos we nabbed. Anni cheerfully smiled for the photo, and Colette mostly just wanted to crawl back onto the couch with the ipad so that she could forget that Mommy wouldn't let her eat all the things she wanted. Let's be honest, that shouldn't even be an argument after the night she had, so we quickly moved onto the ipad (yes, they gave up screen time for Lent. Yes, grand distraction defeats Lenten resolution when you're two and sick.)

Today was also Colette's baptism anniversary. While this usually includes her pick of a meal and a fun dessert... tonight it included plain noodles with a sprinkle of cheese, "Happy Baptism Anniversary to You" and blowing out her baptism candle. She was satisfied, and I won't mention that I snuck some of the frozen chocolate chip cookie cake out of the freezer while the girls weren't looking.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, even if it wasn't the way you envisioned it.