Bits and Bobs

As always, random goings-on that are fun but not full post-worthy...

She does this often - Facetime's me and then just simply plays with fun filters.  And usually when we are both within feet of each other.

Once a month her school does a sweet treat delivery.  Parents can pre-order the treat and then it is delivered to them in their 6th-period class.  I volunteer to hand out the treats each month.  This time, I got to deliver hers.  Not sure if she was too happy about that :)

Christmas card picture at the beach on a Sunday.  I brought along a friend thinking it might help them smile or be playful.  I didn't account for the fact that it would also make them want to get super wet.

Stinkerbell had to convince her class that this was not a turkey and should not be eaten for Thanksgiving.  She could make the turkey into whatever she wanted (I was so sure she was going to choose Ariana Grande).  She chose herself and defended it nicely.

 I can never get enough of the sunsets from my lanai (Patio porch, deck)

Since Thanksgiving is so late this year, Christmas decorations went up early. 

Outside...

 And in.

 

 MadHatter made the honor roll.  (Stinkerbell still doesn't have one of those in her school.  But we were super proud of her grades too!)

 This!!!  I have been waiting for this for what seems like forever.  I love how the study desk turned out and how this formerly useless nook in our kitchen now has a purpose.

 Who doesn't love huge, cuddly sloth hugs?

 This one has surprised us in so many ways this year.  First, she took to drama like a duck to water (and if you know her well, you know how shy and reserved she can be).  And then she surprised us again by trying out for and making, the Jr. Thespians in the Improv category.  She spent an entire Saturday at the competition and even though she and her partner didn't make State, I am super proud of her for stepping out of her comfort zone in the first place.

 Ice skating with friends on a Sunday afternoon!

Merry Christmas

Note to self:  Just because your kids are older, doesn't mean they won't act like toddlers when you take them to the beach.

This year I decided that the girl's Christmas card picture would be taken at the beach.  I mean, we live super close, and yet, in the year we have lived here, we haven't been.  We just aren't beach people on a regular basis.  Our pool and lake cover our water needs.  So, I asked if MadHatter's friend A wanted to come along to make it a little more fun (and perhaps get more natural smiles because photographer kids syndrome is a real thing) and piled them all into the car.  I didn't realize how little I had thought this all through, which will become very apparent as I retell this story.

We got to the parking lot about an hour before sunset.  The golden hour they call it.  I call it "shoot fast and hope the girls cooperate because the sun goes down quickly" hour.   We found our spot by the rocks, and Stinkerbell quickly did her solo poses...

And here is when the first mishap comes in.  We had taken off our shoes when we hit the sand.  But didn't put them far enough away from the incoming tide.  As I am snapping a very cooperative Stinkerbell, I hear A yell, "the shoes!"  Sure enough, all of the shoes are tumbling in the surf, and we race to grab them.  Stinkerbell is now short one slide.  Nothing we can do, so we continue on...

MadHatters turn, and she is a tween.  Nothing makes her want to do this, and I understand.  I was almost 12 once too.  But I throw her friend A behind me and tell her to be as silly as she can.  This is the biggest smiles I have gotten in days...

A few of them together and I get the brilliant idea to allow them to play.  I really didn't think that through because, for some reason, I thought they would splash around and jump a few times, and we could go back to taking a few fun pictures.  How wrong I was.  These girls were soaked in seconds - and I mean soaked...

I gathered them for one more "formal" picture to capture the wetness of it all...

And somehow they got even wetter...

After almost losing them in the rocks and then Stinkerbell cutting her foot open on the rocks, we were done.  But I had left without thinking about the fact that they might get wet.  At the beach.  So we had no towels.  Or a way to get sand off of us.  And out of every nook and cranny, it could get into.  So we walked back to the parking lot after showering off in the public shower.  And I opened my emergency roadside kit and took out the silver blanket.  I spread it on the backseat, wrapped the girls in it to keep them from freezing and sped home.  

I dropped a very wet and sandy A back at her house and threw my girls in my shower as soon as we walked in the door.

I now keep clean towels in my trunk.  Lesson learned.

All Hallows Eve

Halloween has always looked a bit different each year for us.  They were still fun celebrations. Still, with the holiday being oh so very American in nature, and our family living in various parts of the world, it wasn't always what I experienced growing up.  But, with it also being MadHatter's favorite day of the year since her very first trick or treat at 10 months old (it even surpasses Christmas), we have always tried to make the most of it. 

The first few were pretty typical - 

Trick or Treating with Mama as a Panda.

The next year a 4-month-old Stinkerbell joined the neighborhood trick or treat in her own way.

Along with a trick or treat at Disneyland!

Which we then did the next year (Disney rocks at holiday parties) again.

And then we moved to South America.  Where you can trick or treat, but it doesn't mean that anyone will give you candy.  And if they do, you will get it from behind the driveway fence and not from the front door.  And all of the people in the house will come out to stare at you.

We did that again for the next year...

And then got tired of walking miles just for a few pieces of candy, so we trick or treated in Papa's office where it was just walking from one office to the next.

And once again, we moved.  To another place where Halloween doesn't really exist per se but where the ex-pat community willed it into being.  We started with Trunk or Treat in the school parking lot and then moved on to the American styled expat neighborhood just outside the gates.  Because this was where 90% of American expats in Prague lived, you would have to fight hundreds of kids for candy while going door to door.

Our two Halloween years living in Prague.

And then we moved again.  Of course, we did.  To a city that doesn't have an expat neighborhood or a school with a parking lot to trick or treat in so this time, we spent it at Spooky Day at school sometime during the week of Halloween as the 31st usually fell during Fall Break when we had no school.

And since it was during Fall break that year, we went to Prague and trick or treated with friends we had just left a few months before.

One final Spooky Day at school in Germany.

Last year saw us moving home just before Halloween.  I was afraid that being in the U.S. for Halloween and not knowing anyone (the girls had just started school 3 days earlier) would not live up to the expectations.  And then MadHatter found a friend in the neighborhood and asked if she could go, alone, with her.  I was not ready for this!  Alone.  Without me.  Trick or treating.  But I said, of course (our neighborhood is super safe) and Nana and I went off with Stinkerbell.  Which means I got my fix of cuteness.

And then this year happened.  Neither of my kids wanted to trick or treat with me!  MadHatter set off with Alice to meet up with a few other friends, and Stinkerbell went (after some minor drams) around the neighborhood with her friend from across the street.  And me?  I was left home to hand out candy to the hordes.

 These two!

 They rode their scooters from door to door to make it more efficient.  Smart thinking!

I guess we have hit another milestone in our lives.  I'm ok with it for now, but the milestones keep getting bigger and seem to involve me less.  They can slow down a bit so I can keep them little for just a bit longer.