A few Fridays ago, we went to the Walters Museum in downtown Baltimore for a bit of culture. A friend of mine got the ball rolling, and random events led us to a small homeschooler group meeting at the museum. So the girls and I strollered up Centre Street to find out about the Heroes of Ancient Greece.

The museum's children director did an excellent job and Anna was fascinated by her narration of Heracles and Ulysses. We couldn't take pictures in the exhibition halls, but she had the kids under sheepskins crawling out of Polyphemus' cave and wrestling a duct tubing sea monster. She ended with the kids sing the teapot song like so:
"I am an amphora from ancient Greece.
Here are my handles, here is my scene.
I am made of clay and painted black.
Ancient history on front and back."
It was very cute and well done. The final part of the class was an art activity, which was not so thought out. The kids were to color circles which would be their hero sign and glue it to a folded piece of foam which would be a pocket. Glue the pocket to an apron which you could twist behind you to be a cape? Lackluster, but the girls had fun coloring.

(The final apron product was a sad story...the marker never dried because it was plastic and after a week of sitting on the desk untouched, it found it's way into the trash. The next day, Anna asked for it for the first time and was very sad that it was gone. Tears and regret.)
Seriously though, how do you discern what to keep and what to toss? I grew up getting to keep almost anything and my room was full of...junk, really. I've since turned a 180 and now throw away wedding albums...just kidding...but I do get rid of a lot. I don't want to throw away my kids' treasures, but I don't want unimportant paraphernalia cluttering up our lives. Looking for a line to walk...

This year, we returned to Applewood Farms to acquire the Christmas conifer. Last year we were too cold to take the girls on the train. This year we went the first weekend of December on a sunny afternoon so it would be less cold and less dark. And the train was out of order for the weekend. The sign said it only runs in frigid temps, and only when you are in the midst of potty training and/or nursing children. Or it said to come back next weekend. Either way, we missed out on the train again. Also, there was no pony ride this time, as the horse had evidently gone blind. But this tree and reindeer weren't too bummed.

The tractor pulled us out to the trees and we made our selection pretty quick. But, as Chris drew the saw, the girls changed their minds...

After felling our find, we realized we missed the customary photo op, so here we are in front of a stand in tree.

Then we said hello to a sheep, a pig, two goats, and a blind horse.

Anna feeding the sheep; Sonja looking on anxiously.

Sonja was more into the John Deere.

They had a paved area with different little bikes and a Sonja sized Deere.

There was also a ring toss with reindeer antlers, which I didn't get a picture of, but when Anna saw it, she said, "Is this Ring the Gack?" (Dr. Seuss fans appreciate.)
Back home, tree trimming.

We let the girls hang everything but the really fragile ornaments wherever they wanted to. They moved them around a little bit the next day and lost two of the metal hooks. After spending twenty minutes on the side of my face scanning the floor, I finally found the tetanus-laden sharps and we moved everything up. Someone told me about plastic hooks, but for some reason, this month has been kind of busy and I haven't had a chance to look for them. And the girls haven't minded, and I don't mind our tree looking like it's in a flood zone.
Anyway, hope everyone is having a jolly Saturday!

Chop chop.

Fab or folly?

Georgia.
Sonja enjoyed several breakfasts each morning- hers and whoever sat at the table subsequently. Grandma is the lucky winner here:

The dogs always ask for someone to come say good morning and the girls happily oblige:


Liking the mild weather outside:

Three on the piano:
So thankful for thirteen at the table for Thanksgiving.
On the way home, we stopped in Richmond to ride the train at the outdoor mall.

And to swing feet over the counter at the mini general store.

When we finally made it home at 11PM, unpacked and went to bed way too late, we realized we never slept a full eight hours the entire trip. What is wrong with us? I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that we set a curfew of 11PM, unless a football game is in overtime, and it is 11:08PM. Goodnight folks. =)

Hello and happy December! Boy is December a busy month...I'm sure you can relate...and only two weeks until Christmas. Yipe as I type!
Anyway, last we met, we were headed for the south. We left the girls in good hands and said howdy to five days of pretending to be in college again.












C was in the groom's party, so he spent Thursday night with the guys. I met up with my college roomie Erin who treated me to a fabulous night at the Dallas Symphony.

Then we were busy with wedding things until Saturday afternoon. The wedding was wonderful. Chris' buddy since middle school, who was also in college with us, tied the knot with a real gem. Here are the two guys, (gem in the background.)

At the reception, Chris and Bryce did some boot scootin' and we hung out with more Grovers.


And I got to dance with this fella.

After sending the happy couple on their way, we went downtown to some texmex place...

...to hang out with all these fun people.

Sunday, Chris and I spent some time walking around a ritzy mall, going to the movies, having champagne and pizza...it was a great time. And it was a good length of time- we were definitely ready to see the girls on Monday, but I'm glad we had as long as we did to just hang out. Thanks Mom, Pop, aunts and uncle Rob. =)

The girls are asleep and I should be folding this load of laundry and starting the enormous task of stain spotting the kids' load, but I figured I'd update the blog real quick before the two week hiatus.
'So what?', you say, 'You rarely update us more than every two weeks in the first place.' Okay, you are right. I just wanted to tell you about the monumental (to me) vacation that is about to happen:
Wednesday morning we're headed for Georgia. Thursday morning, JUST the Mr. and I are flying to Texas, for FIVE days, JUST US. The kids will not be with us. Only Chris and I. For five whole days. Without kids. Can you believe it?? I can't. =)
Okay, skipping off to finish laundry....

Today Sonja turns 19 months. Tipping the scale at 21 lbs, she continues to make her own curve (well below the established chart norm.) She's the first one up most mornings and insists on the following regimen: throw pacifier into the crib (we're on restricted paci time...tried to give it up cold turkey, but that did not go over well, for anyone involved), put on penguin slippers, take pink fleece blanket out to couch, open dvd drawer and choose Pooh or Boz the Bear, run in place to show enthusiasm, get bowl of dry Cheerios, cozy up on the couch with blanket and cheerios. Exeunt mom, back to bed.
Same thing, every morning. Which is nice as I can get her all set up without ever opening the other eye. Anna wakes up a little later usually and joins Sonja on the couch with a purple Ravens blanket and her own bowl of dry cereal. And this is our morning life for the first hour of the day. A gradual entrance into the day.
I know it's a little different from the hot breakfasts and bustling pre-7AM hours we once knew, but everyone seems happy with this winter morning schedule. We're conserving energy.

Anyway, just yesterday, Sonja developed a fear of bugs. As there was just one gnat-like bug in the house, she ran out of bugs to fear so began to fear crumbs, specks, pieces of fuzz, anything small that could possibly pass as a bug. At first, I thought she was pretending to be afraid, but after several episodes of near panic attacks, I realized she really was scared of things that could be bugs. And her sister, in true sisterly form, capitalized on the new phobe and showed Sonja every bit of fuzz she could find. Until parental intervention.
Anyway, here are some picture of our specko-fuzzo-crumbo-bugophobic little girl:


A little girl with a pony tail...sniff.

And some pictures of Anna, my little sous chef:

Ballerina sous chef.

And taste tester.

And silverware unloader.

That's all for now. Dinner needs to be in the oven soon and ingredients are still at Food Lion, unfortunately.

Chris noticed a crack in the plaster of our ceiling awhile ago. I never saw it until it opened up an inch on Monday. Then, everytime I looked at it, it grew, and grew and GREW until the ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around. I mean, until there was a serious gap between the plaster and ceiling. I began to feel like Chicken Little. Wednesday night at 4AM, it fell, giving myself one heart attack. My sweet husband, incorporated the noise into a dream, until receiving a death grip to the bicep.
We had company over last night to dine under this fine aesthetic...

Exposed brick walls are classy. It's just like that, right?

Few new things going in the shop this week-
First, a new fabric for aprons:


A couple knitted scarf patterns:





And finally, flower hair clips. I'm in love with these.





Stop by and check out the shop, if you're so inclined. =)

My sincere apologies to Google Reader users...I think I got it.
Hopefully this works- If you want to direct your feet and others to What I Call Pretty, you can "grab" this button using the code in the box. Bloggers can post it as a html/java gadget in the Page Elements section of Layout. That's all I know. This is way too techy for me. Thanks for the idea, Lynn. =)

<a
target="_blank" href="http://www.whaticallpretty.etsy.com" title="Visit Missy's Shop">
<img src="http://i575.photobucket.com/albums/ss198/whaticallpretty/th_WICPbuttonblackfont.jpg"
alt="Oh Dear, Missy is not very computer literate./"/></a>

So October flew by. With only one post. Really? Okay, let's just get back to it. October was busy- Chris was in PA solo for a wedding, I was in PA to see big Sonja, the girls went to VA, we all went to OH. I don't remember anything else from the month. It just went by in a blink. A blank blink.

When we went to Ohio, Opa got a new puppy-




Also out in OH, we went to a pumpkins festival-

These four are really excited about pumpkin ice cream.

Appreciate the 1600lb pumpkins in the background...

Also in Ohio, we were able to see the Kirklin's!

The girls with Uncle Roo and Daddy.

Back in MD, this fuzzy bear loves getting to pick up the puppy.



Other than busy weekends away and the usual runaround, the etsy shop has been keeping me busy. I'm hoping we have enough sun tomorrow to get some pictures of the new little product line- Flowers, dots and a little bit of cashmere.
Okay, say goodnight, Gracie. Goodnight, Gracie.