Halloween 2014

Ok, costume time! Sometime in August, I'm pretty sure, we received a catalog full of Halloween costumes. Jane saw Elsa, the phenomenally popular Disney ice queen, on the front cover and her mind was made up. The costume was rather expensive, and I don't really like buying costumes anyway, so I set out to make one. It took longer than I'd like to admit, but turned out pretty well in the end. Thank goodness I had this drawing from Jane to guide me!

Since Ouisey did not have any opinions on her costume, we decided to match Jane and have the whole family be characters from the movie Frozen. Ouisey was Olaf the snowman, and Richard and I went the easy route with stuff we had in our closets to be Anna and Kristoff. If Maggie were still around, she would have made a great reindeer, Sven.

"Sisters"

The day before Halloween, Jane got to dress up as a story book character at school. She went as the dancing mouse, Angelina Ballerina. Ouisey wants to do everything Jane does, so she dressed up, too.

Happy Halloween! And now let the holiday season begin...

Gentry's Farm 2014

One of our favorite fall outings is a trip to the pumpkin patch. It was unseasonably warm!

Ouisey had a great time, but did not enjoy posing for this picture.

For a brief moment, she did let Jane
hold her hand, though. Hooray!

Looking for cows on the wagon ride.

The tractor was a little loud.
Ear plugging runs in the family. 

Hay bale maze!

Troughs full of corn and containers... genius!

Don't forget the bathroom break.

Jane is sooo strong!

We let Daddy push the full wheelbarrow
 back out of the pumpkin patch. 

First day of "school" 2014

Jane and Ouisey had their first day of school today! Jane is in Pre-K4 and Ouisey just started Parents' Day Out. It is so fun to have them go on the same days to the same school. Here are some pics we took before we left this morning...

Peek-a-boo!

Trying to get a "real" smile out of Jane.

We snagged a few quick shots when we got to school, too.  Ouisey was good to go with Lovie in tow. She cried when we left, but otherwise had a good day... even took a nap!

Jane was happy to discover that she had two girlfriends in her class. Here she is with sweet Lilian, who helped Jane feel at home.

I am so proud of my girls, and looking forward to two days a week of quiet at home! Today I just enjoyed walking around the house and not having to tell anyone which room I was in or how long I would be there or when I was leaving one part of the house and walking to another. It was glorious!

Four and a half Jane

She still loves dress-up, princesses/fairies/ballerinas, nail polish, glitter, Lion King, and the color blue. Add to that list aquamarine, pink and purple. She recently told me blue was for boys... sad! 

Jane has also reached several big kid milestones this month. For starters, she finally got a bike! She is so thrilled. No more sharing tricycles with Ouisey. The training wheels are on tightly for now, but she already wants to take them off. Yikes!  

Then last week, out of the blue, Richard decided to teach her to swim. I was thinking she would sink one time, get scared and that would be the end until next summer. But I was way off. This girl has shot copious amounts of water out of her nose and just jumps right back in. Way to go, Jane (and Daddy)!

Another milestone was seeing her first fireworks on the Fourth of July. We were a little worried about her sensitivity to loud noises, but as long as she sticks her fingers in her ears, she is good to go. She loved how glittery they were, ha! This video has some pitch black spots, but eventually you can see Jane huddled in her chair and exclaiming, "This is so fun!"

Lastly, she has finally outgrown the kid hiking backpack. She was pretty devastated at first, but after brainstorming all the cool things she gets to do that backpack sized kids can't do, she decided to embrace it and went bounding down the trail. She even told us to hang back so she could hike "by herself."

The flip side to Jane's first big kid hike was Ouisey's first backpack hike. She hates to be contained, so we were pleasantly surprised to see this smile on her face! She did great and even fell asleep at the end of one hike, ha!

My, they grow up fast! My favorite parenting quote is, "The days are long, but the years are short." So true!

Goodbye mullet

Although I powered through the baby mullet phase with Jane, it was time for Ouisey's to go. Looking back at pictures, I think Ouisey's hair grew longer in the back and more quickly than Jane's. It was adorable in pigtails, but if you know Ouisey then you know that she did not keep them in very long. So, the haircut was inevitable.

Before...

... after!

I think she likes it! (Or maybe it was just the lollipop.)

Ballet recital

In addition to holding baby chicks, Jane also loves ballet. She was soooo excited about her recital and did such a good job. (I admit my opinion is hugely biased... I didn't even look at the other children on stage.) 

The recital was quite an impressive ordeal. The costume was ordered and fitted months ago, there were two separate rehearsals the week of the recital, and the show was sold out! Jane only danced for two and a half minutes of the hour long performance, but it was totally worth it. 

Getting ready with nails to match her costume.

Picture day (separate from the two rehearsals)

Practicing with her classmates

Dress rehearsal

Waiting, waiting, waiting for her turn to dance.

Finally... the performance! The ballet school is part of a local church, so the theme of the recital was "Tesitfy!" Have you ever heard the Jesus Hokey Pokey? Get ready... Jane is on the far left.

After the big show... so proud!!!

Chickens

So, it has been a while since my last post.  A few explanations: 1. Not a lot happened in March or April this year, 2. Ouisey became fully mobile, and 3. I joined Instagram, which has been a nice outlet for sharing one picture here and there when there wasn't cause for a whole blog post. But I do value this blog as a sort of family scrapbook, so I am going to try to keep it up...

The most interesting thing that happened in our family this spring is that we got six chickens. We started with one-week old little fuzz balls and now they are fully feathered and huge! Jane loved holding them when they were little, but alas, now they are too flappy and have really sharp claws. Here are some pics that show how they grew in a few short weeks, and how much Jane loved them!

Four weeks old... the most awkward phase in my opinion.

Six weeks old...
introducing them to the amazing coop Richard built. 

Found this chair on the side of the road. They love it!

They should start laying eggs in about a month or two (16-18 weeks). We are looking forward to trying our backyard eggs!