Siena is growing up

Siena surprises me in a lot of ways. Sometimes I think she is so small and love that she still loves her princesses. I think she should be past that stage. Then sometimes she takes charge and gets breakfast ready for Ben and Claire and helps them with things that they need. She reads them a book that they want or she helps Ben with his writing. It seems like I never know what I am going to get out of her. I think I need to just give her more credit and allow her to do more things because she really is big and good at taking charge of things. One Saturday everyone wanted mac n cheese so she got all the stuff and prepared it. She didn't even need a lot of help. I was a little nervous having her around the stove but she did just fine. She is getting really confident and big.

 Siena can be really shy. If she doesn't want to talk about something. She won't. She will just go to bed, go to another room... whatever she has to do to ignore the situation. It makes me a little nervous for her teenage years.
The day after our wards trunk o treat I notice Siena has lost a tooth. I was so surprised. I didn't know it was that loose and she hadn't complained about it at all. I don't know when she actually lost it but that was the first time I noticed. I asked her about it and she got all shy. She wouldn't show me her tooth or her smile or that the tooth was gone. I figured she was embarrased about it so I just let it be. I was really sad that I didn't get to see it because she wouldn't tell me where it was. Then a couple days ago she lost the second bottom tooth. I only noticed because there were tissues all over her room with blood on them. Poor girl had been wiggling it loose at night. So that night I looked for the tooth because again she wouldn't tell me where it was. I talked about how she was getting to be a big girl with big girl teeth and how she would get money when she lost her teeth. She seemed to perk up a little bit but still wouldn't tell me about the tooth. I went downstairs and made this pillow for her. I put it up in her room when she was asleep. I didn't tell her about the tooth fairy I just told her it was from us. She got a dollar for both her teeth. I don't know what the going rate is for first teeth. Yesterday she woke up and didn't say anything about the pillow but she was happy. Dave mentioned that Siena didn't say anything to him about any of this. I guess she was either embarrased about it, or maybe just scared. I can't tell. So today, I go up to her room to find the pillow and it is in the bottom of her nightstand drawer. The pillow is face down with the money still in it and the two little tiny baby teeth!!!!!! she kept them! she had them all along! I don't know where she had stashed them. So now they are nice and safe in her pillow. I am so glad she has the pillow to keep them safe in. She is such a funny duck. I am so happy that I got to see them. Now I really don't know what to do with them. Can she just keep them in the pillow forever?

 I had to bribe her, but I got a picture of the bottom front teeth missing!

Halloween- Preschool party

 I volunteered to help in the preschool Halloween party. 15 4 yr olds are crazy! We went through all our games and had to make more up as we went. There was a lot of energy in that class. I think they had fun. We decorated sugar cookies, read Halloween stories, played pass the pumpkin and pumkin relay. They made a halloween counting puzzle. It was a lot of fun and Ben was happy I could come in and spend time just with him! It was fun to see him interact with his friends.

my homemade Captain America costume. For a long time Ben kept saying that he wanted to be Spider man...again. We were totally ok with it and had everything we needed. Then he came home with a new idea. Dave said we shouldn't buy costumes this year because we have a ton. Which is true we do have a ton. So Siena's costume was just regular clothes and Claires costume was a fairy that we had in the dress up box. Amazingly, I had all this fabric in my sewing room. We made this costume and it cost nothing! He already had the shield and the hat is a winter beanie that I put an A on. It works. Ben was happy with it.

Halloween- Trick o treat

We carved pumpkins Tuesday when we were stuck at home from Hurricane Sandy

 some did Mr. Potato head pieces...

 and some decided to carve them. Ben decided to do both.
Siena's princess

Ben's ghosts

waiting for daddy to arrive home so we could go trick o treating

So just in Siena fashion, she decided to change costumes and be a princess... again. I think she has been a princess for the last 3 years. We had fun trick o treating. Claire caught on quickly and tried to keep up with Siena and Ben. She made it to about every other house. She walked two streets before she was done and sat in the stroller and ate candy. We tried to get it on camera but it was too dark, Claire would squeal at each house after they gave her candy. She was so excited about it.

Halloween- trunk o treat

 Izzy (jake and the neverland pirate), fairy, and Captain America

Friday night trunk o treat at the church. The kids were way excited about this and we had a good time. I love two year old trick o treaters. It was the first year Claire understood what was going on. Dave took the kids around while I handed out the candy but Claire caught on quickly and eventhough she doesn't talk yet she sure gave some good smiles and waves. She probably got extra candy for it :)

Hurricane Sandy

We Survived Hurricane Sandy

We were attached to the weather channel leading up to hurricane Sandy. I started hearing about it over Facebook with people saying it was going to come and ruin Halloween. So we started watching the weather channel and discovered that they are out of control dooms day. It was a bad storm but really they need to take it down a notch. I realize N.Y and N.J. did get hit really badly and we did have high winds and lots of rain so I am glad this is the only damage that we had.
We prepared Sunday making lots of ice bags and filling our freezer with them. I went to the store with all the rest of Northern Virginia and got my milk and bread and water and non perishable snacks. I even bought disposable diapers just in case I couldn't do laundry. I cleaned my house and did all the laundry. It was nice to have that all done. So we were ready to lose electricity.
Sunday night we all slept in the basement to stay together and to stay away from the tall trees we have in our yard. The big trees are what really scares me. The kids were so excited to have a big sleepover. All Sunday night we watched t.v. waiting to lose electricity. It flickered a couple of times but always came back on. We went to bed Sunday thinking we were going to wake up in the dark. We thought we were good when we woke up with our electricity. I come upstairs and find this tree out our back window. It is so scary. Where the root came up is filled with muddy water. Dave said he couldn't tell how deep it was because there was so much water. We realize we are so lucky that it didn't fall in a different direction because it would have fallen on the kitchen and we were sleeping in the basement right under that. Thank goodness.
I drove around on Tuesday and it seemed like we had the only tree down in the whole area. It was amazing how well this area did. There were only a couple of neighborhoods that lost power. Finally! They cancelled school Monday and Tuesday for the high winds. I guess it was the right decision but now we only have one snow day for the rest of the winter before we have to make up days in the summer.
So we fared a lot better than people more north of us but are thankful that it is over. We got to celebrate Halloween as normal but I have to say that I hate hurricanes. They have ruined two trips to the beach and one threatened our wedding reception.

Fun Fair/ Haunted House

We went to a fun fair at Sienas school Saturday. It was a lot of fun and was a good fundraiser for the PTA. I love her school they don't ever have the kids sell things to raise money. It is a big relief off me and Dave as we would have to solicate the stuff for it.
The fun fair/ haunted house is a big deal. We got there early because Ben really wanted to go through the haunted house. For the first hour they have the lights on for the little kids. I wasn't sure he would like it. Apparently he didn't really like it. Dave said he held him for most of the time but he wanted to do it and did. He did join us in bed at 2 am saying he had a bad dream that night. Ben is a cuddler and ends up in our beg a lot. I don't mind for a little while but I need my space at night.
Siena immediately found her best new friend and they were off for the night with their tickets. I love her little friend Katrina. She and Siena are so cute together. They played all the games together while Ben and Claire munched on their cotton candy.
We ended the night with a cake walk and Siena neared the end and then got kicked off. She was really sad about it. Katrina ended up winning which I don't know if that made Siena even more mad. We bought a cupcake and all was well. It was a lot of fun and I think a fun new fall tradition to support our school.