Sunday, November 10, 2013

Fall in the Neighborhood and Grandma Time

After crazy September rain storms, we had such a nice October with lots of sunny, dry weather.  The girls, and rest of the kids on our block, have enjoyed the annual tradition of playing in piles of our neighbors beautiful red maple leaves that always fall early when the weather is still nice.  It makes for great after school fun.  We also got a quick escape to the beach house while the weather was still beautiful.  The girls loved exploring the rocks and tunnel, we got to carve some pumpkins, and Sam and I had some quality time sitting on the deck in the fall sunshine!

Oceanside rock climbers
Sunshine girl
The sun lit up her jack-o-lantern.
Since Halloween was on the heels of our Disney trip, I knew that my girls would probably end up some kind of princess this year. And they were.  While in Disneyland, Sasha's obsession with all things mermaid led her to choose an Ariel costume, Morgan really wanted to be "Sophia the First," a new tv show about a girl princess.  Unfortunately, they don't have a Sophia costume, so she settled on Sleeping Beauty, I mean "Princess Aurora," which we were often corrected on.  And despite there being large amounts of glitter around the house for a few weeks, both girls looked fabulous on Halloween.  We had a lot of fun trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with friends.  The weather was perfect and there were so many more kids this year - our neighborhood is really growing.  Some neighbors even made a piñata for the kids to do before trick-or-treating.  It might become a new Halloween tradition!
Ready for candy!
Sasha had no problem keeping up with Morgan.
 Morgan was the only brave girl to whack at the piñata.
Awesome, adorable neighbors!
Princesses, astronaut and transformer attack the leaves!
The girls also had a lot of fun doing "Grandma Art."  Ron and Dinda came over for dinner, and Dinda brought over a whole bag of art supplies so the girls could make owl puppets.  Dinda is so thoughtful and, ever the teacher, always coming up with great ideas for the kids to do.  Even with limited vision, she dives right in to help them, and I love listening to the conversations they have together.  Grandma Dinda always explains things in a way that makes perfect sense to kids (and adults!), and I love how she makes everything you do totally okay, mistakes and all.  She is such a great model for her granddaughters.  And the fact that she thinks they are the most brilliant children in the world makes her even more amazing!