Thanksgiving at Hartfield 2009

Happy Thanksgiving! We just got back this evening from our trip down to Hartfield. We spent the past couple days spending time with family, eating tons of good food, and keeping four busy girls entertained. Click HERE to see the pictures from our time in Hartfield. View the Slideshow option to read the captions.

Nina's Date Night

Mark and I decided that we're going to take turns taking Nina out on a date night once a month. It will be a special evening for just her and he or I, and we'll plan something fun to do together that she can look forward to. Tonight was her first date night, and it was with Mark. She was SO excited for date night. At the last minute, Lyla and I got invited to the dinner at Red Robin (thankfully b/c I would have been eating leftovers), then Lyla and I drove home and Mark and Nina went on for the rest of their special evening. They took a trip to the mall, and she got to pick out something special at the Disney store then they went out for ice cream and came back and watched a little of the new Tinkerbell movie together. I think they both had a really fun night!

A Girl Take on a Guy Thing

Yesterday was a nice autumn day, so after lunch we took some stale bread over to the pond to feed the ducks. We quickly exhausted all the bread we had so we kept walking. We came upon a section of the neighborhood where they're getting ready to put in some new construction houses and were using an excavator like this (photo courtesy of the John Deere website) to dig the big holes for the foundations. As we were walking by, I thought to myself that my girlfriends with little boys would love this. They could probaby pull up a couple lawn chairs and just sit and let the little boys watch the digging, lifting, and dumping all afternoon. However, I certainly didn't think Nina and Lyla would be so excited by it. They were watching intently and cheering when the excavator would dump its big load of dirt onto the pile. After awhile of watching the action, Nina says to me, "Mom, let's make up a dumper dance." I told her she was on her own for that one, but she actually made up quite an interesting little dance that simulated the action of the excavator and performed that over and over for another 15 minutes. It was very cute and showed me that little girls just might really like little boy things, just with a little girl twist on it.

Bizarro Girl

As I've mentioned before in another post, Lyla has quite a dichotomy in her personality. When we're out or amongst people she doesn't know well, she's quite shy and reserved. At home, she's a nut. This morning she went through Nina's closet and found these 3D glasses that came with a toy Nina got. She was cracking Nina and I up because she was a little thrown off by the change in perspective that the glasses gave her and was high-stepping, laughing while just running around the table, and giving us lots of funny looks with the glasses on. Here's our crazy Lyla.

Girls Night Out

Trust me, it wasn't the girls night out of the days of old. This time it was a girls night out that had on the agenda McDonalds and a trip to the mall. Mark had been away for a couple days on a scouting trip, and here at home it had been raining for three straight days. It was Friday night (not that it makes a difference anymore, sadly), and I was determined not to spend the evening at home again. When we're "out" and it's dark and raining and you're trying to get two kids in and out of carseats at each stop, and Lyla is climbing all over the McDonalds table knocking our food off and getting into everything, I remember why sometimes it's just more fun to stay home, but those of you who spend a lot of time alone with toddlers know you sometimes just need to get out - whatever the cost. Last night was one of those nights!

RSVP with Me

This video along with a FBI Press Release about 60 children rescued from sex slavery here in the U.S. in late October and this CNN article (about the rescue) were just a few of the newsworthy items on a great blog about human trafficking that I read today. It reminded me that I wanted to use a post on this blog to invite anyone in the DC Metro area to join Mark and I at this year's benefit dinner for the International Justice Mission. Those of you who follow this blog might remember that I did a post last year about our experience at the 2008 dinner. It was a great evening that helped continue to inspire us to seek to do more in the way of bringing an end to some of the horrible attrocities that are taking place in the world. The dinner this year is a month away - December 10th at 7pm in NW Washington, D.C., so if you'd like to know some more information, I can help you figure out any of the details, or even better, email me and say you'd like to come. We can sit at the same table and maybe there will be enough of us to fill a full table of ten!

(Update: ** We're registered under Mark Simpson, so if you want to go and sit at the same table, just put in Mark's name for who you'd like to sit with.)

Dads and Daughters

I am very thankful to have been born into a family with a great father. He has had a really important impact on us kids and our families, and I'm very thankful our girls have such a great grandfather. Happy Birthday, Dad! Since Mark, Nina, and Lyla looked so cute after church yesterday, I subjected them to getting their picture taken, but since the "photo session" only lasted 3 minutes, I didn't get many objections.

Eating grapes can be exhausting!

Happily Ever After

Yesterday, as Nina and Lyla were having a princess tea party on a princess blanket in Nina's room surrounded by princess books and princess figurines, I wondered how many of our recent purchases have the Disney copyright on them. Probably a lot. Don't get me wrong, we don't purchase a lot of princess stuff for the girls, but Nina loves what we do have. We have the books which she loves us to read to her, and using her allowance, she's purchased the prince and princess figurines that she imagine plays with all the time. They're kind of what G.I. Joe's were for boys, but they're princesses for girls.

Anyway, with the influx of fairy tale items, it's brought up some interesting thoughts. First of all, the "nursery rhymes" we were told as a kid are not great bedtime stories. Think about Hansel and Gretyl or Little Red Riding Hood...clearly a bit scary. The same applies with all the princess stories. I remembered the characters from when I was a little girl, but I had forgotten many of the details. There's the queen in Snow White who is so vain that she sends a huntsman to bring back Snow White's heart in a box because she the is the fairest one of all, or there is the curse placed on Aurora when she's born that she'll die before she turns 16. These left us filtering out some of the words and phrases when we read them to Nina. However, there is no problem in the princess world that can't be solved by true love's kiss from the prince. The prince doesn't need to get to know the princess or spend time learning about her or her family. All he needs is to see her and how beautiful she is, they kiss then get married and live happily ever after in the castle. Once in the castle, it's a life of fancy dresses, tea parties, dances, parties, etc. Who doesn't want that life? Nina regularly wants to role play getting married. Thankfully right now, Daddy is Prince Charming.

I realize that all kids love to live and play in some sort of fantasy life. I think that's great for their imagination, and sooner or later they learn that all problems in life can't be solved by the kiss from a prince. It does make me think more though about mentioning often that princesses have to be smart, caring, generous, and responsible in order to be a good princess. Maybe not now, but definitely later, we'll have to talk about the reality that happily ever after isn't secured by a beautiful wedding dress and a Prince Charming. That's a good start, but we all know it takes more than that.

So, I guess we'll keep reading the princess stories but just make sure we're reading the Bible stories just as much. After all, Nina asked me the other day at breakfast if grown-ups really get swallowed by fish like Jonah did. I guess when you're three, the twists and turns of life can either end you up living a charmed life in a castle or in the belly of a fish for three days!

Happy Halloween 2009

The girls had a great day yesterday for Halloween. Despite a dreary forecast, the day was only a little bit drizzly and actually quite warm. The fun kicked off at 11:00 yesterday morning down at the town center. All the shops and restaurants were hosting a Trick or Treat for the kids of the community, so of course we walked over for the fun. Nina jumped right into the spirit of things. Lyla refused to come out of the wagon. She did, however, quickly figure out how to get at the wrapped candy in her bucket.

After the fun at the town center, they came back and got out of costumes until it was time to go out trick or treating in the evening. Once 6:00 came, they were both ready to head back out!

Lyla had a lot more fun in the evening. After a few houses of being scared, she realized that it was actually a lot of fun, and she ended up having a great time even though she was called "such a cute little boy" a couple times last night. Nina also had a blast. She loved being Cinderella, and she really loved going from house to house and seeing all the other kids is costume.