Back to life

I finally got to return to my salon (11 weeks after my last cut). I told my stylist that, like Samantha Jones said in the Sex and the City movie, I've been avoiding mirrors.

When Skip's hair gets a little long, he refers to his hair style as "the Blag," after Rod Blagojevich's hair style. I can't think of a female equivalent, but I was definitely sporting "the Blag".

Here I am waiting for a miracle:

Pre-Halloween fun

Halloween party

The Halloween party at preschool was today. The teacher selected an animal theme, and the girls chose to be monkeys. Actually, there was an option for one child to be a monkey, while the other went as an elephant. Since Lauren tends to always want whatever Gracie has, we decided to elect the same costumes and avoid the inevitable crying that usually occurs. The monkey costumes are courtesy of Grammie (thanks, Grammie!!!). Here are a couple of monkeys arriving:



Grammie, we had the best monkey costume! All of the monkeys grouped together:



Sitting in their assigned seats:



Gracie singing along to a "pumpkin song"



Enjoying some snacks:



Lauren has a longstanding dislike of hats. In preparation for the party, their teacher furnished all of the animal hats, and we put together a costume. There was much prepping (you-will-wear-the-hat-you-will-wear-the-hat-you-will-wear-the-hat) the morning of the party and on the drive to school. This is Lauren, resigned to wearing the hat:



Surveying the loot from their trick-or-treat bag:

Sending pics

Skip had to travel some this week for work. Yesterday, I took a couple of pictures with my phone and forwarded them via e-mail. Lauren decided she wanted to send a picture of "pink bear," and I'm sure it really caused feelings of homesickness once he saw bedraggled pink bear. (We spend significant portions of every day looking for various animals, and "pink bear" is a repeat MIA offender.) Notice the intensity in Lauren's eyes below. We had to do about 10 takes to get this picture. Lauren thought "pink bear" would be best captured in motion (so she kept waving him around wildly), and it took a good deal of explaining that he really had to be stationary to get a good shot. You can tell she is focusing REALLY HARD on keeping the bear still for this picture. Here's how it turned out:

Upstairs view

This is the view from the downstairs landing. When we outgrow the gate, I will miss this.



Gracie's adept placement of her hand on the gate means that we will outgrow this sooner rather than later. There is a push-lift combination that they have both almost mastered.



Monkey-ing around upstairs:

Pumpkin patch 2009

First stop, the petting zoo where we saw pigs, goats, turkeys and chickens. The pigs were sleeping in the mud, lying in the sun, and Gracie kept telling them, "Get up!!!"

Next, we went to the field where the girls had fun with unintentional seating, i.e., the pumpkins.

Finally, they enjoyed climbing all over the haystacks.

Happy birthday!

Today is Skip's birthday... Happy 42nd!!!!!

Taco truck

Recently, I've become a big fan of the taco. Skip made them a few years ago, and I put aside my previous skirmishness about it and really found an appreciation for a simple, but well constructed, taco. In fact, I located some vintage (but new) taco holders on ebay, and "taco night" at the Lindsey household was officially born.

Imagine my surprise when I read about taco trucks here. Then, a couple of days later, I read about them again here. So... the premise is that a gourmet taco truck can be reserved for an event. That sounds awesome, of course, but I would like to see this taken a step or two further and have the taco truck make rounds in our neighborhood instead of the ice cream truck.

Indoor voices

I took this shot quickly, before the next series of arguments and fights erupted over having to share the castle, despite the fact that there were ample features to be shared or that there was another separate castle that could have been utilized. After a few skirmishes, the librarian, really the epitome of all librarians, kindly asked if both girls were mine. I told her that yes, they were both mine, that they are twins. Her deadpan response was, "So I guess that goes on all time then?"

Yes, indeed.

We finally left when Gracie started singing the theme from "Elmo's World" at the top of her lungs.



Below is a shot of Gracie, contemplating whether or not to throw a chair.

Future firefighters

Look who had a visit from a local fire department today at preschool:

"That's how it works"

Lauren has a new catch phrase that she is using for a variety of reasons. "That's how it works" is being employed when she is explaining something, when she is asking for something or when she is settling something, either to herself or to others.

Oddly, something about the delivery/timing of her phrase reminds me of Leon from "Curb Your Enthusiam," as it is similar to Leon's delivery of his catch phrase "that's how I do's it," which we are so tempted to teach her to say.

Happy Sunday

Cycling

After recovering from the Elmo experience, we implemented a new strategy for beating the constant rain and the newly arrived cooler weather. We turned the basement into an impromptu tricycle track. Below is Gracie gearing up for a tricycle ride. Believe it or not, Lauren actually wore her helmet and rode briefly as well. Although I missed a photo opportunity this time, stay tuned for a shot of Lauren, with helmet, in the future.

Elmo Live

We gave the girls Elmo Live tickets as one of their birthday presents, and today was the big day.