O Christmas Tree

We went to lunch at Fuddruckers after church with some friends. As soon as we got home, Clara and I headed back out to her friend Brynnan's birthday party. When we returned, we decided to watch Santa Claus is Coming to Town while we put up the Christmas tree. Clara was a big help decorating "her" tree. She kept saying "Dat's my criscruss tree." We also decorated Dingle. The antlers were a tight fit for Clara.




Clara was in charge of ornament placement.

Renaissance Festival....... FINALLY!

For ten years now, we've said, "We really should go to the Renaissance Festival this year." And for ten years we haven't gone. Until this year! Chris treated me and Clara to a wonderful day of fun. We went to breakfast with Micah and Lisa and then we all headed out to the grounds. It was chilly all day. I had decided not to bring my coat since the high was supposed to be 69 and I didn't want to have to carry it around all day. Well, the sun never did come out and it was breezy with temps in the high 50s!

I'll write more later. For now, here are the pictures.

New Direction

I need to get better about posting on my blog. I want to get back to making it more of a daily journal, no matter how boring it may be. This once or twice a week quasi-update isn't cutting it for me. So, now you get to hear about our week.

We went to a new restaurant for lunch after church on Sunday. We didn't realize just how new it was. New as in, we were their second customer, new. We missed being first by only a few minutes. It was a Bennigan's and now it's Killgore's. We got there around 11:30 and the third customer didn't get there until we were leaving.

They must've had every single employee there for opening day, because we were literally accosted by hostesses when we walked in. There were three of them and every single employee was standing around watching us as we walked in and while we sat and ate since no one else came in. We were asked how everything was no less than 30 times. I wish I had counted because it was ridiculous. I'd say 10 of those was before we even got our food. "Yes, my water is indeed excellent. Very refreshing. Thank you for asking." We got free t-shirts for putting up with them.

On Wednesday, I kept Samantha and her two big sisters, Emily and Natalie, since they were out of school that day. We had a busy day making stuff to surprise their mom with for Thanksgiving. I was proud of myself for surviving a trip to Target with all four girls. We did a little craft and made sugar cookies. The little ones got small chunks of leftover dough and Clara's rolling pin and spatula from her play kitchen and were occupied for a very long time.

Emily wanted me to take a picture of the ball of dough in mid-air.

We were able to get Clara down for a short nap after the girls' mom came to pick them up. Good thing, because we had a long evening ahead of us. We went to the mall to have pictures made with Santa and Clara did great!

We had them done at Picture People so that she could have some time to warm up to him without being rushed. On the way to the mall, we practiced talking to Santa. I told her he would ask her what she wanted for Christmas and it took awhile to explain that she could ask for a toy she wanted. She said she wanted a doll with a hat.

She was fine with Santa before we went into the little room with all the camera equipment, then she kinda froze up and clung to me and I was certain she wouldn't talk to him. Daddy had a little talk with her though and she did real well. Santa asked her to give him a kiss on the cheek, so she puckered and leaned in, but was having trouble locating a bare spot on his cheek because it was so covered with beard, so she leaned in and kissed him on the lips. I was a little surprised she got so up close and personal with Santa after saying she didn't even want to sit in his lap half an hour earlier.

After pictures, we went over to Glenn and Becky's for a little Thanksgiving Eve party. The guys played Rock Band, the big girls played with babies and talked, and the little girls played dress up all night. Clara fell asleep in Daddy's arms around 12:30 and we got home at 1:30. Clara slept until 10 this morning!

Chris and I slept in a little too. A little too late, perhaps. My pasta salad needed to chill for awhile, and I had to put it in the freezer until time to go just so we weren't eating warm pasta salad. Mmmm. I threw a green bean casserole together and then we headed to lunch with Randy and Danielle at his parent's house. We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner and wonderful conversation. Clara even enjoyed some time with a stand in Grandpa. She got to see a train and go fishing off the back deck. It was a very enjoyable afternoon.

We got home around 5:00 and crashed. It's almost 11:00 now and Clara hasn't woken up, so we'll she how early she rises in the morning. Ugh.

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!

My Day Job

I started a new job today! Well, technically I'm still a stay at home mom, but I have an extra kiddo now. I'll be watching sweet Samantha (who is 3) during the day, then we go pick up her big sister from school and hang out at their house.

Today was great. The girls played really well together, and except for some sharing issues with Clara, we didn't have any problems. I guessed that it would take Clara some time to get used to someone playing with her toys all day, so that didn't bother me too much.

We walked Dingle this morning, Samantha walked Clara, we washed the car, played with sidewalk chalk and bubbles, and played with play doh for at least an hour. It was soooo nice. I could clean up after meals and I got lots of stuff done because they were so content just playing with each other. Clara doesn't last real long when she plays by herself or with me. I'm a fan.

Putting them to work

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I made Clara a pillowcase dress for Thanksgiving and she wore it to church yesterday. It was supposed to have a turkey on it, but I ran out of time seeing as how I started on it Saturday afternoon. You proud of me Laura?

Clara's First Dance Recital

We finally got around to getting the video of Clara's recital off of the camera tonight. Hope you enjoy watching it as much as I do!

Sleepy Girl

Now that Clara isn't napping everyday, she falls asleep before bedtime on occassion. She's always fought sleep, so I never got the cute, out-like-a-light-while-standing up photo, or one of the face-first-in-the-spaghetti ones. This may have been only the fourth or fifth time ever that she's fallen asleep somewhere other than her bed, carseat or stroller. She fell asleep in her highchair once and I think alone on the couch twice maybe.

I'm starting to enjoy this no nap thing. Boy, I never thought I'd say that. I'm not fighting her at nap or bedtime and she usually makes it to the end of the day without melting down, so I'd guess she was getting a little too much sleep before. Now she usually goes right down at bedtime without a peep and wakes up smiling and happy in the morning.

For good measure, here's the one and only highchair nap she took when she was around 8 months old.

Night on the Town

Ok not really, just an evening walking around Market Street, but the simple fact that we were out of the house now qualifies as a night on the town for us. We had a sandwich at Potbelly's and then leisurely strolled, rode the donkey, acted silly, shopped, and then had some dessert at La Madelines.

Pioneer Day

We went to Pioneer Day at a nearby nature center yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was a one day event and was very well run. All of the employees and volunteers were very nice and very professional. They directed traffic when you first came into the park and had a hayride from the parking lot back to the entrance where there were lots of booths set up.

You could make a paper bonnet, candles and indian bracelets. There was a petting zoo, pictures in front of the wagon, live music and concessions. Then you could take another hayride back to the 1830's era homestead. You first walked through a wooded area that was supposed to be an indian village (I think). There we learned how to make a fire and you could shoot arrows. There were some native americans explaining different aspects of their culture including games they play and things they make. There was a tanner there also, and a woman making chili over the fire for the volunteers.

Then this next guy showed us how he loads his gun and fires it. Poor guy went to shoot it and it wouldn't fire. So he tried two more times before he gave up, saying he was going to have to go try and fix it. We walked around for another hour probably, then went to find the bathroom, only to cross paths with him at the trunk of his car, still trying to get it to work. He said he must've done something to it last time he cleaned it and that in 30+ years of doing recreationist stuff, this was the first time it hadn't worked. We must be bad luck.





This is Clara clapping to the music of a little old lady band. The lady in the next picture is playing a dulcimer.



This guy was a hoot. He was loud and in character all the way. He called out to a little girl, "Where's your dress? Why are you wearing long underwear?", or something to that effect. The girl was probably 5.

These guys were funny, too. They said they were brothers. One guy showed us a hide, rawhide and then some leather and explained the tanning process. Then he said, "I'm going to make a candle now", and started melting some wax over the fire. He then got the wick ready and put it into a hollowed out reed, plugging one end with some mud he just made. He propped it by the fire and started pouring the wax in, and it was going everywhere and then was bubbling out the top, so his brother was like "Have you made a candle before?" And he was like, "No." Then the brother made him a little funnel thing out of half of a reed, tied between two sticks with a piece of leather. We're like "You're just making this up as you go along, aren't you?" "Pretty much", they replied.

At the homestead, they had a blacksmith, a woodworker, spinners and weavers. They had a smokehouse with fresh jerky to sample and stick bread cooking over a fire. You could churn butter, grind corn, eat some cornbread and sample some strange elixers. There was a root cellar you could walk into, someone doing laundry, and someone hoeing in the garden. We decided he must've drawn the short straw when passing out assignments.

All in all, I'd say it was a great family outing, especially being a free event. The only bad thing about the day was all of the smoke. There were smoky fires all over and it started bothering our allergies after awhile. They do a Heritage Day in February, so we'll be going back. I guess I've got to make Clara a little pioneer girl outfit before then.

Our New Park

A new park near our house opened a short while back. This place is great. There's a long walk/bike trail that winds it's way around three little lakes. The lakes have little rock waterfall thingys, bridges, fountains and a large deck that juts out over the water that looks like it's designed to hold a small crowd. There's covered picnic tables, a playground and restrooms. You have to park in a lot and walk a ways to get in, so you don't have to worry about little ones getting hit.

Clara and I went this morning and walked around for a bit. It only opened less than two months ago and already someone has vandalized both sets of play equipment. How sad is that?

I took this next picture last week. This was Clara's first time to set the table unsupervised. I gave her three (untorn) napkins, forks and chopsticks for Daddy. I obviously kicked her out of the nest before she was ready to fly.

Meet Whisper

Clara is in love with this little guy. She will not stop asking me to hold him. And yes, I know of the dangers of young children and exotic pets like hamsters. Apparantly children have been dropping like flies for years after contracting salmonella from their hamsters. Who knew? That's why we wash our hands after holding here in the Judd house ;)

Whisper is a Dwarf Russian hamster. He's a lot smaller than the typical hamster. Clara picked out his name and I think she did an excellent job. I love that it's gender neutral because he lives in a pink cage and has a purple carriage to cruise around the house in.

She's a good hamster mama. Max was just sniffing out the new addition when Clara told him "Max, no eating my hamster. You'll break him." More pictures to come.

Wordless Wednesday

:)

Halloween in Pictures

We headed out pretty early in the evening to take these to some neighbors and trick or treat at a few houses before going up to the church for our Halloween carnival.



We taught Clara to say "Aaargh" and "Shiver me timbers" when she went up to the houses. It was cute, but came out as "Shimmy a timmas", so I had to translate occassionally.

This is Sylvia. She babysat Clara a couple of months ago and Clara peed on their couch. Clara impressed us all with her one handed bucket drop here. First she picked a bunch of lollipops out of Sylvia's bowl and Sylvia insisted she take more candy by the fistful.




After trick or treating, we went up to the church. They had all kinds of games to play and the gym was filled with inflatables. Clara bounced in the bounce house and slid down the slide. Then she got her face painted, a tattoo, went fishing and did a few other fun games. This is Ms. Kathy. She's a sweetie that works in the nursery at church.

We went to Schlotzsky's after leaving the carnival and then headed home. When we pulled into our neighborhood at 8:30, there were quite a few trick or treaters out so Clara wanted to go again. She only got candy at two houses before because it was so early, so we decided to let her go do a few more. I'm glad we did, because we met a really nice couple as a result. They were very friendly and we talked for about 10 minutes.

Here she is with her haul from the whole night. I took about 10 pictures before she finally looked at me. She was a bit distracted by all the sugary goodness in her lap.