Snow Storm, Day 1

Yesterday was the start of our second snow storm this season, and it was a whopper! Shanti worked from home and the county schools were closed (which means I cancel all my Jazzercise classes for the day), so it was an official snow day!
It was the perfect day to carve our Halloween pumpkin, which Shilah named "Carvey."
Here is a video of the girls yelling "hooray" for the snow day!

Snow Storm, Day 2

This storm was pretty accurately predicted, so it was no surprise to have another day of schools closed and Shanti's work closed as well. It snowed all day again and finally stopped about 5pm. We got a little over 3 feet of snow! We love days like these, where we can make a fire, relax, and do some baking! We also organized the toys (much needed) and cleaned out the "packrat drawers."
Shilah & Serena played a little bit outside. The playset was nearly buried, but Shilah made her way down the slide!
Serena could barely move in her snowgear, but she had a blast scooting down this mini snow hill!


And what is better than homemade hot chocolate after a romp in the snow?
Animals were curious about the snow also... Westy ventured out on the deck (for a few steps), Cosmo LOVES jumping in the snow, and even a deer plowed through our backyard!

Veggie Dinner Club

October is Vegetarian Awareness Month! Since I love cooking and our family loves to have people over, we are going to try a "dinner club" this year where we host dinners once or twice a month. You can check my recipe blog throughout the year for scheduled dinner dates-- just look under the heading “Dinner Club.” Last Saturday we had our first official dinner club date, and it was so great that Shanti's mom was in town for it! It was also very nice to meet her friend Peter. There are more details about the menu, etc. on my recipe blog at http://veggieaimee.blogspot.com

Grandma Evie!

Grandma Evie came to visit for a few days with her friend Peter. Shilah & Serena had a great time, and it was also nice to hang out with Uncle Gabe, Aunt Andrea, Emory & Lily! We had fun just hanging out, and we also spent some time in Evergreen. Evie came to one of my Jazzercise classes, which is always nice! We also got to celebrate Emory's third birthday. Stay tuned for more pics!

Daddy is home again!

This has truly been a crazy month with Shanti's travels! In Germany for 1 week, San Francisco last week for 3 days and this week for 2 days. As you can see, Shanti has been trying to sleep off this craziness, and Shilah just wants to cuddle with her daddy.
What a character Serena has become. She has a new laugh that just cracks us up! She loves her stuffed puppies, and has so much fun lining up her ponies and other animal figures.

Costume Preview

We are borrowing a couple of costumes from some friends for Halloween. It's nice since we don't have to buy anything, and I don't have to sew anything! Serena is going to be Nemo, and Shilah is going to be a turtle (Squirt from Finding Nemo). We've been watching the movie to convince the girls that these are fun costumes, and they have been having fun preparing for these important roles!

Life is Good...

Little Bakers

Shilah & Serena love helping me put ingredients in the bowl and mixing them! The best part is licking the spoon...

Letters

Shilah has been very interested in putting letters together and making words. She's been writing random letters on pieces of paper, so we've been working on sounding out simple words, naming the letter for the sound, and spelling. It's so neat to see this learning process firsthand!

Puzzles

Serena has been very into puzzles lately. She loves trying to put them together herself, and when she gets a hard piece to fit she yells, "I did it!" or "Ta-da!"
Westy likes helping out by laying in the puzzle box...

Frosty Morning

The last 2 nights have been freezing cold, and Saturday it didn't get much above 20 degrees! The frost on the trees & grass has been neat to look at. Today we had a lot of fun swimming at the rec center in Evergreen. Shilah has gotten so much more comfortable in the water, and of course Serena follows her lead!

Daddy's Home from Germany!

Last night Shanti got back from a week-long work trip to Germany! He attended meetings with other International Energy Agency experts on zero-energy buildings. The jet lag was pretty challenging, since Germany is 8 hours ahead of Colorado time. President Obama recently declared October "Energy Awareness Month," which fits perfectly with Shanti's line of work! The girls & I kept busy with Jazzercise, school, story time, and dinners with our neighbor & good friend Karen. Today Shanti took a well-deserved day off, and Shilah & I spent some good one-on-one time going shopping for winter boots and having a mommy-daughter lunch. We are happy he is home safe, yet tired!

Puppies!

Shilah & Serena have switched from dolls to puppies these days! They love to put Cosmo's leash on their stuffed puppies & "walk" them around, and they love to cover them in blankets. A few days ago we went outside and they had so much fun strolling their puppies around our cul-de-sac!



What a beautiful fall day!Here's one more pic from Miller Farms. Serena was too small to bounce on the giant trampoline by herself, so we had fun doing it together!

Miller Farms

On Wednesday we met a few friends from our mountain moms playgroup at Miller Farms in Longmont. It was quite a drive (and a very windy day), but definitely worth it!
Shilah had fun hanging out with her good friend Sadie, and Serena liked climbing the haystacks.

The firetruck was fun too!

There was also a giant dome-shaped trampoline. I thought the kids would blow away into the wind!
After playing on the farm and eating lunch, we took a hayride to different fields to pick produce.
Shilah & Serena had so much fun picking corn, potatoes, green beans, onions, carrots, peppers, pumpkins, eggplant, & leeks. It was so neat to show them where veggies come from!


After a day in the fields, we played a little more and even got to feed some of the animals. Even better, we got to take home huge bags of what we harvested. It was a long, windy day in the sun!