Biscuits

Charley's getting more and more into finger foods every day and yesterday he tried some biscuit. He loved them and may very well become a biscuit addict. He also likes little pieces of egg yolk, green beans, mandarin orange, tortilla, cheerios, bananas and any kind of bread. Like his sister and parents, he knows good eatin'!

A Classic ?

I have never heard of this movie but Jeremy downloaded it onto our Netflix on Demand. Made in 1956, he insisted that this movie is a children's classic and he watched in school as a kid. So we thought we'd give it a try.

Tessa LOOOOOVES it. She is glued the whole time that this little boy is chasing his magical red balloon around Paris and she shouts at the tv 'oh no!', 'find it'...'the balloon!!!' The first time we watched it she actually cried, yes real tears, when the boy lost his balloon.

Just a few days ago she started handing out invisible balloons to us and likes to pretend like it's flying away and she's trying to catch it.


If you're like me and have never heard of it, here's a little info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048980/ The cool thing is that it's only 30 min, so it's a nice little snippet of tv time for Tessa. Who knew?

Pre Halloween Festivities

Friday Jeremy was still out of town so we decided to head down south to show off Tessa's Snow White dress. First we stopped by Room 42 at Hayden to steal some snacks and visit the 4th graders. Tessa has been there enough times that she just made herself at home drawing on the board, hugging kids and visiting the 5th graders who knew her from last year.

Watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and eating popcorn balls with the 4th graders.


Practicing trick or treating at Mamaw Sargent's house

Yup, he's wearing his sister's headband. I gotta do a better job of watching out for Charley's masculinity.

David and Charley with Aunt Becky

Saturday morning we went out to a farm out in the country in Jennings County where they do a huge pumpkin display. We would have gone to see it lit up at night but a cranky toddler and rainstorm kept us in


When we got there they were carving some replacement pumpkins.

Becky is involved in the pumpkin carving. She said she made something like 72 of them this year. Can you believe she did that freehand?
Chilly cousins, including Charley snuggled up on my back

Becky also made the boys dinosaur and duck costumes including the hat Charley is trying on. I requested a couple for Christmas presents. I wish I could say I was artsy like Becky but alas, if I made their costumes one of these years it will be pretty sad (think pillow cases with eyes cut out like in the Charlie Brown movie).

Halloween!

What a fun time we had! As you saw last week Tessa had a beautiful Snow White dress made by her Mom-Mom which she totally loves. Her little friend Olivia was planning to go as Cinderella so we decided they should go together in our neighborhood.

Why oh why wasn't I smart and creative enough to make Charley a dwarf or prince? Well I just wasn't, sorry people. It didn't even cross my mind really. We had a hand me down chicken outfit from our friend Traci that fit him perfectly so that was that- free and cute!

On our front porch ready to go. At first she didn't know what was going on but she had practiced trick or treating to the Hayden Elem classrooms (stay tuned for a post on that) so it didn't take long to catch on. By about house number three she was on the move, running down the sidewalk from place to place saying 'dis way Via, dis way!'

As we progressed her manners were a little faulty too. We went from 'trick or treat' to 'I want one TOO, THAT one'. I was proud that she said thank you every time though, that's my girl.

Charley the chicken

Snow White and Cinderella having a great time. They even stopped for a little leaf fight.

Now once Charley started to get heavy and squirmy I told Jer to run back and get a stroller and blanket...and he came back with the pink stroller and Tessa's flowery pink blankey from the car. So Charley is not only a chicken here, but apparently also a girl . Two different people saw us walking and said 'oh she's so cute!'. Again to be clear, Jeremy's fault not mine.

We were out for about 45 min until we all got cold and came home. Happy Halloween!

Catching Up

I realize that it's almost the weekend again but I neglected to post some pics from last weekend's visit to the farm. Just went to visit and was perhaps a little bit motivated by the rumor of the world's best dessert, persimmon pudding.

The kids and I are on our way down there again tomorrow to go to the Hayden elem. Halloween party and hopefully (rain permitting) catch the Boyd pumpkin display all lit up.

Charley hung out with Dad

And Mom (can you maybe tell what he had been doing right before the pic?)
And rode in style on my back for a walk around the pond
and visited his great-Mamaw

Tessa played with one of her favorite cousins, Ashley. They found doll furniture..
sported hoodies
pretended to nap without ever actually napping
and played dressup with some of Ashley's old clothes

And everybody ate!

A Convo with Tessa

Me- you know tomorrow is school day
Tessa- school?!!
Me- yes with your friends and teacher
Tessa- Miss Cindy??
Me- Yes
Tessa- Cindy missed Tessa too?
(she keeps getting missed and Miss confused)

Me- so tonight we will take a big long snooze and wake up in the morning and have...
Tessa- ....CAKE?
Me- uh, no..breakfast. And then we'll get dressed...
Tessa- and cake?
Me- no, no cake but there's a fall party at school
Tessa- happy day, it's Tessa's happy day?
Me- no it's not your happy birthday
Tessa- sing Mommy, sing happy day to TESSA!

Sous Chefs

"Mommy, Tessa and baby Chaw-lay cooky dinner!"

Snow White is Here

Thanks to Mom-Mom (Janet) for sewing a gorgeous Snow White outfit for Tessa's Halloween. We opened it this morning and she hasn't taken it off yet, except to eat lunch (and that took some persuading)

Stay tuned to the end for the appearance of the Halloween Chicken!

Untitled from Laura Sargent Bennington on Vimeo.

Rainy Day at the Museum

Well the Indy zoo has this really cool event called the zoo boo and Jeremy had the day off yesterday so we were all going to go. Problem?..it was raining all day! So we ended up at the Children's Museum which was still fun because Jeremy's never been.

Tessa is always up for a trip to see the dinosaurs but m an oh man was it crowded. The Haunted House, closing of King Tut and FFA convention makes for one crazy afternoon trying to find parking.

We skipped the Haunted House but it had a huge line. But we saw some of the new stuff, the Egypt exhibit and the not so new Chihooly glass.

We didn't stay for but an hour and a half, then left for a sushi dinner. In retrospect we should have gone to the loud and bustling sushi place, not the quiet and romantic like one. I'm pretty sure Tessa's loud antics ruined the mood, and I even had to take her outside once to have some words with her. But she ate 5 sushi rolls and some edamame so all in all a good time was had by all.

Will we get to the zoo boo? Unlikely at this point. Oh well, next year!

Changes

How many times have I written on this blog that I need to lose weight? Probably 37 times, would be my guess.

And yet with the stress of potty training, adjusting to two kids and Jeremy's hefty travel schedule over the summer, weight watchers slid right off my plate. Right off my plate and onto the ground where it crashed in a mountain of burritos and egg mcmuffins.

Ah and I continue to have blood sugar problems and low energy and remain completely incompetent at crossing my legs. Woe is me. So I went back to my doctor to complain again and after a routine blood test to determine I'm basically normal, he referred me to a dietitian at St. Francis.

We had our first meeting yesterday and it was really good. She didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. Yes I need to eat more cause I'm nursing, but more of the right things (more carrots not more triscuits). She gave me a food journal to fill out, which we decided I should do each night for the next day.

One thing is for sure, the polarity of our food mentality around here has to stop. Currently it's either something slow cooked from our garden that takes all day, or taco bell. There HAS to be a happy medium, especially when Jeremy travels.

So I ventured into new territoy. Last week I bought my first frozen lasagna, and today I bought my first bag of frozen vegetables. Yes my first. Even better...I orderded a bunch of stuff from Schwan's healthy menu to be delivered (Jeremy about snorted coffee through his nose when I suggested it). I'm setting forth to usher in a new era, wish me luck!

I feel compelled to let you into our most personal space, the fridge and panty...to show of all of my diet food.

This is called a Steamer (excuse the perplexingly sideways picture- I can't fix it). 45 cals for 1 cup of broccoli with cheese and you literally heat in the microwave? I can't quite wrap my head around this, excited to try it.

Look at all the FOOD! I even got the pre-packaged carrot sticks with a tiny little dippy things. I know, plastic waste and more expensive that buying a bundle of carrots and peeling and chopping them yourself. Yada yada. That's exactly the point- I haven't been doing that.

The middle shelf is dedicated to frozen vegetables. I hope I have room when the Schwan's delivery comes!
The pantry in all it's glory.

Cause You Wanted to See More Dance Pics, Right?

In case you wondered what Charley did during dance class. He sits in the holding area with me (behind the white picket fence) and oggles at the girls.

I took lots of pics today because I had to show off Tessa's new dance outfit and brag on my friend Abbie who made it for us. You've seen her work on the blog before. She has an online store that Mommies of little girls should all visit. It's super cute girly stuff! So we had the purple leotard but it was pretty boring by itself, so she made us a tutu and three coordinating hair bows for only $12 (including shipping) Rock on right? So that's my official plug, here's her store: http://www.missyprissybowboutique.com/

Stretching on the fridge before class



doing chenay turns...no I don't know how to spell that

Trying to rest after class and not get her picture taken