A Feast and a Parade

Mary Laine's Pre-School had a Thanksgiving Feast yesterday. The children all dressed up. Mary Laine says that her favorite part of the feast was getting to play with all of her friends. 

As we were leaving, we stumbled upon the Veteran's Day Parade. We got front-row seats. The kids' favorite part of the parade were the dancers and bands. Gotta love a small town!

Halloween 2012

This is the first year that Mary Laine has really been excited about Halloween. They started singing some songs about it at her school, so she really was able to anticipate it. She chose her costume this year - Cinderella, of course! We decided that Langdon could be Gus (one of Cinderella's little mouse friends). I figure that I only have a handful of years to coordinate their outfits, so I'm taking advantage of it while I still can. Gary says that I need to apologize to Langdon for making him look so ridiculous, but I think that he's adorable!!

Getting ready

Cinderella and her little mouse friend

We celebrated a few times. First, we went to the trunk-or-treat at my parents' church, then we went trick-or-treating at the businesses downtown with Mary Laine's school, and finally we went to the PA trunk-or-treat/Hallelujah Hoedown at our church. We finished things off by trick-or-treating at Mimi and Papa's house and handing out candy to the last few people to come by their house.

St. Johns Trunk-or-Treat with Ann Grace and Mamie

He is his daddy's son - he'd rather have a basketball than candy. 

The sugar was starting to kick in

Downtown trick-or-treating with FPK - one of my favorite small-town traditions! 

Class Halloween Party (and we also celebrated their teacher's birthday) 

Gary won the "scariest" costume at our church party. He definitely scared our kids!
Somewhere, there is an eerily similar picture of his dad when he was about the same age. 

We love Sadie!

Hayride

Gary was the first one in the dunking booth

Sweet friends!

Langdon had a mouse twin ;)

CANDY CANDY CANDY!!

Mary Laine at Almost Four

Mary Laine has gotten to such a fun stage! She is a little performer and loves all things princess. She is shy in a crowd, but it doesn't take long for her to warm up, especially if she spots a familiar face. She loves preschool and would go 7 days a week if they would let her. Everyday when I pick her up and ask her what she did that day, the first thing that she reports is whether she got to ride on the "purple bike". That definitely seems to be the highlight of everyday. She has a very sweet class and loves her teacher. She also loves music and teaches me and Langdon all of the new songs that she is learning.

She is curious, inquisitive, and vivacious. She seems to be growing up so quickly. Oh, and she loves to measure her actual growth. She stands beside me and has me show her how high she comes up on my waist. She expects to see a change in that everyday (because that's how often she asks me) and always follows it with, "Aren't I getting so big?!?" The video below is a little taste of what our typical car rides look like. Lots of singing/performing. Enjoy!

Some Tough Mudders

They all survived with only a few stitches and no major injuries. They're already looking forward to the one next year.