All good things come to an end

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A "Melt-your-heart-moment"

I had to jot this down on the blog, just for memory sake: 

John & I decided to head down to San Diego for Thanksgiving.  We've never been and since John has time off for the holiday and I don't have to work Thanksgiving, we just decided to go!  So it will be a Sea World Thanksgiving!  John bought the discounted tickets through work and the child's ticket had the Sesame Street characters on it.  And Allison went nuts seeing Elmo, of course.  John got online and found that there's a "Sesame Street Bay of Play" at Sea World.  The kids can meet their favorite characters.  I guess he and Gaby looked at this together - I was working last night, so I had no clue. 

I went to pick the girls up today and one of Gaby's teachers said, "I asked Gaby what she's most looking forward to seeing at Sea World and she gave the sweetest answer ever!"  She told me Gaby answered with a sparkle and big eyes, 'I can't wait to see my little sister meet Elmo for the first time!' Her teacher said, "Gaby always has the best answers!"  Her teacher also told one of Allison's teachers and they thought it was the sweetest thing ever.  I agree! 

I'm not 100% sure we'll see Allison meet Elmo, but I think we'll have a great time!

Halloween 2011

Pretty cat-eye mask from Poppy R & Kim!

The beautiful Princess Rapunzel, walking in the Camp Amgen Halloween parade!

Poor Allison came down with bronchitis, so she stayed dressed up with Mom & Dad watching on the sidelines.  Big sis joined us after she passed through.

The girls made their way into Daddy's office.

An attempt at getting all the kids together.

Gaby received some wax lips in her trick-or-treat bag.  Funny coincidence that this is what the card said that was in the wrapper!

She looks a lot like the "Gabby" on the card!

Here we are out at Underwood Farms on a hot, overcrowded day, to pick out pumpkins.  Oh the things we endure for memories ;)  Here's Gaby-girl in front of the combine slide not-so-willingly posing in front of giant pumpkins.

Somehow, Allison managed to get a pumpkin without ever stepping a foot on the ground!

She found the perfect pumpkin!

Off we go!

Gaby loves all the scarecrows around the farm.

Here are the co-conductors on the wooden train.

Making their way up the haystack.

Gaby's angel fairy face painting from the fall festival.

Where's Waldo?  Oh, he's right there!  And pirate lady - ready to go out for the night!

Beautiful Rapunzel getting ready to head out to trick-or-treat!

And our cute lil' Garden Gnome!

The girls getting one last wear out of their Halloween Hello Kitty shirts.

The 3 trick-or-treaters...getting ready to head out.

It's a rather slow process.  It's hard for a princess to walk in heels!

First stop - our neighbors!

And they're back!  Here's the loot.  Not bad for just hitting up our block.

Happy Birthday Mom (Sara)!

We love you Mom/Sara!

2011 School Photos

The girls had their school photos taken a couple of weeks ago.  We were happily surprised with the results.  We were especially worried about Allison and her "stranger anxiety," wondering how she would react to a stranger taking photos.  She must have not minded at all :)  And Gaby looks like such a big girl!  They're growing up too fast!

Underwood Farms

Gaby's classmate James had a birthday party at Underwood Farms.  The party started off with a fun, horse-drawn hay rack ride through the farm.  After that we came back to the picnic area for a snack.  Here the girls are enjoying some refreshing watermelon.

Time to get on the bus!  Allison's forever checkin' out Gaby and what she's up to!



Gaby enjoying her pony ride.  She came prepared this trip to the farm in her cowgirl boots!



Here she is riding good ol' Snip!  I think she rode Snip last time.

The fun pedal operated tractors.  Gaby's not quite ready for the open road yet!

If she stood up straight, she'd be about 3 1/2'.  Taller than last year for sure!

Allison says, "Hello giant pumpkin!"

Gaby's not quite sure about going down this big combine slide.  She let about 4 people cut in front of her in line.  The boy manning the slide coaxed her into stepping on up.

Whee!!!  Success!  That was a fun slide!

Yogurt date

One day after school last week Mommy had a fun surprise for us!  We got to go to the Golden Spoon for a fro yo date!  I decided to order what Daddy always gets - Cake batter flavor with gummy bears!  I love it!

Yummy!  I love my cotton candy sprinkles on top!

Good Luck Daddy!

Mommy told us to "freeze" because we were being super silly and jumping up and down to cheer for Daddy. 

Our Daddy (aka "Deedee" - that's what Allison calls Daddy) ran the Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis today!  He did great - an all time personal best at 3 hours, 25 minutes and 57 seconds!  Way to go Daddy!  Mommy's especially happy that she'll get a break from all of his training for a while ;)  We couldn't be there in person to cheer him on.  So with Mommy's help, we made him a sign.  I drew jelly beans all around Daddy - jelly beans that were chasing him to make him run fast and then jelly beans in front of him that he could chase and eat.  Allison just drew scribbles because she's 2 and that's all she can do.  Mommy made a running stick man with a big head which she says is what Daddy is looking like these days after all this running!  We sent him the pictures on his phone to wish him good luck!  I think it helped.

Beautiful Princesses

My new Rapunzel costume arrived the other day!  I'm going to be Rapunzel from Tangled for Halloween!!!  I just can't wait!  I've been wearing my costume a lot to get good practice at being Rapunzel.  Allison's happy too because now my old, beautiful, pink princess gown is available for her to wear.  It was her first time to wear such a beautiful ball gown.  She kept ruffling the skirt over and over again.