Join the Mureens

Here's a little costume preview as we went to a fun little Halloween Carnival this morning. We have lots more b/w now and Halloween. Anna Kate has been so excited about being Snow White b/c she loves the story, but she's also been worried that she won't have black hair like Snow White (b/c hers is blonde like Cinderella's she says), but when she got dressed up this morning and was, "a real princess," she didn't worry about that any more thankfully.

I put J.R.'s dwarf outfit together with Anna Kate's cordoroy dress, his pants, a cut-off belt from Goodwill, and a beard and hat I sewed. He got lots of compliments on his outfit :)

Snow White in the bounce house with a slide...Anna Kate currently LOVES bounce houses. J.R. can't wait to be old enough to join in the bounce house fun.

This is a new addition in a yard across the alley from us. My kids are totally stoked b/c it looks just like the one in their very favorite book (I have it memorized actually)...

This book is especially J.R.'s very only favorite...he says "read" now and it means, "Please read The Big Red Barn to me."

1. Always buy "septic safe" toilet paper. They like to use a lot when you are not looking (I figured a pic was unnecessary since we can all picture a potty w/ too much toilet paper in it).

2. Always check for an errant diaper in the dirty clothes b/c it's HUGE mess if you wash one.



3. Throw away all pens, markers, pencils and crayons in your home. You can try to hide them and put them up high all you want, but if they exist, they will be employed by any present 18-24 mo-olds to enhance various "art spots" around your home.

Meanwhile, while I was just typing the last blog entry, Anna Kate cleaned the entire playroom all by herself!!!! YAY!!!! (She's wearing THE outfit that she wears around the house...her pink dance top...just in case she needs to bust a ballet move at any moment...these moments are frequent). Thank you for being a great helper Anna Kate!!!

J.R. has started a routine of things he likes to get into every day around the house...just like his sister used to do (now she plays with her dollies/lambie mostly)...but they both leave a trail of destruction like a tornado or something wherever they've "played" that day. So one thing on J.R.'s list is to check if my Mary Kay make-up is in the drawer where it's supposed to be and if it is, he opens it and pokes his fingers in it and plays in it and today he put it all in his hair. He also brings these two wooden train cars with him wherever he goes and rolls them on the walls, ground or furniture and says, "vroom, vroom," which doesn't make a mess (thankfully). But he'll quickly set them aside when a mess calls his name.

Call + Response...this is the trailer. There are more than 2.2 million children in the world sold into sex slavery every year...and there are more slaves today than ever in the history of the world. Our world is so bad and I'm just really uncomfortable with just living my comfortable sheltered life here and minding my own business...to me the world is really like The Lord of the Rings...if we don't go out and fight the darkness where it is, it will make its way to us and it will be stronger and more forboding and no longer avoidable for us kindly, safe, fun-loving, harmless little hobbits. I just don't know where in the world to begin.

Bottom line -- I'm exhausted beyond what words can describe. No 2nd trimester burst of energy here. No matter how much sleep I get, it just doesn't seem to be enough. I'm still doing everything we're involved in right now, otherwise I'd get lonely and feel isolated, but on any optional activities, I opt out. I'm so thankful to be pregnant and to not be sick or anything like that and some days I feel great, but on most, I'm thankful I didn't die from falling asleep while driving or standing.

I hosted a New Member Brunch for moms new to the PTA here (it's a pre-school PTA and you just have to have kids age 0-5 and live in our school district to be in it). I have so much fun doing these kinds of things and meeting new people.

We celebrated Anna Kate's 3rd birthday Sunday and Jon's sweet family joined us!!!
We played "Pin the Purse on the Shopper..." (obviously Anna Kate tried to peek, but we didn' t let her get away with it even though it was her birthday ;)


J.R. sporting his party hat...

Presents!!!

A post-present opening transformation...

The requested brown "lambie" cake (the cake was chocolate).

Letting Trey blow out her birthday candles because she blew out his last week.

Our little "sweet tooth" finished that right away....before his mama even realized he'd been given a piece of cake!!!



Anna Kate (far left) in her first pre-ballet class since she finally turned 3 and could take it...she LOVES ballet and dances "ballet" all the time...especially when she turns on her Enya music and has anyone willing to be her audience. She tells me she wants to be a "princess ballerina" someday. She actually named the Princess Ballerina Barbie she got for her birthday after her ballet teacher, Mrs. Janie, because she said that they look alike.

The only other thing she's ever talked about being when she grows up is a nurse, "Because I want to give people shots," she says. She plays nurse all the time on her baby dollies and animals and J.R. when he'll cooperate...she brought her new nurse kit to my last doctor appt. to "help the doctor." :)

On her "real" birthday (not party day) I asked her where she'd eat if she could eat anywhere and she said, "I would like Chinese food mom." So we went to a Chinese buffet and I loaded up her plate and she ate it all and totally pigged out :)

She does not like to take baths or showers.

One other fun thing to note about Anna Kate is that invariably ANY person she sees that is about her age is, "her friend." She NEVER meets a stranger in the 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 year age range and is it's so cute how she introduces herself to them and asks their names (and I never even taught her to do this!!...well, or anything else for that matter...she teaches herself everything) and then proceeds to play with them and then whenever we're leaving she enthusiastically tells me about the "new friend(s)" she has. Then she'll say, "But Trey is my best friend."