Anticipating Halloween

This morning, Emily came running out of her room--she is one of those people who wakes up raring to go--leaped into my arms for a hug, and said, "Is it Halloween?" She can hardly wait! I told her she'd have to wait until tomorrow, but that today we would make chocolate covered spiders. She LOVED that idea. We just finished making them. I saw Sandra Lee make something like this on Food Network yesterday, but I changed the recipe a little.


Chocolate-Covered Spiders
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 C peanut butter
6 C Rice Krispies cereal
1/2 C white chocolate chips
thin pretzel rods

In heavy bottomed sauce pan, melt together semi-sweet chocolate chips and peanut butter. Reserve 2/3 C mixture for "gluing" and decorating and pour remaining mixture over cereal. Stir to combine. Spoon onto waxed paper and add pretzel "legs" and white chocolate chip "eyes." Coat tops of spiders with additional chocolate-peanut butter mixture. Allow chocolate to harden (place in refrigerator or freezer to speed up the process).

We also made some spider "webs" which were just balls of the cereal mixture decorated with the chocolate. The spiders were taking a while to assemble, especially with my 3-year-old helper who kept eating the pretzels and white chocolate chips!

Imaginary Friends

Emily all of a sudden has an entire cast of imaginary friends. A few days ago, she came parading into my bedroom and announced, "Mom, see all of my friends? This is Charlie and that's Neefan (I guess she meant 'Ethan' but she said 'Neefan'). See? They are all behind me!" Well that was the first I'd heard of Charlie and Neefan. Today Jolie joined us in the van on the way home from Target; she wasn't sitting in her seat or wearing her seatbelt. She was being a funny clown. But Mommy laid down the law: if Jolie was going to ride in the car, she had to sit in her seat and wear a seatbelt. Emmy assures me that she got right into her seat and buckled up, but she was still being a funny clown. I wonder how long this phase will last? :)

To the mall!

Today I had some errands to do so I told the girls I'd take them to the mall for a snack and to play a bit. They usually enjoy that and the bonus for me is that it is inside and air-conditioned (still in the 90s here in Florida in October!!) On our way to the playground, we passed the Disney Store, so Emily wanted to go in and look around. We checked out the princess costumes and shoes and looked at the toys and clothes. Then we headed over to Auntie Anne's to get a pretzel. Emmy was so sweet; she shared her pretzel sticks with Bailey and me. When she got to the last one (which really should have been hers), she broke it into three pieces so we could all have some. What a sweetie.

Then we headed downstairs to play. It was a quiet morning, with only a few young children around, so I had a seat and let Emmy and Bailey play for a while. After a few minutes a couple more families came to play, so the area where I was sitting started to get a little crowded. I scooted down a bit to make some room. Then I noticed Bailey looking for me. She was playing on this toy rocket, a huge smile on her face, and she wanted to show me that she had climbed up there by herself. Well, when she looked over to my seat, I wasn't there! I'd only moved down a couple feet, but I could see the panic rising as she looked at the faces of these other women: "Not Mommy, not Mommy, NOT MOMMY! Where's MOMMY?" But then she saw me and all was right with the world again.

There was a little boy in the playground who kept trying to hug Bailey for some reason. She IS super cute so that may have had something to do with it! Emmy goes up to him and says, "Be gentle to my little sister!" That made me laugh--if only she'd follow her own advice!

Finally, on our way out of the mall, Emmy said my favorite thing of the day: "Mommy, maybe I can find some pennies or pickles for my piggie bank!" So funny!!

Bedtime stories

Will usually reads Emily her bedtime story; he's really good at it and I like that they have that time together. A few months ago I checked out a library book called I Will Surprise My Friend by Moe Willems. Well, both Emily and Will loved it. In fact, Will has declared Moe Willems his favorite author. Now, every time I go to the library, I look for a Willems book that we haven't read yet. Unfortunately, I think we've exhausted our library's supply. So the other night Emily chose a book from her own bookshelf for her bedtime story. Then she took it to Daddy in the living room and said, "It's The Giving Tree [by Shel Silverstein]. But it's not by Moe Willems." Hah!!

Also on the reading front, Emily is doing so well learning how to read. She checked out Go, Dog, Go! from the library and when we got home, she started reading it by herself! This is a book she's never seen before, and she just cracked it open and started reading! I was so proud.

Bailey also loves books although she rarely sits through more than a couple pages. She is just too squirmy right now! But every time she disappears, it is into Emmy's room to pull books off the shelf and look through them.