Happy Halloween

The girls had a great time trick-or-treating tonight. They had both asked to be Ariel for Halloween, but Ella decided this afternoon at 3:00 that she was "scared" to be Ariel and needed to be Cinderella. Luckily, we had a costume that fit her, so she was happy. She wanted to do her own makeup tonight and seemed to really enjoy putting on her pink blush - over and over and over again. That child is so prissy. Cracks us up all the time!

My brother and his wife came with their son, Matt. He was a spider and he looked so sweet. They were all so cute together.



We had to trick or treat in a stroller tonight because Soph fell down yesterday and hurt her ankle. Thankfully it is not broken, but the doctor wants us to keep her off of it this weekend. Do you know how hard it is to tell a 5-year-old to sit still and stay off of her feet?!?!?

Ella made us laugh so hard because she was so protective of her bucket of candy. She would inspect it each time she got through at a house to see what was new. She was so proud of herself for going to the door by herself. Seemed like she thought she had pulled something off by getting all of those people to put candy in her bucket. She would ask us if we liked the candy. She would ask if she could eat the candy. But she would NOT share the candy. She would not even let us hold her bucket for fear that we might eat her candy.




At one point, we looked at the girls and they were very busy inspecting their buckets and taking inventory of their loot!

The Ariel Pumpkin and Chaos at the McKoski House!

Here is the masterpiece of a pumpkin we carved a couple of weekends ago.



Our house is in COMPLETE disarray at the moment. We had some roof leaks in the spring (or maybe last winter - not real sure), and it caused some water stains on our ceilings. Thankfully, it is all covered by insurance. We are finally having the ceilings repainted and our walls are being repainted as well. We have curved corners, so they are having to paint our ENTIRE downstairs.

We cannot find anything at this point! Thankfully, they are about halfway finished. I have some pictures of the chaos on my camera. As soon as I find the cable to connect my camera to my computer, I will download them for you to see.

I am soooo ready to have my house back the way it used to be!!!

Sick Day

Our little Sophie woke up this morning with a sore throat and a tummy ache. After giving it a few minutes and realizing that she was not pulling my leg, I took her in to see the doctor. By that point, it was apparent that there was no way she could be pulling my leg. :-/

Luckily, it was not strep throat, which was my only real concern given the fact that she was complaining so much about her throat (even before the lovely stomach eruptions began). She does have a nasty virus, though. When the doctor walked in, he said something about how green she looked. This did not sit well with Sophie, who asked for a mirror so that she could see how green she was. Anyway, he rubbed some phenagren on her wrist and assured me that, if nothing else, it would make her groggy.

I smiled to myself and told myself that he should certainly know Sophie well enough by now to know that it takes a LOT to make her groggy if it is not time for her to sleep. Less than ten minutes later, she was sacked out on the table in the exam room. He came back in with the negative strep test and a prescription for more of that lovely phenagren.

Unfortunately, we had to go to two different pharmacies before we found one with the phenagren gel that he had prescribed. The pharmacy tech asked me if I wanted to wait for it. I gave her one of those looks that obviously said, "What the heck else would I do? It is noon and I am sitting here with a five year old sacked out in my arms in her pajamas. Yeah, I think I will be waiting for the medicine that will keep her from throwing up all over me. Thanks so much for asking, though. Just in case I had planned on running her through McDonalds in the time it takes you to get it together for me."

So, they tell me it will take 15 to 20 minutes. I know I cannot hold the child for that long without my arms falling off. So, in the basket she goes. Five minutes later, she is laid out in the basket SOUND ASLEEP. Never in her life has she done that! I got some pictures on my phone. Will have to figure out how to post on here.

Keep your fingers crossed that she is the only one who gets the bug!!!

Pumpkin Pickin'

John and I took the little girls to the pumpkin patch on Saturday night. Our sweet Ryan was too busy being a teenager to come with us. :-) We had such a fun time with them. They, of course, wanted every single pumpkin they saw. It was tough getting them to narrow it down to one perfect 'punkin', but we finally did it.

Here are some pictures of our little "posers" at the entrance to the pumpkin patch.




I found these stencils at Target that let you put Disney princesses on a jack-o-lantern. They were so excited to be able to put Ariel on their pumpkin. On Sunday afternoon after church, we dove in. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had a blast. Of course, the girls only lasted about five minutes before they were completely bored with it and just ready for Ariel to be finished.

Once they each had a turn scooping pumpkin seeds out, they were off to play in the flowerbeds. I turned around to find my bowl full of pumpkin seeds (all ready to be taken inside to be toasted, mind you) filled with flowers, grass, and soil. Turns out, Sophie and Ella thought it would be more fun to make soup out of "that yucky pumpkin stuff".



Here are a couple of pictures of the carving process.



Needless to say, before it was all said and done, John was inside putting the girls down for a nap and I was outside by myself finishing up Ariel's face. She turned out pretty good, though. The girls get so excited at night when it is time to go outside and light the candle. Will post those pics soon!!!

A Trip to the Harvest Festival

These are the latest pictures of Sophie and Ella. They are so funny together sometimes! It seems like I have to take about 15 pictures just to get one good one of both of them. The last one cracks us up. Typical Sophie and Ella.

We took them to a Harvest Festival last weekend with my best friend, Ashleigh, and her girls. It was a blast! I will post more pictures soon. The girls each painted their own pumpkin. They took off through a hay maze. There was a petting zoo with every animal imaginable - cows, pigs, sheep, goats, ducks, rabbits, a turtle, and even a camel!

It was a fun morning and the time just flew by. We were able to buy some beautiful flowers for our front porch. Naptime that afternoon was wonderful - they both slept a couple of hours!!!

It took us a long time....

...but we have finally decided to join the blogging world. I am not sure how long this will last, to be quite honest. Not sure how many people will really be all that interested in what happens at our house each day! The only reason I am really even starting the blog is to allow our family to keep in touch. They are everywhere - New York, Ohio, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi - you get the picture!

So, I am hoping that (a) I will be diligent in keeping this blog updated, and (b) that they will check it often to find out the latest on what our little princesses are doing.

Hang in there with me. It might be a bumpy ride in the beginning! :-)