Sunday, October 9th

Today started with knowing we had three parties to attend and the Friends Meeting. We all knew that was not possible, so we started by missing the Friends Meeting. We had a nice, big breakfast. We try to have pancakes and sausage or bacon for breakfast either Saturday or Sunday. Harper had her fingers in her ears saying, "la la la la."
Harper: "Mommy, What does this mean?"
Me: It's very rude. And, means I'm not listening to you."
Harper: "But, they do it in movies."
Me: "They do a lot of things in movies. Some of them are nutballs. We don't do everything we see in movies."
Harper: "Mommy, you look beautiful."

While I was cleaning up breakfast, I thought the girls were playing with Colin upstairs. About twenty minutes later, Harper comes downstairs yelling, "Who has a stamp for the North Pole?" The girls had written their letters to Santa.

Letter to Santa from Harper.
Dear Santa,
I love you very much! For Christmas this year I want:..
1. Big Pink Tedy Bear!
2. Jewery SET!
3. if your elfs can manage to make this I want a Big Pink chandeller in MY Big Bed room!
P.S. How old are you?

Letter to Santa from Ava.
To: Santa
from: Ava (aka live in NC) (aka Fairway place)
DEAR, Santa! for Christmas this year...
1. A Flatscren TV for my Family!
2. Makeup set!
3. A Hot Pink fuzy Big Papasan chair!
P.S.! Santa, I just want to thank you for all the things you do for people in one hole night. And I think we should thank you. Love Ava
And I love Christmas.


The first party was a play date with our "little gnomies" (Harper's friends from Little Gnome Nursery). It was so great to see these friends, that we had not seen since the September 11th peace retreat/camping trip in Virginia. We celebrated Ada's belated birthday with a gluten-free cake. This top photo shows most of the kids on a tire swing.

Party number two was Dylan's birthday party. The kids painted pumpkins, pulled strings on a pinata, and raced around the yard in toy cars. Ava and I both agreed that the screened-in porch, where they had pizza and cake, was our favorite room. Lili made a wonderful cauliflower salad. Colin missed this party to go to the third party at OCSC. It was OCSC's 10th anniversary party. Everything was fine until we tried to leave the second party, after their second piece of chocolate cake for the day. Total melt-down. Harper cried, "I want to go home." And, I knew the third party was not going to happen. At least Colin was able to spend some time there.

We came home and crashed from this whirlwind of a day.