Thanksgiving Program

Our sweet tarts took part in their preschool Thanksgiving program. Neither of them did much singing. In fact, they both ran off stage in the middle of the program and tried to sit with their daddy who was is the front row trying to catch some memories on film. The program ended with a delicious feast that parents and children were able to share together. It was all so precious!

Thanksgiving in San Antonio

This Thanksgiving was spent with family in San Antonio. We had a great time staying with Charlie and Kathy, and a delicious time stuffing our bellies.

Marissa, April and Steve getting the festivities started.

Getting some quality time with Cynthia.

The girls

A beautiful day for an outdoor game of chess

The hostess, Kathy/Grandma, with Marissa and Zack

Auntie April and adorable Zander

Auntie Cynthia and giggly Grayson

The cousins were working hard on decorating their cookies.

"One for my mouth, one for my cookie. One for my mouth, one for my cookie."

Farmers' Market

This Saturday morning we took a trip to a nearby Farmers' Market. To make it a bit more purposeful for the girls, we gave them each strips of paper in each of the colors of the rainbow. Their job was to find a fruit or vegetable in each of the colors, and when they spotted one they needed to hand over their matching strip of paper. When all of their colored papers were gone, they were rewarded with a sweet treat of their choice. And of course, they were both like magnets to the cupcake stand. It was a very windy day, so they held tightly to their purses and only pulled out their papers when absolutely necessary fearing that they might fly away. They had their hearts set on a treat! They found red radishes, orange tomatoes, yellow squash and canary melons, green English cucumbers and dinosaur kale, blue bluebonnet hand-made soap (this was a hard one) and purple peppers.

She just spotted purple peppers.

"I see something red. What are those?"

Enjoying her gluten-free vanilla cupcake with sprinkles.

The girls shared their first cup of horchata. Mmmmm...Mommy's favorite!

Victoria and Daddy are groovin' to the music.

Thanksgiving Themed Fun at Home

Here are a few photos of Isabella working on her Thanksgiving Tot Pack. We've been working on a page of two each day after lunch. It's been a great way to reinforce letter recognition and work on her pre-writing skills while learning some Thanksgiving vocabulary.



She also helped make some pumpkin-scented play dough. They had fun pretending to make cookies with it.



And then they got to help Mommy make a pumpkin pie from scratch. It was delectable!

Pumpkin Fetish

These things brought a little more pep in my step today! I love the holidays!

Cinderelli, Cinderelli!

This past weekend, I finally broke out the movie "Cinderella" that I had been saving for over a year. As Mark and I prepared for our Open House, we let the girls become enthralled and distracted so we could get some stuff done around our home. Well, here is what their idea of fun was last night...scrubbing the garage floor just like their new favorite princess.

Halloween Fun

After reading and re-reading the book that Nana last gave them, "Pinkalicious and the Pink Pumpkin", they chose to paint their pumpkins pink. And of course, since these girls are rarely fully clothed when they are at home, they are painting in their panties. That's how the Carvajals roll.

Excited to start carving. What face should we choose?

"You want me to do what with the seeds?"

"I may be little, but I'm brave. Let me have a try."

Our precious Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street. This little one had chosen to be a hot pink butterfly months ago, but when the day came, she refused to put on the black leotard. So, with minutes to spare, Mommy pulled out Isabella's costume from last year and crossed her fingers that she'd oblige. She was happy that she still got to wear her wings.

Our other butterfly. Months ago she chose to be a "light pink butterfly".

How come no one told me I needed lotion on my knees? They really need to make Mommy Knee Pads.

We had dinner at Mimi's house with the Bumba family who came straight from Oz.

"Victoria, protect me from the ghost and goblins!"

I'm not afraid of this butterfly catcher!

All four butterflies

Catchin' Up

So, it seems like quite a while since I've caught you up on the latest happenings around the Carvajal household. It's been nearly four weeks since the last post. Yikes! Well, we've been keeping ourselves very busy with fall fun, birthday parties, and the big move. (I'll do a separate post about the move.) Anyway, I promise to do a better job of keeping you up to date. Here are some photos of events that kept us busy this October:

Happy 2nd birthday Sierra!

We got one day of rain this month! Victoria was excited to break out her rainboots and umbrella to go get the newspaper.

Mark shot a big buck with his bow.

Filling up before heading out to the Elgin Pumpkin Patch.

We love hanging out with our cousins! We had so much fun swinging, running through the corn maze, taking a hayride, decorating a pumpkin, racing rubber duckies, and eating lunch! Let's come again tomorrow!