Life At The Circus

It was our first time trick or treating in the new neighborhood and I gotta say it felt weird this year not doing it with our neighbor like we’ve done for the past several years.  It wasn’t the same. Still we had a good time dressing up as our favorite characters and chowing down on candy bar after candy bar when we got home.  We let the kids go all in and devour their loot when they got home… then we let that sugar coma set in while we vegged on the couch with a little Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin.  This year we had Batman and Batgirl swoop in on the bad guys of Gotham City. As well as the American girl doll Kit (don’t they look like twins?) and bringing up the rear like a caboose was our very own Choo-Choo… We now have waaaaay more candy than any household should have in its possession. Happy Halloween from the Circus Fam 2012!

For many north of us on the east coast, Sandy was more than an adventure… it was a catastrophe.  It was devastation.  It was unlike anything I have ever seen first hand or experienced.  So, I hesitate to even really blog about our adventure… b/c for us… that’s what it was, an adventure.  An escape from the normal day to day living for a few days.  A “Staycation” if you will.  We heard about Sandy well before she hit MD and we did all we could to prepare.  I baked 2 loaves of bread, baked cookies, stocked up on pasta and sauce, washed all of our clothes and dishes, found flashlights and candles, bought water, filled all the bathtubs with water (so we could flush toilets when the power went out, filled pots and bowls with water for the dog, and for cooking, bought paper plates, and Scott did his very best to try and get our generator working.  Monday evening around 6:30 the power went out.  With a LOUD pop right before.  We knew that...

Some days we wake up on “school at the building days” with clothes all lined up and ready the night before, I’ve gotten lunches packed complete with notes from Mom, and we’re out the door on time so we can arrive at the building with plenty of time to drop everyone's books off in their classrooms and report to the sanctuary for opening with time to spare. And some mornings Mom oversleeps when her alarm goes off, laundry isn’t put away so we find ourselves scrounging through baskets of laundry looking for matching socks, lunches are packed but without drinks b/c we couldn’t find water bottles, and we stumble out the door racing the clock, with bed head and arrive at school only to discover the socks were left on the kitchen counter so we’re going in with just sneakers and no cute knee socks… Which morning do you think it was when we had class pictures in front of the building at 8:30am sharp?

As much as I hate the cold, I really am a 4 seasons kind of girl.  I love the beginning of a new season…. bringing out favorite clothes, decorations, foods, traditions only enjoyed for a season.  It’s refreshing and exciting and makes me so grateful for the climate we live in.  But, this year, more than most I have been crazy excited about fall.  I can’t explain it.  But, I’m more giddy than normal about pulling out my jeans and boots and sweaters.  I LOVE my fall decorations and am burning my pumpkin spice candle every waking second I am at home.  Speaking of pumpkin, I seemed to have fully jumped on the pumpkin band wagon this year, which is kinda funny b/c I’m not really that into pumpkin ( I think I like pumpkin spice more than pumpkin itself)… but this year I seem to be a sucker for any pumpkin product… we’ve had pumpkin waffles, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bagels, pumpkin spice marshmallows… and thanks to this thing called PUMPKIN SPICE MILK I f...

While he’s been interested in going on the potty for awhile now… even going on his own every once and awhile, I haven’t yet been reading to dive full in to the potty training process with my youngest.   Just last week I was talking to a friend about our 2 year olds and I told her "I am not ready yet.”  Because potty training is a lot of work.  It takes time and patience and flexibility.   While it is great to emerge on the other side with a child who no longer needs diapers, the process of getting there is, in my opinion, no fun. But, today while at Target for more diapers b/c he was wearing the very last one I could find in the house (as in I had already scoured the van, all the bathrooms, and dug this one out of the corner of the closet.. very last one), we stumbled down the underwear aisle and the kids found “choo choo” undies which he of course got so excited about.  I bought them b/c I knew they would be great incentive for the day when...

I was scrolling around on pinterest one night and a graphic caught my eye that made me stop in my tracks.  It showed 2 sides of the brains and listed descriptions for left/brain right brain people.  I think often people are largely a little bit of both.  However, when I looked at this graphic, it was like a portrait of my daughters. I swear my 6 year old could be the poster child for the left brained person. And equally astonishing to me was the fact that as I looked closely at the adjectives for the right brained person, I found my 5 year old fit it TO THE TEE!   As I think back to the post I did this summer describing her personality… this was her.   I am astonished that both girls could be SO DIFFERENT.  While my boys appear to be more blends of both, my girls are quite distinct in their personalities.  I see it in the way they organize their stuff, they way they dress, they way they keep their rooms, do their school work, even ...