What's New - Gracie & Clara

When it's not raining here, we've been having beautiful weather. Gracie had some "homework" to do the other day, so we grabbed her stuff and headed outside.


Clara spent the time demonstrating her new trick on the monkey bars.

I was able to teach her how to get back to the slide landing that she launches herself from, instead of having to scream for a grown-up to help her when she wanted down.

Gracie finished cutting her pictures out and then she and Clara goofed around on their "new" swingset.

Thank you Daddy - we love having such a stable and safe place to play!

Gracie got to be out of uniform for school last week, so she got to wear her Halloween "outfit." I bought the tights for her at my JBF sale and wasn't sure if she would wear them, but she loves them - yay! Check out the crazy outfit:


That's a pumpkin glitter shirt, a bow with spiders, orange and black stripey tights and she decided on the saddle shoes to top it all off! Watch out world - here comes my fashionista! Gracie has really come into her own lately. She's super helpful with her younger siblings and is much more independent about lots of things - playing, choosing clothes/dressing, getting ready for bed. It's great to see, but kind of sad sometimes, too!

And here's my Clara-bear. This is a look she seems to be sporting more often these days. She's got quite a serious side to her.

I realize more and more after seeing the struggles Clara has with different things how easy going Gracie is most of the time. But Clara has had some really good days lately, playing with JM while Gracie is at school and really involving him and taking the time to play with him instead of just playing around him or trying to keep him from playing with her things.

Clara loves to help out - she's happiest if I'm doing something "interesting" and she can participate. So here she is helping me with one of my latest projects:


Yes - that's black paint. It won't be the final color, but I'm trying to make a magnetic wall. We'll see what the end result is - hopefully I will be posting a picture of a lovely yellow wall covered with kid art held up by magnets!

Gracie & Clara have become quite the cooking team. We made Snickerdoodles a few weeks ago and it only took about fifteen minutes to get everything measured and mixed. Last week we made "Halloween Custard" (aka, pumpkin pie mix cooked in muffin tins without the crust.) Gracie is working on learning all the different markings on the measuring spoons and cups and Clara is quite the mixer and good at knowing how things go together and in what order. In fact the other night, she told me how to make the couscous!






And finally, we're all getting ready for Halloween.


Decorations are getting put up . . . and taken down . . . and put back up . . .


Two girls that *love* Halloween!

Clara tried on her costume tonight and added a "modern" touch (the sunglasses). She wasn't happy when I started laughing. But I think I've convinced her that her costume might go over better without the glasses!

So can you guess who she is supposed to be? And it's not a princess!