november

November has been another busy month--no surprise there.  Thanks to the gratitude countdown that Harper and Hunter's beloved Grammie Eccles puts together for us each year, we have kept the spirit of Thanksgiving in our hearts all month long, as we celebrate all that we have to be grateful for--which is a LOT.  This month, we are particularly grateful for our family and friends and for the million different ways that they enhance and enrich our lives:

Last Sunday, Harper had a line in the Primary Program at our church.  She had chosen it herself: I know that Jesus loves me.  It has been a really sweet experience to watch Harper develop a budding testimony of her own, learning about her Savior and the blessings that surround her.  I am grateful that she knows His love.  During the program, while many of the other kids her age became very shy when it was their turn to speak, Harper stood right up at the microphone and proudly shared her part, "I know that Jesus loves me."

We were also lucky to have a visit from the Kelly girls this month, our dear friends who sadly moved all the way to Utah shortly before Hunter was born.  We have known them for almost ten years, and during that time they became much more like family than friends to us.  We miss them so much now that they live thousands of miles away so we were thrilled to get to spend a little bit of quality time with at least part of their family while they were in town.  On Monday, the Hs and I had a fun lunch date with Lauren, Maren, and Denise.  They returned the next night to say hi to Dallin as well.  The girls had promised Harper that they would paint her nails for her, and you know she reminded them!  Of course, Hunter didn't want to be left out so--much to his father's chagrin--he received his first pedicure, blue and green.  Very masculine.  The kids were thrilled, and we were all so happy to be able to visit with our beloved friends.  We only wish we had more time with them, but we are grateful we got to see them.

Harper and Hunter with Lauren and Maren--
We wish they didn't have to leave!

Getting in the Christmas spirit at the mall

Hunter's first pedicure!

We have also had some really fun playdates with our little friends this month!  Whether it is at our house or someone else's house, one of our favorite ways to finish out the day--or "the witching hour" as us mamas call it--is in the company of our favorite little friends.  Harper and Hunter just adore their time with friends.  For some reason, the kiddos always end up hiding in the bath tub at our house, but they are so cute and funny that it's hard to coax them out.  These wild little spirits truly color our world.

Little friends, big bathtub 

Little H and G, getting silly

Harper and Anne looooove beading.

We also made it to the Children's Museum this month.  We hadn't been since we went for Hunter's birthday last year, and it was fun to see how much difference a year makes.  Harper loved making bubbles in the bubble room, while Hunter couldn't get enough of all of the activities in the ping pong ball exhibit.  My college roommate and her husband and sweet little girl came down from New Hampshire to meet us there, and we had fun exploring together and then grabbing lunch afterwards.  

Climbing at the Children's Museum

Little h, big bubble

We have been lucky enough to spend a lot of time outside this month too.  The weather has been amazing.  We live for these chilly but brilliantly sunny fall days.  One of the days of our gratitude countdown was appreciating nature so the Hs and I went up to the wildlife sanctuary right in our very own town.  I used to go there a lot when I was little, and I have some of the best memories of attending various camps there.  It was really special to be back there with my own children, and it was magical to wander the paths together, enjoy the sunshine through the trees.  We are lucky to have such a beautiful sanctuary in our very own town and look forward to spending more time there.   

Feeling grateful for nature and beautiful fall days!

The weather has also brought us to the park this month.  Hunter has become super adventurous, making a beeline to the "big kid park" as soon as we arrive so that he can go down the most ridiculously tall slide ever.  The look of glee on his face makes the terror that I feel almost worth it.  He is becoming such a big kid right before our eyes!  I love his wildly sweet little spirit.

At the end of each day, what the Hs look forward to most is our gratitude countdown.  Dallin's mom has made our celebration of Thanksgiving so much more meaningful by organizing daily activities and lessons about the spirit of Thanksgiving and all that we have to be thankful for.  We appreciate the opportunity to come together as a family for these daily reminders.  My favorite part of our annual gratitude countdown is when we get to pick out toys for little friends who are less fortunate than we are.  As in years past, we select a little girl Harper's age and a little boy Hunter's age from the wish drive at the Home for Little Wanderers.  My sweet little Hs just love picking out the gifts, and it's such an important conversation to talk about who we are buying the gifts for--and why.

Choosing toys for friends who have less than we do
is one of our favorite things to do in November!

Getting silly while learning about gratitude

Hunter, reading about the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving

Painting a wooden turkey to send to Uncle PJ during his deployment

I am overwhelmed with gratitude for our little family.  They are the best and brightest parts of everyday, and my heart is so full.  The days can be long sometimes, but there is nothing greater than our adventures as a growing family.  Of course, it takes a village--and we are especially thankful to our family and friends, whose love and kindness means everything and truly buoys us up.  As we turn our calendars to December, we look forward to maintaining the spirit of gratitude throughout the Christmas season.

My heart

"The baby kicked my hand!  That's okay--he can kick my hand." -Harper

harper turns 4!

Happy 4th birthday to our sweet, little H!
Cupcakes for breakfast.

This month, we celebrated the birth of our sweet little Harper!  It's hard to believe that she is already four years old.  When she was born, she came as the answer to our prayers, a bright light after so much darkness, and she has been my best little girlfriend from that day on.

Since Hunter's birthday in September, Harper has been asking if it's her birthday yet.  We explained that first it would be Halloween, and then it would be her birthday.  So, of course, on November 1, she asked, "Is today my birthday?"  Oops.  Another 18 days later, she got her wish--and that was only the beginning of the celebration.

Harper's birthday was on a Thursday this year, which is one of the days that she goes to school.  She had told me much earlier that she wanted a "Frozen" party.  I talked her into a "winter wonderland" theme for her family birthday party, but we obliged her Frozen birthday wishes when it came to her classroom celebration.  The night before, we baked cupcakes--vanilla with chocolate frosting, also per her request.  We sprinkled them with snowflake shaped sprinkles, Harper being very diligent and strategic with the sprinkle placement.  Then we added a Frozen ring topper to each.  Harper was super concerned that she get an Elsa ring, and I assured her that the birthday girl most certainly got to choose her cupcake first--but just to be on the safe side, we mentioned it to her teacher in the morning too.  

I had taken the day off from work to make her birthday special, but I was actually really happy that Harper loves school so much that she wanted to go celebrate with friends rather than hanging out with her mom.  She had a special morning with her classmates, where she got to wear a special birthday crown and have everyone sing to her.  She also received a little gift from her teachers: a rainbow slinky!  She is pretty much obsessed with her slinky, though it continues to get tangled.  Hunter loves it too, of course.  We may have to splurge for a second slinky to keep the peace.

Harper, in her birthday crown at school!

I picked Harper up early from school so that we could have a special date before Hunter was done with school for the day.  First, we met Harper's friend, Brenn, and her mom for a lunch date at Harper's favorite pizza place.   After lunch, we said goodbye to our friends and then headed up to the mall so that Harper could pick out a pair of new dress shoes--or two.  Then we picked up Hunter from school and all headed downtown together to get Dallin from work early so that we could have dinner together.  Harper got to pick the restaurant: Full Moon, one of our favorite Cambridge spots, since they are the most family friendly restaurant in all of Boston and have the best kids' play area.  I don't know that Hunter ate even a morsel of his dinner, opting to play at the train table instead, but it was a delicious dinner at least for Dallin and me--and then we headed home for…presents!

4 years old!

Harper's special gift this year was a new bike!  Even though the weather will be getting chilly and not exactly bike friendly soon, this big girl bike was something we have been wanting to get for her for a while so we are hoping she and Daddy can get a few good practice days in before the winter comes.  She was SO excited when Dallin wheeled it in; definitely a successful birthday for our favorite little four year-old!  

We continued Harper's birthday celebration that weekend.  One thing she really wanted to do for her birthday was a piñata, but we thought that activity would be much more fun with other little friends--especially because Hunter, for whatever reason, is a little scared of hitting a piñata.  The irony is that he is content to hit just about anything else with his wiffle bat, but so it goes sometimes.  So we invited our little neighborhood friends to join us at the park down the street on Saturday morning for birthday donuts, a piñata, and some park play.  Of course, we were excited to surprise Harper with a FROZEN piñata to continue the theme we started at her preschool celebration.  We brought a bunch of giant snowflake balloons and some Frozen themed goodie bags to round out the celebration and make it feel really festive.  Harper and the kids had a blast whacking the piñata and then scurrying around to collect all the treats when it finally broke.

The victories crew--holding up pieces of the smashed piñata!
And their treat bags, of course...

The final installment of Harper's birthday celebration took place the very next day, when we had our family over for a "winter wonderland" party.  Harper wore the beautiful white jeweled dress that Mimi had gotten for her a few weeks prior, along with the special snow queen headband we had chosen together at Nordstrom earlier in the week during our mall date.  We had snowflakes hung everywhere, a giant number 4 balloon, snowflake cupcakes from our favorite spot--Georgetown Cupcake--and even winter terrariums glowing in the living room.  Harper, as always, loved being surrounded by her family and friends.  She is truly in her element when she has all of her people surrounding her, and it was such a fun evening.

Winter wonderland was the perfect theme for our little girl.  It was December when she finally left the hospital after she was born, spending the first few weeks of her life in the hospital NICU.  One of the first things we ordered for her was her Christmas stocking.  At the time, her baby hair was so dark that I was convinced she was going to be a brunette like her mama, and we picked a darling little stocking with a dark haired dancing girl embroidered on it.  Our little blondie loves it nonetheless, and she is just merry all the year round.

I am so grateful to be this sweet girl's mother, for the adventures she has shared with me these past four years, for the patience she continues to teach me, and for her infinite kindness.  I am nowhere near perfect enough to mother this perfect little spirit, but she showers me with more love and forgiveness than I ever knew to be possible.  Oh how we love our darling Harper and look forward to every moment that age 4 has in store for her.  Happiest birthday, to our lovely little H! 

Harper's first school picture!
With a red bow for Marjorie--who we remember at every milestone.

No birthday is complete without a trip to the pediatrician;
this little 4 year-old nailed her check up!

happy halloween!

Happy Halloween from Tinker Bell--
wishing you tricks, treats, and a side of pixie dust!

Happy Halloween from sweet Peter Pan in Never Never Land!

It was a happy Halloween indeed!  There were actually Halloween festivities all week long, which made the week feel both extremely long but also super fun.  Plus, Harper and Hunter sure got to make the most of their costumes, which is always a good thing from a mama's perspective--given the amount of time and preparation that Halloween costumes require.  Here is a look at our Halloween week!

Waiting in the wings

The celebrations began on Monday.  Harper attended dance class with her friend, Amelia, who also happens to be our next door neighbor.  Typically Harper has dance on Fridays, but with all the Halloween activities scheduled for that day, we knew she wouldn't be able to attend her regularly scheduled class and thought it would be fun for her to make up the class with her friend.  She had a blast!  Amelia's teacher is Miss Amanda, the same teacher that Harper had last year, so she AND Hunter were both so happy about that.  In addition to wearing their Halloween costumes to class, it was open studio day too, which meant that Hunter and I got to sit inside the class with the other parents and siblings to watch the girls dance to fun, festive songs like The Monster Mash and Thriller.  Halloween treats at the end of class were like the cherry on top of a great morning!

That week, submissions were also due for the pumpkin decorating contest at our local 5&10 store.  The contest guidelines were to decorate a large orange paper pumpkin (provided by the store) using only the color black.  Harper was excited for the challenge, and she spent pretty much all month layering different black mediums on her pumpkin: black paint, black strips of paper, black pipe cleaners, black pom-poms, and black tape.  The finished product was the most adorable little witch pumpkin you have ever seen.  She was SO excited to drop it off at the store.  We watched them hang it up in the window, which was such a proud moment for Harper.  Every time we have passed the store since, she always shouts, "There's my pumpkin!" so much that now Hunter always shouts, "Harper's pumpkin!"  

Clearly, the store agreed because we got a call a few days later, and…SHE WON!  I think that Harper was actually more excited about her pumpkin in the window than the fact that she was the winner--and that in itself is probably a good thing.  However, she was over the moon about the fact that, as the winner, she got a store gift certificate that she was allowed to spend on anything she wanted.  Her pick: a mermaid doll that she promptly named Aurora.  Interestingly, when I was taking the tag off her doll later in the evening, I noticed that the tag clearly listed the mermaid's name: Aurora.  Coincidence?  Or toddler genius?  Hmmm...  

Harper's entry for the Halloween pumpkin contest

Harper, proudly pointing out her entry in the window

This year, Halloween was on a Saturday, which I was super excited about since it meant Dallin would be home from work and could join in the festivities of the day (an action packed holiday is always more fun and more manageable with two adults in tow).  At least that is what I initially thought would happen.  What it actually meant was that Halloween would begin on Friday and extend all the way through to Saturday night.  Whew!  Exhaustion.  But we sure did make the most of every moment...

On Friday morning, Harper, Hunter, and I ventured into Harvard Square to attend a special Halloween story time at the Curious George Store.  This fun activity is something they hold every year.  We had heard great things about it from friends, but the timing had never worked out for us in the past so the kids were pretty excited to be able to go this year.  We met up with a couple of friends there, which made the experience all the more fun. First, they read a couple of Curious George stories; then they did a craft; and then the kids had the opportunity to meet George!  The Hs loved the story time and making Halloween masks, but they wanted absolutely NO part of seeing George.  Unfortunately, larger-than-life costumed characters are pretty much their nightmare--but we all have our limits.  We needed to duck out anyway to make it to Harper's school in time for her Halloween parade so all is well that ends well.

Brenn and Harper, wearing the Halloween masks they made!

When we arrived at Harper's school, the students all lined up by class, while the parents and family members gathered on the sidewalk.   They paraded out in their cute costumes, Harper walking alongside Abigail, one of her little school besties.  The best part was that all of the teachers were decked out in full costume.  Harper's teacher, Mrs. Sacca, was wearing an Incredibles superhero costume, mask and all.  I love how much they embraced the holiday, making it so much fun for the school community.  As the kids passed, parents joined alongside their child to parade around the block.  Hunter was with me, of course, so it was kind of slow going, but we had a lot of fun on such a beautiful, sunny day.  

I spy a cute little Tinker Bell!  Do you see her???

Little friends, all dressed up!
Hunter, baby Kathryn, Harper, Ian, and Alice

After the parade, we returned home for lunch and a nap so that we could recharge for the rest of the day.  In the afternoon, we planned to head over to Hunter's school to see all the little Payson Playmates friends in their Halloween costumes, before continuing on to Cushing Square for Belmont's annual Halloween stroll.  It was fun walking over there with our school friends, including Harper's little friend Alice who is now in preschool like Harper and no longer attends.  It's always fun having the chance to catch up with friends. During the Halloween stroll, all the local businesses open their doors, and everyone passes out candy to the kids by the bucket full.  I was a bit surprised that they decided to hold the stroll on Friday instead of on the actual day of Halloween, especially because it meant manning the mad scene on my own, rather than with Dallin.  And what a scene it was--PACKED with people--but the kids scored tons of treats and had a blast.  Dallin met up with us towards the end, and we walked back home together, nibbling candy along the way.

But our night wasn't over yet!  I had signed us up for a special night time Halloween benefit at Drumlin Farm.  The major selling point for me was the promise of a spooky hayride, and I figured that it would be kid friendly since Drumlin Farm is such a family spot--our favorite farm, in fact.  I was a little off with my assumption--oops.  The hayride was really spooky, with people planted along the way acting like zombies and grabbing at the wagon and yelling as it rumbled by.  Fortunately, Hunter was totally oblivious, but Harper couldn't wait for the ride to be over.  That said, she was super brave, snuggling up close but never saying a word.  You win some, you lose some.  But we did run into some friends, which was fun, and Harper got her face painted with an adorable little pink glittered paw print.  It had been a loooong day so we didn't stay very long at the farm, especially knowing we had the whole Halloween day ahead of us.  I was glad we tried something new though.

The next morning, we attended a Halloween brunch party at our friends', the Staples, home.  I had spray painted two dozen mini pumpkins with chalkboard paint for the little friends to decorate at the party.  As a special tribute to Marjorie, I also spray painted a large pumpkin and then monogrammed it with a large gold "M."  It brought tears to my eyes to see Marjorie's little friends decorating her special pumpkin, and my mind flashed back to last Halloween--when she was dressed up like a pumpkin, a happy little flash of orange tulle darting around our Halloween party with her signature excitement.  The image of her staring up at Harper, who was dressed as Princess Anna, remains one of my favorites, etched in my mind and on my heart.  I feel grateful for the treasured memory, that we can return to each Halloween.

The party was a lot of fun.  All the kids did a little ghost parade, parading around the lawn with little ghosts made of cheese cloth on sticks.  We also had a Halloween costume contest, and Harper and Hunter won for best couples' costume!  They do make a pretty sweet pair...  

Best couples' costume for the Neverland twins!

That afternoon, we returned to Wilson Farms for a final Halloween field trip.  Instead of the spooky hayride they have had in years past, this year they did a haunted hay maze.  We had been wanting to try it out but the timing just hadn't worked out, and Halloween was our last chance.  I was so glad we made it--just under the wire too!  Harper and Hunter were excited to have Daddy along for this Wilsons trip.  After we made it through the hay maze, we grabbed some hot cider and fresh apple cider donuts for the road.  After all, proper fuel is crucial for a busy Halloween.

Then it was FINALLY time for the big event: trick or treating!!!!  This year, we planned to go trick-or-treating with our neighborhood friends.  We are lucky to live on the best little street imaginable, and so we had been looking forward to spending Halloween with our treasured neighborhood crew.  We started out next door at our neighbors' house for pizza dinner, and from there we hit the neighborhood.  Trick or treating was such a fun experience because both Harper and Hunter were totally into it.  I was actually surprised by Hunter's enthusiastic "trick or treat!"  What was especially sweet was the way Harper's neighborhood besties, Amelia and Lara, would ask at each house, "Do you have a doggie or kitty?" to make sure the coast was clear for Harper to approach the door.  We are so grateful for these sweet little friends who make our neighborhood feel like home.

Amelia and Harper--two little girls, one big bowl of candy corn.

We lasted a lot longer out trick or treating than I expected, but soon enough the candy buckets were filled, and it was time to head home. The Hs made out like bandits, and we all had the best time. We let them eat their weight in candy when we got home because, well, they sure earned it.  Then it was off to bed because, well, we all earned our bedtime this week.  Happy Halloween to all--and to all a good night!

Until next year!