From the mouths of babes...

Rose to Mike, as he was dusting (at my request, since I hate dealing with cobwebs):

"Why are you cleaning, Daddy? Mommy usually does that!"

Yes, she is observant! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

My parents came to town last Wednesday night and we had the most lovely Thanksgiving dinner for 5 on Thursday. I was so busy cooking (and having fun!) that I didn't even think to pull out my (real) camera! Thankfully we took a few cell phone pictures so there are some shots to add to Rose's annual photo album!

post-swimming cartoons

"wine" for kids!

selfies while waiting for the turkey to get done...

peeling chestnuts!

dance party!

I had a slew of ideas for how we would spend Friday together, but that was all thwarted when both Mike and Rose got sick. :(   My parents "stood by" for awhile, then eventually ventured off to do some touristy things on their own. Sigh. Definitely not what I envisioned, but apparently we Burcusas needed some down time at home! 

Regardless, it was a wonderful holiday weekend! I loved hosting, and I had so much fun seeing my parents again! Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving as well.

just a hint...

There's a running joke in my family that, while I may be pretty good at keeping secrets, all bets are off once I start giving hints. I've basically ruined every Christmas and birthday surprise ever for each of my parents because I am so phenomenally bad at giving hints that don't completely give away the exact gift itself. And apparently the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree...


Mike and I did a lot of Christmas shopping over the Black Friday / Small Business Saturday / Cyber Monday explosion of online deals, which has resulted in several boxes arriving at our house yesterday and today (thanks to Amazon prime) and several more scheduled to arrive in the next few days. And when I got home from work today, Rose was thrilled to show off the freshly wrapped presents that she and Mike had just finished up for me!

Knowing that she is just three years old and (understandably) terrible at keeping secrets, Mike immediately told her, "remember not to tell Mommy what we got her!!"

Rose was agreeable, but responded: "I'll just give her a hint!"

"Okaaay," I replied hesitantly.

"It's round," she offered, "and goes like this..." (moving her arms out and back together).

"Did you get me an accordion?!" I joked.

"No, it's a watch!" she yelled proudly.



Argh!! 


But I am super excited to receive my present in a few weeks! :)

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In other news, Rose and I worked on Christmas cards tonight after dinner. I finally have a family member who wants to help!!! (Writing Christmas cards is like Mike's own personal waterboarding, so I've had to do it alone for the past 12 years.)  She and I had so much fun licking envelopes and sticking on stamps, all while listening to Christmas music. It was great!!!

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In other Christmas-related news, we went to Jack and Marsha's last weekend to help them decorate (and to eat delicious food).

It was my first time making gingerbread houses, and I had so much fun!!  Now I want to make gingerbread and frosting myself and try it again from scratch...


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Finally, we had yet another bout of illness in our house the last few days. As a result, Rose had a lot of quality time dressed in princess pajamas, ate a lot of smoothies, and watched a lot of movies. Thankfully she appears to be on the mend and was able to go back to school today!

November photo round up

Rose asked me to paint her toenails. She was bored during the process, but thrilled afterward!

The "proper" way to eat PB&J: with a fork.

We had a "playdate" at the zoo yesterday.

Rose and Emma had tons of fun! (And Emma's mom, Anna, and I got to do lots of talking!)

From my friend Danielle's wedding back in September.

 

"Just like Mommy..."

Our little reindeer

Let the planning begin!

another accident

If a picture tells the story of a thousand words, here it is:

note the red abrasion and the HUGE black-and-blue goose egg surrounding it

We had a SUPER busy weekend, so we tried to get outside for a little bit of relaxing "family time" this afternoon while the weather was still nice. We went across the road to the construction site in order to play on the dirt piles and pick up some of the extra rocks to "steal" for our yard. Mike had a backpack on and was handing me rocks to fill it up....

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, Rose ducked in between us, leaned down to climb up a dirt hill on all fours, and Mike swung a rock back to hand to me.   And BAM.



I HATE accidents where Rose gets hurt!!! Inside, I was crying just as much as she was. It was awful.

And the poor girl had to put up with me trying to do a mini concussion eval on her - do you realize how hard it is to test the orientation, memory, and processing speeds of a three-year-old?!?  Thank heavens she didn't lose consciousness and did not report any post-traumatic amnesia.

Now I just have to practice self-forgiveness yet again.