Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. We’ve had some losses this year in the family and some scares, but we’re so happy to have the family and friends we have with us every day.

One of the crafts we made this year, in addition to the normal hand shaped turkeys, was make a Thanksgiving Tree. For this I taped a tree shape on the wall, drew some leaf shapes on paper and had Josie go to town cutting them out and we wrote what we were thankful for on them. Mostly they’re all people, family, friends, neighbors, teachers. Then Josie added in one for each of the seasons. And Cups. Not sure why, but Josie is thankful for cups, and why not. Here’s the girls this morning in front of the good old traditional Thanksgiving Tree.

Today we had a big adventure day for us girls, plus Jordi got to join us a little. First we left right with Jordi in the morning and took the bus and train into the city. Jordi got off the train at Park and we continued to South Station where we got off and walked to the Aquarium. It was cold today but I had them well bundled up. Then around  the aquarium we went until it was lunch time, and only one change of clothes later thanks to the touch tank we headed over to Boylston station to meet up with Jordi for lunch, we took the train this time. Celia fell asleep on my back and Josie got pushed around in the stroller at this point. We enjoyed a nice lunch which Celia slept through most of, we woke her up at the end so she could eat some. Then we brought Jordi back to his office and said hello.

Josie wanted some ice cream so we headed towards Newbury St and got her some at Ben and Jerry’s. Then we walked up to Mass Ave and hopped the buses home. Celia did not like the trains in the morning, I don’t know if it was too loud or dark or what, so I opted for the bus on the way back. I did also give Josie the option of heading home and less walking, but she preferred to walk and have ice cream. I totaled up the distance tonight (South Station to the Aquarium, and Boylston to Hynes) and she walked just shy of 2.5 miles over the day without looking at what she walked inside the aquarium! I’m impressed. Yesterday she walked to ballet class, just about a mile, before doing ballet class too. These long walks do us both good I think, but Celia was pretty miffed at the large amount of time she spent strapped into something. Tomorrow we’ll have to give her more time to mosey around.

Let’s go back only a few weeks shall we, to Halloween. We had a nice little party with the ‘Friday moms’ as I call them as I met them at the Friday morning new moms group. We got together last year and the year before too. This year we got to take photos of the big and little kids, the little kids one didn’t work so well though. So here’s the big kids and our best attempts to get them looking at us, and by us I mean about 8 different cameras in different locations so no one can actually get a picture with everyone looking at them. The group should just hire a professional photographer 🙂

We’ve been having some gorgeous November weather, think 60 degrees and sunny. I’ve been ignoring the housework and taking the kids outside for all the hours that we can still soak up the warm and sunny times before winter sets in. Today it was more rain later in the day, but in the morning we were out again. These photos were from last week during the ‘golden hour’ as I experimented with light techniques.

This one of the two of them was my favorite for the day, must stop chopping off Josie’s feet though but clearly I didn’t have a lot of time to capture the moment.

After our cruise in May, we stopped in Miami for a few more days to see the relatives and friends who couldn’t make it on the cruise with us and introduce them to Celia. Tere and Gilbert hosted a party and so we got to spend some fun time with everyone. But I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.

Josie decided this morning was time for a photoshoot, so here’s some pictures to go with the words about these troublemakers I wrote yesterday.

Josie has reached a new developmental milestone very clearly recently. Lying. Pretty much it is exclusively about having already (not) washed her hands or used the toilet. Perfectly normal, but interesting all the same as I try to not back her into a lie but instead just show her that what I asked for has not happened.

She also listened closely tonight when I told Jordi to turn off a song ‘because she drops a lot of F-bombs’. Josie then immediately asked ‘whats an F-bomb’? So I decided to focus on the ‘bomb’ end of the word and said it’s something that if you drop it it explodes and breaks things. Jordi added that sometimes they use them to knock down old buildings or mountains for roads. Josie then says ‘well, if someone dropped a bomb on something that doesn’t break, then it wouldn’t be a problem.” We just agreed and let the conversation go at that.

I clearly need to watch what I’m saying even more. And my mother needs to remember to stop saying ‘crap’ in front of the kids too. Hi mom!

• Celia said ‘cheese’ for the first time, one of her favorite foods
• Josie turned 3.5 years old exactly
• I found Celia’s 9th tooth. Almost makes up for making me sleep in 45 minute increments last night

Found a nice little spot on the side of the road for photos today walking home from a Halloween party. It’s getting cold!