Portland!!

 I was so excited to meet up with Katie and Steph for the Association of Middle Level Educators conference which was in Portland Oregon this year.  I didn't know what to expect from Portland, but I loved the city. The public transportation is so easy to use, there are so many fun eateries (hands down, best soups ever!!) and breweries and it was so great to shop without having two little kids rushing you out of stores.  We pretty much lucked out with the weather too.  The forecast called for rain, but we didn't run into any of it.  The conference was interesting. The sessions were okay but the most valuable part of the conference was networking with professors and other educators.  I went to a very interesting session about publishing articles and it kind of kicked me in the butt to get moving with article writing again. And of course, going out after the conference was fabulous.  It was so nice to be back with Katie and Steph again! It's hard to believe a year ago, we had just finished watching Katie defend her dissertation and we were on our way towards graduation.  Now we are scattered all over the coasts.  There were a few times we wished we our families with us so we could see everyone, but these mommies really needed a bit of a break.

At a bar where we listened to jazz all night

Checking out Voodoo doughnuts after we ate our way Portland on our last night.  We were not disappointed.

Can't wait for another reunion.

MIa's Two!!

Two years have flown by and my little baby is no longer a little baby.  We didn't have a big birthday party for Mia this year because we decided to treat the girls to a weekend at Sea World and celebrate Mia's bday with Shamu. We did have some cupcakes and opened up gifts the night of her birthday and she loved every minute.  Now that the weather is changing, we needed to get Mia a supply of 2T winter clothes (didn't have too many passed down from Makaela since we didn't need them in Hawaii) and of course she loves Elmo and Sesame Street so she had to get some fun Sesame Street books and toys.



Terrible Twos

In the past month, our little Mia has grown leaps and bounds.  She is starting to talk a lot more.  Her new phrases are "I did it!" and "I'm stuck".   She is in love with our 8 month old neighbor and hugs baby Charlotte whenever she can.  Today she pointed at Charlotte and said, "I want that".  We all got a good laugh at that one since she may not be saying the same thing after Feb comes and she is no longer the baby. 

She wants to do everything her sister does and sometimes that gets her into a bit of trouble. She gets very insulted when Makaela goes out to play with the older kids on the block and Mia can't.  She also has a love/hate relationship with her big "sissy".  Here she is in a self induced "time out" after pulling a chunk of her sister's hair out.  She had been in time out twice that evening, so after this incident, I guess she figured out this was where she was going to end up...smart cookie.

Can't believe she is going to be 2 in a few short days!!

Mommy Daughter Redecorating

So I guess I am in my nesting phase because two weeks ago, I started making some redecorating plans.  Makaela got all jazzed with all the paint coming into the house and after watching us paint our bathroom she asked if we could "paint" her bathroom, so last Saturday, we stayed up until 11pm and painted polka dots all over her bathroom.  I did the outlines and she painted about 80% of them.  It was definitely an exercise in patience and there are a few imperfections, but Makaela is so proud of it, it made it all worth it and we definitely got some bonding time in.

Halloween Part II

A fun thing about raising girls is the multiple costume changes (okay, maybe not so great when I have to do the laundry, but on Halloween, it makes it a bit more fun).  For the evening of Halloween, Makaela changed out of her Ariel costume and into her Merida costume.  

The North Cappero kids

Mia was all about the lollipops

Our neighbors Elmo (Zachary) and Ryan

Trick or Treating

 There was a few adult treat or treating houses as well.  At our corner, a neighbor was passing out Crown Royal and jello shots.  Another neighbor was passing out beer.  Still another was passing out chocolate liquors.  Matt is already planning on setting up his apple cider shots next year. 

Everyone was out- it was craziness.  Our entire block (well at least those with kids) marched down the streets in a caravan.  The other blocks did the same.

Makaela and Carley

Mia and the fourth lollipop of the night.

It was a bit difficult to keep an eye on Makaela this year since she and her pack of friends ran from house to house ahead of us.  Mia enjoyed sitting in the wagon for the majority of the night eating all the candy.  She was on such a sugar high, she danced herself into the bath.  Matt and I were laughing at her bopping her head and shaking her bottom- the funniest part was there was no music on. It was great having Matt home this year for Halloween though.  He missed the last two Halloweens due to his tour in Iraq.



Halloween Part I

The girls got to dress up in their costumes for a school Halloween parade.  Unfortunately neither Matt nor I could go due to work, but I snapped a few pictures before I dropped them off.  Here is Mia looking all upset...

 And here, she is happy after she has wrenched the backpack out of Makaela's hands...now Makaela doesn't look so happy (with a good reason too).

My gladiator

We were invited to a Halloween party- appearantly the party of the year in the neighborhood and the theme this year was a Roman toga party.  At the last minute I decided to stay home with the kid because I have been working like crazy and have no desire to stay up past midnight. Matt went since he put a great deal of effort into his costume (plus, it was bound to be a great time).  I definitely got a kick out of seeing him before he left.