More pictures of the nieces...

I can't help myself, I have to post more pictures of my nieces and their visit. =)

We didn't make the babies cry! It wasn't our fault! Really!!!

Marika really surprised me, with how careful and gentle she was around the babies - it made my heart melt! A couple of years earlier, if I ever held another baby, she'd be really jealous and freak out. My, what a difference time makes!

The weather was actually really nice for a couple of days (80+ degrees!) so Misao had fun sidewalk chalking with the girls... too bad there were so many cars on the driveway or she could have decorated the whole thing! She likes a big canvas!

I brought the butterfly nets out for the girls to use. They seemed to have a good time, what do you think? Apparently, the butterfly nets were also very useful for collecting leaves... =)

And last but not least...there's that family gene in action again... the ability to fall asleep whenever and wherever! In all honesty, we saw that taking care of twins and a toddler was incredibly demanding. I don't know how they did it! Uncle Ken was soooo tired... even with the two girls screaming and jumping around in, he was still able to pass out...!

Finally... the lowdown on the turkey...

Where does the time go??? For the past few weeks, our household has been in a perpetual state of rushing around until today (or so it seems!). So here I am, at long last, updating the blog with our latest adventures...

Over Thanksgiving, my big brother and his family came down for a week. We had a lot of fun hanging out with them, especially since we don't get to see them very often. Although we visit on Skype, it's just not the same.


Daddy Dude hates the sandbox with a passion. It was only because of Mirei's visit that he reluctantly agreed to buy some play sand. Whew! It may only last a few months (where does it go?!), but at least the girls enjoyed playing in it...

Mirei borrowed Mika's bike helmet and we went biking around the neighborhood a few times. When kids look like this (uncomfortable), you wonder how much fun they really have, whizzing around the neighborhood. It must have been fun for them, because one loop wasn't enough!

One of my favorite things about my sister-in-law is that she's a creative soul like I am (she just needs more time for her creativity! Those twins sure keep her busy!). I gave them two bags of Nuudles (non-toxic colored cornstarsh shapes that are water-soluble) and let them loose. Athoough Mika made the first crown (on Mirei), I was really impressed by the crowns Misao made for the girls - I love this picture! What a hoot!

I'm pleased to report that the turkey turned out just fine, even though it'd been a few years since I last cooked one. We decided not to barbeque a second turkey (which, by the way, we did a few days later, to rather unimpressive results) but still ended up cooking all day. Did you know Trader Joe sells pre-brined turkeys? Those were great! Wow, look at that... our dining room table looks tiny with all those people around it! =)

We had been expecting a few more people, but Holly's family was sick and Michelle is a slave to her school papers (it's short-term pain, you remember that!). We missed them, but maybe next year... =)

And here's Grandma with all of her granddaughters. They are all so cute together! It's going to be pretty darn funny in a few years, when they're all talking/running and getting into mischief together. I'm glad they're all pretty close together in age (within 5 years).

If there were such a thing as pilgrim tomboys...

They might look like this!

Mika's teacher gave me a template last week and asked me to trace and cut pilgrim hats for the boys in the class. Since Marika's preschool was looking for a crafts activity to do during their Thanksgiving party, I thought this might work, as long as I modified the template for a smaller head. So here are the girls, modeling the hats. What do you think? And in case you were wondering, I asked them to say, "TURKEY!!!"

This was as much crafting as I have been able to do in the past 2 weeks! I'm trying not to freak out with all the things I have to do this week (major yardwork, menu planning, cleaning the house, grocery shopping, volunteering at both girls' schools), before my brother and his family arrive on Saturday. I spent much of today volunteering my time to help at Mika's library and cutting/collating all sorts of things for her teacher. And for you crafters out there... I had to cut out 160 3/4" diameter holes by hand (craft knife) for their Thanksgiving finger puppets. You are the only people out there who know how long that took me to do!!! (and no, I didn't have a paddle punch to do it with, none of my paper punches were the right size, and there was no way I could use my diecut machine to pull off the task).

In all seriousness... I think I need to scrap tomorrow! =)