November 3, 2010

Their little tea party.

Trying to convince me she is tall enough to reach the pedals and the steering wheel while still seeing out the windshield.

November 2, 2010

We spent some time this morning making cards for Aunt Rebekah.

My frustrated little artist.

It's back to smile before long, though.

Then it was time to play with our Day of the Dead sticker books.

Grace completes her igloo homework.

Suki and Kate help me make our cake for tonight.

After naps, we made some decorations for our party.

All done!

We also decorated our cake.

Time for our party! We started with dinner and lots of story sharing about our dear loved ones who have passed on.

Then we shared our cake and laughed, shared more stories and songs.

The tough part for these girls was understanding that we really weren't going to eat the sixth piece of cake that we cut to symbolically share with those who have died. Truly, I love this tradition of celebrating those who've deceased and keeping them with us in our lives, setting aside a time for the girls to learn about the people they'll never meet, and keeping death from being a frightening, remote thing.

November 1, 2010

Early in the morning.

Suki wanted to see a picture of her truck and I loved how it came out.

Kate looks out the window. Beware, for within lies...

...the lion!

Slowly but surely putting on cold weather clothes.

Off to get Grace. Kate asked for her bee costume again, and when I put it on she immediately commenced with the cries of "trick or treat!"

Marina pushes classmates and friends Nina, Grace, and Julian. Nico's in there too, behind Julian.

Suki's gorgeous watercolor.

Grace examines Suki's farm scene.

We came home to open a package sent from Japan by Uncle Dominic and Aunt Kazumi (plus cousins Sakura and John Leo). They were so delighted to find these treats!

Kate is showing her smile as the girls say "thank you!"

Later, everyone found innovative uses for these festive buckets.

What a sweet surprise!