Four States in Four Days....

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving Holiday! We did join the throngs of people travelling this fine weekend, and were, as the title of this post says...in four states in four days! Now this would actually be more impressive if we didn't live within 20 minutes of 3 other states, but none the less....I liked the sound of it!

We spent Thanksgiving in New Jersey at my parents house with just about everyone. It was a good day, we arrived early and had some one on one time with Mom mom and Pop pop before everyone got there. Then the playing commenced...and didn't cease until we left that evening! Maddie definately had a good time with her cousins! She liked the turkey but preferred the mashed potatoes and stuffing!

Maddie and Cousin Molly sharing a hug on Thanksgiving...

The next day (Friday) we spent almost the entire day at home. (Yes, I am counting being home in Delaware as one of the four states!) It was good, but we were doing things like laundry and cleaning up and playing (of course!) .

Saturday, while Ron stayed home to work on his "shop", Maddie and I headed up to PA to visit my best friends from college! Maddie did her best to charm them into submission and they were feeding her goldfish crackers and Cheerios like no tomorrow! It was great to get together, we sat, chatted and visited the playground in the development.

Maddie playing on the swings...At first, it was not a pleasant experience for her, she kept thinking she was going to fall. Even to the point of saying "fall" while whimpering...it was so sad! But as you can see, we worked up to the point where she was having fun while swinging, and even asked to do it again!

Sunday we went down to Maryland to visit Nana and to go see the Festival of Trees (which was beautiful - ok some were beautiful and I took pictures of them, some were gaudy...I didn't take pictures of them!) We spent a good part of the day with Nana, went out for lunch and attempted to thwart all plans of a nap for the day, but the ride in the car home did the trick there!!!

Just because....

It's yet another fun post! Yes, there will be some pictures... We're getting ready for the holidays slowly and already have most of our weekends planned out between now and the New Year with parties, family visits, etc.

Maddie is really talking more and more each day. She loves singing different songs and will stop part way through one and ask to start singing a different one! I think the funniest one is having her sing "Tomorrow, Tomorrow I love you Tomorrow" where she holds the notes on "You're only a DAAAAAYYYYYY AAAAAAAAAAWAAAAAYYYYYY". We practice saying everyone's name each morning on the drive to school and she loves being tickled and trying to tickle Mommy and Daddy. She is definately keeping us on our toes!

Maddie having a blast with the laundry basket of all things!!! What is so amazing is when she first came home, she couldn't get in, now she jumps in and out....my gosh, they grow up SOOOOO fast!!!

Maddie at Nana's house in Maryland.

Maddie at Longwood Gardens again close up and personal with the mums!!!

Mums with my Mum and Dad

We went to Longwood Gardens this past weekend with my parents and neice Molly. It was their annual Chrysanthemum Festival, which is my favorite flower...they also had music, dance, arts from East Asia. The day we were there the Golden Dragon Acrobats were performing....both Maddie and Molly seemed to enjoy the hour long show! Not so sure how much they enjoyed the flowers besides getting to run around and do a "stamp hunt". Ahh, but that is the great balancing act, trying to get out and do stuff that is fun and interesting to both adults and kids...I'm definately getting a new perspective on potential outings! We are lucky in that Maddie takes so much in stride that she travels quite well. (Hopefully this will be true for our trip to Florida early next year!) Now...onto the pictures!!!

Pop Pop, Mom Mom, Molly and Maddie enjoying the flowers...

Molly and Maddie, pretty in pink!!!

I think it was 2,000 origami cranes...

Yup...all in all Maddie had a good time!

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween came and went at our house with its normal chaos. Where we live we get TONS of kids each year, which is a blast. Maddie didn't want to wear her Monkey costume ON halloween (although has worn it other nights...so cute, especially when she does the monkey sound with it!) so she made due with her Halloween dress and helped give out candy all evening til the wee hours of 8pm when it was time to go to bed.

Maddie smiling big for the camera.

Maddie as a Monkey.