Don’t you love traditions? I love the feeling of continuity it brings when I bring out certain decorations or make a special dish for dinner. It just gives you a sense of time. Now that my girls are here, I’m always looking for traditions they can remember and love too. One of these is our annual pumkin run.

Right after Leina turned 2, we heard about a little local farm that had a nice pumpkin field, animals to pet and a little hay maze. It’s not the ginormous affair that happens on Sauvie Island. It’s much calmer and smaller but it suits us just fine. Even better, they have some cut outs that they put out every year and I make sure to snap a picture of the girls in front of them. This is our third trip so I finally have enough pictures for comparison and man, how time flies.

Here we are our first year, 2005, when Leina was only a 2 years old. Kulia was lugged around in the backpack and didn’t make it into the shot.

In 2006, Kulia joined in the fun. She was a wee thing but totally game. Can you believe how much Leina grew in just one year?!?!?

Today, we added the 2007 entry to our montage. Now it’s Kulia’s turn to amaze me with her growth spurt.

When we got home, they wanted to do some dress-up and I snapped these pictures. They have nothing to do with Halloween but since this has turned into a photo blog today, I thought I’d throw them in for free!

Yup. It’s Friday. Otherwise known as PJ day here in Casa de McLaughlin. In between Christmas projects, I like to take a break and do something quick and easy. Due to overwhelming demand, this usually means I’m making fuzzy pants. It’s a really easy pattern for pj’s I picked up a while ago. I took Leina to the fabric store and let her pick out whatever type of material she wanted and she headed straight for the fuzzy fleece. The kid’s got a good eye for sleep material, I’ll give her that. Because the pattern is so plain, after they are stitched together I get to embellish them however I want. The first pair were blue with fleece flowers. This time, I went green and stitched on some cute heart patches for the knees and bottom. She adores them which makes my day. Even better, they cost about .50 each which can’t be beat. Now I just need to find an adult sized pattern and make a pair for myself because everyone needs a pair of fuzzy pajama pants. Don’t you think?

My kids are crazy dancers. Most of the time, their version of “dance” is to run around in circles going crazy loco with a total and wanton disregard for the beat of the music. It is danciing in the loosest sense of the term. But yesterday, Leina requested some really fast music and right in the middle of their chaos running/dancing, Kulia started to channel Elvis. Maybe Elvis doing karate? At least that’s my take on what happened. Watch for yourself and decide. (Warning – this is hilarously cute. Be prepared for multiple viewings.)

My house is slowly returning back to normal. After my late night jaunt to Ikea with Liza, I went through a crazy re-org phase. I am now the proud owner of a Billy bookcase like most of the greater Portland area. Of course, putting up the new bookcase meant everything else in all parts of my house had to be moved and then removed. (Poor Kevin.) But I’m finally happy with the results. Bookshelves are good things. I need more. I also need a new kitchen. But that’s a whole ‘nother level of pain.

We have also lost Melo puppy (or Princess Melo as Leina calles her). Kat & Josh returned from Vegas and reclaimen their girl. Leina is slowly recovering from her Melo fix but still sighs when she thinks about all the fun they had. Melo? I bet she is happy to be back home and away from my crazy kids. The look in her eye here doesn’t say “yippee I love to play dress up with 4 yr old” so much as “mom, please come home soon.” I wish I had snapped a picture of the nightly walk. It involved one small white puppy with two leashes being walked simultaneously by my girls. Just the thought makes me smile. Artie loved the lack of attention he received. He got to laze around and smirk while Melo got all the cool dressing up time. Everyone needs a break every now and then, right?

Today was Leina’s first picture day at school and, of course, she threw a fit. She hates having her picture taken so when I announced she was getting one taken at school, she adamantly refused. First, she threatened that she would not smile. Then she threatened she would not go at all. Finally, she stamped her little foot, crossed her little arms, and glared at me.

I suppose every mom deals with every situation differently. Some moms may reason, some may threaten, some may punish. Me, I’m a big fan of the bargain. I get what I want, you get what you want and we all walk away happy. (I have heard some people call this technique bribery but these people tend to have no children of their own so their opinion doesn’t really count.)

Now, I wanted my child to sit nicely and smile for the camera. That was my end of the deal. But what did Leina want? As a good deal maker, I keep a running list of Leina currency – things she just can’t say no too. And right now, believe it or not, the top item on her list is KFC. Yes, that was not a typo. Kentucky Fried Chicken. Not the chicken, per se, but the mashed potatoes and gravy. Leina will do anything for KFC mashed potatoes and gravy.

You see the beauty of the deal? I told my cross little child that if she smiled and took a nice picture for me, I would take her to KFC for lunch and she could get mashed potatoes and gravy. At the mention of gravy, she threw her happy little arms around me and announced I’m the best mommy in the world and we skipped upstairs to pick out a cute outfit for her photo shoot. I’m happy to report we both fullfilled our sides of the bargain and I’m looking forward to the happy smiley picture sometime soon.

I don’t know how long this deal making will last. I envision a not too distant future when the top two things on her want list are a car or a new cell phone. But I figure I’ll deal with that trauma later. Right now, I’ve got the KFC card and I plan to use it wisely and well.

Ah, Friday. The one day of the week where we don’t have to be dressed and fed and out of the house early. No, Fridays are all about lounging about in our PJ’s until 11:30am. My only motivation for getting the girls dressed is the fact that Kevin gets a bit grumpy when he comes home for lunch and finds us still in jammies. (I think he’s secretly envious.) And honestly, can you blame me for keeping the PJs on for so long when the kids are so darn cute?

This weekend is looking bizarrely calm. I am finally heading to the new Ikea to do some damage on our credit card. I’ve wrangled Liza into driving me. She needs a cutting board. I need shelves and blinds and china hutches and goodness know what else. Might be a bit of a mismatch at checkout time but that’s fine with me.

It’s Friday! We made it!