swiper, nooooo swiping....

So our Sydney is a well known sushi swiper - from way back when she was 18 months old and went head to head with her Poppy for the contents of his plate at our favorite sushi buffet...

Today we were back at our favorite place, and when I sat down with my plate, Sydney started her usual perusal of my plate to pick out what pieces she wanted. As she's choosing her items off my plate one at a time, I realize that Daniel, who is sitting on Sydney's other side on the bench seat, is quietly picking each of her pieces off of her plate and eating them...

When sydney returned her attention to her plate, it was empty!

The sushi swiper had been bested :)

Did someone say Halloween????

I'd say these kids are a little excited.....

A few random things

1) Sydney asked yesterday: "Who in the world wouldn't like cookies??" No real answer for that :)

2) Daniel says (in the car with the music on) "You know, I'm a pretty good singer....." which is close to something I apparently announced myself when I was little :)

3) A picture from the pumpkin patch last week

The good stuff...

There's a song from Kenny Chesney that talks about the good stuff in life.. here are 2 examples..

1) Finding your older child pushing her younger brother in a swing. By herself. Without being asked. Just to be nice.

2) Finding your 2 kids watching TV like this....

Yup, that's the good stuff :)

Our first ever "First day" of School

Sydney headed off to her first day at pre-school today. It was a hit.. Her main report was "mommy, we had SNACKTIME!"

Getting out of the car - Thank goodness none of the crying moms were allowed to stay. It was a quick drop off and in they went...

And here's our Daniel. Because he was in a fairly cheerful mood and actually let me take his picture..

ok, who left the water on.....

Our poor townhouse has had a rough life. In tough shape when we bought it, we worked hard to make it nice. And we did.. And we liked it for the 5 years we lived there. And our tenants liked it for 2 years - really made it their home. And that made me happy...

And now....

Kitchen ceiling and flooring is ruined...

Dining room ceiling and hardwood floors - ruined.

The water people came today and ripped it all out.. Everything we replaced 7 years ago :( Even though we don't live there anymore, we still put a lot of heart and soul and work into it. It's hard to see it just all thrown out...

Ceiling ruined and carpet (2 years old) in the basement - black with mold....

I know the insurance will fix it, and it'll probably look better than it did before..And we're lucky no one was hurt...

still... I'm sad....

Amish Country Mini Vacation

We headed up to Lancaster, PA for a quick little visit. We hit Dutch Wonderland first, and then headed out to the Strasburg railroad for our train fix.

At the railroad museum, we actually got to go into the cab of a 100+ year old locomotive and pull all the ropes and levers. It was really pretty neat!

Then we actually took a ride on a restored steam train. Even the mom thought it was pretty neat - we rode in the open air car right behind the engine, which was backwards for half the trip..

Luckily, at least one child was willing to pose for a picture with the engine :) Surprisingly, it was NOT our train enthusiast...

We had a really good time though, and highly recommend Lancaster as a family destination!