Menagerie of Memories

 So, this post is going to be a menagerie of highlights of the past two weeks.  We've been having such a great time that I haven't had as much time to post as I would have liked to have been able to keep family up to date on our fun day-to-day activities.  :)

our happy little teether with her 2 bottom center teeth!

see, they really ARE there!  lol

Sorry about the super-hard-to-see baby teeth photos on the previous post.  It was harder than I thought to get a pic of them!  Hopefully they won't play whack-a-mole-baby-teeth and go up and down like Auntie Mish warned us sometimes happens.  Definitely crossing our fingers that it DOESN'T!!!

SADNESS OF ALL SADNESSES

It's official, the Lindgren family broke our hearts today by leaving us and heading back home to Germany.  We are in the depths of despair!  Walking down the hall to the rooms they stayed in makes my heart so sad.  The giggle level in the household has declined dramatically and we miss them so much!  Thank goodness I at least have Zeus here with me for the weekend before Monday comes and it's just back to Mia and I.  :( 

all the girls, feelin' the love

then feeling the sadness when we think about them going home in a few hours

I programed my phone number on Sara's cell phone that she got at the Disney store with her tooth fairy money.  I put myself as speed dial number 1.  She's got it memorized so that she can call me when ever she gets sad and misses me.  Too bad we have to use "pretend" to make it work.  :(

This morning Sofia said,"Be not sad.  I Super Girl.  I will fly back and visit you.  Be not sad."  I know that she TOTALLY means it.  Such a cutie patootie!

another favorite Sofia quote of the day:  "I was running and I ALMOST flying...but then I fall down."  Thus says the ever running, always falling Fia.  :)

Good memories:

What a fun trip this has been.  Now it's time for a walk down memory lane to all the good times we've had.

pool fun

the lovely Lindgren Ladies

good times - Nikki, Mia and I

hanging with grandma and decorating sugar cookies

the "tooth trip"

Sara lost her tooth and Mia had two teeth come in!

The day before Halloween:

Claes and Zeus at the game - too bad the Longhorns lost

decorating jack-o-lanterns

dressed up and ready to go trunk-or-treating at the church

our trunk all decorated with spiders and ghosts made by Sara and Sofia, along with their jack-o-lanterns

Fia and Sara love them some mama and Nikki loves her some girls!

trunk-or-treating - going from trunk to trunk

grandma with Sara as she hands out "goodies" at our trunk-or-treat after filling her bag

Sara with quite the Halloween haul  :)

Sofia, already enjoying her "goodies"

grown up fun

Grandma and grandpa watched the kids so we could go to a Halloween party at a bar/restaurant that a friend of Zeus' manages.  I won third place in the costume contest (pretty much by default though) and got a bottle of vodka and a gift certificate to the restaurant.  Zeus was more excited about the bottle than I was...  :)

Halloween day:

We got up and headed to San Antonio to visit the Alamo and the River Walk.  So fun with everyone there!

remember the Alamo...  I guess you could almost consider this a family photo by default  :)

so glad Deena and Michael were able to make it out!

mom and dad - aka grandma and grandpa at the Alamo

I think Sara took this one

Sara and Fia at the River Walk with their Texas memorabilia pets that they got at the Alamo museum - longhorn and armadillo

dinner at Iron Cactus on the River Walk in San Antonio 

fun dinner with the family before heading home for trick-or-treating

trick-or-treating fun in the neighboorhood

Waco trip - this past Thursday:

 cousins and second cousins chilling at Wendy's

smiles all around

Sara lovin' on Mia - sweetness!

Sara taking a pic of me feeding Mia - good little photographer

Sara took this pic showing how sad I am at the thought of them going home to Germany soon

back at Sami's house playing with the cool dollhouse and fun toys

while the Mama's are silly - me and Nikki

Sami, me and Nikki - good times!  Man, we should have pulled the camera out before Kristi snuck off!  :)

sweet baby!

coloring fun with second cousins

Fia helping me feed Mia - her attention span lasted a whole minute and then she was off to conquer the world and Mia and I were left to fend for ourselves  lol

I can't believe they are really gone.  We miss them so so so much and are very "sadness" without them here.  We hugged and waved goodbye for the longest time before they drove off down the road with promises to Skype soon.  After they left I kept looking around the house trying to find something they'd left behind so that I could call them and they'd have to come back to get it.  When I couldn't find anything, I thought about making up something, but then I remembered how Sara told me that when you tell a lie your tongue turns black and I decided I didn't want a black tongue.  Sadness!

no black tongues here - Halloween candy sharing fun

Such very fun family times!

going to the pumpkin patch

thanks Uncle Claes for buying all the pumpkins

and thank you Sara for picking out the perfect little pumpkin for baby Mia - I made it a little cleft lip pumpkin  :)

It is so strange to think that next year at this time Mia will have two major surgeries behind her!  Both her lip and palate will be repaired by then.  Our little sweetie will look SO different next Halloween in her cute little butterfly costume.  I'm going to miss her sweet little split smile!

thank you Auntie Charlotte for the darling bib!

man I miss these two adorable sweet little faces!!!

wish they were still here and sure do hope they come back soon!!!