Emma's Birthday and Ainsley's Christmas concert

Well, time has just flown. We had a great Thanksgiving at Uncle Andy and Aunt Kelly's house~ Ainsley adores Jacob and Payton (and they are very patient with both girls) and both Ainsley and Emma love baby Hannah as well!

We also celebrated Emma's 2nd birthday with friends in Knoxville by visiting the Children's Museum. The kids had a blast, the dads got to chase them through the water and puppet rooms, the train set-up and play with them in the lifesize dollhouse (though the doorbell got rung many MANY times according to reports) and the moms got to visit for a while in the party room (he he!)

All in all a good birthday- confirmed by the amount of cake on Emma's face!

This morning was Ainsley's Christmas concert for school. She did great and looked adorable~ and gave Chris and I very explicit instructions on how and when we could wave to her while she was onstage... while other children were literally hiding in their shepherd's costumes, she still loves the limelight and stage (which is a little scary).

We are looking forward to the opportunity to see family the next couple of weeks...

More fall fun

We have been having such a good time enjoying the beautiful weather the last week!

We went to Dollywood with Ainsley bfitwww (best friend in the whole wide world) Alex, and rode all the rides we loved!

We're hopeful Emma can grow a little taller and ride more next year... but we're not holding our breath (due to the fact that she's in the 10th percentile in height...) but we love Dollywood at any rate!

Ainsley has also been really busy practicing riding her bike. She's getting to be really good pedalling on her own, we know next spring she'll be off like a rocket!

Fall Fun

Ok so I wanted to provide a couple of pictures from our fall fun. Because even though I didn't get a chance to post, I've actually been better about taking pictures.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Emma from the fall. She has donned a friend's goggles (refused to take them off all afternoon), found an old shoe and put it in a wheelbarrow, which she carted around the neighborhood.

Gotta love it!

As you can see, Ainsley has been busy trying to learn how to skate. She's getting better- this is from early September when big pop-pop came to visit. She can kind of walk on her own in them, and is learning how to actually skate as well!

Lastly, guess what Emma's been starting? Ok, not really so much, but at least I got her to pose for pictures! There's lots of potty talk around the Foca house... I'm hoping soon to be diaperless (soon being in the next 6 months:))

Ok, I guess that's all for now... more to come!

Trick or Treat

Ok, so it's been forever... Mom and Dad Foca have been to visit, fall happened, Chris and I went to Europe... but my mom had a great idea- don't worry about what you've missed, just stick some pictures up of Halloween!

So I'm taking her at her word and sharing some precious pics. We had a great Halloween- Ainsley was a cowgirl (which she wants to be because when she grows up she wants to ride a horsie) and Emma was a horsie (who was running from Ainsley much of the time when Ainsley wanted to ride her). Our first Halloween party was October 19th, and we had something almost every day for 2 weeks, which is why you see slight cosume changes in some of the pictures.

This picture is from Halloween night on our neighbor's steps... before the crazy trick or treating started! Ainsley had a blast, she informed me this morning that she wanted to have Halloween again today!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the evening... at the end of the night walking back home (notice that Ainsley's basket is so full she can barely keep it from skidding on the ground).

After going trick or treating, Ainsley elected to stay up and give out candy (go figure). Unfortunately, we missed most of the trick or treaters, so there was a lot of sitting and looking at the stars. At one point, she looked at me and said "This is serious" and went running down the street to gather trick or treaters to come visit.

All in all a great Halloween...

Labor Day exploits

We had a great labor day with Mom and Dad D, whether relaxing at the pool or playing in the water. Ainsley has almost learned to swim with out swimmies (which creates the most danger of all :)) and Emma is just able to float with swimmies on, so it's an exciting time at the pool. We're going to miss going to Grammy and Pop-pop's water park now that summer is over, but rest assured, the girls will be ready for next summer!

Emma still loves Pop-pop the best, and Ainsley kept asking where Mebane was and what happened, but it was a fun and relaxing time for all! Ainsley has also moved up in Sunday School classes to the big girl three year old class, so she gets to go to the chapel to sing with other kids. It's great to hear her practice her "music" all day long. And Emma is starting to use the potty- like big girls do- and mom isn't complaining!

Dog days of Summer

Well, you can see we've been rather busy. Between play dates and school and swimming and parks, we've been running around like crazy and having lots of fun. Ainsley and Emma both seem to love their mother's day out program ("school" as they call it) though Emma can barely make it home before falling asleep. And the free time is nice for mommy too :)

On Saturday, Ainsley and Chris went on a "daddy date" to the Farragut Fleet, where the town of Farragut pulls out a lot of its vehicles (from ambulances to tractors) and lets the kids ride on them. They had a blast, as you can tell. Funny though, Ainsley came home from that declaring what she wants to be when she grows up "a cowgirl, so I can wear a hat and ride a horsie, neigh"- not sure what that has to do with tractors and fire engines, but ok...

First day of School

Today was our first day of school and I just wanted to share some "back-to-school" pictures of the girls. Emma was all ready wtih her froggie lunchbox, and you'll even see that she nicely scraped up the side of her face when she fell off our deck yesteday. Ains had a great first day as well, even got to read "The Bear Snores On" at school- and apparently, much to the teacher's surprise, knew every word (thank-you cousins Jacob and Payton).

Tiptoeing into cyberspace

Well, I'm following the footsteps of numerous friends and family by joining the cyberspace age and starting a blog. We thought it would be a fun way to share the exploits of Ains and Em and a good way to connect with friends and family who are far away.
We've had a great summer. Ains and Emma have spent a good deal of time at "big grammy and pop-pop's" (my parents) house... and especially in their pool. Ainsley is almost swimming on her own and Emma is happy that she finally can stay above the water in her swimmies.
We had a great week with Little Grammy and pop-pop (Chris' parents) as well, that included a trip to a dinner theatre in Gatlinburg which the kids just loved.

Another highlight was our weekend with our small group at the lake house. Contrary to my assumptions, the girls adored riding in a boat (so you can imagine the ribbing I'm getting from my husband and others) and it was really a great time with everyone who came.
The girls start school next week so this week has been squeezing as much fun in as possible- pools and parks and slip n slides, and a trip to a water park with a great friend on Saturday (I'll let you know how that one goes...)