Delaney's Birthday and Kate's Visit

It's hard to believe, but Delaney turned twelve on November 3rd. We celebrated with this delicious chocolate cake with buttercream frosting topped off with a huge mound of strawberries. It was a new recipe and was very well received. I have a feeling I will be making many more of these cakes in the future. It's hard to believe I met Delaney when she was only three! I am so happy to be her step mother and so proud of the person she is becoming.

The birthday girl! Molly is pretty focused on the cake, or is it the candles?

Delaney and the girls opening the gifts as the dogs look on.

We had a great, but short, visit from Katie who was in town for work. Unfortunately, these shots of Katie and Molly saying goodbye at the airport are the only pictures I took.

Parting is such sweet sorrow... a final hug and smile. See you again after Christmas Aunt Katie!

Halloween

Ah, the hippy costume, a classic. I'm glad to see these are still a hot Halloween costume. I remember how much I used to like to dress as a hippy during spirit week in high school for 50's and 60's day. Delaney couldn't decide between a zombie or a hippy so I was pushing for a zombie hippy costume and came up with great lines like, "Peace, love and BRAINS!!!", but in the end she went with a hippy.

Molly and I crashed John's Halloween classroom party and had a lot of fun. The parents went all out and made some amazing food. Then all the kids marched in the Halloween parade. Yes, that is a second grader dressed as Micheal Myers in the front row!

I think Molly was a little freaked out by the costumes. She usually ditches me when we get to John's school because she gets so much attention from everyone else, but this day, she stayed close to me and didn't want to go to anyone else but daddy. Looking at the girl on the left, I can understand why Molly would be a little freaked out!

Our masterpieces. First is Delaney's scared pumpkin grabbing his face, then my swamp monster, John showed his support for the Giants and Darby opted for a scary Jack-O-Lantern.

It is impossible to keep Molly away from shoes these days. She loves to try to get her feet into any size, type, or style of shoe, she is not picky. Her favorites though are Delaney's slippers because they stay on her feet the longest. She takes a lot of time to balance herself so that she can get her foot or feet into the shoe, no easy task for a toddler. She is very serious about the procedure, and then loves herself once she had completed the task. Here she is showing her pride at getting into one of my slippers while she was getting ready for bed on Halloween.

Molly absolutely loved opening the top of the pumpkins and taking out the candles (thank god for flame less candles!), then putting the top back on, then taking the top off again, putting the candle back in and putting the top back on again. She must have repeated this procedure five or six times with each pumpkin before we could get out of or into the house.

This is our neighbor Verna who carved this amazing Tim Lincecum pumpkin. It took her two days and a lot of time, but it looked awesome. I dubbed it Lincepumpkin and it might be what helped lead the Giants to a World Series victory.

My favorite little duck flapping her wings.

Trick or treating at Verna's. We didn't really take Molly trick or treating this year, instead we let her greet our visitors. We did give her a piece of candy or two which she thoroughly enjoyed so it was a great Halloween.

Long Overdue Shots of New York Trip and Others

Our trip to New York seems so long ago that I can't believe I am just getting around to posting these pictures. We had a great time at Lauren's wedding and Sharon's shower. It was so great to see everyone and catch up with family and friends. For some reason all of my pictures are backwards but I was not about to start from scratch, so start at the bottom!

Here is Lilah feeding Molly peas at our going away luncheon. It was so cute. Molly was refusing to eat peas all week and then all of a sudden they were deemed acceptable since they were coming from Lilah's hand.

Mmmm, more peas please! Lilah was happy to oblige.

Four out of the five siblings enjoying some family time.

The result of a day at the Bronx Zoo.

I always visit the elephants whenever I am at a zoo to remember my Uncle Denis.

Checking out the animals at the zoo gift shop.

The real animals in the gift shop!

The Bronx Zoo has the coolest carousel of insects. Molly had a great time and really enjoyed the ride.

The three cousins enjoying the Halloween decorations.

Lilah was enthralled by the snake witch's hat and in most of the pictures she is turned around touching the snakes tongue.

A close up of Molly and I on our camel ride.

We had a lot of fun on the ride and Joshua, the camel, really took a shine to me. He was giving me kisses and smelling my face for a long time before the ride.

Nana and Lilah took the first trip. Finn refused to go near the camel!

Camel rides at the Bronx Zoo, what an amazing place!

Finn fell down and broke his crown and Molly came tumbling after! Finn sat on this rock and slid down and plopped on the floor to great laughter from my folks and I prompting Molly to do the same. What a ham!

Nana and Lilah on the train at the zoo. What a great day!

Molly and I visited Kristen and her three kids. It was a nice afternoon and I am so glad I finally got to meet all the Malone's! Plus it's nice to know that there is a family out there that is whiter than us!

Mama Kristen, middle Braedan, oldest Joseph and baby Feile.

Molly was introduced to peanut butter and jelly on an english muffin by Nana and there was no looking back! It immediately became Molly's favorite delicacy.

One more muffin for everyone!

Hanging out with Nana.

Here are some of "The Spawn of Scranton" kids making a mess of Casey's house.

Like mother like daughter! Here is Ali's oldest, Morgan, trying to read a story to tame the unruly bunch.

C.J. and Molly doing some serious playing.

Molly also got to catch up on some reading with cousins Finn and Lilah.

Blue was sad to see us leave for our trip.

Molly loves music these days and enjoys making some of her own.

Singing along to her favorite tune.

Sixteen Candles

Molly is sixteen months today and her personality is really shining through these days. So far, she is a tough, single minded, sometimes stubborn little girl who is quick to smile, is a sucker for daddy's pratfalls, and loves to be around people, especially other kids. She also loves to put on everyone's shoes and parade around the room, or as far as she can get. She loves to read and spends a lot of time thumbing through pages talking to the images in front of her. Speaking of speaking she is still not saying much. "Blue" of course is her first word, then there's "woo-woo" which is usually said in a robust voice with a pudgy finger thrust in the direction of any type of animal, especially dogs. She says something that resembles bird and recently added "bye-bye" accompanied by a wave that is absolutely adorable.

Molly is fearless and loves to run around, wrestle, play with dogs, go down slides, go in the swing, and climb up stairs. She really loves running across that wobbly bridge thing they have at parks. The first few times we ran together with her in front holding both of my hands, then I walked alongside her holding one hand, finally, she let go and started running by herself. There was no stopping her. I was so happy to see her running back and forth thoroughly enjoying herself. She's pretty amazing.

Pushing strollers is also a big love of hers although she gets mad and stops pushing the cart if you hold the handle to help guide. Then she pushes your hand off before she will continue pushing the stroller. Ineviteably, she will begin to run the stroller into a wall, or a person or whatever and I need to grab it. Then she stops, pushes my hand off, and the cycle starts again. As you can guess, it takes us a long time to get from place to place this way, but Molly seems to really have a good time and is getting pretty good with the stroller.

Molly also loves her older siblings and their rooms. Whenever Delaney leaves her door open it's like the gates of heaven have been opened to her and she is immediately drawn to it. It's strange, but it seems like no matter where she is in the house, or what she is doing, she can always sense when the door is not closed. The tv can be on in the living room with music on in the kitchen while she's playing, but if I put laundry on Delaney's bed, I turn around and there's Molly wide eyed looking around at the bounty before her not knowing where to begin. It's pretty funny really and I can't blame her, Delaney has a cool room.

Well, that's the update on our amazing little Molly. I still have a ton of pictures to post including the trip to New York and Halloween. I need to get on it!