Maddie celebrated her 7th birthday last week, which means we’re halfway through the crazy celebration season (pant, pant)! To her plan, she blew out the candles on the cake she had no intention of eating (”But Maddie - it’s ice cream in the *shape* of a cake, there’s no cake in it!” “I don’t care - I don’t like cake.”) even though she picked it out herself. She added the “2″ and the “5″ number candles because it made 7 added together - personally I think she just wanted more fire. This kid is growing up so fast - I think we should starve her so she stays little. Whaddya say?

In the meantime, we’re enjoying the ups and downs of the Houston fall temperature and getting to the parks as much as possible. As mentioned earlier, Josie’s starting to climb, and has gotten pretty fast it too.

The blur at right says it all. She’s becoming a fast one! Imagine her giggling all the way up the stairs!

Small, medium and large - although these days medium and large are about the same size.

Sophie’s reading skills are really skyrocketing - and she’s even starting to help out Maddie once in a while when she hits a sticky spot!

Luckily, Maddie takes it in stride - she knows that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses at different times, so it doesn’t bother her too much at the moment. Just as long as I don’t catch them doing each others’ homework!

Yes. We’ve been gone for a while. Mostly because we’ve entered the season of holidays colored in oranges and browns, birthdays and more! So, here’s some catching up on what we’ve been up to for the last month…

Josie wins a stare-down contest with a pumpkin almost her size…

…and then runs for cover. Note that she is running. AWAY. Did I mention she’s COMPLETELY INDEPENDENTLY MOBILE now? Oh, and she’s starting to climb, too. But that’s a blog entry for another day.

Pumpkins got carved. “Bozo the Clown” kindof turned into “Krusty the Clown”, which is probably more fitting for Halloween anyway.

Our Day of the Dead pumpkin this year took a cinematic turn. Pulp Fiction is very Halloween, too! Vincent and Jules look, uh, more cheerful as skeletons, don’t you think?

Oh, and then we burned Aurora at the stake (or tried to, anyway). Sophie’s 6th birthday (GASP! Six already?) also squeezed right into our Halloween weekend.

These ladies just keep getting cuter. After 5 years together they haven’t killed each other yet! Quite to the contrary, in fact. And so they enter the “twins for 3 weeks” time of year.

Then onto the candy-begging! While Josie basked in the glow of light sticks in the comfort of her wagon…

…the bigger bugs buzzed their way around the neighborhood. They took in a good stash to get them through the rest of the year.

Phew! A short break after all of that to just relax and play (and nurture some early artistic talent). But before you know it…

WHAM! Double birthday party for the girls! We had it at a cooking school for kids, where the partygoers made cupcakes, icing, and pizza from scratch. Only the kids were allowed in the kitchen so I don’t have too many good pictures. But there was lots of chewing, smiles, and only one egg on the floor - so it was deemed a success! One more week until Maddie’s actual birthday…and then Thanksgiving…and then Christmas…I’m already exhausted just thinking about it.