Halloween!

I used to hate Halloween, but it is so much fun with you have kiddos!  This year, Charlie wanted to be a pirate...and he wanted Lucy to be his parrot.  Awww.  So I went about looking for costumes.  Aunt Alicia had a pirate costume that her son wasn't going to wear, so we borrowed that from her:

 

And what pirate costume would be complete without a treasure map?

 The parrot was a little more difficult.  I looked around online and didn't find much, so I asked my mom if she had any ideas.  She found several she thought she could make.  While I was at Old Navy in KC, I found this in size 24 months:

It was $10.37.  I called Mom, who said it was worth it just for the hat and to buy it.  She'd make some improvements and it would be awesome.  And so it was!  She added boas to the torso to give it a feather-feel and made yellow leggings:

 We headed out to our neighborhood Halloween parade all ready to go!

 We also dressed up for the Trunk or Treat at Pepa and Gigi's church.

 And we ran into Miss Stephanie - Charlie's preschool teacher!

 It was a great time.  Charlie already knows what he wants to be for Halloween next year... a bulldozer.  Not sure how we're going to pull that off...

Lucy's First Birthday!

Our sweet little Miss Lucy turned one on October 3rd.  We went to dinner with the grandparents at Red Robin, which has become a tradition with the kids on their birthdays.  Here's a picture of Miss Lucy enjoying her delicious first birthday treat:

Awwwwwwwwww.

For her birthday party, we made online invitations:

 We had such a wonderful time celebrating Lucy's first birthday!  She is such a special girl.  We borrowed the decorations from cousin Emma's party, and they were wonderful!

Grandma made the cake.  She said that when she was young, she wanted to open a bakery and make cakes.  I had no idea, but I was thrilled to discover this, because it meant I could ask her to make the cake and not feel like it was a huge imposition.  I told her the colors were hot pink, orange, and yellow, and that the theme was "You Are My Sunshine."  I let her run with it.  And look!

We had a lovely soup lunch. Rick's grandmother made a pot of chicken noodle soup.  It was SOOOO delicious.  We made our standard black bean soup and veggie beef soup, and then Rick made a pot of chili.  Mom and Dad brought rolls, and Rick's other grandmother made a salad.  It was perfect.

Lucy has so many special people who love her!  A huge thank you to all who came and helped celebrate her first birthday!

Big Girl Car Seat

What a big girl!  Riding in her new car seat - I'm SO glad to have this.  This girl + her carrier was HEAVY!  Congratulations, Lucy Jean :)

Back to School!

It's back to school time for our family.  The notable exception to this, for the first time in SIX YEARS, was Daddy.  He's working full time and is taking a break from Masters classes this semester.

Charlie started preschool.  It has been so much fun to see him go to school like big kids, do weather, line leader, pledge of allegiance, library time - has LOVED IT!  Each morning when he wakes up, the first thing he says is, "Mommy, are we going to preschool today?"  It's wonderful.  He comes home with crafts and projects and pictures, and he is clearly having a wonderful time!  I don't have a picture of him (which, after seeing all the cute pinteresty-pictures friends were posting of their kids' first days, I wish I had taken!).  But he is LOVING it, and we are loving them.  We pray for his friends and teachers every night before bed.

Lucy has been splitting her time between Grandma and Gigi.  She loves being with these ladies!  They are so wonderful to help out with her!  Thank you so much again!  And here's a picture of of Lucy from Sunday.  Such a sweet, adorable little girl!

I headed back to school with some mixed emotions.  I really had a terrible year last year.  I was gone for three months, missing out on a CRUCIAL time with my students, I had a rough batch of kids, and to be frank, I was feeling pretty burnt out.  But I am looking forward to a new school year.  I am, of course, sad to be away from my kiddos. We had such a great summer together.  But I am excited for them to be getting new experiences which I can't give them myself.

And we celebrated our last weekend by going for a round of mini-golf at the place I worked at all through high school and college.  It was great family time!

The Kids' First Royals Game!

Pepa and Gigi took us to the Royals game on Friday, July 5th.  It was "Buck Night," meaning that pop, hotdogs, and peanuts were all $1 and that fireworks would follow the game.  Charlie was excited as we headed into the ball park.

He even helped push his sister Lucy!

We got to our seats and I changed Lucy into the Royals outfit we had.  It used to be Charlie's, and after someone nearby said, "Look at that baby - he's cute," I felt like we should add a pink headband.

She also tried on brother's hat:

Charlie did GREAT!  We couldn't believe how well he did.  We thought we would probably have to leave half way through, but not only did he behave, he was in a GREAT mood, needed no disciplining, AND used the potty!

 Oh, and he ate an entire hot dog, bun and all!  I don't think that's ever happened before.

And he drank his first Pepsi.  We do not give him pop, and though I think he's had it before from grandparents, this is the first one we have given him.  Obviously, he loved it.  Because Pepsi is delicious.

And, he even (kind of) posed for a few pictures:

After the game (Royals lost, but we didn't care - we had a great time!), they turned on the fireworks.  Lucy had fallen asleep on Gigi's shoulder, but poked her head up just in time to see some bright lights.

 And Charlie enjoyed them, too.

All in all, it was a great family night.  We were so proud of our kids and how well they did.  It was a WONDERFUL memory.

4th of July!

As always, our neighborhood celebrated the 4th of July with the parade.  We had breakfast beforehand and snapped some pictures

Charlie and Lucy with two of their cousins.  Charlie really is trying hard to smile.  He hates pictures.

The best out of all the family pictures we took.  That's right.  He really hates pictures.

Like, REALLY hates them.

Nope...still no bueno.

Argh, kid.  Just look at the camera and smile, already!

There. That's better.

LOVE this dress! $1.50 at a garage sale :)

 In the evening we went to Grandma & Papa's house for dinner.  Here is Charlie eating homemade ice cream!

Little Miss Cutie-Pants!

And Charlie SUPER excited about his two flags.

It was a long but great day!

Charlie's 3.5 Birthday Party!

Our son's birthday falls at Christmastime - maybe the worst time for a party.  And this year, because Lucy had just come home from NICU and was not supposed to be exposed to large groups of people, we did not have a party.  So we decided to celebrate his half birthday instead!  Here are some pictures, and for more details on how we put the party together, click here.

Invitation - isn't this a cute picture of Charlie with Sir Topham Hatt?  It's from our trip to Day Out with Thomas!

Cake, made by yours truly, Charlie's grandma's, and his aunt Molly

It was a LOVELY party.  A huge thank you to all our family and friends who came out to help celebrate, and to my mom, mother-in-law, Molly, and Kristin who really helped pull things together.  Charlie had a WONDERFUL time, and look at all those presents!