Happy Halloween!

Here are Tinker Bell, Spiderman and Lion getting ready to leave for Trick-or-Treating!

Do you see the witch in the background?  She makes noise while stirring her brew.  Kate ABSOLUTELY WOULD NOT GO NEAR THAT WITCH!!!

This house "isn't scary"

It's a little hard to tell, but this little lion managed to gnaw through a Nestle Crunch bar and drool chocolate all over himself and me!

passing out candy to other trick-or-treaters - I think that they had as much fun doing that as they did trick-or-treating.  Jimmy and I were quite entertained when someone "scary" would come to the door and Kate would go running with her hand over her mouth to another room! 

Kate's Birthday Party

We celebrated Kate's 3rd birthday with a Disney Princess themed birthday party.  Her friends came over dressed as their favorite Disney Princess.  They played a few games, ate Chick-fil-A and birthday cookies.  I think all the little royalties had a good time!

Kate wanted Princess cookies for her birthday.  So I made canoes for Pocahantas; magic carpets for Jasmine; swords for Mulan.......

 hearts for Belle; glass slippers for Cinderella; music notes for Ariel; suns for Rapunzel......

frogs for Tiana; tiaras for Sleeping Beauty and apples for Snow White.

It was easy to decorate for the party.  I just had to go upstairs and go through all of her princess toys!

The birthday princess!!!  She is Rapunzel (or as Kate calls her, "Tangled") -- and yes, she did leave that hair on for most of her party!

The kids played "pin the flowers" on Ariel, "hot potato" with a glass slipper, and they bobbed for "Snow White" apples (they were plastic green and red balls with prizes taped to some of them.)

Kate picked a sword cookie for us to put her candle in.

I think they all had a good time!  Kate is crying in this picture because she wants her "slippers".  We had 2 girls come as Snow White, 1 came as Belle, 1 as Mulan, 1 as Cinderella and 1 as Sleeping Beauty.  One of the boys even wore his knight vest.  They were adorable! 

Happy 3rd Birthday Kate!

Our Kate is celebrating her 3rd birthday today!  We have already started off the day with pink pancakes with pink sprinkles and this evening we will be celebrating with her friends with a Disney Princess birthday party!  We are so very blessed that God gave her to us! 

Luke's 1st Birthday

Yesterday was Luke's 1st birthday.  We took him to Sweet Tomatoes (a soup and salad buffet) and had a good time as you will be able to tell from the pictures!

opening his first present - a shark backpack

Kate helping Luke open his second present - a moose pillow pet and a Thomas movie

eating supper at Sweet Tomatoes

tasting sprinkles for the first time

and he likes them!

buh!  when is it MY birthday?!

 

Fun Pics of the Kids

He's on the go and getting faster everyday!

Jack warming up at soccer practice

Jack doing drills

Kate was special person on this day at Children's Day Out --- yes, I took this picture solely for the outfit choice.....

Kate's 1st Day at Children's Day Out

Our little girl is growing up way too fast!  Today was her turn to head to Children's Day Out.  She insisted on wearing a nice church dress and pink sparkly princess shoes with no socks.  It wasn't until we were about to leave that she finally let me put her out-of-control hair into pigtails, with the compromise that one bow was pink and the other was purple (her dress was pink & green).......
She was unsure of going to the Brown Bear room.  I accepted a postition at CDO as an assistant teacher in one of the 4 year old classrooms.  I think that at one point Kate wanted to stay with me in my room.  But, Jimmy came and we took her to her room and Daddy stayed and let Kate show him around.  She didn't cry when he left!

A couple of times during the day, the director would stick her head in our door and let me know that Kate was doing great.  When I ran into Kate in the hallway, while taking some girls to the bathroom, Kate looked at me strangely for a minute, but followed her teacher when redirected! 

Her teachers, Ms. "Kappy" and Ms. "WauWau (a.k.a.  Ms Kathy & Ms. Laura) both told me that Kate did an excellent job today!  So here are a few pictures we snapped this morning that we thought you would enjoy! 



She insisted on wearing her backpack in the car on the way home, took a nap with it on, and I believe she finally took it off at dinner!



I love this shot of Jack!

and can you tell which one of our children is the wiggliest?  :)

Jack's 1st Day of Kindergarten!

Here are some pictures we took this morning.  Enjoy!  (And I did pretty well!  I think it was almost harder on me that Jack didn't cry.  Although a few times he was very big eyed and somewhat pale.)

Making animal pancakes this morning

our big Kindergartener!

walking to the school - Jack will start riding the bus tomorrow or Wednesday

Daddy making sure his backpack is on tight

hugging Daddy good-bye

and Mommy

and Luke

and Kate

Mrs. Martinez welcoming Jack to school

waiting to go inside

walking into the school building

The 4th of July

This year we went down to Justin & Liz's for the 4th of July.  The kids had a lot of fun with Natalie and Avery!  We had lots of good food and enjoyed the fireworks Justin had bought.  That evening, everytime Jimmy would light a firework, Kate would turn around and say, "I DON'T BELIEVE IT!!!"  Jack would exclaim, "THAT'S AMAZING!" and Luke would start bouncing almost uncontrollably in my lap.  It was more fun watching them than the fireworks :)

Playing in the pool

Kate playing with Luke at the water table

Luke's first sparkler

ready for the "homemade" firework show

Luke's picture of watching his first fireworks (I have one of Jack and Kate at their first 4th of July)

Jimmy lighting the fireworks