Happy Halloween!

It's been a crazy couple of months around here. (It seems I start more and more posts like that lately!). But all of the chaos has not kept us from enjoying the season (to whatever extent we can given all the sickness we seem to have passed around).

Tonight is our big October 31st Party at church, but the kids have already had opportunity to dress up and get a lot of candy (whatever will we do with it all!). Here are some pics from trick-or-treating at Hubby's work last week.

Little Miss Cowgirl 

 

"Bumblebee" (from Transformers)

A Lego Party for My Little Man!

I can't believe my Little Man turned 5 on Wednesday! We celebrated last Saturday with a birthday party brimming with his favorite toys...LEGOs!!!

 

This party was so easy, and so much fun, I'd do it again every year!!

 

The decorations were simple and easy to make.

 

 

The games were fun, too, like the Lego Build Challenge

 

They really got into that!

 

There were even, real, live judges the kids had to present their Lego masterpieces to.

 

They even got to build their own snacks...just like Legos!

 

Of course, what's a party without a pinata?

 

  And then there were the presents: Lego set...

 

after Lego set...

 

 after Lego set.

 

Nine sets in all...plus birthday money to spend on, guess what? Yep, more Legos!

 

 And a couple of non-Lego gifts that were a hit, too.

Grandma & Grandpa came down for the party, too. That was a special treat!

 

 

Now, let the building begin!

Happy Birthday, Little Man!!

 

 

Summertime Fun: Part 4, Cousins and Chicago

I know, I know...school has officially started, but that doesn't mean Summer is over yet, right? Our last "hoorah" of the summertime was a trip to Chicago to visit family. The kiddos had so much fun playing with cousins they don't see nearly enough. Plus, we took in some fun family activities while we were there:

Bouncing fun with the cousins

 Our first visit to Legoland!

 

 Little Man is hooked...he could have stayed all day!

 We visited a fun restaurant called Choo Choo in Des Plaines, IL. 

It's like stepping back in time 60 years. They had the BEST

shakes and malts (the burgers were good, too!). But the best part was

that the food comes to you on a train! The kids LOVED it!

 Waiting for the food train!

 

Little Conductor Man

We did a little swimming and a lot of hanging out and just having fun. We were also happy to celebrate a birthday with a very special little girl...thanks for sharing your birthday with us, Manda!

Back to School!

In the last two weeks, Little Miss and Little Man have both started school (not on the same day, mind you. That meant double the first-day-of-school traditions like special breakfast (pancakes for both), pictures with backpacks, walking them to class, long good-byes, etc. I'll be glad when they're both at the same school next year! :)

 Little Miss and her breakfast-of-choice: German pancakes

Ready for 2nd grade!

 

 Little Man with his special breakfast: "fluffy" pancakes

Lookout preschool...here I come!

 

No photo session is complete without an action shot of Little Man!

 

 Double trouble!

Summertime Fun, Part 3: Camp!

This was the first year Little Miss was old enough to go to church camp....overnight, sleep-away-from-home-for-2-nights church camp. I have attended many church camps in my lifetime in various roles: camper, counselor, kitchen staff, ministry group, etc. I'm just as comfortable in a camp dorm as the staff housing or the kitchen.

It's a different story altogether when you're preparing to put your firstborn on a bus full of children and send her two hours away for three days. It's an even bigger deal to do it when she's never slept away from home.

So, we arranged for friends to watch Little Man while Hubby was at work for a few days and Little Miss and I headed off to camp.

Getting ready to load up!

I'm not sure who was more nervous. While this was her first camp experience ever,  it was my first experience in more than 10 years! To be honest, I wasn't sure my body would ever forgive me.

I quickly realized I had nothing to worry about. If you've ever been to camp (and loved it...which I did!), it doesn't take long to fall in love with it all over again. I think Little Miss has fallen in love with it as well. From the cafeteria chants to the chapel services and even the Mud Games...she seemed to love it all. I think I see a new tradition in our future. (I reserve the right to feel differently in another 10 years!)

The Green Team...Go Ireland!

A very tired camper...glad to be home!

 

Summertime Fun, Part 2: Beach Vacation

Two weeks ago, we loaded up the minivan and headed out for a 2-day, one-way road trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. (One of the drawbacks of living in the middle of the continental U.S. is that it takes a long time to travel to the ocean...any ocean!) Fortunately, my family lives at the midway point, and since we were vacationing with them as well, we broke the trip up over a couple days. The downside was that once all the fun was over, we still had the 2-day drive home. But we made it, and it was worth every minute of the journey! As promised, here are some pictures:

Of course, the top priority was to swim in the ocean! (Little Miss had been

to the ocean a couple of times, but Little Man had only been once,

and he was too young to remember it!)

They took to beach life like fish to water (pun intended :))

Little Man and Zoe playing in the ocean with Nanee.

What's the point of going to the beach if you don't build a few sand castles?!

We got to see family we hadn't seen in awhile...like Zoe (above left), and we met

Baby Ezra for the first time (with Little Miss above)

Our resort had a putt-putt course, and the "big" kids got to go with

Nanee and PaPa one evening.

Little Man got a hole-in-one (actually, he got two of them!)

Zoe "walked" down to the playground to play  (video to follow in a later post).

The tunnel slide was his favorite.

Zoe with Mama and Aunt Nanc

Another highlight was visiting Ripley's Aquarium.

The kids were fascinated by all the underwater creatures.

They even got to pet horseshoe crabs!

Little Man especially loved the rays.

Overall, I'd say it was well worth the 2-day drive!