Happy Halloween

We had so much fun celebrating Halloween with Elsie this year.  She loved "treating" aka trick or treating.  On Tuesday we went downtown to the Chamber Trick or Treat.  There ended up being a fair amount of people there.  The weather was definitely better than last year and it was way more fun because Elsie was actually into it.  She enjoyed getting all the treats.  We worked a lot on saying "Thank You" but and most of the time she said it sometimes with out up prompting but it was so quiet you could barely hear it.  We met up with Amber, Marc and the kiddos and Hillary and Owen and thier grandmas.

I just love this picture of these two.  It looks like Elsie showed Aubrey her trick or treat bag and then they checked out Aubrey's :)

 Then tonight we did a little trick or treating on our street.  Our street has a good mix of families vs older couples so it was fun to go around and visiting them.  Elsie loved it and couldn't wait to go.  We were able to grab a few pictures before hand.  After we hit up a whopping 8 houses we came home, Grandma Bev stopped over with a Halloween treat, and then Elsie helped pass out candy to the trick or treaters.  The bell would ring, she would yell "ding dong", grab the bowl of candy, and head to the door.  It was so fun to watch her again this year.

  

Checking out her new books with Grandma

I hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween! 

Piper's First Birthday

Back on August we celebrated my nieces 1st Birthday!  She is such a special little girl!  Oh and look at those pigtails!  It was a beautiful day with temps in the 90's and high humidity-okay maybe not perfect but at least the sun was shining.  

The party was held at my sister's house.  I made a little banner for her too. 

I guess someone wasn't happy here...or maybe just hot.

Grandma and Grandpa with the birthday girl

Look at that sweet face

Derick had this huge smoke and on it were these delicious chicken wings! 

Elsie had so much fun playing in the little pool and slide!  

Piper received so many nice presents.  Our present however never made it to the birthday party.  I even had the package shipped to my parents and then forgot to add it to the order... So for the time being we gave her pajamas that matched Elsie's and a board book of one of Elsie's favorite books-Llama Llama Nighty Night.  

"It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To" :)  Actually I think Elsie made her cry because she took one of her new toys.  

Cake Time!  

Happy First Birthday Piper!  We love you so much!! 

Pumpkin Patch

This past Monday we finally made it out to the pumpkin patch.  Elsie and I have had plenty of opportunity to get our pumpkins but it is something we like to do as a family so that means John needs to be available to come along.  He has been so busy with work that we haven't had too many opportunities.  We could have gone on Sunday but the orchard is a zoo on the weekends so we opted to go Monday after work and it worked out just perfect!  It was a little chilly but not too bad.  

We decided it was best to head out on the hayride to the pumpkin patch first because I figured it would take a while and we were going to be cutting it close to Elsie wanting dinner/bedtime since we didn't get out there until 5:00. That ended up being perfect because it took a little over an hour before we got off the hayride. 

Elsie was so happy her daddy could join us.  I can tell she is really missing him lately.  

Elsie enjoyed running around and checking out the pumpkins, although the vines were a little tricky for her to navigate around.  

She found her pumpkin...

It was a little heavy though...

Daddy can just carry it :)

Oh what a difference a year makes 2012 (left) 2013 (right)

Elsie loved this little tunnel!

When it was time to go check out Elsie was insistent that she pull the pumpkin wagon...

She didn't get very far

But she enjoyed trying

And one more comparison photo...last year vs. this year