Halloween surprises from GranJo!

The kids were thrilled to open some Halloween goodies from GranJo....fun bags for each kid. Does it get better than cheesy smiles with spooky head bands?!

I spy with my little eye.....

.....a tube that was meant for packaging but is just as much fun as the goodies themselves.

Practicing her cutting skills.....needs some work.

BOO!

Thanks GranJo for our goodies......it kept us busy for a good 30 minutes this morning.  And check out the pj's with the Super Lillie cape.....it's gotten quite a bit of wear!

Lillie at age 4

Where to begin with my dear little girl.....she had an excellent check-up on Monday to celebrate being 4 years old.  We are blessed with a great pediatrician and a healthy kid so it turns out that she hadn't been to the doctor since her 3 year old checkup.  That is awesome!

She was happy as a clam to see Dr. Dave.....sporting her cute blue gown.

And in case you forgot that she is now 4 years old.....

Lillie by the numbers......she now weighs 37 pounds and is 3'4" tall.  She has gained 4 pounds and grown 3 inches in a year.  Dr. Dave was impressed.  She continues to hit the 65th percentile and is perfectly on track for her age.

Lillie loves to dress up in the most random dress-up clothes and clicks around the house in her plastic high heels.  She is a huge fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse right now - seriously.  She has also become quite the Scooby Doo lover which she learned from her big brother.  She likes the occasional dance party either in the house or in the car.  She continues to covet her blankets and loves to drag them all over the house.

Lillie my dear, you continue to be so loud.  Louder than I could ever imagine. And you talk.  A LOT. Which I should be thankful for since you have some delayed speech and are getting some help for it.  But there are sometimes when we just need to be quiet.  And I think you will learn that but for now you just keep on talking sweetie.

And finally I just want to say that I am so proud of your 4 year old little self. You love to go to school and actually are disappointed on the days you don't get to go.  You love your teachers and they love you right back.  But most of all you love your brother and your parents.  It is so cool to see how much love you have to give and how freely you give it to us.  And I know you love your brother even though there are times that I don't think you like him very much.  You are definitely more and more brother and sister every single day.  You talk about Peter a lot - sometimes more than Paul does.  I think you are going to love that little guy too once you finally get to meet him.

So with that, we will start the year of 4.  I can't wait to see what the next 12 months bring for you Little Ladybug.

Lillie turns 4 years old!

Hold on to your hats - the little princess turned 4 years old!  I can't quite believe it.....but you can bet that she can.  She woke up very excited and couldn't stop holding up 4 fingers in excitement.  She had decided that she wanted waffles for her birthday dinner....with pineapple instead of strawberries - we worked hard to oblige.  We found a local diner that serves breakfast all day long and gave it a try.  We picked up the birthday girl from school and headed to dinner (well, breakfast I guess).  She wore her blingy birthday shirt from Gram and Pa.....and her birthday crown from school.  Quite the combo if you ask me.

After dinner we headed home to open presents and eat cake.  We started with the presents, the shear number of which she had to open was obscene.  So much love from our family members.  She really wanted a Scooby Doo themed event so we snagged some fun balloons and cobbled together a custom Scooby cake (more on that later).  Since both kids are obsessed with Scooby, the balloons were a hit.

We broke out the Happy Birthday hat that Mimi found.....first up the birthday girl.....

....and then Paul donned the hat too!

So many thoughtful gifts - not an all inclusive photo essay here.

It was time for cake.....and since this momma completely dropped the ball on getting a fabulous cake done, we pulled something together last minute.  It consisted of some Scooby Doo candles and a pre-done cake from HyVee.  I plopped the candles on to make them decorations and she seemed excited.  Not bad for last minute.

Notice that she sang to herself a little at the beginning....she LOVES to sing Happy Birthday.

Based on her reaction, I don't think she even noticed the cobbled together cake.

Hey, check out those 4 fingers!

After cake, the kids had a blast with the balloons......

And then this happened.  Ugh.  (Happy news was it dropped to the floor overnight).

No time to play with any of the presents on Friday night....so the kids were pumped to wake up today and dig into the pile.  Lillie wore her new Minnie Mouse outfit with light up shoes most of today.  Paul picked this out for his sister.

The kids begged to use the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles icey/smoothie maker. We froze some yogurt and fruit and then made the yummy creations after dinner.  It is pretty much just like the Snoopy Snow Cone maker from my childhood years.  A little messy and a little work but the kids were thrilled. Thanks Uncle Chris!

What a fabulous birthday celebration.  And just like any other of our kids birthdays, it is a bittersweet day for me.  We have so much fun but in my heart I know there are probably two special ladies across the globe that are thinking about our girl with some sadness in their hearts.  So we honor those ladies today and send them lots of love while we have the privilege of loving on our little girl today.

Fall party at school.....

I was lucky enough to volunteer in Paul's classroom for their Fall Party.  Lots of fun and a little chaos mixed together.  A quick selfie before the fun started....

I manned the craft station where the kids made ghosts out of white solo cups and streamers.

Paul and his teacher Mrs. Verlengia.  She is super great and we are excited that she is expecting her first baby in January.

So glad to have these opportunities to spend time in his classroom.

School pictures 2014

It's time again for school pictures and this year we didn't have to show up for the retakes since he looked pretty darn cute the first time around!  I can't believe how big this kid is getting!

Pumpkin Patch 2014

We had a great time this year on our trip to the pumpkin patch.  The weather was a little gray and chilly but not too cold.  Kids were excited to be there and we were too!

Big hugs!  We love Center Grove Orchard for sure!

Farmer Paul on his peddle tractor.

I think a wagon full of pumpkins with two precious hugging kids is a pretty perfect fall picture.

The super slide was a hit with both kids - and Lillie was brave and rode the slide on her own this year.  Hands up all the way for Paul!

The long trek back up the hill.  I think the kids rode the slide no less than 12 times.  We hit the slide first before the lines got too long.

Brave girl loved the slide!

And then it was off to the jumping pillow.  They added a second pillow this year and separated them by age/size which was nice.  Lets the big kids jump like crazy while the little ones are a bit safer.  Lots of high jumps and fun.  Paul got a little warm and shed his jacket.

Next up was the straw maze.....which is more fun when you climb on top of the hay bales and jump like a crazy person.

Is it just me or does Paul look super old in this picture?

Lillie got into the running on top of hay bales action too.

To the corn pool......I think a highlight for sure. This is the biggest corn pool I have ever seen at a pumpkin patch.  It is chaos but lots of fun.  Lillie wasn't a fan last year - she didn't like the texture so I had to sit with her in the corn. This year she was jumping and scooping and smiling.

Don't smother your brother in corn Lillie!

Who doesn't love a bunch of corn dumped over their head?

Lots of great jumps and flips!

These kids love the goats....and look what I caught in a picture.....Paul was actually willingly sharing a piece of goat food with his sister.  Stop. The. World.

Loving on their goat friends.

 More hugs.

We wrapped up our trip with a hay rack ride to the pumpkin patch to do a little pickin'!  What are you looking at mom?

My boys.

Just hanging out on some cool pumpkins in the field.

Found his pumpkin!

And she found hers!

Paul snagged a gourd to go along with his pumpkin and waited patiently to head back to the farm.

Beautiful girl.

Hey, I think we ended up with an extra pumpkin in our cart?!?!

And all five pumpkins now sitting on the front step.  We found a great pumpkin for Peter and hope he is here to pick his own pumpkin next year.

All in all we spent about 4 hours at the patch and enjoyed every minute.  We are so blessed to have such great options for some fall fun around here.