Weekend Celebrations, part 2

We have been able to make a trip to a pumpkin patch part of Audrey's birthday celebrations for the last three years now. Definitely one benefit of an October birthday! This year, we went to Remlinger Farm. Remlinger is more than just your average pumpkin farm - it is a kids amusement park wonderland, complete with ponies, a train, and rides. This girl LOVES rides and we even got her on her very first roller coaster. Big smiles and giggles the whole time. I see a lot of fun in our future!

We spent a fair bit of time crawling through the hay maze and even more time jumping in their gigantic hay pit. The hay ended up everywhere!

And if that wasn't enough, we also got to ride the tractor-pulled wagon out to the pumpkin patch. Cora spent most of the day in the ergo but we were able to get a few photos in the pumpkin field (although someone was not happy about having to share her wagon for that last photo!).

Weekend celebrations, part 1

Audrey's birthday celebrations started off with a big dinner party with family and friends. We absolutely love that we live so close to everyone now and are able to have these get togethers. Here are some of the pictures from the evening.

Three!!!

The terrible twos are behind us and we have officially entered into the trying (tantrum? thunderous? torturous?) threes. Although, there have been hints of its impending arrival for a while now. Audrey's birthday fell on a Tuesday this year so we had a quiet family day, treating her to a few of her favorite things: eating out at restaurants (lunch and dinner!) and birthday cake.

We met for a fun BBQ lunch near Daddy's work but the highlight of the day was dinner at her favorite "Butterfly Restaurant" (Rainforest Cafe). They were nice enough to sing for her birthday even though we skipped desert since we had cake waiting for us at home.

After the festivities, Audrey was happy to help with final assembly of her big girl bed. That transition has been going much smoother than we anticipated. She's had a few moments during the night where she's woken up confused but otherwise still goes to bed great and sleeps until 8am or so in the morning. For that, we are very thankful.

Happy Birthday Audrey!

5 Month Outtakes

For our 200th post, we give you Cora's 5 month picture (above). It's amazing how you plop her down and she looks right at the camera, has her eyes wide open, sits upright, and puts on a perfect smile.

Yeah right...

Here are some of the outtakes:

Cora's Baptism

We traveled to Richland over the past weekend to spend some time with Grammy and Papa as well as to baptize Cora. It was a fun weekend and a special time for all. Just like with Audrey, Cora was able to wear our family's gown that is now over 100 years old. Aunt Katie and my cousin, Brett, have agreed to be Cora's godparents and we are very grateful.

A year of firsts

I'm finally getting around to sorting through pictures I've taken over the past few months and realized that we have a lot of firsts to share.

First time in the jumparoo:

First time cooking with Daddy:

First slide:

First time with 'more cowbell':

First time with both girls sleeping in the car:

First baby playdate:

More than just smiles

For those who say that this girl is all smiles we have evidence to prove you wrong. Here is a glimpse at her new favorite expression. I'm not sure what you could call it; I like to refer to it as the "I just lost my dentures" look.

October 1st

I'm not sure if this plan will stick, but I am hoping to get a picture of the girls on the first of each month. However, there are certain challenges in trying to get a decent shot of an almost 3 year old and a 5 month old. And so we have the results of this first month...