Shower Time

Sarah took a shower for the first time tonight...all by herself.

I only dried her hair for her.

This is a bittersweet moment for me.

Caleb Climbing

Caleb has discovered that if he moves a chair,

he can climb onto the counter and then he has full access to . . . CANDY!!

There is no set time for sweets in our house -

those are his PJ's and he's still sneaking into the candy!

Now he's discovered the cabinet with all the sippy cups. . . .

and his big sister is so nice, she helps fill it with apple juice!

Wonder what he'll find next???

Jump Rope

Sarah loves to jump rope!

She is using a piece of twine from our family vacation.

Getting ready. . .

Jumping forwards . . .

Jumping forwards on ONE foot!

Jumping BACKWARDS!

Jumping BACKWARDS on ONE foot!!

Jumping while RUNNING!!!

Still jumping!  Way to go Sarah!

Mommy's Surprise

My favorite fall treat. . .

I love these apples! 

The kids love these apples!

Thank you Grandma & Grandpa Voss for surprising me with an apple!

The second best surprise of the day was when Caleb picked me some flowers.

Aren't they beautiful??

Thankfully I finally got him to understand that we don't drink the flower water!

Reading Time

I love to read . . .

I love books, magazines, blogs, CPE for work . . .

This is one good thing I've passed onto my kids.

They love to read . . . in the car, before bed, after we've said goodnight, at the dinner table!

Brandon does not like to read.  Well he does like to read his Handyman and This Old House magazine, but that's the extent of his reading pleasure.

Brandon does love baseball - - - Cardinal baseball.

Why is this important?  Because while I am sitting here updating my blog and listening to game 3 of the NLCS Championship series, Brandon is reading Caleb his good night book.

Mommy's Birthday Present

My birthday was right around the corner and I found a landscaping picture that I loved for around the fire pit.  Brandon loved the picture too and our preliminary cost estimate we thought was reasonable.  For future reference, Brandon knows more about calculating the square footage of a circle than the employee of the rock quarry.

It was a project for the entire family. 

This was the perfect project for Caleb - it involved dirt and rocks!

Sarah also loves the outdoors, dirt, rocks and nature in general -

so she was happy to help too!

Brandon found an awesome deal on adirondack chairs and

I got the pleasure of painting them with a sealer. 

All of this work made Caleb so thirsty!

Mommy & Caleb needed to take a break!

What a beautiful chair!  This one was painted by Sarah!

Now for the big reveal!  It was a beautiful night . . . we had some yummy chili for dinner

and s'mores for dessert (my favorite)!!!

How beautiful!  This looks so much better than the original picture I showed Brandon!

The wood was ready and the fire was hot!

The kids enjoying the evening!

Who's ready for S'MORES???

Caleb enjoying one of his FIVE marshmallows he ate . . .

yes, that's right FIVE - it was a birthday party after all! 

Sarah ejoying her s'more!

Marley was patiently waiting for any little bite of food to fall . . .

he waited all night for nothing!  He should know by now that my kids don't drop chocolate!

Ken and Susan stopped by to join the celebration!

After the kids went to bed & Ken/Susan went home, Brandon and I enjoyed a beautiful night with a warm fire and cold bottle of wine!  That was the best birthday present ever - just having time to spend with each other - it was a beautiful night!

This was the perfect way to start the fall season!

Thank you Brandon, Sarah & Caleb for a wonderful birthday present we will enjoy for many more years to come!  I love you all!

Fall Festival

Each year Sarah's school puts on a Fall Festival for the kids.  There are lots of activities for both the kids, food and best of all it's pretty cheap!  The first thing Sarah wanted to do was get her face painted!  It's the only time she gets to have her face painted  . . . so she chose carefully . . . a beautiful unicorn!

Caleb wanted to go on a hay ride . . .

There was also a straw maze . . . both kids wanted to try. 

I thought no way would Sarah go in there because it was small, dark & dirty,

but I figured Caleb would love it!

This reminded me of a time when I was a little girl and Uncle Andy made a straw maze in our barn . . . that's a story for another day!

Well I was completely wrong - Caleb made it the length of about 3 straw bales and then wouldn't move!  Sarah on the other hand LOVED it!  What a big girl!

Cute kids waiting ever so patiently in line for a bounce house.

They love the bounce house - Sarah made it the entire way & Caleb gave it a great effort, but Daddy had to finally rescue him.  This ladder was just a little tough for him, but I bet next year he'll zoom through!

This was Sarah's other favorite activity - the dunk tank!  She talked about it all night and kept a close eye on when the principal, Mr. Blakely, would be in the tank.  She didn't hit the target, but snuck up afterwards and pushed the target and dunked him anyway!  He was a great sport with all the kids!

Caleb loved the fishing stand!

Remember the beautiful unicorn. .  it lasted and lasted . . . I think for 3 days. . .

she wouldn't even let me wash it off!

Forrest Park Balloon Race

What is the perfect way to start your day if you are a 2 year-old boy?

Of course - going to a parade to get C-A-N-D-Y! 

And who would give Caleb such a large and bright bag to collect his candy?  Uncle Phil, of course!

We spent the day with Aunt Emily, Uncle Phil & baby Bella!

Caleb took a quick break between bites of candy to take a picture with me!  Isn't he cute!

After the parade we went back to Aunt Emily's house to play with Bella.

The kids were having so much fun playing with Bella's toys!

Caleb was so excited to have someone smaller than him!

After a quick rest for Caleb & Bella we all went to the Forrest Park Balloon race! 

What a beautiful sight with all the balloons!

Next year we'll need to go to see the balloons glow.

Caleb kept showing Bella all the balloons.

Time to feed Bella - that was way more interesting that the big balloons in the sky!

Mommy's favorite balloon:

Since the kids lost interest with the balloons, Aunt Emily & I tried to entertain them . . . or maybe we were entertaining ourselves . . . at any rate we were laughing so hard I could barely stand at one point!

What grace!  What beauty!  Of course, I have control of the pictures, so I'm not posting any of me . . . you'll just have to use your imagination!