Halloween Festivities

The Little Mermaid before Spooktacular

Puppy, Anne Boleyn, and Little Mermaid

Carving Pumpkins

Trick or Treat

Most of the neighborhood before trick or treating on Halloween.

It's a plane!

At trick or trunk with the neighbors

The Little Mermaid

Daddy and Yoda

We had a great Halloween despite the fact that Sophie had croup Halloween night. The kids were able to wear their costumes several times, which is good and bad. Good because the get to wear them but bad since when it comes to Hall oween night they are tired of putting them on.

We were able to go to Spooktacular which is an events downtown Royal Oak puts on for the kids to trick or treat at local businesses during the day. Halloween Hoot where the kids can trick or treat through a wooded trail in a local park, the Halloween parade and trick or trunk at Sophie's school, and lastly Halloween! They had a great time despite being a little under the weather. Avery soon learned that saying trick or treat will get you candy but he made sure to say thank you.


He did have one mishap Halloween night. Standing on a porch with his neighborhood friends he got bumped and did a plunge off the porch into a Japanese Maple bush. I am happy to report that he was fine, no tears were shed, and he never let go off his candy basket or the sucker in his mouth during the fall. He only ended up with some leaves in his candy basket.

Chicago-October 2009

I'm 6!

This weekend we were in Chicago for Jeremy's grandfather's 90th birthday party. The Water guys went to a Cubs game and the ladies went to Navy Pier and an architectural boat ride through Chicago. It was a fun time! Thanks to George and Bette for arranging everything! We also had a lovely dinner and brunch on Sunday morning.

On our way home, we stopped downtown for a bit. Sophie had been trying to earn an American Girl for her birthday. She had earned enough points to get it by the time we went so we were off to the American Girl store. She was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited! She ended up picking out Felicity, which was her favorite. Here are some pictures from our weekend.

The Big Man Turns 2!

Yes, you heard it right, the big guy is now 2! He had a family celebration in Grand Rapids with his birthday buddy Ollie. A few weeks later he celebrated at home with family and friends. He had a monkey theme for his party and loved watching everyone hit the pinata. He, however, wanted nothing to do with it! He is getting so big but is still a little snuggler. He is repeating everything and has such good manners. He almost always says, "please and thank you" when asking for something. He has started singing songs and saying parts of books when he looks at them. Our new favorite game is I will say, "your my sweetheart, and then he says, no, "my sweetheart!" It goes back and forth like this for awhile! Adorable, at least I think so.

Here are some pictures from his big day.

More First Day of 1st grade

First day of school- 1st grade

Sophie got up in a great mood at 7:15 this morning. Got dressed, brushed hair and teeth, ate breakfast and was a nice sis to her brother. Let's hope every morning goes like this! She was so excited to start first grade but asked several times where to line up and wanted to know where her lunch box was supposed to go. It should be a good year! Her teacher Ms. McAuliff is pregnant so won't be there part of the time but we have heard nothing but great things about her! Here are so pictures from the morning. I can't wait to hear how it went...

More Summer Shenanigans

Random Summer Fun

To end the summer we did lots of things around town. We went to Spencer Beach with our neighbors, which is about 20 minutes from our house. We also went raspberry picking, went to the Warren water park, the Howell nature center, and just had fun around the neighborhood. Avery is talking like you wouldn't believe and is putting together sentences with 2-4 words. He loves to copy his big sis (which isn't ALWAYS a good thing) and has started singing along to and requesting songs when we are in the car. He has also started the terrible twos with the tantrums that come with it. Should be an interesting year!