Evie's 5th Birthday

Evie turned five years old. What?!? How did my littlest baby already turn five? This year Evie had quite the week of celebrating. It seems that the more years that pass, the longer the celebration of birthdays go. Maybe that's because of school. Or maybe I just really enjoy celebrating my kiddos' birthdays. Evie had her last birthday at pre-k and she wanted to have Christmas tree cookies. Odd, but I just rolled with it.

 

She got to go out with daddy for her birthday too, which I think she enjoyed a whole lot by the look on her face and the slitherio toy that she came home with. She could talk him into anything.

 

For her birthday party on the weekend, she wanted to have a Cloud Guy cake (the funny dude from the Trolls movie). And once again, I whipped up another overly decorated cake. It turned out great and she was super excited about it.

 

As she shares her birthday with my brother, she got to celebrate it (now that they live close to us) with her uncle Jeremy. I love this picture. :-)

 

She even got to invite her BFF from school, Vayda. The day was lovely enough to be outside for the messy cake eating. And her cousins all got to come and enjoy the party as well.

 And last of all, Thou whose birthday it is, chooseth the dinner. And natually, Evie chose Wendy's. It was a great day and she most certainly felt loved and celebrated. I can't believe that five years ago, I had this sweet little baby that came into my life and now she's this wonderful little kid with a fun personality and the sweetest little thing (most of the time). I'm super proud of her and can't wait to see how she grows. Happy Birthday miss Evie! We love you!

 Oh, and did I mention the giant cat she named Cookie that she bought with her birthday money from Uncle Aaron and Aunt Michelle?

Halloween 2017

Halloween is really one of my favorite times of the year. I mean, I love Christmas and all that cozy happy stuff, but Halloween is just plain fun. I love decorating and pumpkins and (not gonna lie) candy. But I love, love, love dressing up. I love it so much that I tend to get a little to into my costumes. This year all of us had fun dressing up (except Josh who might actually try it next year - his own words). Alex wanted to be Master Chief from Halo, but ended up deciding to be an arm soldier. Thanks to Uncle Jeremy for supplying the gear. Abby wanted to be a troll originally (Smidge to be precise), but ended up deciding that she wanted to be a veterinarian. One trip to Goodwill and I had all I needed. Evie was easy. She wanted to be a purple cat named Cookie. Done, done and done!

Then it was down to me. I don't know what inspired me, but I decided to do my very first cosplay. I say cosplay because it really ended up being more cosplay than costume. I went as Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter. Boy was that fun! Goodwill is my friend when it comes to costumes. So is the Dollar Tree.

We had a blast even though the day was pretty cold. We also went to two trunk or treats on the weekend. The kids have so much candy from all this that we'll be gaining weight for weeks! In face, I already feel fatter! I need better self control. Happy Halloween!

Fall Festival 2017

I'm not sure I've missed more than one or two Fall Festivals that my hometown puts on yearly. I love it and having kids has made it that much more enjoyable. This year was a beautiful day and the kids were super pumped to go catch candy and watch the parade (the highlight of the day of course). We then went into the buildings and enjoyed getting a few things at the local vendors and art and crafts booths. It's always an enjoyable time and I hope that my kids want to keep going as they get older. Who doesn't love a good parade?

These two pictures crack me up. I told her to take a picture with me. The first one is her smiling and then...

 ...she saw a piece of candy.

Timber!

We had some massive straight line winds come through recently and it decided to cause some pretty hefty damage to our trees. When we looked out the window the morning after the storm, I was shocked to see that a tree (a huge tree) decided to lose one half of it's massive size by falling down. On its way down, it took out half of another one of our trees and landed on our rabbit enclosure. Thankfully, Pickles the bunny was in her other safer home. It was a tree slated to be trimmed for winter by the electric company and, thank goodness, they agreed to clean it up for us for no charge. The tree company that did it had it cleaned up and chipped within ten minutes. Ten minutes! It would have taken me two weeks to do that. Crazy!

The picture doesn't do it justice.

The Last Pumpkin Patch

I'm sad. Well...kind of. This year is Evie's final year of Pre-K. Unlike her brother and sister, she got the pleasure of going to Pre-K twice. After getting talked into it by the teachers at the school, I couldn't be happier it turned out this way. She loves school. Way more than her siblings, I might add. We used to go to the pumpkin patch with Alex and Abby during their Pre-K years and was happy that Evie's teacher convinced the school to let them go as well. This year, however, is the final year for our days at the pumpkin patch for school. I'm kind of bummin'. This year, it fell on the same day as Alex's fifth grade rocket launch. Luckily, Josh had the day off and got to fill those shoes for me while I went with Evie. 

She had so much fun even though it was cold that morning. I was watching her run around and could still see Abby and Alex running around in my mind. It's heart wrenching to realize how far they've come and how fast it is all happening. My babies are babies anymore. We had a great time though, and that's what counts. I'll miss going to the pumpkin patch with tiny ones. Good times.

She loves riding the bus - no car seat.

Me and my baby girl. Boy was that sun bright!