Anna's Birthday Play date

We officially have a 3 year old now! I'm still amazed that this child can be 3 already but she is. Since Anna's birthday is over Thanksgiving we decided to have a birthday play date with her friends that week and have her official party in Topeka over the weekend.

Since Anna's party was "Doc McStuffin's" themed I carried that over to the play date and used some of the decorations I had made.  

Before having pizza for lunch we had lunch playing upstairs in our "playroom".

Finally it was pizza time!

It was nearly impossible to get a photo of all the kids looking but this picture cracks me up.

Ethan, Anna, Jane, and Margot

Anna was so cute when it was time to sing Happy Birthday. She was really looking forward to this birthday and it was so fun watching her take it all in.

Ahhhh. I just love this girl so much!

We feel so fortunate to have such a wonderful set of friends that were willing to come and help us celebrate. Anna is one lucky little lady!

I'll have Anna's birthday party up soon along with some fun pictures from November.

Other October Stuff

I wanted to share some pictures from October even though November is half over. Fall isn't fall without a trip to the pumpkin patch! This year we went to Louisburg Cider Mill to do our pumpkin picking. 

We took a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch.

There was a giant slide that we had to go down over and over!

The girls loved this thing. I think they could have done the slide the entire time and been happy.

In the pumpkin patch Anna was very picky about which pumpkin she wanted to take home. We'd find awesome pumpkins and she would inspect it and then insist we keep looking. 

       Kevin finally convinced her that this pumpkin was the biggest one here so that made her happy. 

Jane was a little frustrated. It wasn't that easy walking around in the patch (even though she really really wanted to) and she fell a few times and even scraped her cheek.

October was such a gorgeous month and we tried to do as many things outdoors as possible to take advantage of it. That meant lots of park play dates and picnics. 

This picture cracks me up. Jane with her hat on backward and her muscle shirt and Anna holding Margot's hand. 

We went to Deanna Rose Farmstead several times before they closed for the season. 

Jane's "smile"

My parents and Hailie and Seth came to stay the night. Pizza for breakfast!!!

Jane loves her books. 

These two are trouble. 

We celebrated our niece's birthday. This picture makes me smile with the goofy faces from everyone. 

Cupcakes. Yum.

Playtime! 

More books with Uncle James.

Silly Anna in a basket. She loves getting into things like this all the time. She wanted to be carried sitting in it.

Halloween

Our Halloween this year was a lot of fun. Anna had her mind set on being a red bird (not sure how she came up with the idea but that is what she wanted to be!) We made Jane into a purple bird. 

After spending a lot of time making these bird costumes I wanted the girls to get to wear them as much as possible. We attempted to go to an Enchanted Forest event in Lenexa but after 10 minutes we left. It was poorly organized (I don't think they expected that many people) and we could tell it was not going to be enjoyable. Instead we went out for ice cream!

The next evening we went to the Olathe Fall Festival and we were optimistic that it was going to be more fun.

The girls just love being in their bird costumes!

Kevin was excited to try out his costume this year and we were also looking forward to entering the family costume contest later in the evening. 

We met up with some friends at the event and it was so cute seeing the kids running around in their costumes together. 

Daniel Tiger and Red Bird

 The line for getting candy was crazy long so Anna and Ethan just went through the bouncy obstacle course over and over again. Poor Jane wanted to go through too but she's just too little still. 

A little later we went inside and Jane was happy just running around in the gymnasium while we waited for the costume contest to begin. 

There were only 5 family entries in the costume contest but we won! A $20 gift certificate to Dicks! Not too shabby!

Anna was wanting to carve pumpkins so we managed to find an evening the week of Halloween. It was a little disappointing that Anna wasn't actually that into it. Normally she likes getting messy but she didn't want to touch any of the insides. Jane was a little more willing to get her hands dirty. After getting them cleaned out we put the pumpkins in the fridge to turn into jack-o-lanterns another night and never got around to it. 

Since Halloween was on a Saturday we decided to head in to Topeka and do some trick or treating in my old neighborhood. 

Can you find Hailie anywhere?

 After dinner we went out and it was fun taking the girls to see the neighbors. Jane was more into then I expected but she only made it through about 5 houses. After going inside one house across the street and seeing a doggie she thought she could go inside every house. She also didn't like leaving and wanted to go up and down the stairs repeatedly. Anna went to a few more houses after I took Jane back but she kept wanting to go home so she could eat her candy. 

Back at the house we told Anna she could have two pieces of candy. We forgot she had a full size candy bar in there and of course that was what she pulled out. Little stinker!

Such a fun Halloween and it was great spending it with family!

A Wedding and an Apple Festival

This month has been so busy and I've had limited overlapping naps with the girls so blogging just hasn't happened. I thought I'd try and do a little catching up before things get even busier. 

My cousin Kelly had her wedding at the end of September and it was such a fun time. It was fun seeing all our family members dressed up and celebrating together. I didn't get a ton of pictures from the evening (and I don't even have the kid excuse since they stayed with the grandparents). 

We have a picture like this from Janell's wedding and someone took one like it at my wedding (if it was you send it my way!). We are so happy for Kelly and Graham. 

Cousins

It was also great having a date night. These are few and far between so we try to enjoy them as much as possible. 

To kick off October we traveled to Weston, MO for an Apple Festival.

Waiting for the parade to start.

After the parade we ran into my cousin and her family so we spent some time with them in the kid's play area. They had a hay bale maze and a pumpkin painting area that the kids really enjoyed.

Jane wasn't quite ready to be handed a paint brush (she ended up with paint all over her shirt) but Anna was very into it. 

Anna had her eye on the ponies and really wanted to ride one. There was a long line so Kevin ended up waiting with her while I walked around the festival with my cousin and a sleeping Jane.

Anna's pony was named Spanish and she had such a fantastic time. She did an awesome job holding on and loved it. She still talks about Spanish sometimes and that was several weeks ago. 

We left the festival and went over to my cousin's house in Leavenworth. They are living there for a year and it's been great having opportunities to see her and her family.

Janell reading to the girls

 Kevin had fun wrestling around with two of the boys.

Gavin showing Jane how to squeeze a ball. 

 Jacob is such a sweetie and even let me take a picture with him.