Grayson turns 2

Grayson actually made it to his 2nd birthday without a trip to the ER, amazing in my book considering his penchant for "exploring!"

We spent the afternoon at the Hahns' house with Sarah and Chris and their three children Reagan, Rachel and August. Grayson had a wonderful time but got uncharacteristically shy when we were singing happy birthday to him.

Chris helps Grayson blow out the candles

The HOOT!

It was, in a word, a hoot! Martha's elementary school carnival was quite the production and the kids had a grand time. There were HUNDREDS of cakes for the cake walk, although we didn't win one (much to Jennings' chagrin). We did win lots of candy, tiny prizes and even a rubber ducky.

The seven seconds that Grayson had his mask on

Yummmm...snow cones

Porter the peapod ("Hey, these peas taste good!")

Martha and a fellow feline

Halloween is almost here

Grayson, Martha and especially Jennings are very excited this year for Halloween to get here. There's been lots of buildup for the huge Halloween carnival (the "HOOT") tonight and finding costumes, as well as scouring the neighborhood watching all the decorations go up. We have a great neighborhood in that close to 90% of the inhabitants decorate for Halloween! We decorated our house yesterday and even had Porter out there coaching us.

I'll try to post HOOT pictures after the big event!

Martha's 7th birthday

Martha's actual birthday was Sunday, so her wish was to have lunch at Burger King. (Ok, some background: 1) I usually won't take the kids to BK, and 2) when Craig was home last weekend, she chose Spider House Cafe as her birthday lunch with Daddy. He probably wouldn't have set foot in BK, and she knows it!)

We had a great time, with lots of jumping around and entertaining the other patrons.

Libby Lu!

Martha and Callie Wilson

For Martha's 7th birthday, she wanted a party a Libby Lu, a store of sorts where the girls get their hair done, makeup, nails polished, the whole nine yards.

Martha, Jennings and 7 of Martha's friends had a great time. Martha even got her ears pierced!

She was very brave, although attempted to back out several times, only to be cheered on by her fellow fashionistas. Jennings had a great time, despite being completely deadpan while the girl did her hair. She finally loosened up and was the life of the party.



Even little Porter enjoyed the loud music for a time, then went for a walk with a very kind volunteer (Alex's mom) who walked him around the mall. Barbie cake and snacks after and then we were all home for a rest! (Little did we know that within 24 hours the whole family, except Porter, would have a bad stomach bug.)

Porter's first cereal

The look says it all...

Our weekend visitor

We had a special visitor this past weekend from Martha's class, her class guinea pig Studebaker. Studebaker was a pretty good guest and entertained the kids several times through the day without biting anyone. I even had the unfortunate jobto have to clean his cage before he went back to Mrs. Powers' class Monday, only so fun with a stomach virus on the way. He survived a weekend with Grayson, which is more than I expected! And no, we are not getting a guinea pig.

Who is she imitating, anyway?

Daddy heads back to Prague

Craig headed back to Prague on September 28 (yes, I am way behind on the blogging), and Grayson's continuing mantra these days is "Daddy's coming back." He's so sweet and misses Daddy so much, as we all do. Here's a last minute photo just before he took off, the children were sad to see him go but excited to have this photo hanging in our kitchen where they see him all the time!