Playing Away the Winter Days - January

We've spent a lot of time playing this winter to try and pass the days!

Painting

Super baby!

Silly!!

Lots of playdates with friends

Brothers!

Making jewelry

Play Museum with friends! It was Elijah's first time there when he could run around and I don't think he stopped the entire time!

More playdates! :)

Birthday Festivities

I had such a great time celebrating my 30th birthday! The costume party was a blast. I got to dress up as one of my favorite childhood characters - rainbow brite. Brad and my mom went for a real stretch and dressed up as Shaggy and Velma, with Elijah as their side-kick, Scooby Doo :). Naomi was a care bear, and Riley was a dinosaur. It was so much fun to see my family and friends arrive in some great get-ups. I could hardly stop crying and laughing when my aunt, uncle, and cousin arrived as US! :) My dad was a giant muppet. And my brothers ran the spectrum with a costume of Moses, and Ralphie from Christmas Story in the pink bunny pj's. It was a fantastic party and quite memorable!

To see the pictures from the party, you can view my facebook album by clicking here.

On my actual birthday, Naomi, Elijah and I went out to brunch at Panera. It was a special treat to hang out with my girl for the morning and not have to make breakfast for everyone :).

Take 1...
Take 2...
Take 3...Yay!
Elijah was there enjoying some breakfast too!

For dinner, Karen and Allison took me and the fam out to Olive Garden so I didn't have to cook dinner! Here are a few pics from our night out!






Then Thursday night we got all dolled up and went to the Oak Hill Country Club for the Compass Care (pregnancy center) dessert fundraiser.

It was a week of great memories and even better company!

The Circus!

Last week, we went with our friends to see the circus! It was the first time I had ever been, so I was just as excited as the kids to see it! My camera battery died pretty soon into the show, but I have a few pictures to share. Our favorite acts not pictured were the high wire trapeeze artists, the double cannon where two people were shot across the arena, and the funny trick dogs :). We left at intermission because it was a school night and it was already after 9pm (which is why Riley looks sad in the last photo, haha), so I'm sure we missed some cool stuff in the 2nd half, but we will definitely be going back next time the circus is in town!

Corn Maze and More Fall Fun

Third post today - I'm catching up! :) As I mentioned in the last post, my best friend from college Emily - or Auntie Em as we call her - came for a visit this weekend! We had a wonderful time catching up. We always seem to pick right up where we left off, and it had been over 3 years since we last saw each other! We spent Saturday out and about. We took a chilly, but beautiful walk by the lake, and then picked up my parents and went out to a garden center that had a pirate-themed corn maze, and a ton of different activities for the kids. We had a blast! The weekend went way too fast, but I'm so excited that Emily now lives within driving distance and we plan on seeing a lot more of each other from now on! :)

A walk by the lake

sleepy bear!

Corn Maze! It took us almost an hour and a half to find all the clues and get through the maze, but we did it!

After the maze they had a lot of other fun activities like a sand pit, duck races, dirt trikes, and a hayride!

Even mom and dad got in on the fun!

The kids picked out their pumpkins and we headed home! Such a fun day and a fabulous weekend!