Just chillin'

It seems that this is Joshua's idea of a comfy, good time:

David loved how instead of stretching out in the ottoman, Joshua gave his cars 2/3 of the space and crunched himself up into the corner with the Touchpad. And for those of you who don't know, that's his buddy Sheep draped over his head...because that's apparently where he belonged at the time :)

Halloween fun!

We had a lot of fun events around Halloween this year! The Friday before, our church did our annual Chili Cook-off and Trunk-or-Treat. There was lots of yummy food, as always, and Joshua especially loved seeing people with their cars and having them give him candy--pretty much the perfect night for him! I had to laugh because on Sunday morning as we were going through the parking lot to go into the church building, Joshua was pointing out different cars and telling me who they belonged to--he had remembered them from Friday night. He's a funny kid :)

On the afternoon of Halloween, our town hosted a city-wide trick-or-treat in one of the parks, where different companies, businesses, and community groups set up tables and handed out candy. There were so many people--definitely a successful event! Afterwards, we went to a local church's harvest festival; one of our neighbor's is a member of the church and was sweet enough to invite us. They had tons of games set up outside where the kids could earn candy, bounce houses, rock climbing walls, music, and so much free food--hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, drinks. It was quite the production and so fun! As we were coming into our neighborhood on our way home, I noticed that a lot of the houses on our street had their porch lights on to show that they were handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. Since we've been putting the kids to bed an hour later than usual this week in preparation for Daylight Savings (does anyone else dread the fall time change with little kids?!), we had another hour before bedtime and I decided to take Joshua out (Leah was DONE for the night so she was happy to play quietly at home with Daddy). BEST IDEA EVER! Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood was hands-down Joshua's favorite thing we did on Halloween! He thought it was so cool to be visiting our neighbors in the dark. He did a great job of knocking on doors and saying "Trick or Treat!" and "Thank you!" to our neighbors--who, by the way, hand out awesome candy! Everyone was so sweet and asked about my pregnancy and where Leah was and said how cute Joshua was. Besides being frightened by a few big dogs who came to the door, Joshua thought it was the coolest night ever--he's asked the past few nights if we can go again, and I've hated to tell him it is only one night a year that people expect you to show up at their door unannounced and are happy to give you free candy!

My parents insisted that I take pictures of the kids in their costumes on Halloween (my mom got each of their costumes for $5 at her local consignment store--woo hoo!)...and, of course, we didn't realize our camera battery was dead until we were already out and about! So I dressed the kids in their costumes again tonight so I could get a few pictures of them. Joshua is Plex (a robot) from Yo Gabba Gabba (one of the strangest kid shows EVER) and Leah is a devil princess (which, honestly, is about as close to her two-sided personality as you can get in costume-form!)

NC State Fair, UNC, and Fancy Cars

David's best friend from high school brought his wife and little boy down from DC for the weekend and we have had a fantastic time! They got in on Thursday evening and we stayed up talking until 2:30am--lots to catch up on! We spent Friday at the NC State Fair, went to Late Night with Roy on Friday night (many thanks to Martha for staying home with the kiddos so we could go!!), and spent Saturday in Chapel Hill visiting the UNC Basketball Museum, walking on Franklin Street and campus, and having great BBQ at Allen & Sons. The amazing weather continued and it was so fun to spend so much time outside enjoying my favorite season!

 Joshua saw this kayak and had to get

inside. He said, "Mommy, can you take

my picture??"

 The fact that he wanted his picture

taken with this race car should

surprise no one :)

 This might be one of my favorite pictures

of Joshua EVER.

 There are hundreds of these cows all

over the Triangle, painted differently,

and they'll be auctioned off for some

kind of charity or fundraiser. Joshua

"needed" to ride on it :)

 And as soon as she saw him up there,

so did Leah!

 Leah is saying, "CHEEEEEEESE!"

 Raising him right! Go Heels!

 Joshua and Leah with their new

buddy Jeremiah

 Our wonderful guests: AriAnn,

Jeremiah, and Chris :)

 We stopped at South Point Mall on our

way back home and saw this Ferrari

California in the parking lot. Joshua has

2 Hot Wheel versions of this car and

was SO psyched to see one in person!

This is evidence that dreams can come

true :)

Museum of Life & Science!

We had gorgeous weather this week, so we made another trip to the Museum of Life & Science in Durham. I got an unlimited 3-month pass through a great Living Social deal, so we're trying to make as many trips as possible before the end of October!

 Smiley siblings :)

 Not so smiley anymore...this picture

should evoke all kinds of funny memories

for my parents and my brother!

 Joshua actually took this picture--

pretty good, huh?

 Checking out the black bears

 My handsome boy waiting for Leah

and Daddy to catch up

Oh, he's not a ham at all, is he? :)

Labor Day Weekend & Leah's Birthday

My little squinty-eyed smiley girl

enjoying the water at the river shore

 My happy little swimmer--

he loved swimming and watching

the ferry take cars across to the

other side

 My handsome brother and dad...

they look more and more alike as

the years go by!

 Leah was upset about something

(who knows what?) 

*cough* drama queen *cough*

 Way to ruin the picture, Leah ;)

 Somebody turned 2!

 She LOVED having everyone sing

"Happy Birthday" to her...love that smile!

 Post-bath present opening...

a baby doll stroller from Grandma

Martha!

 One of her favorite gifts from

Grandma--a giant Dora coloring

book and crayons. This girl

LOVES to color!

Apparently this kind of talent

takes lots of concentration :)

Camping trip!

We've been loving our learning units over the past few months, and this week we learned all about camping. We enjoyed reading lots of fun books: Mommy reads the longer ones, and Joshua is reading more and more of the books himself, which makes him really proud. Some of his favorites to read this week were "Danny and the Dinosaur Go to Camp" and "Fred and Ted Go Camping." We did lots of learning activities: new camping vocabulary and spelling words, handwriting practice, rhyming word matching, some simple math, patterns, and sorting.


As our field trip this week, we had an indoor camping trip (since the weather was so muggy and rainy). Grandma Martha got the kids an indoor play tent that we set up for the first time, and we got out a bunch of other camping gear as well (sleeping bags, a small camping stove, lanterns and flashlights, canteens, and a compass--these were all vocabulary words this week). We got Joshua all dressed up for a hike around the house and then we read some of our favorite books from the week while sitting on our sleeping bag with the flashlight.

My little camper!

Joshua reading "Fred and Ted Go Camping"
(I'm almost 17 weeks along in this picture,
so please forgive the pudgy tummy!)

I had to include this picture of Leah 

photobombing the shot...doesn't she

look like she just woke up at noon

after staying up late at a concert and

camping out? Silly girl :)

We found easy online directions for

cooking s'mores indoors. We snipped

each marshmallow in half, and these went

in the toaster oven at 400 degrees for 4-5
minutes until they were golden brown.

Then we topped them with Hershey's

chocolate squares and finished them

off with the other graham cracker.

They were delicious...and quite messy,

as you can tell! I think the kids had a lot

of fun, even though we were stuck inside.

A little imagination can go a long way! :)

Harris Teeter balloons

Who knew that a couple of balloons from Harris Teeter could produce so many smiles?

Love these precious smiles!!