Thankful, a performance and more leaves

 Chase brought this home from school yesterday.  The conversation went like this:

Me: "Why are you thankful for a cat?  We don't even have a cat."

Chase: "Yeah, but Grandma and Vickie do and I like him."

Me: "So you didn't think maybe you like your sister more than the cat?"

Chase:  "Well, I like Taylor so much that I couldn't even draw it. (pause) And I already had enough people I was thankful for."

I especially like my mad scientist hair-do.  

 The kids were in performance at church on Sunday.  

 They all did a great job.  This picture was from rehearsal - the end of rehearsal when they were all worn out!  They were much perkier on Sunday!

 Taylor asked me to take this picture to show Emmy.  Who knows?!

 We made the leaf pile to end all leaf piles since it was so warm out the other day.

 That and it's slightly more motivating to clean the yard when it also doubles as a playground for the kids!

 It was as exciting as they hoped.

 Even Max had fun.  Why do we need trees again?

 Where's Chase?  He stayed buried for a rather long time.

 Found him.

And finally, a little proof that sometimes I can be productive while the kids are at school!  Sadly, there are about half that many leaves on the ground again already.  More fun, I guess!?

School Pictures

Chase - Kindergarten

Taylor - Preschool

A Check-Up

 Taylor went for her 4-year check-up today.  

She has no shame - I had to ask her to cover up for the picture!

 She actually talked to the doctor.  She wouldn't look at him, but at least that is progress.  She also got lucky in the shot department.  Because she just got her flu mist a couple of weeks ago, she couldn't get more vaccines yet.  So no shots today, but that means 4 for next year. 

She was 36 1/2 lbs - 50% and 41 1/8 in - 75%.

Leaves & Zeke

 Yesterday was the perfect afternoon for playing in the leaves!  We have plenty of them!!

 

 

 It's also turkey season!  He's getting tired of this gig though - I had to prop him up on the bush because he kept tipping over.  

Taylor was beyond thrilled to find a birthday card in the mailbox from Zeke!  It was complete with a personal message, paw prints and some pictures showing how big and fast he is these days!

 She just kept giggling and hugging the pictures.

 Her favorite picture.  Zeke is the best dog we ever had :)

Taylor's Birthday

 We had to give Taylor a little nudge to get her up so she could open her presents before Chase left for school.  You always know pretty quickly which side of the bed she got up on....luckily, the presents helped!

 She got a Hello Kitty CD player and a Doc McStuffins notepad.

 And some Hello Kitty nails.

After Chase got off to school we started making cupcakes for the party.

 And one big one for the candle!

 Hello Kitty was the choice although, she really wanted to get Star Wars "so the boys would like it."  I told her it was ok to pick what she wanted since it was her birthday.

 A delicious and nutritious birthday lunch at McDonalds :)

 Best of all - a birthday wish from Chica!!! See her name scrolling across the bottom...

 And even better, Chica read her card!

 I have a video to get on here sometime, but she was pretty giggly about it!

 Finally, after a really, really long afternoon of waiting - it was party time!

 Pump it Up was loads of fun.

 The only problem was you had to be 2 and 34" to play at all on the inflatables.  This put some limits on the guest list and poor little Emmy still came but couldn't bounce.  She still seemed to have fun though!

 Off for another room of fun.

 These kids were hot, sweaty and worn out by the time our jumping ended!

 All of the party guests.

 Ready to get some food!

 Singing Happy Birthday - Taylor obviously looks thrilled with the attention!

 Blowing out the candles.

 Opening presents - everything was pink and frilly!  She loved it all!

 Chase was excited to see his buddy Landon.

 MeMa and some of her fans.  It was a fun party!

 

We celebrated again on Sunday with the family.  We spent the rest of Sunday putting together the Barbie Lego set from Marty and Lisa!! It wasn't too bad and we only had 3 spare parts!