School Pictures, A Bad Day and Things in Between

 I let Taylor pick out her own outfit for picture day this year.  I'm pretty sure I didn't need to tell you that.  She was thrilled with how they turned out.

 I picked out Chase's shirt and turns out I'm pretty good at matching the background...exactly. Oh well.

 Chase talked us in to celebrating his half birthday this year with a Sweet Frog trip.

 I was up for celebrating anything after the day of doctor appointments!  This was Chase when they took the laughing gas mask off at the dentist's office.  I think I actually looked worse than he did.  It was rough.  I told him that if he wanted anything from Target that now was the time to ask because he could have talked me into anything at that moment!!

 Earlier that same day, Taylor had her 5-year check up.  She is 50% for weight and 75% for height.  She got 4 shots and took it like a champ!  Later that day (after the dentist appt mentioned above) she had some sore arms and legs.  We were handing out ibuprofen like it was candy by bedtime.  Poor kids.

 It's also turkey season.  Love getting my turkey out each year.

 Jamie and I took the girls to see The Little Mermaid play one night.  They loved it.

 Chase FINALLY got the "outstanding musician" award.  He has been waiting since the first music class.

 Max went to Sonic and was not happy with the amount of food ordered.  I was waiting for him to push the order button again all by himself.

 We got the leaves together for a little fun.  Our pile would be about 5 times bigger if we did that today.  Too many leaves.

 This entertained them for about 3 minutes! 

Chase came home with his first "Book It" award last week.  He was super excited to find out that you can get your very own pizza.  Good times.

Taylor's 5th Birthday!

 Taylor's birthday started with her being the first one to wake up....she was clearly excited it was her day!  We let her open gifts from us first thing, before we had to leave for Chase's last baseball game.

 The baseball game was a little colder than we're used to.  Only 7 weeks of games and we went from sweating to death to freezing!

 Baseball players don't care!

 It was a good season and we got the last game in just before the rain started.

 After the game, they handed out trophies and had baseball donuts.

 The girls, meanwhile, are still freezing!

 After baseball we went out for a late breakfast.  The waitress decorated Taylor's cup with a birthday message.

That evening it was finally time for the real party.

 Eating with Kathryn and Emmy.

 Some of the other happy party guests, and those that are too busy eating to smile!

 "Baby" Aaron had fun with Olaf.

 A little "pin the nose on Olaf" fun.

 Dress-up fun.

 Time for cake!

 The best group photo I got!  The boys never sat still past this moment and they were having way too much fun for me to interrupt them for a photo op!

 Opening gifts.

 The happy gift helper.  She insisted on cleaning up the mess Taylor made after opening a present before she would bring her the next one.  She cracks me up.

 More dress up fun!

PaPa taught the boys how much fun it was to blow up a balloon and then let it go.  They could have done this for hours.

 Sunday morning Taylor got dressed in some of her new clothes, including the sparkly red high-heels!

 Today we had to make a pit stop at Kroger on the way to preschool to get cupcakes to celebrate with her class.  I was informed that " Your mom is supposed to make them."  Luckily, Kroger came through with Frozen rings, so I was off the hook!

At school, she arrived to a "Happy Birthday" message on the door.  She got to wear her crown all day and eat cupcakes with her friends.  The 5th birthday is now complete!

Halloween

Chase got out of school at 12:30 and then asked approximately 1.4 million times "how much longer until we can put on our costumes"!  Finally, it was time.

 We made stops by the great-grandparents' houses and then it was up to church for trunk-or-treat. 

 We did our trunk as a beehive this year.

 Max also decorated his trunk and came too.

 It wasn't really that long of a night but apparently all of the anticipation had worn Taylor out!  It was easy to get her in bed though, because she couldn't wait to wake up on her birthday!