Maddie's TWO!!

My baby is 2 years old now and I can't believe it! She seems so grown up, even though she's still a little munchkin. She requested an "Abby Cadabby" birthday cake and, for those of you who don't know, that it one of the new Sesame Street characters. The thing that cracks us up is that Maddie doesn't even watch Sesame Street; however, all of the Sesame Street characters are on her diapers. Every time we change her, she wants to pick which diaper and she kisses the character...So, we went with a Sesame Street theme this year!

Abby Cadabby - The girls made wands just like the little fairy-in-training, Abby Cadabby. Unfortunately, we didn't capture it in pictures. Oh well!

Elmo's World

Cookie Monster Match-Up

The Monster Mash -

Eli was in charge of this one. I don't know if you can tell or not, but the kids got to blow up these monster balloons and use them as individual punching bags.

Eli & Maddie playing in Maddie's new playhouse.

Playing with leaves - I think the kids had just as much fun playing in the leaves as they did with the other games. Here's a picture of one of Maddie's little boyfriends at the end of the party. Doesn't it just make you laugh?! :-) I love it.

Halloween

Wow, I don't even remember all of the Halloween/Fall festivities that went on this year, but I know there were lots of them! Eli had enough events to attend to wear 3 different costumes...batman, Thomas, & Dash. On Halloween day itself, we started by doing Trick or Treat street in our own little downtown area, then had a short nap before heading off to our church' Fall Festival, and then ended the day by trick or treating on our block. As you can imagine, by the end, the kids (and parents) were exhausted.

Here are the only 2 decent pictures we got from all of that:

Maddie dressed up as Ariel, complete with pink crocs. :0)

And here's Eli as Thomas for this go-around.

October Blizzard

Well, we already had our first blizzard of the season and it was before Halloween! Here are a few pictures to see how we Coloradans live. ;-)



Day 1

Decked out to play in the snow. However, it didn't last long because it was still snowing and quite cold and windy too. So, we moved on to inside activities...bubbles in the kitchen! The kids thought it was quite cool that they got to blow bubbles in the kitchen.

John got home a little early, so we did head to the sledding hill. Eli had been begging to go as soon as he saw the first hint of snow. Can you pick John & Eli out of the winter wonderland?? Eli only lasted for 2 trips down the hill because it was too cold and snow got in the sleeves of his jacket. Oh well, at least we tried.

Maddie didn't like having snow in her eyes, so she wore her TinkerBell sunglasses to help out. She actually did 1 trip down the hill in her own little sled, but then was content to sit at the top and cheer on her brother.

Day 2

Here's our back deck on the morning of Day 2. We got close to 2 feet of snow! Of course, this being Denver, it was melted and gone within a few days. Sunshine will do that.

We started Day 2 with some good ole' fashioned cut-out cookies. The kids were quite occupied rolling out the dough, using cookie cutters and singing to Christmas music (come on, with all that snow coming down, I just couldn't resist). Then it was time for the fun part - frosting and decorating them! I think they were busy for a good 2 hours and, for those of you who have small children, you know that's no small feat!!


After cookies, the kids (mine and a neighborhood friend) did want to go outside to play and this time it lasted a bit longer. Anything covered in snow is new and fun!

They loved wading through the snow, climbing in the playhouse, and falling off the ladder without getting hurt. :)

The swings didn't work too well, though.

It's nice having neighbors close enough to hang out with even when you're "snowed in" by a blizzard.

Cousins

A few weeks ago, John's sister and her family came out to visit for a week. That means that 4 of the 7 cousins on John's side were able to get together. Here's they are playing outside on the first day they got to our house.



...and 3 of them playing on the floor together. But then, the craziness began. Eli & I got a stomach bug and then the following day we had a break in our water line and ended up being without water for a day and a half.

Watching the men dig up our front yard (and watching lots of $$$ get washed away too). The kids were pretty fascinated with the construction vehicles and the big hole in the yard, but mom & dad weren't quite as excited.





Thank goodness it was finally nice weather so we could all get out in the fresh air again! We had a picnic at "Puna's" school one afternoon.



And look at these two crazy boys. :) They both love to climb and jump and run and be loud. What else are boys for, right?



And, last but not least, here are Eli & Maddie entertaining their little cousin Selah. So cute to see them making her laugh! :)

Elitch's...this time with friends

We squeezed in one last trip to the amusement park before the season ended. It was so much fun to take the kids again and to have our good friends with us too. Here are just a couple of pics for fun.


Me & Maddie on the ferris wheel.

Eli & Abby on the rollercoaster. This time he made it all 3 rounds, and Abby did too!




Eli's new discovery...bumper cars. He loved them! The girls weren't quite so fond, though.

First Field Trip

Ok, it really makes it seem like my boy is growing up when he has a FIELD TRIP! (Of course, all the parents drive because they're still in car seats :)) Maddie got to come too and had fun hanging out with the "big kids."




Eli's preschool class went to a working farm and it was a beautiful day for it! The kids had lots of fun looking at the animals and walking through the barns, one room schoolhouse, etc. They also got to run through a hay bale maze that was still up from the fall festival the previous weekend. The kids were just happy to be outside running around in the open fields!












And, here's a classic picture. I swear, I think every child probably has a similar picture, I know I do. The one from my preschool field trip included me petting a sheep and I was wearing a bright red sweater with a flower name tag. :)

Growing Up

Here's Eli on his first day of preschool. The whole family went with him and got to stay for the day to meet his teacher, meet the other kids/families in his class, and find out about all the fun things that he will be doing this year. At one point, Eli looked up at us and said, "When are you leaving?" He loves going to preschool!

Maddie loved Eli's preschool too, but has been enjoying some mommy time while Eli's gone. She always asks about him though, and wants to know when we are going to pick him up. :)

Here's Eli's first day without us at school, in his cubby. Oh, and now his favorite thing to do is ride his bike to school! If the weather is good, we let him ride once a week while Maddie and I walk behind him. He definitely wants to be all grown up and loves his new adventures!!

The Cabin

The cabin seemed to mark the beginning and ending of summer for us. We were able to get up there over Memorial Day weekend and then again for Labor Day weekend. This time, though, Papa & grandma rented some ATVs for all of us to play with! You can imagine the kids, and especially Eli's excitement!! :)

The first thing Eli wanted to do each morning and for the rest of the day was to go out on the ATVs. The wind, cold, rain, none of it bothered him as long as he got to ride. Maddie was pretty excited too, but the noise scared her to begin with. Once we figured out a way to get her strapped to me, she liked the ride too and seemed to have a lot of fun. She didn't go out nearly as much as her big brother, but she still thought the ATVs were pretty cool.

Since Maddie wasn't up for the long rides like Eli, I thought I'd take her on a little hike. She enjoyed it so much that she got rocked to sleep. I could feel her head swaying back and forth. :)

The other thing that the kids always love about the cabin are the campfires and the chance to make smores. Of course, other people probably think it's a little strange to have a campfire in what looks like the middle of the day, but it's a necessity for kids who are playing so hard and don't want to stop to take naps. We had early bedtimes, but they were OK with that as long as they got to have smores before bed. :)

Such fun memories for our family!

Elitch's

Here are some pictures from the kids' first visit to Elitch Gardens Six Flags. A friend's dad was raising money for his non-profit organization, so we thought we'd support them and see what the kids thought of their first amusement park...they loved it!!

I think John might have been more scared than the kids on the Ferris Wheel! ;-)

Eli on the "Tower of Doom" - doesn't he look so small?! But he loved it, of course!

Maddie on the planes! Go Red Baron :-)

Eli's first official roller coaster. Each time the coaster went around, they would stop it and have the kids give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to let the operator know if they wanted to stay on the ride. Here's Eli giving his thumbs up after the first time around. (he made it through 2 of the 3 "laps")

You know it's been a good day if the kids pass out in the car on the way home.