Hanna's 5th birthday party!

Hanna woke up way before 7 o'clock this morning & crawled into bed w/us. Things were going great; quiet and all until I decided to mention her birthday present; restlessness ensued. She kept saying, "If I don't open it now I won't know what it is and I might not like it". What???? That doesn't even make sense especially at 6:45am! We genteelly offered her another alternative to go read books in her room which she did for about 20 minutes. Enter Hanna back into our room (just as I've fallen back into pre-bday-hysteria-induced sleep. "Can I open my birthday present now????" Why oh why do I even open my mouth. In the next hour or so while Jason picked up the cake I somehow deferred her from solely thinking of her birthday present with a bowl full of marshmallow fruit loops. Trust me it works!

As soon as Jason got home she asked if she could open her present. She was quite surprised with her new bicycle but kept saying, "I thought it would be a game that Haley and I could play together."

When the doorbell rang Hanna & Haley both were very excited to see who it was.

I didn't feel like making a banner this time around and found the cutest one on etsy!

I did make the water bottle labels myself though!

Dinosaur party treats!!!

I found dinosaur egg bubblegum and dinosaur activity books at the party store.

I ordered these dinosaur charm sucker covers from etsy and found the same paper at Hobby Lobby to go with the decor.

Another etsy purchase......dinosaur shaped crayons! Adorable!!!!

I ordered the cake from Publix since we had a Publix cake a few weekends before that was scrumptious. I obviously tweaked their dinosaur cakes a bit and I think it turned out great!

I made dinosaur shaped cookies for the kids to decorate as well as dinosaur shaped magnets.

Some hungry little dinosaurs!

Haley loved being at the party and has asked Hanna for the last 2 months......."Hanna, can I come to your birthday party"? Hanna replies with, "Yes Haley. You live there!!!!"

Ben and Jack decorating their dinosaur cookies. Ben has a twin brother in the class, Christian, that has darker hair.

Richie on the left (our sweet little neighbor) and Gavin from Hanna's class.

Cooper and Lucas, our other cutie patootie neighbors!

Richie again......is he just the cutest?????

Birthday girl showing her dinosaur creation.

The kids also painted dinosaur shaped magnets. Thank you Hobby Lobby!!!!

Time to open presents!!!

Hanna got a lot of fun things for her birthday! Thinking we need to ask Santa for new vessels now instead of new toys!

Our little Hannasaurus! Another purchase from etsy. Hanna loved it and will wear it all year long!

Sweet Brinly eating some pizza.

It's time to blow out the candles!!!!!

Brinly doing some painting. She is really good!

Everybody wanted to play duck-duck goose.

They were so cute! Hanna and Meredith even included their little sisters!

Hanna got some lip glosses and fingernail polishes that Haley loved trying out!

Family picture attempt; I actually like this one a lot.

Jason with his Mom (NuNu) and Hanna & Haley.

It is so nice being closer to family!!!!

Does Hanna look 9 yrs old or what???

They loved trying out Hanna's new make-up products!

A Thanksgiving proposal

We had a lot to celebrate this Thanksgiving! I got a text from Marco (my sister's boyfriend) earlier in the week that read, "I am sending you a pic. Let me know what you think." So, I was thinking it might be something funny or a pic of Heather doing something funny but when I opened the text and saw a beautiful shiny ring sitting in a little box, I was absolutely giddy with delight!!! I walked around on a cloud all day in fact. My immediate response was, "When are going to do it???" I was going to be miffed if he didn't bring that thing with him and propose at my house!

He did bring it and ended up telling the rest of the family the night before Thanksgiving. It was kind of fun being the only one that knew for awhile (I did tell Jason though). We sat down to dinner and even I was getting nervous.....when he is going to do it??? Mom said a prayer, Jason said a few things and the rest of us put in our two cents, Hanna & Haley said at least 3 prayers each. Finally Marco had the floor and BAM. I was expecting this long mushy gushy proposal but it was over in 3 seconds! I'm not complaining because I was really hungry by that time. There were some tears and some laugher.......good times.

Oh, and she said yes!

Congratulations Heather and Marco! We love you both dearly and feel blessed to have shared in your special moment. Thank you for letting us be a part of it!

Haley's birthday party, sans big sis!

Haley had her very own birthday party to attend this weekend! She has been to plenty of birthday parties but they have always involved big sister. Here she is putting her gift in the wheelbarrow. Her friend Isaac from Mommy's Day Out had a Bob the Builder party.

They had Home Depot-ish aprons for everybody and had different sections of the house designated for decorate it, design it, imagine it, paint it, construct it, hammer it etc.

Here she is posing with the birthday boy Isaac. He refused to pose with her and she wasn't about to throw herself onto him. Poor little guy, he had a rough day and cried a lot. Isaac, birthday parties do the exact same thing to me!

Haley got to decorate her own yellow hard hat with an endless array of construction site/work hazard stickers. You can't see because her hat is turned sideways but she managed to find the few "handicapped" stickers in the bunch. She did not want any part of the get-up but I somehow convinced her to keep the apron on because, "Everybody else is wearing one." I decided the hat wasn't worth causing a scene over even though she was so cute in it.

She loved coloring the cardboard house the best. I couldn't coax her on outside where they had work benches and hammers and nails with all the supplies to build your very own small toolbox. I crept outside feeling a little intimidated but I was determined to build that damn toolbox and thru trial and error and a little help from a friend, it was completed!

The boy and girl on Haley's right were neighbors but the cutie on her left is Jackson. He is also in her Mommy's Day Out program. I asked Haley what her favorite part of the bday party was and she said, "Eating the ice cream and cake"! I will admit it was scrumptious but I would be lying if I said that was my favorite part. My parting gift was a 6ft measuring tape w/keychain. I think it is the cutest darn thing and it will reside in my purse so sticky little fingers won't grab it.

Hanna's Thanksgiving celebration

I just recently learned from Hanna that she is betrothed to a little boy in her class, unbeknownst to me. Apparently he asks her every day, "Hanna, do you promise you will marry me?" She told me that her answer is always yes. I guess she decided to return the enthusiasm because now she asks him right back, "Do you promise you'll marry me?" We are going to invite him over one night for milk and cookies and find out what his intentions are. Btw, hubby to be is sitting right next to her.

This picture cracks me up at how serious they are singing the Hokey Pokey, the turkey version. While I loved watching the kiddo's hokey and pokey their little hearts out, when they said, "You put your right claw in", I had to gulp. Just the image of a turkey claw......anyway, you get the picture.

Here they are singing my favorite Thanksgiving song, "1 little, 2 little, 3 little Indians.....".

Miss Lynne talked to them about different Indian names and gave them examples so they could come up with their own. Everybody yelled out what their Indian name was; there was a "Sun", "Lizard Buffalo", and Hanna's was "Buffalo". My favorite though was "Teletubby Playhouse".

After the "show" they sat down for a Thanksgiving feast. Hanna's future MIL and myself signed up to do this party so we brought Chick-fil-a nuggets (I am positive the pilgrims would have LOVED them), along with fruit, corn on the cob, rolls, and my terrific idea of sweet potato fries. As we were dishing out the feast my sweet potato fries seemed to be snubbed by all. Not surprising, by the time they made it to the school and waited for about 10 minutes they were less than appetizing and a bit on the mushy side.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised at how they gobbled up the food, minus the fries of course, and even had decent table manners to boot. I'd say the big moment of the day was getting to finally meet the boy Hanna plans on marrying.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My little brother got married!!!

Hanna was a flower girl and did wonderful! She took the job very seriously. Unfortunately, her cute dress shoes weren't very comfy so we switched to crocs right after the ceremony. Well, at her age she can get by with this!

Haley was a big fan of the dance floor and spent most of the night running in circles.

I loved all the fall colors of the wedding!

Mom and Dad with the groom to be.

Haley grew quite attached to Aubrey, the jr. bridesmaid. When she wasn't dancing she was being carried around by her. Quite cute.

Heather and Marco. Marco and Jason were groomsmen in the wedding.

Two tired little girls dancing with Mimi and Papa.

I wanted a pic of me and Jason since we don't have many pics of the two of us dressed up and without kids hanging on us. Marco decided to grace us with his lovely smile. I didn't know until well after the picture was taken. Thanks Marco!

Hillary, my new sister-in-law!

I just can't believe that my little brother is married! It makes me feel very old! The wedding was on Saturday, October 30th, the eve of Halloween. Everyone had a great time being together but I'm sure the bride and groom are relieved it's all over! So much preparation goes into the planning that by the big day you are so exhausted! I know I was. The happy couple left right after the reception for their honeymoon aboard a cruise ship. I hope they are having a relaxing vacation and I wish them many more to come. Congratulations Anthony and Hillary!!!

Trick or Treat!

This is what we had for dinner

Hanna wanted to be a dinosaur early on and when we found Tiny the Pteranodon from Dinosaur Train she knew for sure that's what she wanted to be.

Since summer Haley has said she wanted to be a witch, a green witch to be exact. This is the closest I could find. She is the cutest little witch I've ever seen!

Doing their best impersonations.

They were a little hesitant to get their pic with Esmerelda, until I told Haley she should take a pic with her mommy witch. She thought that would be pretty cool and Hanna couldn't be outdone by her baby sister. As always, we are sad to see Halloween come to an end but we have enough candy to last a life time!