For awhile, we were busy every weekend with wedding showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties, and weddings. The next phase was babies, people having them, showering them, etc. The next phase we have just recently achieved is the birthday party phase. We've been attending the birthday parties of our friends kids but now we are constantly being invited to parties of Tommy's friends.
So the newest phase in our lives is birthday parties/sporting events. I think we'll be in this stage for awhile.
So what did we do this weekend? Kid stuff. LOTS of kid stuff.
First event: Tommy's soccer game!
We thought it was going to be 40 degrees. We were extremely wrong. It was 65 by the end of the game. Tommy had on 3 fleece layers, gloves and a hood (I think we were over-prepared for even 40 degrees). I had to force him to take them off because he thought he wouldn't be able to play well after he took them off. He was a ball of sweat. His hair was WET. It was disgusting.
He definitely looked like the unibomber with his hood and purple Hawaiian sunglasses. Poor kid. He felt much better when we took off his layers.
One quick note, there was a bloody nose during the game. It was nasty. Blood everyone. Poor little girl on our team bashed her face into a girl's head on the other team. Ye-ouch. She didn't freak out until she saw blood all over her hands. Then when they finally stopped the blood, her mom told her she needed to sit out for the rest of the game. She almost threw a fit because she wanted to get back in the game. Tough little lady!
I think Charlotte looks a little bored. Don't worry, Charlotte. He only has one game left. :)
Charlotte is in this picture. She is wearing her baby's blanket on her head in grandpa's lap. No idea why. Maybe it was too stinkin' hot! We overdressed her too. Whoops.
Then we raced home to eat and change and head out to a birthday party!
This birthday party had a petting zoo!!
It was also a Minecraft theme.
Birthday boy Owen and Tommy enjoyed playing with toys before he opened his actual presents.
Then Tommy and Logan enjoyed teasing the girls in the playhouse.
Then the kids would go and check out the animals again. There were ducks, goats, a prairie dog, a pony, a donkey, rabbits, and a turtle. It was pretty cool!
But the swingset probably saw more action.
Then it was time to open presents. Tommy got Owen a Minecraft type sword. I think he liked it. But then he said it wasn't Minecraft so maybe he didn't. Ha! Good thing there's such a thing as gift receipts! :)
I loved the candy bar set up. Each of the Minecraft thingies (I know nothing about Minecraft) had a candy in the cup that represented it. Cute! Gummy fish for the fish, rolos for gold, pretzels for sticks, it was very pinteresting!
On Sunday, we decided to head to Fair Oaks Farms for their new annual celebration "Cowtober". They had trick or treating so we dressed up the kids and took them to the farm.
Charlotte decided she wanted to wear her Aurora dress with her Elsa shirt under it.
Tommy will not budge on wearing anything other than his Captain America costume. Doesn't he look giant in this picture????
Charlotte changed her mind before we got to the dairy and went with Elsa. She can't 'let it go' either. Groan. :)
There were many Captain Americas and Elsas but these two were definitely the cutest.
Especially those pink wellies she picked out to go with her dress.
Cowtober was super fun! They had a bounce house and the kids could have stayed all day in that bounce house. It was a monster with inflatable teeth inside. Fun!
After Charlotte fell out of the bounce house (don't worry, she was fine), we convinced them to leave to go on a wagon ride.
The wagon ride was fun! They took us through the new apple orchard and raspberries/blackberries expansion.
They also took us by the new chicken coop expansion. Chickens freak me out!!!! They are little scary dinosaurs and I am not a fan. We pulled up and as soon as the tractor was off you could hear the chickens singing this eerie tune. It was soooo creepy! If someone made a horror movie about chickens, I would never sleep again.
They're trying to get me! Piling their bodies up against the gate! AAAHHH!! They're like zombies. Ok ok, they're not that bad. They are incredibly fascinating. Crazy chickens.
Charlotte's highlight of the weekend was riding a pony. She had DECIDED. She was going to ride a pony and she stood there, nearly tapping her foot until Mom made it happen. Doesn't she look elegant with the sun shining in her hair and her dress and cape in the wind. :-)
I took a quick video of the pony ride. Right after he asked if she could sing the song from Frozen (when the video cuts off), she pushed the button on her dress. Why would she sing it when her dress can do it for her?? HA!
We went on the tour of the dairy. This part is also fascinating. We saw a couple cows refuse to get off the carousel when they were supposed to. They were definitely enjoying the ride.
The kids went on their own cow carousel when we got back from the tour.
Then we watched the 3-D movie. Charlotte was terrified. It was actually 4-D I guess? They had water squirting and vibrating chairs. She was NOT pleased.
We got a family picture for Cowtober. The kids had a really great time going to the dairy for the first time. I can't believe this is the first time!
After the dairy, we went to the real farm. Grandpa was cutting beans! A lot of this field had drowned out so he wouldn't let me take pictures of the yield monitor.
Charlotte was terrified of the combine at first. But she quickly came around and realized she loved it!
Grandpa even saved two of his Oreos for the kids in case we had time to ride with him! They were so excited. Charlotte also enjoyed pointing at Grandpa's hand and saying EWWWWWWW like 10 times because his hands were dirty from working on the combine. Ok we get it Charlotte. :)
We got a family picture selfie in the combine and it is now one of my all-time favorites. I can't believe the kids are actually smiling for a picture! Awesome!
We didn't get home until 9 that night and the kids didn't nap that day. Yikes! It was a SUPER busy weekend. But it was totally worth it. We had so much fun!
First extremely busy weekend of many! Here we go into this new stage of life. ;)
Charlotte is proving herself to be quite the fashionista. She loves accessories and she can already put together an outfit better than I can. Tonight she even had me paint her nails on one hand a coral color and the other hand she chose white!
Tommy's old hat looks just as cute on her too! Love the bangs with it.
Nirvana tee, leggings and stocking hat? She is the coolest kid on the block!
Faux fur vest from TJ Maxx?? She's even a smart shopper!
Oh dear, she loves shoes too!
Captain Amer-Elsa to the RESCUE! She makes an excellent super hero princess. Even Tommy is impressed.
Tommy loves books. This is a understatement. He ADORES books. He has a deep regard for them. :) He has loved books since we forced him to listen to us reading them when he was a teeny babe. So he's in preschool now and he's learning the basics of letters and their sounds and he's so close to being able to read. Until then, he has basically memorized every single Avengers book he owns. We don't even have to read to him anymore.
Makes our job SUPER easy. The funny thing is we really don't read him this book that often. When he started reading it for Andrew one night, Andrew was amazed. He has almost the whole thing memorized. It doesn't hurt that it's about the Avengers, that's for sure. But still, these are really long pages!!!
We planned Charlotte's party for the Saturday after her birthday. I worked all week prepping because Tommy had a soccer game that morning.
I broke out the Cricut, of course! I sent this picture to Andrew and told him I wasn't cleaning it up. I did though. I really thought about just leaving it.
Glitter paper makes all the difference!
I made tiaras and crowns for all the guests to wear.
I made tissue paper pom poms for the first time. You should have seen my janky first attempt. They got much better after the first try.
I made a banner with her name. Boy, does her name have a lot of letters.
Of course I made my usual instagram banner. Meijer even cuts them into 4x4's instead of 4x6's. Nice! For a small fee of course.
I made a princess cake dress from ideas on pinterest. It is supposed to be Aurora's dress from Sleeping Beauty. It turned out pretty cute.
I also made a Hulk cake since she loves the Hulk and I wanted to have a cake Tommy could it. The Hulk cake was a cake made with pop (no eggs or milk) so he could eat it. It was on the verge of falling apart and I ran out of icing but hey, it was still a success!
I was inspired by this on Pinterest. When I stood back and looked at it, my first thought was Pinterest Fail. Or Green Princess Leia. But I still liked it.
Charlotte looked adorable in her dress from Zulily with her name and age. Another cute Zulily find! ;-) Charlotte wore her crown for part of the day. Since it was huge, she didn't wear it long. Very cute little birthday cake on her head though.
It was time to blow out the candles. Charlotte was a little afraid after all the singing by all the Royal Family. But she did a great job blowing them out.
Look at that joy! She is having a ball! Princess and Hulk cake, YUM!
Brother showed some love with cheek kisses for her b-day.
Then he went back to his tough guy scowl. :)
When Charlotte started jumping on the presents, we knew it was time to open them. :)
She loved each and every one of her gifts. She was so excited for each one of them. I had planned to go over how to say thank you for all her gifts and I forgot. But she showed so much excitement for all of her gifts, it didn't matter!
She got so many fun gifts!
Check out that Elsa dress!! Aurora too! She is ready to play dress up for a long time!
Tommy even enjoyed her gifts. Flags to go with the scooters?? Are you kidding me? Tommy's favorite!
I don't think the fellas on the couch knew what to think of all this princess stuff. I tell ya... Before I had a daughter, the idea of a princess party sickened me. But look at me now! Princess stuff is so fun! Pink is an awesome color! Haters gonna hate! Haha! :)
After presents it was time to play outside! AGAIN, Uncle Awam!!
It was time for scooter-ing!
Everyone tried it!
Yep, I made absolutely everyone wear a crown.
Except for Charlotte. But how great is this picture of Princess Charlotte and her royal court?
The dress fit like a glove. So adorable!
Tommy enjoyed looking out the toy room window and making faces.
Charlotte enjoyed looking out over her royal people while sipping on a juice box. :)
The party somehow came together and was a huge success. Except for that whole running out of food thing. But ordering pizzas after the party lasts 6 hours? I think that's okay.
Happy Birthday, Miss Charlotte! Hope you had as much fun as we did!
