Still talking turkey...

This year was the first year we headed to the coast for Thanksgiving, and Jannie & Pops rented an awesome house right on the water!  We arrived late Tuesday night, and the girls were so excited that they hardly slept that night! 

Wednesday we headed into Corpus to hit the aquarium, and the girls loved it.  It was such a great aquarium, complete with a dolphin show outside! 

Anna repeated “Come on dolphin, jump HIGH!” 842 times – she apparently had high expectations! 

Not a great picture, but the girls had to see the dolphins under water too!  Notice Anna with her baby that comes almost everywhere with us – she’s recently named her “Isabella” – after her best little buddy from school:

The birds were actually a big hit – we spent lots of time looking at the the owl. He was holding a mouse, which Anna was convinced it was a kitty cat. Thankfully she was not disturbed that it was his dinner!

The bald eagle and the parrot were also a big hit along with the alligator and Dori (Nemo must have been sleeping).

Thanksgiving Day was spent enjoying lots of family that Anna, Avery and I haven’t really been around too much and that Ryan hasn’t seen in a long time!  My girls were especially enamored with Uncle Matt (Ryan’s brother):

 ...and the “other Uncle Matt” (Ryan’s brother, Jeff):

I got suckered into the “cousins” picture since Anna would not go without me:

Avery, Meme & Ali (who was a big hit with my girls, and with me!):

This one spent lots of time eating…

And making messes:

At night we would enjoy the sunset (and fight the stickers in the grass), roast s'mores and play games.  This particular night, we just focused on forgetting the outcome of the Aggie game.

Friday we headed out on Blaine's boat, and the girls were eager to go for a ride.  It was Anna’s first!!

We figured we might as well enjoy the photo-op, while Jeff & Blaine were working hard to get the boat in the water:

The boat was small, but super fast!  Sad that Blaine got cut out of the pic!

Off we went!  The girls enjoyed the ride and pointing out all of the birds. Avery just wanted to go fast!  Anytime Blaine would slow down, Avery would ask if we just ran out of gas.

We had a terrifying ride back.  Wind + small boat = Near death experience.

Avery was really excited to learn how to fish, and Jannie had a Dora fishing pole ready to go!  Here she is checking out the bait – I can’t believe she touched it!  That quality is definitely not in the gene pool...

And there she goes!

And this one was just sweet…

Pops helped Avery collect and clean some sea shells. Pops – she hasn’t forgotten about that necklace you promised her! ;)

Uncle Matt caught some bait, so Avery wanted to check it out…

And she touched it too. She couldn’t believe that it was “real”! 

Anna decided that she needed to fish too, but ultimately she enjoyed watching Jannie fish with her pole more. 

This one of Meme and Anna is one of my favorites!  And let me tell you something about Meme... she does not mess around when it’s time to play games! I wasn't brave enough to play against her this year! 

Thank you Jannie & Pops for such a memorable Thanksgiving.  We have lots to be thankful for!!

Trick-or-Treat

 This year the Mr. and I took the day off to attend all of the festivities – next year, I will be taking the day AFTER off because We. Were. Exhausted.

The girls were super excited about all of the Halloween festivities candy that was in store, so they were eager to go to school!  Here are the girls ready for school in their Halloween shirts – and, as usual, this is the best I could do of the girls together: 

The school parade and parties were great!  This year we had to divide and conquer, so I went to Anna’s party, and Daddy attended Avery’s.  Before nap time, Anna’s class “planted” glitter pumpkin seeds, and when they woke up, they found a row of little pumpkins! 

Anna and I decided to join Avery’s party where they were on a 20 minute rotation of cupcake decorating, door hanger decorating and picture frame decorating!  She loved it all…

We headed from school straight to our neighborhood party: 

This year we decided to rent a bounce house for the kids.  This was Anna’s first time in a bounce house, and it was hilarious to watch her try to stand up!

When it started to get dark, Deda came over so we could trick-or-treat:

Yet another attempt to get a shot of my girls together:

Anna headed straight to the “pump-in” at the end of our street, and Avery went straight for the candy:

The girls off to another house – this was one of the few times that Avery actually waited for Anna! 

Belle and Daddy:

Avery completely got the hang of things this year, and she was determined to go to every house in our neighborhood... and as fast as possible!  Anna started to lose interest, so she stayed back with Daddy to hand out candy. She was a huge fan of our neighbor’s spider hat though – she loved to point and say, “Mommy! E-Bii-Pider!!" 

I'm happy to report that the girls have finally come down from their sugar highs, and I'm ready to get the remaining candy out of our house... Any takers!!??

Renaissance Festival

Last weekend, we headed out to the Renaissance Festival with a few of our closest friends.  The weather is always great, and it always a good time.  This year was no different!

As soon as we walked in the gate, the kids wanted to get their faces painted.  Avery wanted a "rainbow fairy" - and she got one - complete with fancy glitter too!

Jack, Avery & Kyle showing off their newly painted faces:

We could not pass the swing without everyone screaming, so here we are... on the way up!

WEEEE!!  You have to zoom in and check out all the kids faces... Lily (far right) totally cracked me up...

Next up - the crazy spinning ride.  Mommy doesn't spin.  Thank goodness Daddy does!

Topping Anna's list was riding a "neigh neigh" or an "e-be-dah", so we went for the elephant.

She was not a fan. :)

So cute, Jack & Avery:

Daddy & Ian had to get in on the fun:

Time to eat! This picture was taken moments before Anna decided to drink the ketchup. :)  And check out the background... we take our kids to only the classiest places. :)

And what's better than a turkey leg?  A community one! Anna, especially loved it.  She grabbed it from John, took two bites, and then it hit the ground. It was the only time she cried all day. :(

The group: Delaney, Devin, Jack, Anna, Avery, Kyle, Lily & Nathan

Wearing them out before it's time to head home:

 Avery & the boys have been talking about having a slumber party since we mentioned it to them months ago. (Note to self - at age 4, they remember everything!)  So, we decided to have a kid & adult sleep over!  

Bath time bubbles were HA-larious!

I have never seen so much water in our bathroom before, but it was totally worth it.  And I think it helped clean up the nail polish from "the incident":

Daddy's bubble mustache was hilarious too...

The kids were ADAMANT that no mommies and daddies were allowed to sleep in their rooms.  So, Miss Carrie told the kids a very animated bed time story about Prince Jack & Prince Kyle rescuing Princess Avery, and the kids were off to sleep... eventually. :)

We checked on them around midnight, and they were all sound asleep. Avery had gotten a stuffed animal for everyone to sleep with, and the next morning we found a few random princess band-aids around the room. Apparently Kyle's finger and every stuffed animal had a boo-boo... So glad everyone is feeling better now. :)

Pumpkin Patch!

Last weekend YaYa and Boompa came to visit, so we headed out to the pumpkin patch!  This was Anna's first time, so she was excited to see all of the pumpkins!

The hunt was on for the perfect pumpkin...

Anna found hers quickly!

And Avery found hers!

I tried and tried to get the girls to take a picture together, but they were usually on opposite ends of the patch! 

Anna with YaYa - too distracted to smile for the camera!

Posing with the punkins...

Headed for the playground!

The see-saw was lots of fun with YaYa doing all the hard work!

Here's hoping we get our pumpkins decorated before Halloween!

10 For Texas!

Congrats to the Mr. on running TEN Miles!!  Your girls are so proud of you (even if Anna doesn't look like it!)!