Happy 2010 Everyone!! One of my goals for the new year is to keep up with this blog a little better. Will it happen? We shall see. Will I post too much and you'll get sick of me? We shall see!!
We celebrated the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 with a Rockin' New Year's Eve Party!! Ok, maybe not so rockin'... but we did have fun! Grammy, Papa, Uncle Brad, Aunt Laura, Morgan and our friend Lisa all came over for dinner, which was followed with a little party for the kids before they went off to bed. We bought a bottle of sparkling apple juice and did a New Year's countdown (at about 7pm!).Grammy brought over a box of party hats, necklaces and noise-makers, so that was tons of fun - especially the noise-makers! Uncle Brad, Aunt Laura and sweet baby Morgan, or BeeBeeMorDan as Courtney likes to say. The kids adore their new little cousin!The rest of the evening consisted of playing board games, with a champagne toast at midnight. Carter got to play some Pictureka (the little-kid version!) before heading off to bed, which he loved.It was a fun night!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
2009 was a wonderful year of kids growing older and memories being made. As we enter the new year I thought I'd take a moment and reflect on a few of the things that the previous year has meant to us...
An Inauguration celebrated in icing.A baby girl turning one.First steps.First attempts at art.A lot of mommy's time spent here.A celebrity (chef) encounter!A brother and sister having fun times together, sometimes.And other times, not so much.Springtime traditions.A family vacation to California.Spending time with family in Michigan.The loss of a friend.A boy with a blankie.And a girl with her bunny.A day out with a favorite engine...And a costume to match.Meeting a sweet new baby cousin.Indoctrination.Happy Christmas memories.And a big boy turning four.Happy New Year! May 2010 bring you many treasured memories of your own!
Carter turned four today! FOUR!! Can you believe it? I can't. It seems like just yesterday he came into our world. And yes, I probably will say that exact same thing on his birthday for the rest of his life. So you better get used to it! :-) For the big four year celebration today, we decided to do a small party at Chuck E. Cheese's with family and friends. Carter and Courtney both had a complete BLAST, they LOVED it!! Here are some photos...
When we first arrived it was playtime. Carter had sooooo much fun playing air hockey with his buddy Adrian!Courtney really had fun with the games too - here she's bonking some sharks, with Daddy's help.Next it was time for dinner - pizza, of course! Here's the party crew - Carter was joined (counterclockwise) by his friend Rachel (whose 4th birthday was the day before!), sister Courtney (you can only see the top of her head), Zoe, Derek (Rachel's little brother) and Adrian.Carter was very happy that Grammy & Papa were visiting from Michigan and got to be with him for his birthday!And here's a gratuitous adorable baby shot! Have I mentioned how incredibly adorable Carter and Courtney's baby cousin Morgan is??Next the mouse himself, Chuck E. Cheese, made an appearance! He led the singing of Happy Birthday...And Carter blew out the candles on his Cars cake!Next the part Carter looked forward to most - eating the cake!!Ok, opening presents was pretty great too.Courtney was soooo excited about Chuck E. Cheese, she even ran over and hugged his legs, all on her own!All in all, a super fun birthday party! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARTER!
Well I think Carter has a new favorite holiday. I'm sure it will all change once Christmas/birthday time rolls around again, but for now, he just cannot believe he got to walk around the neighborhood collecting candy! We had a really fun Halloween - I'll show you the photos from last night in this post, and then try to get back here in the near future to share all the fun things we've done leading up to Halloween!
So did you have any doubt about what Carter would want to go as?? Of course, he's Thomas the Tank Engine! Actually, the little smarty, because the hat came with the costume, he pointed out that he's both Thomas *and* Mr. Conductor at the same time. :-)I asked him if he could open his eyes a little wider for a photo... and he did! LOL!Here's our sweet little Dorothy! I wanted to get her to stand & pose for a photo like Carter did, but she wanted none of it. It was mostly because her shoes were bugging her. I already had these hand-me-downs from Rachel, and thought they'd be good enough for one night. Well, they are size 8, and Courtney only wears a 5 and a half. She was not thrilled with how they fit, despite my efforts to stuff the ends with cottonballs!Here's Carter, Daddy and Courtney posing for the camera. I had on a fun witch hat, so we had to find a funny hat for Daddy to wear too!In the wagon, ready to head to the park for the neighborhood Halloween party!Oops, Mommy goofed! The party was 3-5pm - Mommy thought it STARTED at 5! Oh well, we had fun playing at the park instead. The Thomas costume is having a short rest - too hard to seesaw while wearing it. :-)Notice the ruby slippers are officially gone at this point.Finally the trick-or-treating begins. Here's the first house they went to. Carter loved ringing the bells and yelling TRICK OR TREAT as loud as he could. And everyone told Courtney she was the cutest little Dorothy ever. She couldn't figure out why everyone kept calling her Dorothy! :-)Trick-or-treating is finished and we're heading back home. They couldn't wait to dive into that candy!Once we were home, Carter got super excited every time kids came to OUR door to get candy - he'd grab out candy bowl and hand it out to the kids and tell everyone "Happy Halloween!" It was cute. Now I'm faced with the challenge of keeping C &C OUT of the candy they collected - I turn my back for a minute and they have suckers in their mouths! This morning Carter actually tried climbing up on top of the fridge to get at the candy, while I was changing Courtney's diaper. For now it's hiding in the microwave - sssh, don't tell him! :-) I hope you all had a very Happy Halloween!!
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We bought a bottle of sparkling apple juice and did a New Year's countdown (at about 7pm!).
Grammy brought over a box of party hats, necklaces and noise-makers, so that was tons of fun - especially the noise-makers!
Uncle Brad, Aunt Laura and sweet baby Morgan, or BeeBeeMorDan as Courtney likes to say. The kids adore their new little cousin!
The rest of the evening consisted of playing board games, with a champagne toast at midnight. Carter got to play some Pictureka (the little-kid version!) before heading off to bed, which he loved.
It was a fun night!
