kelby's party

i know this is a way overdue blog post, but it has been pretty hectic in our house.  better late than never, right?  this will be the post of few words ;)

kelby's cake.  it matched her invitation perfectly!  thanks again grandma!

sweet cousin lyla

kelby and some of the girls opening presents

kelby taking her turn at the pinata

all the goodies!

the girl table ;)

happy birthday sweet girl!  hope your day was super special!

Kelby is 5!

Today Kelby turns 5!  I don't think it hit me until I was uploading some pictures from this morning and I made a new folder titled "Kelby's 5th Birthday."  For some reason that is what did it for me.  I'm such a baby... 

Kelby asked her Grandma to make cupcakes for her class.  We thought for sure she was going to suggest princess themed or butterflies or some other really girly idea, but she didn't.  She wanted turkeys!  She knows her birthday is close to Thanksgiving so she thought it would be fitting to have turkeys.  That totally took me off guard!  So here are Kelby's cupcakes.

Thanks Grandma for making such amazing turkey cupcakes!  They were a huge hit when I dropped them off this morning :)

And since I won't be able to be there when they pass out the cupcakes, I had Kelby and her teacher take a quick photo.  Mrs. Nancy had a special hat for Kelby to wear.  I'm sure she will be wearing it all day!

Happy Birthday my little turkey!

By the way, we took several birthday pictures this morning, but I didn't realize until I uploaded them that she had her eyes shut in every single one except this one where she is posing it up for the camera ;)

trick-or-treating

our neighborhood is a hot spot for trick-or-treaters.  i love it!  growing up we lived outside of town and rarely had a trick-or-treater.  i no longer try to count how many kids we hand out candy to, but my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who live just a few houses down, estimated that we had over 700.  i totally believe it.  it is nuts!  we, as well as my neighbors, sit outside rather than inside since our front door would never close.  we took the girls and my nieces to a few houses before the madness hit our house.  funny thing is i think the girls enjoy handing out the candy even more than getting it! 

i also think it is funny how all my neighbors also invite friends over to witness the mayhem.  if they are anything like me, i bet their hoping they too bring candy to pass out.  700 trick-or-treaters can get pricey!  ;)

hometown birthday bash

this past weekend our hometown celebrated their 140th birthday.  there was a parade followed by an arts & crafts festival and even a street dance that night.  we, along with my sisters family, went to the parade that morning and my niece and kevyn were asked to participate in the parade.  my sister's mother-in-law is in charge of the local boys and girls club and they needed some kiddos for their parade entry.  kelby opted to stay back and play with neely, but kevyn was more than willing to ride the antique fire truck and throw out candy. 

kevy and tante holly

kelby & neely

natalie & kevyn on the fire truck

pumpkin parties

halloween started a little early for us this year.  both the girls had pumpkin parties at their school on friday.  kelby's class was allowed to bring their costumes to change into and then had a costume parade at the "big school" (which is really K-8th). 

comparing wings

too stinkin' cute!

kelby during the costume parade

kevyn at her pumpkin party.

i feel i must defend myself and state that i always send both of my kids to school clean and with fixed hair.  but somehow kevyn always comes home looking a mess - see above picture.  last night i made the mistake of taking her shoes off in my room and i could not believe all the dirt and pebbles that came out!  i guess she plays hard a recess ;)

carving pumpkins

as we do every year, we carved pumpkins for the front porch.  we learned several years ago that it was much easier when you use power tools.  and luckily for me, since i do not use power tools, i am the official photographer of the event ;)  we started our project right after breakfast and i let the girls keep their pajamas on since i knew we would probably need to change by the time we were done.  the girls looked at a book and picked out their mouths, nose and eye shape and i tried my best to replicate it on to the pumpkin for jeff to cut out.

this one had a bow on the side of her head.

this is the picture to prove kevyn was there.  she wasn't really into getting her hands messy, so she opted to color her picnic table instead :)

halloween pictures

as i previously posted, we had pictures taken of the girls in their halloween costumes.  they came out super cute and i'm very excited to share them! 

thanks again coby for taking the amazing pictures of my girls!

*** if you would like more info on the photographer you can click here.

busy, busy, busy...

the past few weeks have been very busy for us - i'm sure you've noticed by the lack of posts!  the first weekend in october, jeff and i along with two other couples made a trip to san antonio.  the boys golfed while the girls enjoyed the spa and shopped.  we stayed at the westin la cantera which i highly recommend.  it has the perfect setup for a weekend getaway (it requires very little driving once you get there).  we can't wait to go back with the kids!

i stole this picture off their website :)

the only somewhat decent picture i took that weekend.  we had so much fun - i forgot to snap some pictures! 

we have also finished up with kelby's soccer season.  in the beginning she was very nervous and had many fake injuries that almost took her out of the games.  i am proud to report that by the end of the season the nerves left and on her very last game she scored a goal!  i think she was just as shocked as we were!

this one makes me smile because many times we saw these two deep in a game of stacking bottles or rearranging the bench...  so funny!

funny story...  somewhere during the season someone asked her what she wanted if she scored a goal (i'm nearly positive this was a grandparent).  she said she wanted a unicorn - lol!  after she scored her goal she told us, "turns out, when the big flood came, the unicorns were off playing a game and weren't paying attention so they didn't get on the ark.  they got flooded."  so darn cute and such a good answer.  i'm thinking she told her teacher about getting a unicorn and this is what her teacher told her.

and finally, this past sunday the girls got their pictures taken in their halloween costumes (that will get its own post!).  they took pictures in la grange, so afterwards we headed to the busy b for a little shopping.  the busy b is such a cute store and kelby was able to give me many suggestions for her upcoming birthday.  we did however go ahead and buy these canvas painting kits.  the idea was that i would supervise the painting so that the finished product could be something we would hang on their walls.  again, that was the idea.  the reality was that mid project i ran inside to check on something in the oven and by the time i came back out kelby had decided to go in another direction with her picture.  

the finished products:

kevyn's

 kelby's

kevyn's party

last friday we celebrated kevyn's birthday at our house with family.  she wanted a dora party - so we delivered.  grandma made her an amazing dora cake (she is very talented) and dad grilled us some burgers and hot dogs to enjoy.  and of course she was spoiled with many presents!

the cake

the birthday girl.  see the big knot on her head?  she fell out of bed a few nights prior and hit the nightstand ;)

jeff's entire family (minus matt) showed up in maroon - lol!

all the kiddos

lyla and grandma

kevyn about to blow out the candles

all the attention was too much!

she only eats the icing

kevyn on her new dora bike!