Ditch Girls' Birthday Party

Our nieces had a joint birthday party for Gwendolyn turning 1 in October and Ainslyn turning 6 in November.  It doesn't seem like she should be a year old already, but babies grow up super fast when you don't see them every day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jump the stick game
 

 

Alternate Halloween Costume

A princess with a duck head, zebra face, kangaroo tail, snake tattoo, and tap shoes

Ollie's Birthday

Ollie turned FIVE with a mini golf dinosaur party.  Becky and Wes made the coolest cake I've ever seen!
 

digging in the tar pit for dinosaurs
 

Hannah could not contain her excitement about her gift to Ollie: a race track.  She really wanted him to play with it right then.
 

 

 

 

 

Halloween

Hannah wanted to be a mermaid for Halloween because she likes swimming.  Olive was going to be a butterfly, but then changed her mind to a "blue princess with a down skirt"  She has never seen any Cinderella books/movies, she just wanted a blue dress that went down to the floor.  In fact when she saw Cinderella's face on her costume she asked, "Who dat?  Is she ni (nice)?"  

We had a big Halloween: swimming lessons for Hannah, playing at Matt Ross playground, scary face pancakes for lunch, naps, get on costumes, visit Brooke & Ted, go trick-or-treating at Vrooman's annual Halloween party.

 

Brooke's baby: Ladybug Gwendolyn
 

Hannah had a blast running around with the kids trick-or-treating.  Olive trailed behind, arriving at houses by the time the other girls were leaving.  She was on her own timetable.

 

At the party, the girls spent most of their time playing in the basement with all of the kids.  I love it that they are old enough to do that.  They had so much fun!  Hannah had some big tears when it was time to leave.  Luckily we didn't have to go to preschool the next day after staying up so late.  Have I mentioned how much I love not working/not going to preschool? :)

Halloweens: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008

Jack-o-Lanterns

We didn't get around to jack-o-lanterns until the day before Halloween.  Better late than never. 

Hannah's plans for possible faces.
 

Olive chose the bottom left and Hannah chose middle left.  She drew the faces on the pumpkins all by herself.  She used a washable marker, so it could wipe off if she made a mistake.  It took a few tries to get things big enough and spread out for cutting.  Steve did the cutting and I baked the seeds.  It was a great before bed snack.
 

 

 

KC Pumpkin Patch

KC Pumpkin Patch has become a family tradition.   Hannah would only go to a new pumpkin patch if we promised to still go to "our real pumpkin patch."  We finally got our visit in this year on the last weekend of the season.  Hannah had to wear her "pumpkin patch outfit."  Her favorite thing is the zip line, but this year they had another favorite: giant slide with potato sacks!  She did that one over and over.

 

 

  

 

 

 

Olive was braver this year and wanted to do slides (but only with me)!
 

 

 

 

 

 

Olive's favorite thing was seeing the pumpkin princess.  She had to take off her jacket to show off her dress.
 

 

I took both girls down the PVC slide.  It went FAST!  I was afraid I would fall on them at the bottom, but we made it....about 5 times.
 

 

2012 Patch pictures with the McGuires
2011- the First Year (check out Olive's barely there hair)

Enchanted Forest

We tried out a new Halloween event: Enchanted Forest at Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park.  I mentioned it to the girls, then it turned out to be a pretty cold day...but too late, they were already super excited to go.  Hannah is a mermaid (with a sweater and crazy red wig) and Olive is a princess (with a sweater and crazy hat that she wears backwards).  

Enchanted Forest had cool inflatables and scenes, magic shows, singers, puppet shows, and lots of people in costumes.  Olive LOVED a girl dressed as Glenda the Good Witch.  Then she saw KC Wolf and started screaming bloody murder.  I picked her up and explained that it was just a man in a costume....just like everyone dresses up for Halloween.  She said, "Oh.  Can I give him a high five?!?"