Lost in the Corn!

Fall is a great time of year for outdoor activities around Charlotte.  Another of my favorite outings in October is the Amazing Maize Corn Maze.  This is our third year going.  It's a mind game, and I love mind games!  Jonathan's brother, Daniel, from Michigan is here visiting so he came along and helped us get lost in the maze!

Our first mailbox!!  If you haven't ever done one of these mazes, I am sure you are confused right now.  They basically set you loose in a corn maze and want you to find your way out.  There are 12 mailboxes hidden inside the maze and each time you find one, you get a piece of the map of the corn maze.  So in essence, the more mailboxes you find, the easier it is to find your way out! 

 

And our final mailbox!!  We completed the map.  This is actually our very first year completing the map.  The previous years we found the exit before we completed the map, and since this activity is not as favorable for my husband as it is for me, he has always persuaded me to leave once we found the exit.  Unlucky for him, we never found the exit this year until we found our final piece of the puzzle that helped us get out!

   I have no idea exactly how long we were "lost".  Maybe three hours?  Ryan had fluctuated from riding in the stroller, having Grandma carry him, and walking around.  When it got cooler out, I finally started wearing him.  He fell asleep while riding on my back (hence why you can't see him in the group picture.. he was snoozing away!)

 

Since Katelynn didn't get to come on the pumpkin patch trip with us for Justin's school, she posed for me in front of the pumpkins at the corn maze!

 And guess who found a tractor to ride?  Of course!!

 

Pumpkin Pick'n Time!

Justin's first school field trip of the year was to the pumpkin patch.  Unfortanetly, Katelynn was in school so I couldn't get any shots of all three of the kids at the pumpkin patch, but the boys had a great time picking out pumpkins.... and we made sure we brought Katelynn home a pumpkin!

This is Ryan's first year he actually has interest in pumpkins.  He especially likes them because they look just like balls to him, and he's a big fan of playing/throwing/kicking balls!

Yay!  A hayride to the pumpkin patch.  I am sure you all can guess that this was the highlight of Justin's trip.  He is sitting with his buddies Cody and Calen on the hayride!

For the record, never try to get three pumpkins from far into a field of pumpkins by yourself with two kids (one of which will not just follow you but you have to carry to get him to actually go where you want to go).  It was quite interesting attempting to get three pumpkins and two boys back to the hayride on my own!  Lesson learned for sure!

One More Birthday Celebration for Katelynn!

We really, really, really like birthdays around here.  Can you tell?   We needed to have one more birthday celebration for Katelynn before officially accepting that she is the big SIX years old!

 

No, really, we weren't sure how many kids to expect at her party so we planned a family dinner party following her "friend" birthday party.  It ended up we could have just had all the family at her actual party like we have done in the past, but we just weren't sure what to expect with guests and there was only so much room in the little dance studio... and really, why not celebrate yet again?  :)

 

Katelynn opened all her presents at her family party (no pictures because well, she was a little grumpy about her brothers and their attempts to help.. and she doesn't like everyone staring at her while she opens things..  Do you see a pattern here?  Somehow at age 6, people watching her has become an issue.  We are hoping that will pass sooner rather than later!)  She did blow out candles without everyone having to do so, but she didn't want us to sing to her again.

 

A Purple Ballerina Birthday!

Birthday Party planning is one of my favorite things to do!  It gets a little hectic sometimes because I like to do everything in theme, but I love it all the same.  This year Katelynn really struggled with where she wanted to have her party.  She really wanted another pirate and princess party at home, but when we were deciding what to do, we had a potential offer on our house that would have landed us in moving mode during the party so I had to push her to pick a public location.  Her first choice was actually Everest (where the kids attend/ed preschool and is a full gymnastics center), but they were already booked.  Second choice was to have a birthday party at her dance studio where she currently takes classes. 

 

If I haven't mentioned it already, my daughter has a mind of her own.  She knows what she wants.  There's no more me getting to pick and chose anything so of course the exact theme choice was hers.  I thought doing an Angelina Ballerina Book Theme party or a traditional pink ballet theme would be super cute, but Katelynn insisted on having a black and purple ballerina birthday.  We mainly did purple, but we encorporated some black into her outfit.  Purple ballet stuff is HARD to find!  I did land some plates that had purple on them, but the rest of the stuff I defintely had to do on my own!

 

I made a stab at making cookies for the first time ever!  They weren't perfect but for my first time, they weren't too bad either!  Katelynn did not want to blow out candles for her birthday cake this year, which was killing me so my clever husband came up with a great compromise.  He asked Katelynn if she would blow out a candle if all her friends blew one out too.  This worked perfectly for her because her issue was actually having everyone "staring" at her while she blew out her candle.  So, instead of an elaborate cake, we went with cupcakes so everyone had their own with a candle.

 

 Favor Bags included two cookies and a mixed CD tape of music they danced to at the party (along with other songs too that Katelynn picked that she liked... all from Kid Bop CDs so they were kid friendly :)  )

I did make a cake last minute.. it's one of my 15-minute decorating job cakes so nothing too fancy but it had a "tutu" effect with ballet fondant slippers on the top.

Katelynn has always had HUGE birthday parties, but this year was totally different.  We still invited a bunch, but she had picked a large amount of kids from school and I think since this is the beginning of the year and parents didn't really know us, they weren't as ambitious about coming.  That coupled with some sick friends last minute, made for a small group of kids.  I was nervous at first that Katelynn would be upset, but it ended up being a perfect party for the dance setting!

 Ryan was quite the funny little dude at the start of the party.  He lost interest near the end, but at the beginning, he was trying out all kinds of moves!

 The kids did a 50-minute dance class and learned a small ballet and hip hop routine, which they performed for us after cake!  Justin and Ryan even participated a little bit in dancing!  Katelynn's dance teacher was very impressed with the rhythm Justin exhibited during the party and kept trying to pursuade us into putting him in dance class.  :)

 Cupcake Time!  Everyone blowing out a candle turned out to be a lot of fun!

 All the Girl Ballerinas!

Happy 6th Birthday, Katelynn!

It has been six years today since our lives were forever changed in the most amazing way.  Sometimes it seems so hard to believe we have already let six years pass us by.  Our itty bitty baby girl has turned into such an amazing little girl.  She is sweet and sassy, smart and determined.  She loves to color and write and read books.  Some days she reminds me so much of myself at a young age.  As a surprise to start out her big day as a birthday girl, Jonathan and I painted the school rock for her and surprised her when she arrived for school.  It's become a daily routine for the kids and I to read the rock so it was perfect to sneak in to start out her day!
 

This year she asked for months for an American Girl doll for her birthday.  It didn't make it quite such a surprise since we let her pick out which one she wanted, but it was still well worth it.  I thought we were going to pass by the American Girl fade, but we ended up getting sucked right in!

 

 

 

It's a tradition for us to let our kids pick a restaurant of their choice for their birthday dinner.  Katelynn's choice the past several years has been Chuck-E-Cheese.  This year she actually asked for the japanese steakhouse at first, but then when we found out Disney on Ice was in town and gave her the option of that instead of dinner, she jumped at the choice.  I actually think in the end Justin might have been even more excited than Katelynn was about the event!  It was a late night out for our early bedtimers, but we had a blast on our family outing to Disney on Ice.  Even Ryan seemed to enjoy it until he couldn't hold the exhaustion any further and passed out. 

Everyone was fast asleep before we arrived home and were able to be carried to their beds (which means they were super tired!)

Brotherly Afternoon Fun

I am still struggling to get used to our new routines around here.  Now that Katelynn is in school all day, I have a lot of time with the boys on my own.  When Katelynn is here, she and Justin tend to just play together and Ryan is left to find his own fun but with just the boys, they have their moments when they find an activity they both enjoy.  I know this will change as Ryan gets bigger and they have more in common; I expect to see the two of them playing more and ganging up on their big sister when she's around.  For now, I just treasure the brief moments when I see them bonding together as brothers.  <3 p="p">

 

Ringing in the BIG 3-0!

Well, this past weekend I made the big plunge out of my 20's and into the world of the 30's.  In all honesty, it doesn't bother me the least bit.  It is almost nice to be 30.  I always seem to be the youngest in a crowd.. maybe now I'm finally catching up and won't be considered so "young" anymore.  Ha,ha.

We kicked off my birthday on Saturday night.  My parents came to town to watch the kids and Jon and I took our first ever night away from kids SINCE KATELYNN WAS BORN!  Yes, you read that right.  We have not left the kids overnight (except for hospital stays during births) ever since we became parents in 2006.  It was about time, right?  We got a hotel in uptown Charlotte and lived the city life for about 16 hours.  It was pure bliss.  We were able to walk from the hotel to dinner with friends and then out to the bar and walk right back to the hotel.  If we didn't have kids, I would love living in the city!  It was a great time.  As much as I love every second with my kids, it was very nice to have adult conversation for a night!

Part of the hotel plan was supposed to mean getting to sleep in and get uninterrupted sleep.  That was a little less than successful.  I guess I just couldn't fully turn off my mommy-mode.  We didn't get to sleep until after 3:00 a.m. and I was wide awake by 8 a.m.  I seriously kept trying to fall asleep but my body felt so rested... I mean a full five-ish hours of sleep without getting up with anyone?  Yes, that hasn't really happened in six years either.  Of course that isn't really enough sleep though so I still felt tired by the afternoon!  Oh well! 

We came home before lunch to spend the day with the kids and my parents and brother. They had the house decorated in tons of balloons and cake waiting. We took advantage of Firehouse Subs kids-eat-free Sundays paired with a birthday sub for free for lunch and then just lounged around the house all afternoon and evening. It was a great start to my 30's!