Happy Halloween!

We saw Spongebob, Dora and Thomas the train. We saw Chickens, a monkey and an elephant. We saw pink monsters, blue monsters and orange ones, too. We saw lots of pretty princesses', ladybugs and hunters. We saw clowns, ghosts, and pumpkins. We saw Buzz, Woody and Curious George. We saw walking catsup, mustard and a hot dog. The list goes on and on.

We had an awesome Halloween. We passed out over 250 pieces of candy and 80 cans pf play-doh! Our neighborhood parade was a huge hit this year...the safety dog passed out candy, fireman hats, coloring books/crayons and suckers! We even got firetruck tours!

Lily learned that she LOVES chocolate and knows the difference...a girl after my own heart! She is asking for it as I type this...in her really cute, polite voice. "Chocolate...pleeeeeeease momma!" Too bad we just got out of the bath and brushed our teeth! Oh well...I'll split a piece with her :)

And here it is...the most beautiful little garden gnome!!

If only I could keep her this little and precious forever...........

Fall is HERE...

Fall is definitely here. I love this time of year. There is just something warm and fuzzy about cornstalks tied to our pillars, pumpkins on the haystack and crispy, colorful leaves swirling all around.

We 'packed up' our yard this past week-end...got the lawn furniture covered, took out the solar lights and summer decorations. We also cut back our flowers and planted a new maple tree. Afterwards, we all went in for some hot apple cider...mmmm, that's another fall favorite!

And, last but not least, we took our annual fall picture of Lily!

This was her last year.

This is her now. SHE is definitely my favorite think about Fall! :)

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Lake Charlevoix

This past summer was a great one. Not weather wise, but memory wise. This past summer Lily turned two and it was a summer of "firsts" for her, even though they were really seconds (and some thirds). This summer she really experienced swimming, boating, eating, playing and all that fun stuff! She loved it all! The best place for all of this in the summer is the cottage at Lake Charlevoix.

As you can tell by my lack of posting, I was also really busy chasing her around. The only bonus to this is I got some really good photos! Over the 4th of July, my parents got a new pontoon boat! This is awesome because a) we all love the water b) there is nothing like a day out on the boat of sunning, drinking hop, skip and go nakeds, eating, and napping c) it was only in for a couple of months and we have tons of great memories of Lake Charlevoix.

There is nothing like weekends up north at the cottage with family and friends. Sitting at my own kitchen table, over 200 miles away, I can close my eyes and smell and "see" the cottage as if I was actually there. I LOVE that! Here is a glimpse of some of my photos from this summer.

"I happy"

It was another crazy morning in our house today. Casey has been working 1st shift 2 days a week for level 1 trauma training and the rest of his shifts on 3rd. Needless to say, our schedules and routines have been a little "off balance." Today was a 1st shift...he usually takes Lily to school every morning or he has the day off, but not lately. As I was rushing around early letting Jake outside, getting Lily milk, feeding Jake, taking a shower, putting make-up on, making Lily breakfast, blow drying my hair, washing Lily off, getting dressed, getting Lily dressed, finding her a binkey so that she would let me comb her hair, putting on her shoes, and letting Jake out again, I was thinking about how I miss our old routine. I'm not used to doing that much in the morning!

Then, on the way to daycare this happened:

Lily: Momma?

Me: What honey?

Lily: I happy!

Well...that little sentenced made me happy...it is going to be a happy day :)

Lily is TWO...

Lily is two. I don't know where the time went (or the summer for that matter) but my baby girl turned two on August 19th. If you ask her old she is, she will hold up 4 fingers and yell TEWWWW!

On her actual birthday, we took the day off work and had a pizza party out on our pontoon boat. It was an awesome day of swimming, sun, pizza, presents and of course, cake. But, that day didn't hold a candle to her birthday party with family and friends. In fact, when you mention her birthday (or anyone elses, you just have to say the word b-day) she will hold up 4 fingers, yell TEWWWW and yell BOUNCE, with YoYo (Lo Lo or Laura, her cousin) and Ky (her other cousin, Kylie.) We gave her the best gift ever for a two year old. We rented a princess bounce house for three days. She could have cared less about presents, food, cake or me for that matter! In fact, I had to deflate the bounce house to sing and eat cake and open presents. She was crying part of the time for both...all she wanted to do was BOUNCE with her twenty little friends and cousins.

It was a party fit for a princess...and she LOVED it! I wouldn't have wanted it any other way!

Our new boat...

Last week, we put our new boat in the water. We've been out enjoying it the last 7 out of 8 nights!! I think we will get plenty of use out of it this summer!

First Day of Daycare...

Today is the first day of "big girl" day care for Lily. She goes to Oaktree (Papa's school) where my dad teaches. Since she was three months old, she has been going to a family friend, Pam West. Lily loves going to Pam's and she is the only child there so she gets super spoiled! We decided a couple months ago that we should start putting her in daycare one day a week with other kids so that she gets some social interaction and lots of quality play time.

I would have never considered this when she was younger, but I'm okay with it now. She is getting bigger and loves playing with other kids. Plus, my dad is at the school in case she ever needed anything and he can pop into her room anytime he wants to. And, it's only one day a week and my dad will bring her home right after school.

I had to keep reminding myself of the second paragraph over and over again last night. I made five copies of the classroom phone number that they said we can call anytime to check up on her. I had total anxiety and needed to make myself feel better. I made Casey drop her off today. If she started crying, I would definitely start crying and I don't think I would have left her there!

Well, I just got an update (No, I didn't breakdown and call the classroom. I didn't want to hear that she was upset if she was.) One of the teachers e-mailed me (I didn't even ask her to!) and said she had no problem with the "drop off" and during the buggy ride this morning around the school, she waived and yelled "Hiiii PaaaaaPa!" to my dad in the gym! Then she went back to the classroom and was playing babies with her new friend, Zoey. She also informed me that Lily ate 4 of her 5 popcorn chickens, all of her peaches and dipped them both in LOTS of ketchup!

I think Lily is in heaven! I hope she wants to come home tonight.