When Inspiration Hits

This is where our girl is happiest.... with her markers and paper!  Look out when inspiration hits - she's on a mission!  Right now she is drawing all things Halloween.  She even pulls her brother in by having him color in her drawings.  Here she is drawing animal pictures after reading a book about a little boy who made pictures to help endangered animals.  In the book they were eventually made into cards, and sold in a local store to raise money, so she is convinced SHE should be making money on her pictures as well!  Love this girl!

Zoo

We try to cram as much fun in as we can when Monica is home, so we headed to the zoo!  It was perfect weather, and we were lucky enough to join Nick for his first zoo trip!  It was fun to be with Ben and Laura, too!  Also, our good friends Jill and Landon joined us.  We've never been able to do all three areas, but I treated the kids to ice cream after two, and they breezed through Africa after that!  (Mental note!)  The animals were very entertaining - Cooper liked hanging/climbing ON the animals, Grace and I walked like the monkeys, and Monica was like the animal whisperer in Africa! (The picture of Monica with the kids... first on my camera, then on Ben's- I WANT THAT CAMERA.)

Beautiful day for a wedding!

Jason and Stacey picked a beautiful day for their outdoor, fall wedding!  I didn't have ONE picture on my camera as I had the honor of helping to coordinate the day, but Laura was on it with her camera.  :)  Everything went perfectly and we couldn't be happier for Jason and Stacey!!  Congrats to them!!  :)

Aunt Monica was home!!!

Aunt Monica was home for a week this month - and what do we do with Aunt Monica?  Shop!  (among other things!)  Both kids got a "Cooper/Aunt Monica and Grace/Aunt Monica Day" where they hit nearby mall rides, photo booths, and fur stores(?!) !!  We love her!!!

Party Time!

Kratt Brothers cup cakes for the birthday girl to take to school!

Grace asked for a kid party this year, so we thought we'd give it our best shot.  :)  We invited a couple of her friends from school (who couldn't make it), a couple of family friends, and then all her cousins!  Everyone had a great time at our Wild Kratts birthday party!  We had lightening bug games and an animal rescue obstacle course (Uncle Ben had a chance to show us how it is done - check out Grace cracking up in the background!) - complete with creature power disks to activate their creature powers!  She was so graceful opening her gifts and we are so blessed to have so many who love our daughter!  So very proud of our five year old!

Also, at the end of the day, Nick got to check out the ball pit.... his face said "OH  -  MY  -  GOODNESS   !!!!!  Let me at those balls!!!!!!!!!!"  Sooooo cute!

Creek Walkin'

A favorite pastime as Cooper-cousins at the farm, now our kids get to do it too!  So cool!