Happy Halloween - Nature Style

The girls' theme this year for their fall festival is nature, so both girls are flowers. Claire is a buttercup and Grace is a sweet pea. Both girls loved their costumes and were so excited to put them on this morning.


Patiently waiting on their turn in the parade.


Claire did awesome in her parade. She marched and waved at the crowd.

Grace and her teacher starting her class' parade of costumes.

Grace on stage presenting her costume to her class.


And no tears! I remember Grace crying the past 2 years during the festival. She did not like the change in her routine.


Things have definitely changed! Happy Halloween 2011!!

Zoo Much Fun!

Since Claire was turning 2, we decided to have a zoo theme party. Her party colors were green, orange and red with accents of animal prints.

The kids drank out of fun animal cups I found at Oriental Trading.

One different thing I did with her party was push pop cupcakes. These were wonderful for little kids because they weren't messy and there wasn't much cake or icing. Steve built and painted the great stand for them. I worried some would be leery of them so I also had regular cupcakes.



And no South Texas party would be complete with a pinata.




We had a bounce house with slide to burn off some of the energy.



We had Safari Girl come do face painting and balloon animals.


Party treats included flavored popcorn and iced animal cookies.


Party favors included candy and Barrel of Monkeys.

I think everyone had a great time at our zoo party!!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Claire!!

Happy birthday to our baby, Claire. She has been such a blessing to Steve and me as well as big sister, Grace.

She continues to amaze us with her joyful disposition. She never seems to have a bad day and just rolls with the punches.

She is doing great in school. She greets her teachers every morning with big hugs. One of her teachers told me that she is sometimes hard to get to take a nap because she is too busy chatting with the boy who naps next to her.

She can count from 1 to 10 in Spanish by herself.

She LOVES music and ballet. She is doing so much better in ballet than I ever could have imagined.

She really loves Dora and Diego (pretty much anything on television for that matter).


She LOVES cereal for breakfast. Her favorite meal is probably Macaroni and Cheese. And she has a sweet tooth just like mommy and Grace.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Claire!!

Claire Busy at School

Claire's teacher shared some photos of her taken during the month of September. She has adjusted well to school.





Look at these adorable lunch boxes I got the girls!