The Rainforest Cafe

Voila! Part two of Grandma's surprise - the Rainforest Cafe! I had never been to one, but I always thought the decorations were really cool. The food was a little overpriced of course, but it was the experience that will stay with us for a lifetime. The kids were thrilled with the elephants, dancing gorillas, tigers and HUGE butterflies on the trees. It was so cool! Thank you for a great memory, Grandma! :D

 Everybody thought the life-size crocodile was pretty cool...

...but the kids were especially enthralled

Look at all the tree frogs!

Bryce was pretty chill the whole time. I think he was worn out from running around the aquarium

Grandma and Oakley

 The three October birthdays had to do a silly dance while the waiters sang a birthday song

Grandma and Emeri

Doughnuts with Dads

Derek's PreK teachers hosted a Doughnuts with Dads breakfast at school today. Mitchell wasn't able to go, but I took Derek and he had a great time! We spent about a half hour meeting the other dads (and a good amount of moms and grandparents) and talking about class and Derek's friends and then it was time for the parents to go so school could begin. I love how excited Derek is about school and friends and I am so grateful to be able to stay home to raise my kids and to be able to be at the crossroads of life for them.

 Derek likes to climb up to the front seat to wait when we get to school a little early. I love this special one-on-one time with him.

 Derek loves doughnuts. He was thrilled to share in a special treat!

We sure do love this funny boy

Flower Girls

Clara was such a good sport to let me cover her head in flower clips. She makes such a cute little flower girl. We didn't leave Oakley out of all the fun, though. She had no idea what a cute little flower "gift" she makes! 

I couldn't decide which flower i liked best, lol.

I love her sweet, gummy, Clara smiles!

Aunt Lizzy chose a cute, color-coordinating blue flower for Oakley

I think she likes it

Birthday Letter to Bryce

My sweet, sweet boy! You are two years old! You have blossomed into your personality this year. You are nobody's door mat and you insist on your fair share of the play time with Derek. Sometimes you try to be sneaky by screaming and demanding a toy that you want to take from Derek, but we're catching onto that, stink pot. ;) You still cuddle with me occasionally and you are becoming more and more attached to your leopard "blankie." You like to sleep with a "baby" or two but you really like to sleep with trains and cars. You aren't really concerned with choosing what to watch on TV and are usually fine with watching whatever Derek wants to watch. You love to play with your cousins, especially Emeri, and you are so gentle with Baby Oakley. You still sleep in later than Derek but, now that you sleep on the bottom bunk, you're starting to wake up a little earlier each day. I'm sure you'll be waking up at 6:30 soon. You drive me batty sometimes because you've been insisting on climbing into Clara's crib when you wake up - and she is NOT happy to have you drop in. Hopefully you learn not to do that sooner rather than later.

You loooove Daddy and "Ba-maw." You and Derek insist on running to Grandma in the morning and demanding kisses and hugs before she leaves for work. She always obliges. You are particularly fascinated with sneaking out to her garage and climbing in her car to sit behind the wheel and push buttons. Grandma doesn't particularly like that though. Your second favorite thing is to find her car keys and push the red alarm button. Thankfully the noise is somewhat dampened by the garage walls. When Daddy comes home, you always lead the charge yelling, "Daddy!" and running through the house.

You are starting to potty train and you're doing really well. I think you'll be day-time potty trained in a couple months! I took you to the store to pick out underwear and - true to form - you chose Disney's Cars underwear. You love Mater. Sounds more like "Mamie" when you say it, but you love it when we read the Mater book. You aren't as friendly with strangers as Derek is, but you don't cry. You just take a few minutes to warm up to people before you start smiling. Until then, you give them the blank, vacant stare that makes me giggle. You are definitely a wanderer in the store, especially when you and Derek are together. The two of you run down aisles and grab things off the shelves. I usually just keep you in the basket if I have room.

I am so proud of all the milestones you reached last year and I know you will continue to progress and have fun in life. I hope you always remember how much we love you, that Derek and Clara are going to be your best friends and allies and especially that your Heavenly Father is always there for you. He loves you so much and we are so glad He sent you to our family. We love you, sweet boy!!

Arts and Crafts

Aunt Lizzy pulled out a fun arts-and-crafts idea for the kids to get them revved up for Halloween. She gave each kid a picture of a ghost or a bat plus a handful of marshmallows and some glue and they went to work. The kids glued the marshmallows around the outline of their picture while sneaking bites of marshmallow when they thought we weren't looking. Silly kids. Mommies see EVERYTHING! Lol. 

"You call this cuddling, Aunt Kadi?"

Isaac is showing Derek how to make Oakley smile while they wait for Aunt Lizzy to set up the craft

These boys know the drill

Aunt Lanae helped supervise all the kids. She and Bryce are so cute!

Savvie was very particular about where and how she placed her marshmallows

Arrrr! Pirate Derek be makin' art, Mom!

Logan feigned interest so he could keep getting marshmallows, haha! Sneaky!

Transformer Bryce!

 I love it when the kids do funny things. This helmet is WAY too big for his head!

RAAAAAAAWR!

Birthday Celebration

Yay, CAKE! Oh my gosh, I have been so excited for this cake. It's a spice cake with a layer of ganache and an experimental pumpkin cream cheese filling. Oh. My. GOSH! It was amazing. Chocolate, cinnamon and pumpkin - you can't go wrong! New favorite cake, hands down. Aunt Jenn and Uncle Tim brought Ally and Tyler over to help us celebrate with Nana and Aunt Amy and Danny. Austin and Liz brought their kids, of course, and we all had a blast throwing a football around and enjoying the fresh air and beautiful weather. Clara is trying to walk, but she still has a ways to go. Bryce was stuck to Danny like glue. We even tried on Halloween costumes and played dress up with the kids! What a great way to start 27!

Nana practiced walking with Clara while Oakley took notes, lol.

We had enough space in the backyard to throw a football around. The kids were thrilled!

Ally and Bryce played very companionably together. She is so good with kids! Check out Jeff's October Maple birthday tree - it sure is autumn!

Oops, that one is just a little big too high!

Payback. She always threw it straight into Liz's face. Incoming!

She is so fearless! She even stood on top of Liz's head!

Emeri is so sweet with Clara

Duck!

It won't look so pretty when I'm done with it - mwahahaha!

I am SO ready to cut into this cake! 

Bryce gets his cake in a few more days, but I let him blow out my candle.

Love this sister and photobombing aunt of mine! Haha!

Emeri was adorable as the blue monster

Bryce the bare-footed pirate! I just want to tickle that bare belly!

 Andrew tried on Derek's spiderman costume and Derek wore the mask. Spidermen!

 This is awesomeness on so many levels

 Oakley loves cuddles!

These two are so cute!

 Bryce loves reading books with Nana

 Isaac defeated the powerful Uncle Mitchell!

 Danny helped Bryce open his presents

 Emeri saw Uncle Tim on his phone, walked right up to him and asked to sit on his lap. She is fearless!

 Ally drew a cute little card for Bryce! Its going straight on the fridge.

 Andrew, Emeri, Amy and Isaac!

 Andrew, Emeri, Nana, and Isaac!