Spider Craft!

Now that Elijah doesn't nap anymore, I have to find more ways to fill his time (and keep myself sane). I am not at ALL crafty, but decided to give this hand-print spider craft a try. I will shamelessly admit I got the idea from Barney's Halloween Party episode, and since the little girl walked us through how to do it step by step, I assumed even an idiot like me could pull it off :). Elijah was thrilled to have craft time (or CRAP time, as he calls it...hahahaha) and I was thrilled to have him occupied for a brief amount of time :).

Getting excited about how his red spider is shaping up.

There she is, in all her glory.

He is proud of his red spider!

Hard at work!

Admiring the craftmanship.

Singing the itsy bitsy spider underneath his display.

The final product (except we have since added a yellow spider, because Elijah just wasn't quite ready to be done). By the way, I resisted the urge to straighten out the eyes on the green spider. He's thinking outside the box!

A few pics

I thoroughly enjoyed my birthday week last week. Kirk took me out to dinner the day after my birthday to Mama Carollas, our favorite Italian restaurant. The atmosphere is so cool: it is an old house that's been turned into a restaurant and the food is incredible! No birthday is complete without a slice of tiramisu from heaven. Thanks, Kirk!

So great to be kid free, even though I did spill my drink. The one time I don't have to pick up after kids, I have to pick up after myself! Come on, Chrissie!

The fun continued when my girlfriends from college rolled into town for our 5 year homecoming at TU. It was SO fun to be on campus together again. The picture below is Elijah and Leah in the hall of my old dorm. That was...pretty surreal.

Lauren (and Baby Herr), me, Jacki, and Mal at our 5 year reunion cookout at the president's house. We had a great time there and it was fun to see some old classmates. I am incredibly blessed by these friendships.

Hopefully I will get some more pictures soon from the other girls...they were better at taking pics than me. I didn't get a single pic of Kelly, our gracious hostess for the weekend. She and Brad live in Upland and put us all up...thanks again, Yordys!

A Birthday Cupcake

While my big celebration is coming tonight with a dinner out with Kirk, I did have a nice little celebration yesterday. I shared a cupcake...

...with this guy...

...and with this girl!

Thanks for celebrating with me, kiddos! You are both excellent company...especially when cupcakes are involved.

We're Back!

I am finally back to blogging world! My friend Jess is loaning me a camera while I wait for a new one (since my old one is definitely done for after we broke it on family vacation). Thanks so much, Jess. I have really missed blogging and I realized yesterday when we were at the farm how much I miss taking pictures of the kiddos!

Yesterday we went on our annual outing to StonyCreek Farm in Noblesville. They have such a fun fall festival and an equally fun Christmas festival, so we make 2 trips there every year: once in the fall and once for our Christmas tree. The kids had a blast and so did Kirk and I!

Trying to get a picture of the 2 kids is pretty difficult.

I don't know why, but I love this picture. I just love these 2 and their non-smiling for the camera ways :).

They both liked playing in the hay (and brought a good amount of it home with them in their clothes).

Family photo on the hayride. Kirk and I love this as much as the kids, I'm pretty sure.

Leah loved the pumpkin patch.

Elijah really wanted to find a pumpkin small enough that he could carry around. This is the closet we got, but he only held on to it for about 3 seconds before he had to drop it.

An attempt at getting a picture of the kids with a pumpkin. Fail.

Love this one though of Leah.

And I love this one even more!

Daddy and his buddy on the hayride. Leah loves hayrides!

Monkey man and me on the hayride. Elijah was in heaven the whole day at the farm.

Kirk and Elijah went through the giant inflatable "kiddie-pillar" too!

Happy as can be after that adventure!

So is Daddy! Such a good dad :).

Crawling through the giant tires.

Scarecrow Elijah (with a tiny head).

Scarecrow Leah (with a tinier head). ps. Does anyone see the irony in the fact that the SCAREcrow has a crow on his shoulder?

Elijah rode the pumpkin train twice. Despite the fact that he looks terrified, he always says he had fun when he gets off.

See? Clenching his teeth and everything. Pure terror.

The animal barn was a big hit too.

This seems familiar...

Leah has taken an interest in sitting in our toy basket lately. I think it's funny when she just plops down in there...

...and then I remember that this was a familiar scene as well when Elijah was about her age. Must be in the genes, because my mom says I did the same thing when I was little.

And this one is just funny to me. Leah took her place in Elijah's chair the other day and totally got comfortable. Play hard, rest hard.