Mama made strawberry milkshakes from the last of our summer strawberries as an evening treat. The girls were playing after a bath and when Julia heard the blender running she came to investigate. “Wha dat?” and “For Me?” were her first questions. She talked non-stop for a while trying to figure out what all the noise was for. She seemed to have an opinion about everything including what cup she wanted to drink from. Who knew that all we had to do to get her to talk was to make milkshakes? They were yummy!

The photo is a bit fuzzy, but Emily was driving the camera. Julia had been playing dress-up as a cow and it was naptime. She got a ride on Mama to her nap. So sweet.

Julia is great about naptime. She recently figured out how to climb into the pack-n-play all by herself. She flops in pretty hard, but is so pleased she can do it all by herself. She will stop at the bedroom door and say ‘bye-bye”, close the door, and put herself down. This happens most days – some days she has to be put down while crying and screaming. She does that for a few minutes until she gives up, but that isn’t as cute; so why remember it.

We like to dress-up and we love our cow costume! How cute is this!

Our friend Laurel bought our family tickets to see Disney On Ice. What a treat to see it together as a family. The girls dressed up for the show, Julia as Sleeping Beauty and Emily as Cinderella. Julia spent the whole show sitting on Mama’s lap. Each time a new character came out Julia would shake with joy. Emily had a million questions about the characters and stories she didn’t know. If she knew the story she would tell us about what we were seeing. They both loved the show. Thanks Daddy for getting some photos!

Emily shared the evening with Daddy.

Julia was just transfixed with the show.

She couldn’t hide her emotions about what was happening. When Julia saw a character she recognized she would announced their entry.

Mickey and Minnie showed up between all of the parts to the delight of the girls.

Our girls favorite part was every part that has a princess in it.

Our annual fall trip to the pumpkin patch had to be moved once so that we could have a beautiful warm fall day. We enjoyed the sunshine, friends, maze, tractor ride, pumpkin picking, goat feeding, and a picnic. We love this playdate!

There were no photos of all of the kids looking at the camera so I picked one with no one looking at it. Why fight kid-nature.

Aiden enjoying the gravel.

Maeve and Lincoln being sweet together.

Elena having fun among the cornstalks.

Emily bringing in her pumpkin. I wonder if she gets that tongue thing from her Mama?

Emily collected flowers from everywhere we went at the pumpkin patch and made herself a flower bouquet. I think she was pretending that she was a bride and that was her wedding bouquet.

An excited Julia!

Julia kept picking flowers and smelling them and then offering it to Mama to smell too.

Julia was proud of her pumpkin.

Kenzie and Heather picking out a pumpkin together.

Maeve feeding the goat.

Natalie found a rock in the pumpkin patch. She was headed over to meet the goats.

Baby Rose hanging out in the sunshine.

Julia picked her birthday party this year. When given her choices she excitedly started jumping up and down saying ‘Jum Ouse”. Every time we asked her for the next week she said the same thing with the same level of excitement. After a week of that it was pretty certain she wasn’t going to change her mind.

Our friends joined us for our play date party. We first went to the bounce house and then to Chick-fil-a for lunch. The kids all had a great time bouncing all of their energy out. Julia was brave to try everything over and over again. A few things gave her trouble with the climb, but she didn’t give up.

We enjoyed our lunch together and for dessert we had bowls of icing with different toppings. Who doesn’t want to pick fun toppings to eat with icing. The mama’s got cookies, but the icing looked pretty good.

Julia had a blast at her party which is the most important thing for ones birthday party. The only bummer for the day was that Mama’s camera battery ran out so the photos of moving kids in a low lit room from her phone isn’t ideal, but still a great way to remember the day.