dance open house

Without further delay, Dance open house pictures!

This was such a treat to get to sit in on the class although I'm told I'm a little too much of a sideline coach. We had lots of representation with Grandma, Mimmy, Pip, Mommy, Daddy and BC.

And let me just say before we really begin, their leotards are really not that low cut. Her leotard was just on backwards that day. While I greatly appreciate Bradley's help that morning since we were running late, I think I'll be sure to take that task on myself from now on. She was still cute though and she LOVED the attention of her adoring fans.

They started with a little stretching...

Now it was time for a little bar work. I think the focus of these early classes is to not only teach the foot positions but to also teach them how to point their feet.

In action! They all sat against the wall and one by one took turns doing different things down the line of stars. Ains looked like a pro!

At the end of one of her trips down, she ran over to hug me. I must admit that this made my day. No, week. No definitely month, at least! Nevermind that several other girls before her did the same thing so it wasn't unique to me but sweet nonetheless.

Next they did a little free dance period with little handkerchiefs.

This is her favorite part and she speaks of it often. Guess I need to add one of these to her Christmas list.

They concluded with a little cool down. They asked the girls to stand on their tip toes. For those of you that think that Ains is a perfect angel that always listens? Check out her feet. She's got a wild streak.

And this concludes my rapid fire blog posting for the evening. Goodnight! I'm officially caught up... I think.

they love each other, i promise...

There's never a dull moment in this house on the days when the kids are home. And this particular day was a fun one - literally.

This is Ains and her most favorite PJs ever - her night-nightgown.

Caleb was just sitting on an upside down laundry basket, right?

Looks like something might be inside, any ideas who/what?

It's Ains!

And he loved every minute of trapping her.

Why do I insist on spending gobs of money on toys when a simple laundry basket provided them with at least an hour of entertainment.

**Disclaimer - No one was injured in the making of this blog post**

another fun day for us - halloween eve

We had a great family day today. We started the morning by getting to sleep in. Ains is of the age where she'll get up and go downstairs to watch tv. Caleb is still allowing me to snuggle him back to sleep so we can usually make it until after 8.

First order of the day was Dance class! Ains is having a blast and I'm so glad we decided to sign her up. She looks forward to it all week. (pictures from the Open House coming up later tonight).

After the kids and I got home, Bradley fired up his new grill. This was a great investment! He loves to grill and try new recipes so it's really lessened my load in the kitchen. Not to mention how yummy the food is! Today we did (and by we I really mean Bradley) ribs and tomorrow (tonight really) is a pork butt for BBQ.

After naps we got dressed and headed to the neighborhood Halloween party. It was a family oriented event and the kids had a blast!

My little tool fixer (above) and wormaid (below), according to Ains.

And my honey. He should have just put a present tag around his neck. To Jaimie, From God. He's my gift from God.

There were games, swings, playsets, crafts, candy, and ...

Trunk-or-Treat! Here's Ains checking out her bounty.

After we got home, we started working on our Halloween inspired dessert (recipe compliments of Kraftfoods.com - Skull Cupcakes)

Licking the beaters was a huge hit. But don't worry, this was just the icing. No raw eggs being consumed here.

My sentiments exactly...

Cheese! Cupcakes are cooled, it was time to decorate them!

Ains tried her hand at a few. I gave her an example and she took her artist's liberty...

Ta-da! My skull cupcakes.

Hers... I think she might like chocolate.

By this time the ribs were ready! Time to eat. Yum....

And this is the result of an action and sugar packed day. Happy Halloween!

And the perfect ending to this crisp Fall day - the chiminea and a glass of wine. Ahh....

Tomorrow is going to be busy! Pictures to come... eventually.

notice anything?

Something about this picture isn't right. Any ideas? (answer below)

If you noticed the earrings, you're right! But don't worry, they were just sticker jewels from the Halloween party. This was just a little insight as to what she's going to look like when she gets older. And I think we may have started something by letting her wear them. She became a little obsessed but she'll just have to wait until she's at least 5 for the real thing.

nighty night

We have a little routine of getting the kids dressed for bed in Caleb's room. Then we let them play for a few minutes while we wrap up the night/day. Here are a few shots from a night earlier this week.

This monkey stays in Caleb's room and actually belonged to Bradley when he was a little boy.

There's a very good chance that there was a loud noise emanating from this mouth!

Getting a few snuggles in before bedtime.

This girl loves her Slip-Slops, aka slippers. She will take off her school shoes and immediately put these on and even sleeps in them. They make her happy so I'm not going to stop her no matter how much they make her sweat!

mcconnell family photo field trip

A couple of weeks ago was my birthday and it went nothing like I had planned. Caleb had gotten sick (all over me) the night before, morning of, and night of my birthday so we didn't really venture far from the couch. And since we were pretty much housebound that whole weekend, we never really got to do any of the fun stuff I had planned. So I decided that I deserved a make-up Birthday afternoon and today was the day!

We were supposed to go to a pumpkin patch this afternoon but by the time everyone was up from naps, dressed and ready we wouldn't have had enough time to thoroughly enjoy the place. So we decided on a little detour. First stop, the Farmer's Market "Pumpkin Patch". Ains never knew the difference

The light wasn't great so we didn't stick around too long. We already have some pumpkins at home so after buying a couple of little pumpkins we headed off to our next location.

Freedom Park! I grew up having my birthday party here every year so it was nice to return in October for a little fun family afternoon.

This little guy is a man of a million expressions. He was laughing at his Da-Eee here.

I saw this tree and it looked too neat to pass up. It made a nice little seat for Ains.

We finally made it over to the amphitheater island to feed the ducks. (ssshhh... don't tell the park patrol!)

Caleb had fun feeding the ducks,

As long as they didn't come too close.

Daddeeee and his buddies

Notice that his eyes don't leave the geese!

FINALLY! A family picture! Watch out Christmas cards!

Surely this little sweetheart could never do anything wrong.

Do you see that pure innocence?

Does it get better than this?

Momma's Boy (and his empty juice treat wrapper)

My men...

After playing a little in the amphitheater, we decided to head over to the playground. We couldn't come to a park and not get in a few swings and slides.

Of course someone has to chase after this wild guy...

From Freedom Park we headed to dinner. We decided to go to Cabo Fish Taco over in NoDa. In the process of looking for a parking spot I saw these train tracks. I have always wanted to do a train track photo session and luckily Bradley obliged. He was starving too. What a sweetie! The light was beyond perfect and I am just over the moon with what I was able to shoot.

Melt...

Have I told you yet that I LOVED the light? We were there at the absolute perfect time!

Caleb loved all of the rocks. He even took a couple to dinner with us... And by the way, I got flare!

I'm not sure I'm loving this next finishing, but it was such a bright shot. I might have to play with it some more. But for now I couldn't keep it to myself.

My heart melts anytime this little man comes running towards me. Most of the time I just have to make a kissing noise and he comes running for hugs. Muah! Love ya kid!

Ains caught a ride to dinner...

The photo shoot ended and we headed on over to the newly remodeled Cabo Fish Taco.

Everyone likes Quesadillas! And Mommy and Daddy enjoyed their fish tacos and respective drinks.

Ains was promised a little Phineas and Ferb if she was good... so as promised, dinner and a cartoon.

And to top off everything, we stopped by Amelie's for a Salted Caramel Brownie. Unfortunately we have no pictures to remember it by. It didn't see any light after exiting the bakery. Ains thoroughly enjoyed it and was happy to polish it off for me.

I could not have asked for a better make-up Birthday afternoon. I've already put in my request to make it a monthly excursion.