Layla's extended family birthday party:

On Sunday evening, September 22nd, my whole family (other than Eric, who was detained by the Army in Kansas, and Dad, who was returning from a trip to NYC...) came over to our house to celebrate Jonas and Layla's birthdays.  Mostly, it was about Layla, since we don't do presents for any adults anymore.  :)  But kids get presents still...and mercy did she get a lot!  I was kind of overwhelmed.  She was in heaven, of course.  

Mom got a Pinata ala Layla's favorite thing:  princesses.

She LOVED hitting it.  :)  

Finn kept escaping from whoever was holding him and coming in, from different angles, to take a whack at it too.  He had his turns, of course, but he wanted to hit it ALL the time.  :)

After the pinata had been fully knocked to the ground, Layla kept going back to it to bash on it.  We might have some things to work through with her... ;)

Opening her presents seriously took about 30 minutes, so I did not tape it all.  Renee had to leave early, but she had given her a cool tower of stacking boxes, all filled with great Layla treasures, so I filmed Layla opening Renee's gift.  It's SIX long minutes long, so unless you are Renee you might not want to invest the time.  But I wanted Renee to at least see her reactions! :)

Singing Happy Birthday:

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

I am very late in posting Layla's birthday blog updates...where does the time go???

This was from her actual birthday, Friday, Septebmer 20th.  We had a simple celebration as a family.  SIMPLE being the key word.  ;)

A friend from church gave us her kitchen set that her two girls have outgrown...what a blessing!  The kids LOVE it, of course.  Here are the reveal videos:

The birthday cake:

Finn:

Opening her present from Grammy:

Saturday: Family Fun Day

This past Saturday was perfect weather, and we had absolutely nothing to do.  It was glorious.  

So we went out to Como Zoo (the smaller zoo that is close to us, and free), and Como Town, the amusement place connected to the zoo.  GREAT times were had by all.

Proof below.

Layla was VERY into riding the bronze turtle.  :)

It was a group effort, going down the big slide together in one of the amusement park attractions, but after that they both were very brave and tried it all on their own, many times.  Finn actually was much better at climbing the rope ladder than Layla was!

Heading up.

All by herself.  

"DUDE.  Did you SEE me???"

A good 15 minutes of time spent here.  

These rides were the perfect size for them both.  

"Hock-Scotch"

All of a sudden, Layla knows how to play hop scotch.  The ACTUAL game...you know, where you throw a rock, play by the rules, etc?  She knows this...and we have no idea how!  Being as she has been in pre-school for 2 days, I doubt she learned it there, but I guess you never know.  

She is OBSESSED.  

Finn's nose:

There is almost nothing Finn loves to do more than run "super FAST!" through the backyard.  Three nights ago he ran super fast, tripped, and SMASHED his face right down on the wooden wall surrounding my basil and tomato garden. 

He was a wreck.  For HOURS.  He fell asleep crying at 6:20 p.m.  His nose looked pretty bad that night, but when he got up the next morning it looked AWFUL.  Just horrible.  I then began to question our decision to not take him into the emergency room.  I didn't want him to have a horrible, mangled nose for the rest of his life!!!!  These things matter!!! :(  I seriously held my breath for about two days, while the black and blue and swelling slowly went down.  The scrape you see on top of his nose here?  That's NOTHING compared to what he looked like before...it just seems to be the last thing to heal.  

Poor kiddo.  Plus, you get to see all his snot...I think he's fighting off croup right now.  He woke up two night ago and last night with croupy sounding coughs, but not bad breathing yet...so I'm doing everything in my power to help him fight it off!  Hopefully tonight is the turning point...or, my next blog could be pictures of us in the ER.  :)  Sigh.  My kids and croup, I tell you...

Still going strong with the hat...

This was funny.  The first pictures I just was trying to get him to smile, but for THIS picture I said "Finn, LOOK!  There is a butterfly in my camera!"  He was VERY confused by this.  Not exactly the look I was hoping for.  ;)

Zoey Rydbeck is here with us for the week--they leave tomorrow.  Z joins us at home while her parents work every few months or so (they come here from Seattle for work frequently).  I feel a little bad for Z this trip, as my kids seem to have made it their mission to act like TODDLERS the entire time.  ;)  Oh, wait.  That's right...

My baby grew up.

Yesterday morning was Layla's first official day of pre-school.  She is going to NeHi Academy and is in Mrs. Nelson's 3-year-old class.  This makes her the oldest kid in the class.  She is also the only kid in the class with food allergies--booooooo.  :(  Ah, well, I guess we get to be "that family" to the rest of the parents (who have to take turns bringing snacks, etc).  

She has been talking about school for MONTHS now.  I just had a gut feeling she was going to love it, have no separation issues, etc, despite the fact that she has always needed me way more than Finn ever has.  I was right.  She loved it.  :)  On the first day the parents go with the kids.  We went in, played for a while, and then left to do paperwork, etc, while the kids stayed with their teachers.  Layla was totally fine.  She was so excited when I got back, showing me the sand table, the picture she had done, etc.  I think it's going to be a good year!  The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the idea of drop-off and pick-up twice a week. The idea of having some time ALONE with Finn is fun too...we shall see what we make of those Mommy-Son dates!

This is the tree in our front yard, and our dead grass.  :)  I *could* have taken her picture with her backpack on, but let's face it, they really don't use it for much in pre-school.  And, I could have taken the picture with a sign saying "Layla's first day of preschool"...but then I got to thinking about future me.  Future me is thanking present me for not having to do that one other step on top of remembering to take a picture on the first day of school.  ;)  You're welcome, future me.  Anything I can do to ease your future loads!!  

This is one of her most favorite dresses in the whole wide world.  And the shoes too--the shoes are not my fave for sure, but BOY does Layla love them.  They have diamonds.  Duh!  Of course they would be a favorite!  

So here she is.  My big girl.  Age 3, in school, and soon to be 4 in a few short weeks!  Dang, now I have to come up with some sort of non-edible prize to give out with her birthday at pre-school.  That kind of stuff is SO not my cup of tea.  She'll LOVE it.  ;)

This video was taken in the parking lot of the school...

Some videos from inside the school.  I tried to not take too many and be "THAT MOM," but everyone else was doing it too, so I didn't feel quite as bad... :)

Labor Day

I've been trying to be intentional about being "in the moment" more, so I've taken fewer pictures and videos at bigger family gatherings.  Here are three videos I took from our Labor Day celebration at my parent's house.  It was PERFECT weather:  65/70, then cooled off a bit more to have a fire.

(Side note:  I'm pretty sure I never complained about the hot weather this year, mostly because we have such great central air, but I'm not sad to see fall coming, that's for sure!!)

We had a wonderful time celebrating with the DeGeorge family from IL, the Horsmans, the Davis family from our church, and others.  The food, as always, was to die for.  Susie made a coleslaw with blue cheese and bacon that was heavenly.  I normally can't STAND any kind of coleslaw, but this?  This was excellent. Mike, again, made his grilled honey-balsamic eggplant--fantastic.  Just fantastic.

We miss you Greg and Andrea, and Eric!  :(

A little fun after church...

...also, Finn screams like a girl.  ;)

Happy Birthday, Papa!