Princess Party

On Saturday, Sammie went to a friends birthday party and she was in heaven! 

We arrived to a room filled with every dress up dress you could imagine. Sammie selected her dress in an instant! (I just knew she was going to want to switch but not the case) A beautiful Auroa dress. From there she selected jewelry while waiting for Princess Belle to help her with her hair. 

People! The wall of hair was Sammies favorite. She went with a big, thick, brown braided ponytail. Then belle helped to place her tiara.

She then played with jewelry for quite sometime until it was time for the big make up session! 

She loves make-up! Loves it!! First she received glittered nail polish. 

Then it was the solid 1985 choice of hot pink shimmer lips with electric blue eye shadow! 

So incredibly proud of her choices! 

The girls all huddled up with Belle to learn about walking in their fashion show.

The girls came out one by one on the red carpet and twirled. Sammie LOVED having a captive audience. I haven't any idea where she gets that! 

Then it was off to a tea party. Rocking her blue eyes, pink lips & brunette ponytail she sipped her pink lemonade with pride. 

Such a fun party! Thank you Madison for a great afternoon! 

All Hallows Eve 2015

Who knew that you could celebrate Halloween for a week straight?! Welcome to the final installment of our Halloween festivities... ALL HALLOWS EVE! Thankfully some very sweet new friends invited us to their neighborhood for the occasion.  

About 4:30 on Halloween we headed to one of Sammie's schoolmates house for a pre-trick or treat gathering. It was so nice to watch Sammie and Dee interact with other kiddos. AND... Brian and I actually had conversations with ADULTS!! 

Pre Party Grubbing

This kid can eat!

After the party, we changed into costumes and the real fun began!

Our little Buzz LightYear.

Our friends had this fabulous cat in the yard and the girls were so obsessed. Little Buzz LightYear was a tad terrified of the cat but did try to tell it off at one point! 

Strawberry & Alice

Most of the time the kids were so busy all I captured were blurs! 

runnnn

Brian did manage to capture a pic or two that looked "normal" for our household.

Alice... not so tight!

Trick or Treat

You guys! This neighborhood was so much fun!! Everyone got into the spirit. Parents, Grandparents and children all dressed up. There was a "real" Minnie & Mickey passing out candy, treats for both children and adults at the houses AND tons of fun decor! 

It's Mickeeeeeey! 

Dee was pretty skittish at about this whole business at first. Once he finally wanted to go up to houses, I would go with him. He would sheepishly take a piece of candy and then hold it. I said "put it in your bag" a million times. Well... after sneaking a piece of candy he figured out what was happening AND... he ran to the next house so fast. I get up there just in time to see him shove his bag at the sweet lady and hear him say "IN DA BAG"! From that moment on it was hard to keep up with this new little trickster! 

IN DA BAG!

Now, Dee snuck quite a bit of candy between houses. He was putting wrapped candy in his mouth and we would just find him spitting out wrappers!! He is CRAZY! 

Once the festivities began to die down, we headed home. Sammie was allowed 2 pieces of candy and then she left her bag (full of candy) on the table for the "Switch Witch". (I hear you can purchase these Switch Witch dolls but thats not what we do.) We read the idea somewhere last Halloween and decided to adopt the practice. How it works for us:

1- Collect candy and only eat 2 pieces.

2- Leave your treat bag for the "Switch Witch"

3- Wake up on Nov. 1 with no candy and a present in its place!

Sammie was sooooo excited to see this doll the next morning! She only asked what happened to her candy once and hasn't been a thought since!! This plan works so nicely for us because we really try to limit sugar for our kids but want them to go and have fun on Halloween.

Alice In Wonderland from the "Switch Witch"

And if you're wondering... NO, Dee did not "qualify" for a present. He ate his weight in wrapped candy!! Plus... Mommy forgot to get one thinking he wouldn't notice! Oopsy!

Happy Haunting Folks!

-Whitney 

Our First School Halloween Party!

Halloween part 3... 

Sibling love.

The kids did this super cute little parade in their costumes around the school building today. I tried to get a video but the little brother was having no part of it. Sweet Sammie marched right by us with her hands on her hips barely cracking a smile. Such a mess that girl... I later figured out they walk from classroom to classroom with their hands on their hips. Why doesn't she follow the rules at home?!

Sweet pose. 

So Mommy-fail... I have forgotten the shoes for Alice... oops.

Fun day!! More to come!!

-Whitney 

Spooky Lessons

We are not crazy over scheduled toddlers but Halloween week sure seems to be eventful! 

On Tuesdays Dee attends KinderMusik in Cary while sister is at school. They had their Halloween party this week and it was precious. 

I love watching the kids interact with one another and musical instruments. Dee especially loves the drums. 

If you met Dee before he could walk you probably saw him "hop" from place to place on his knees. Well... He just jumps from place to place these days. 

Some of the kids do not care for the parachute in class... Dee eats it up! 

After class we run to grab Sammie and take her to ballet class. She was Alice In Wonderland today and so cute. 

Dee tries to crash ballet class every week. Poor kid just wants to be big.

Our new sweet dance friend. She was so excited to be a "cupcake fairy" so smiled that big for 45 minutes! 

We have 1 busy day a week but it was super fun!!! 

-Whitney

Downtown Halloween

I love all this little community has to offer.

 Last night the Hubs and I hired a babysitter and went downtown for the Witches of Salem Street event. (A cute little event where all the shops stay open and give discounts to those in witch hats!) 

It was so nice to get out of the house and have some adult time! I also loved having the time to walk through the shops downtown without "little hands". 

Then today we headed back downtown to do a little trick or treating on Salem with the kids. I wouldn't let them wear their actual Halloween costumes because we planned on having dinner out in costume. So, we dug in the costume closet and found Snow White and Woody.

In an attempt to get a cute pic before we started... I just got sass and tears. 

Then "Woody" discovered that this entire adventure was about candy and he was happy as can be! 

"Snow White" did a lot of the trick or treating without "Woody", who was content to have a sucker in the stroller most of the time.

And then "Woody" decided he wanted to run a muck. No trick or treating, no actual purpose to where he was going... Just full of sugar! 

And I was so lucky to catch a sweet moment! 

Here's to a week of candy, costumes and fun!! I love October! 

-whitney 

Hideaway Woods

I know I am constantly saying how awesome North Carolina is but... IT IS! 

We became members of the Life & Science museum in Durham last month and it has already paid for itself. The kids love it and there is so much to do! 

Gateway Playground area is great for my active babes.

Dee loves this slide because his Sissy can go with him.

I couldn't keep up with the kids in butterfly area. They were amazed. 

Just like our many other adventures here, the kids love it because they can explore without me freaking out that they will break something. We've been to the museum several times already but last week was our first time to go look at the butterflies and insects.

We rode the train around this trip. It was a favorite. 

Now, they have a farm at Life and Science and the kids really love it as well. I cannot breathe when we are in that section so I keep attempting to skip it... last week they spent 20 minutes exploring a TRAILER! A trailer people!! I may be from Oklahoma but I think my kids are city kids! Ha!!

20 minutes in a trailer... who knew it would be so fun!

Now TODAY being a member of the museum really paid off. We got to experience their new attraction, Hideaway Woods, before it opens to everyone. It is AMAZING! I mean... so flipping cool. Never mind that it was pouring down rain because we played for 2 hours anyway.  My pictures do NOT do this place justice. I was having a hard time keeping up. Sammie was all over the place and she is only 3! I was a bit concerned about her getting to the top and freaking out. Yeah right! That kid was faster on the ropes that most big kids and took the big fast slide down a million times. 

This is where Mommy stopped. Couldn't carry Dee across this one and he was scared. 

I am in another tree house taking the pic to give you a height idea...

Super Sammie lapped that poor 6 year old sitting on the ropes more than once! 

Dee play also... just a little lower!

There is a creek the kids can play in (which reminds me... wet clothes in car!!) that we basically bathed in, a toddler area with small tree houses close to the ground and some stick houses. Once we started getting really wet I had to put away the camera so I missed those pics but so awesome. 

I cannot wait for friends to come visit so we can play!

-Whitney

Parks & Rec

So one of the things I absolutely love about North Carolina is the parks! I swear we go to a new park every week! All within 15 minutes of our house. They're always clean, have clean bathrooms & are a great way to get us moving.

So far one of our favorites is Pullen Park. Free unless you want to ride the train, carousel or boats but a ticket is just a dollar. So not too bad. 

Brother is starting to have quite the personality! He's so happy when he is allowed to do activities with his sister! 

Brother was not super excited about the ride until round 2.

The carousel goes a bit fast for this momma but the kids love it. 

I love the train! It gives me 5 minutes to breathe and the kids both love it!!

And would you believe there is also a big sand pit?!! We take our beach toys and go to town digging. 

This doesn't even compare to a normal park! We love it. They also have a snack bar that serves local in season foods. It's pretty good!

We also enjoy the much much smaller pArk at Waverly Place. It has a tiny splash pad and sits inside a little shopping center. We like to go get some energy out and then grab a snack at whole foods. 

ThIs past weekend we decided to take turns enjoying the quiet of a restaurant while the kids played. Not a bad way to wait on food! They just so happened to have a back to school party happening.

So someone got to ride a pony while we waited. 

And the we had some good ol' Carolina BBQ!

We love it here! -whitney