Jonny turned 2 already. I'm sad she's not my little baby anymore but I love two year olds. They are so much fun! I love to make big deals out of birthdays, make a big cake, invite the family over, etc. But as we now live across the country from our family, it was a pretty low key day. But she loved it and was happiest about her balloon.
Birthday Girl!
We had to wake her up to open her presents because we wanted to ruin her birthday. Who wants to wake up early on their birthday?
Pulling the sheet off her play kitchen.
It was a hit.
And she immediately called Grandpa on the play phone because he's her favorite person.
While Atticus was at preschool I took her to get a balloon (of course she picked Minnie Mouse) and pick out some cupcakes. (I didn't even make her a cake as we were leaving for Utah two days later.)
She was so pleased.
I'd never heard her sing the birthday song before and I don't even know when the last time she would've heard it, but she was all about singing "happy birthday to me" for her birthday.
My parents got her a wiggle car for her birthday (Actually it was for Christmas. But it was too big so they sent it with our movers in October and gave her her birthday present at Christmas) She LOVES it. She was always stealing Atticus' before. They spent every second out there before heading to Utah.
She's trying to give a thumbs up.
Blowing out the candle on her second cupcake of the day.
After Halloween and our time in Ohio, we hit the road again. We were sad to leave our cousins. But we still had some fun plans ahead. The weather was still amazing, as were my kids and the scenery. We drove across beautiful rolling hills and farmland through most of Pennsylvania towards Hershey. Chocolate! Again I will say what great timing we had on this trip. We spent the morning of November 4th at Hershey World and there was hardly a crowd. They have this little dinky ride that talks about chocolate making and Hershey products and the rope for the line was like trying to get on a Disney ride. But we walked right on (repeatedly as Atticus thought it was so great. Plus they gave you free chocolate at the end.) Atticus' favorite part was when Reese talked to him. It was an animated Reese's Peanut Butter Cup man that interacted with Atticus from a large screen. We also did some chocolate tasting workshop where we learned about how chocolate is made and how they categorize tastes in chocolate. AND we got to make our own candy bars!
The Pennsylvania views
On the road again. Well actually, at a giant rest stop/gas station place.
We had great timing crowd-wise but it was kind of a bummer to have just barely missed their Christmas things. They were setting up for a bunch of Christmas activities while we were there.
Jonny was so happy about this walking kiss thing. She tried to chase after it to give it kisses.
Jonny wasn't old enough to get her own candy bar to make, so she helped me. It was fun and oh so much chocolate. Atticus did dark chocolate and added cookie pieces, sprinkles, and rice crispies to his.
Adding his ingredients.
Watching it across the conveyor belt.
He's the best big brother.
Then we got to design our wrappers.
I add all these pictures of our finished product because Jonny.
My children are very cooperative.
Looking down over his chocolate kingdom.
Grandma Stella gave them both some money for the trip and this is what they spent their money on. Jonny named hers Cocoa and Atticus' is of course named Reese.
We had plans after Hershey to head to Amish country the next morning, but Jonny came down with a fever. It was a low fever and she was acting fine but I decided we better just take it easy instead. We hung out in the hotel the next morning for a bit and then packed up for our last day of driving. We took a break in each state we hit that day.
This is us heading to Boston with a rebel yell. (See? They're yelling) Atticus even brought along his Yankee Blankie which is the blanket he's dragged around with him since birth. And yes, I drove around the Bronx. No big deal. We didn't do a tour for because they were like, an hour and a half long and well, tiny children. But guys, I've never even been to a major league game. It's pretty lame of me. (Also, November 5th in New York City and Jonny's wearing short sleeves.)
This was in Connecticut. It was our last stop. They're searching for acorns.
And that was it. I wish to head back out on the road now.
Guys. Halloween. It's a good month. And we did a whole lot of Halloweening. And early warning: I have a major crush on our costumes from this year so not only did I take a million pictures (On several different occasions) I will also post at least a thousand of them here.
Per Atticus' request, we always have to visit the Halloween stores as much as possible. We try all the scary decorations that move and scream, and we check out all the costumes.
I also spent some time with my mom and sisters at a Halloween store because we are super cool like that.
This is my mother.
MY kids and I went as Tom Hanks characters (sort of) for Halloween. Atticus loved posing like a cowboy and he memorized a bunch of Woody's pull-string phrases.
I don't know that she will ever have a better costume.
Hanging out with his friends at our goodbye Halloween party.
Atticus and his cute friend, Evy. Funny story: Evy lived behind us for over a year before we realized that her mom (and my friend) Katie and I were second cousins. Our grandmother's (on my Williams side) are sisters.
Halloween Party!
My dad is all about Halloween. He and my mom go all out for trick-or-treaters. They wear these creepy old people masks and have scary music and lighting. They bring the kids in, to their bubbling cauldron to get their candy. They also love to start out Halloween night by giving out full size candy bars. I had plans this year to take my kids down there for Halloween. But since we were moving, we trick-or-treated early.
I didn't tell my kids what to expect so their reactions were fun.
I love this.
Here be a million pictures of them in costume before we moved.
This is me channeling Tom Hanks. "I've never seen that. I've never seen anybody drive their garbage down to the street and bang the hell out of it with a stick. I-I've never seen that."
Being scary.
It was really hard to pose for my one picture.
This was the first day we tried them both on.
Then we took a million more pictures at my parent's house! "It's a bone.... It's a human femur bone."
Atticus' face!
So because of our road trip to Boston, we were in Ohio with my brother's family for Halloween. We had so much fun. We went to a party with a bunch of their ward friends and then went trick-or-treating. They do this weird thing where the different neighborhoods have scheduled times for trick-or-treating. Some of the neighborhoods didn't even do it on Halloween. And then when it was the scheduled time most everyone hung out on their driveways to pass out their candy. So there weren't so many doors to knock on. We still had so much fun and Jonny was thrilled to be getting free candy.
Jonah was a dragon.
Swing batter!
Oh, Anna. This girl is such a sweet, girly, crazy thing.
Crazies.
Yep. Princess Anna.
Tinkerbell.
And Peter Pan. (I guess I put his hat on backward)
