Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Gabriel and Grace were so excited to help Daddy unwrap his gifts.
Grandma and Papaw gave Daddy a dress shirt and some ties.
Uncle Brian gave a few piggyback rides while Daddy enjoyed his gifts.

Look What He Can Do!

As we were preparing to leave Kansai, Gabriel picked up a pencil and piece of paper and wrote "what he wanted after dinner." He wrote on the paper "Is cem." He wanted ice cream! I know, I know . . . what's the big deal? #1 I'm a teacher and this emergent writing excites me. #2 He was taking what he knows about letters and sounds and combining that to attempt words.

Daddy's Birthday Dinner

Daddy chose to have his birthday dinner at Kansai. Mmmmm . . . I like his choice! This was our chef, Kade.
Grace was afraid of the fire Kade made, but she thought trying to catch rice in your mouth was hilarious. Daddy made a great catch!
Grace and I didn't do so well. All of our rice ended up on the floor.
Gabriel caught some rice too. He loves to eat at Kansai.
Grace made faces at the camera.
Gabriel and Grace were both able to eat the scrambled egg out of their rice with chopsticks.
When our meal ended, Grace sat on Uncle Brian's lap and finished the peas from his rice and the rest of his steak. I think she enjoyed Daddy's dinner at Kansai.

Preschool Fun

One of Gabriel's favorite things to do in Ms. Dawn's class is ride the tricycles outside. I couldn't help but snap his picture when I saw him riding around the play area this afternoon.

Saturday in West Virginia

Friday evening we had a shoebox float parade as part of our Mardi Gras celebration.
All of the kids voted for Grandma Mickey's float because it had cars on it.
Candi spoiled the girls.
The ones who started it all . . . Uncle Jim, Aunt Sandy, Aunt Linda, Grandma Mickey, Mom, Aunt Barbara.
Here is the whole gang!
It was nice having the entire road to ourselves. Austin, Cassidy, and Grace had a ball riding up and down the road.
Grace LOVES her future-Aunt Erin and Uncle Brian.
After Saturday dinner, Aunt Sandy had a pinata for the kids. Grace was the first up because she is the youngest kiddo.
After Little Gabe and Cassidy, it was Gabriel's turn to whack at the pinata.
Wahoo! Look at the loot!
Aunt Sandy and Aunt Linda celebrated their birthdays on Saturday. We also celebrated Dan's birthday. I brought an orange dream cake from Sweet Stuff . . . his favorite. Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Friday in West Virginia

We spent the weekend in West Virginia visiting with the Kendrick side of the family. One of the most popular activities each year are the crafts. Grandma Mickey, Aunt Sandy, and Grandma painted and decorated picture frames.
Gabriel and Grace had their own picture frames to decorate too. Gabriel was more interested in his snack though.
Aunt Barbara had the great idea to fix spiced pears using the pears growing in the park. She sent Dominique up the pear trees to shake the pears down.
Gabriel and Grace were happy to help by gathering the pears into bags.
Cassidy loved on her baby while taking a break from gathering pears.
Daddy, Aunt Linda, Aunt Barbara, Grandma Mickey and Aunt Sandy enjoy crafting in the beautiful sun.
We realized this weekend that in one year Erin will be AUNT Erin! We are so excited!
Little Gabe gave Grace a crazy ride in his police car.
After Friday night dinner at Aunt Linda's cabin, we had an outdoor movie. I think we have a new tradition!

Gabriel and Grace were ready for the movie to begin.
Little Gabe was REALLY mad at me because I disabled his car when the movie started.
The feature presentation was the Garfield movie.
It took SO many shots to get a decent one of me and Dan. He is worse than the kids sometimes.
My baby girl and me. . . she spent her entire evening gathering Mardi Gras beads from everyone.
Even Streaker got into the act with his Mardi Gras beads.
After the movie, we had bath time. Gabriel teased Grandma and wouldn't let her take his picture.
Cassidy brought bath markers. These two had a ball bathing together and using the bath markers.

"I Think Mrs. Wilson Didn't Tell the Truth."

Last week Gabriel brought this paper home from preschool. Here is his story:
"Mom, Mrs. Wilson gave us a paper and said that if we color all of the c's yellow, then something would appear on our paper. I colored all of my c's, Mom, but nothing happened. So then I brought the paper home, and I was in the garage riding my bike when I heard this magic sound in the kitchen. So I ran inside and looked at my paper on the table, and still nothing . . . . Mom, I think Mrs. Wilson didn't tell the truth."

The poor kid did NOT understand that the picture of the cross on the paper WAS what was supposed to appear. I'm not sure what he expected, but boy, was he disappointed!

NEW BICYCLES

I mentioned to Dan a few weeks ago that I wanted a bicycle for my birthday. Then I suggested that I get my birthday gift early so I could get some use out of it before the weather gets cold. After some time researching, we made our purchase tonight. Daddy got a bike for himself too. And Grace decided that she wanted a bicycle for her birthday gift too.
Look! We (Uncle Ed, Aunt Stacey, Uncle Brian, Erin, Dan, the kids, and I) bought Grandma a bicycle for her birthday too. We are looking forward to many fun family bike rides!
Here are our new bicycles! I'm so excited about them!!

Trapped

Grace was trying out her Halloween costume last night. Somehow she ended up inside this tote, and Gabriel put the lid on her. Oh, Big Brothers! Haha!

Fall Ball

Sunday evening Grandma and Papaw came over for dinner. The kids decided to get a little baseball practice started in the backyard.
Gabriel concentrated hard on keeping his eye on the ball. He got some awesome hits too.
Look at this cute little baseball player!
Another hit!
Grace was trying to catch the ball . . . yes, while wearing her batting helmet.
Papaw helped Grace hit from the tee.

I think we might need to get our "window guy" on speed dial now that Gabriel is hitting well. We may be replacing some windows next spring.