Monday, October 31, 2016

Happy Halloween 2016

Happy Halloween!

For school,  McKaila had to choose a character from her favorite book and be that character for halloween. We went through our many books that we have and finally she chose to be the very hungry caterpillar. That also meant that mommy had to get creative. 

Thanks to Pintrest, I got a lot of different ideas and came up with a cute but simple costume for McKaila. Different fruit with holes on her shirt and a head band with some antlers. 


Well... when it came to halloween, McKaila wanted to be something different. All along, the girls have said that they wanted to dress up in the stuff that we already had at home. Then hours before it came time to trick or treat, they changed their mind, well... McKaila did. 

So, very last minute, McKaila turned into a kitty cat and so did McKenna, even though up until minutes before trick or treating she was going to be Anna from Frozen. 




And then we have Logan James, who turned into an astronaut. He wasn't happy about picture taking, so I did the best I could with what he gave me. 

This way to my space ship

Logan's space ship




Logan was really excited about going trick or treating. All 3 kids were, but Logan especially. Logan started out by wanting to be in the wagon, but once he saw his sisters going up to houses and getting candy, he didn't want to be in the wagon any more. 

We didn't spend a whole lot of time trick or treating since the kids aren't too big into candy, they were more excited about getting back to the house so they could hand out the candy we had to all the other trick or treaters. 

Even though our costumes for the girls were very last minute, they were very happy and that warms my heart in every way! 

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Pumpkin Decorating

Our little goblins in their halloween shirts




We asked the girls if they would like to paint, draw, or carve their pumpkins and without hesitation they said they wanted to draw on their pumpkins, but they wanted mommy and daddy to carve the big pumpkins.  

I was personally happy that they wanted to just color all over their pumpkins, because that meant less of a clean up for me. But, even with drawing all over their pumpkin, they had so much fun. McKenna scribbled all over hers, but McKaila did different things on each side, including a cat. 

Logan decided to nap during our decorating, so he didn't get to join in on the fun, but when I started to carve my pumpkin, Logan did decided to wake up, so Courtney had to finish my pumpkin up. 


Courtney the carving master, did a great job with finishing our pumpkins and the girls did a wonderful job at doing very unique pumpkins. They are very creative, which we love!










Monday, October 24, 2016

Happy 6th Birthday, McKaila Rose

 Since, McKaila's birthday fell on a Monday this year, we celebrated her birthday the day before. 

In the morning she got to open presents from Grandma and Grandpa Kuipers so they could see her open them on FaceTime. 

Binoculars from Grandpa and Grandma
McKaila got to open the rest of her presents later in the day after McKaila, mommy and Auntie went out shopping. Auntie wanted to take McKaila shopping so she could pick out some clothes that she wanted for her birthday. So, when we got back she was eager to open the rest of her presents.  

Tracing pad from Mommy and Daddy

Shirt from Grandpa and Grandma Nancy


McKenna's face after McKaila showed off her presents

Sadie wanted to be a part of the present opening

Presents from Great Grandma Kuipers
McKaila also got some early birthday presents from our friends back in Mississippi, the Papa's. And she got really excited when I told her that we could FaceTime them when she was done opening her presents. It was so great seeing them on FaceTime again. We sure miss them A LOT!!






This year, daddy made McKaila her birthday cake. She was more then excited to dig into her birthday cake.




Off to school as a 6 year old

Like always, McKaila was one spoiled little lady on her birthday and she enjoyed every minute of it. 

Happy Birthday, McKaila Rose! We love you!

Saturday, October 22, 2016

More Birthday Fun Day

After the zoo, we felt like driving around the area, since we hadn't been up that way to explore yet. So happy we did because we came across Lake Norman State Park. Beautiful!! 

There was a lot more to the park that we didn't get to see, but we saw a sign to the visitors center, so we decided to stop there. We got out just to see what it was all about, not knowing how beautiful it was on the other side. The lake it gorgeous and we went down to explore it. 

That's when we came across some trails and thought we would go for a little walk. Beautiful and I know we will be back when it's a warmer day and do more of the trails.












After exploring the lake, we did some more riding around and came across a cute little ice cream shop. A birthday fun day isn't complete without some ice cream. McKaila got birthday cake ice cream and McKenna got superman!!




McKaila's 6th Birthday Fun

We are trying to get back to what we used to do for the kids and bring them somewhere special for their birthday.

So, we asked McKaila what she would like to do for her birthday and she said she wanted to go to the zoo. There is a lot to do here in North and South Carolina but she wanted to go to a zoo, so, we're going to a zoo. 

There are a few different zoos around the area, but we decided on Zootastic. 

What a fun little zoo. And what was even better was that it was a chilly day, so there wasn't a whole lot of people there. We got to take our time with seeing each animal and we weren't so worried about the kids running to each animal. 

We all had a really good time and we all enjoyed the hayride the most. It was so fun having animals come up to us and being able to feed them. The kids weren't so into it at first, but after a little bit, they were so into it, that we ran out of food for them. 














The kids were so excited to have Auntie there to enjoy the birthday fun day with us





Pretty awesome getting to feed a giraffe, but not so awesome getting the thick slobber all over your hands

Coolest thing ever!

It was a very successful birthday fun day. The birthday girl had tons of fun and she ever got to pick out a special gift before we left. A giraffe necklace that changed colors in the sun.