Fall Fun and Happy Birthdays!

Dear Friends and Family,
We've had another fun week and we are starting to get some fall weather too! On Wednesday last week we met my friend, Marissa Rock and her son Chase for fun at the park and farm.  The kids had fun looking at the animals and running in different directions to play. I managed to snap one photo where all three were playing in the vicinity of each other!

Chase has mastered the slide, Claire is getting adventurous with her climbing and Will is probably just looking for a way to escape.

When it was time to go, these two exchanged a sweet hug!  

 Speaking of sweet, according to two of the parents at Claire's school, Claire is getting a reputation for being sweet!  Two of her classmates Cooper and Quinn talk frequently about how nice Claire is.  Cooper even started calling Claire, "Claire Bear!"  And then Claire got invited to a play date with one of her classmates this week too.  Claire LOVES school.  She also LOVES her teacher, Miss Stephanie!  One day when I picked Claire up from school, we stayed late to play on the playground.  We left at the same time as Miss Stephanie, and as she drove away, Claire just stood there and watched and waved good-bye.  That night when we were talking about our favorite part of the day, Claire said, "My favorite part of today was watching Miss Stephanie get in her car and wave bye to me!"

This weekend we had lots of fun planned. On Saturday my wonderful friend and former roommate, Meredith, invited us down for her daughter Elizabeth's birthday party.  She had the party at a kids' playhouse so Claire and Will had loads of fun!  And to top it off, the party was Frozen themed so Claire was more than ecstatic about all of the great frozen stickers, rings, etc. that had Elsa and Anna on them! Thanks for the great time and goodies, Meredith!  And Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!

The birthday girl gets ready to blow out her candles!

Will loved the ride-on cars.

Uh oh, looks like Will is stopping short!

But happy to see that Mouse is ok!

Claire did some fun climbing.

Then she ran up to me later and told me that she was having so much fun with Daddy!  They are off to play more games and Claire skipped the whole way!

Speaking of birthdays, another Elizabeth had a very happy birthday this weekend.  My newest niece! Elizabeth "Ellie" Grace Baker was born at 6:28am on October 4th.  Claire and I both fight over the phone each time a new picture is shared of her! We can't wait to cuddle her in person at Christmas! Congratulations Baker family of five!  We love you!

The fun continued this weekend with a neighborhood Halloween party and a fun church picnic complete with moon bounce, pumpkins to paint, cotton candy, snow cones, and delicious catered BBQ.

On Monday we headed down to D.C. to visit the Natural History museum and to have lunch with Nan.  Claire was my photographer again! She took over 100 pictures with my camera of all the rocks and gems.

I asked Claire if I could get her picture with this huge amethyst, and she said, "Nope! But I'll take one of Will."

Claire was willing to be photographed near this cool rock because she was doing a trick and she wanted Daddy to see.

Claire and Will love any exhibit with buttons!

And this fish tank is always a big hit since it has Nemo fish and Dori fish!

They also have a large collection of taxidermy.  I asked Claire if she could try to drink water like a giraffe and she gave it her best try! "Nice work, Claire!"

After lots of exploring we finally met Nan for lunch!  Claire and Nan were thrilled to see each other!

 
We had a nice lunch with Nan and then headed back to our car.  Claire's little feet were so tired, but I only brought the single stroller.  I was as tired of the complaining as Claire was of the walking so I asked her if she could fit in the basket under the stroller and within seconds, she wiggled herself right in. Now my nickname for that stroller is "the clown car!"

Later that night, both kids were up for a windy walk.  So we put on our cool weather gear and headed out.

Will looked so cute in his (Noah's hand me down) fall clothes, I had to get a picture!

High tide, big moon, and big waves!

My latest mommy challenge has been an adorable son who refuses to listen, hold hands while walking in or near parking lots, or be buckled into almost anything (car seat, stroller, grocery cart...) It's made running errands miserable! Last week I wanted to get a bunch of stuff done while Claire was in school and Will screamed at our every stop about getting back into the car.  Finally I just said, "Fine, I'm not in a hurry.  You crawl around the car.  I'll just put the windows down and relax for a bit!"  So Will happily climbs over the seats and into the front with me. He samples all of the buttons and then tries this:

So I grabbed him by the pants, snapped a picture, and then promptly put the windows back up and wrestled him back into his car seat! Never a dull moment...
Pray for me!
Love,
Bethie