Take Five!

Well, as of 9:39 this morning, Osten is officially five years old! I can't believe it. He was super excited about his birthday this year, and at his request, we put our present on the table for him to open this morning. No sooner was he out of bed this morning, and he had that gift ripped open! To his credit, he has been waiting patiently for two months for a Justice League blanket and pillow of his own after we gave them to one of his buddies from school for his birthday. (Is there anything more exciting than the successful fulfillment of a child's anticipation??!!)

We made cupcakes to bring to school. He is in quite a Captain America phase right now, and much to my relief, he was very excited about these homemade cupcake shields. (Whew!)

Box of Tricks

Much of Sunday morning was spent in a big box from Grammi and FaFa's gift for Boone. The kids took turns hiding in the box and pulling each other all around the house in it. There was also a good bit of girl time to be had in the box with lots of story telling and reading.

I'm not sure how I lucked into capturing this shot, but it is one of my all-time favorites!

Piper was so nice to share all of her dressup stuff with Marci, and they had a ball getting all gussied up in two of her gowns.

Osten disappeared after a while, and this is how I found him. I think he was quite impressed with Piper's book collection!

Udderly Entertained

The Columbia zoo has a little bit of everything to offer. Marci even got to milk a cow!

Boone kept right up with the big kids, but he also spent some quality time on Mommy's hip and later on Daddy's shoulders. What a little trooper!

The outdoor carousel was a huge hit!

Whee!! Boone rode, too, but somehow I didn't end up with a picture of him. How in the world did that happen??!!

Clickety Clack

We covered quite a bit of ground walking around the zoo. The girls were especially cute parading around in their click-click shoes and princess gowns.

Osten was so proud of his Captain America costume, and I was relieved that the shield I made for him met with his approval. (Whew!)

Here's Aurora and Captain America waiting in line at one of the trick-or-treat booths.

Wardrobe malfunction! Out of nowhere, Marci plopped down in the dirt to empty some dirt from her click-click shoes. We were shocked that she was able to clickety-clack her way through the zoo all night without changing into more comfortable shoes. What stamina!

Boo in the Zoo

We got an early start to Halloween this year at Boo in the Zoo in Columbia. It was an after-hours event at the zoo with trick-or-treating and lots of other Halloween activities. Superman (who also celebrated his Halloween birthday a weekend early with us), Cinderella, Captain America and Aurora had a great time.

Here's a closer look at three of our little trick-or-treaters. The littlest one quickly tired of the photo shoot and wandered off to find bigger and better things.

This was Osten and Marci's first trip to the zoo. We spent a good bit of time at the elephant exhibit and couldn't pass up a photo with the elephant statue nearby.

Giddyup!

New School

Marci started a new school this year. Here she is on her first day.

She picked out her outfit all by herself. She was particularly excited to be wearing her favorite Aurora shirt. She also announced that she wanted me to fix her hair in three pony tails (WHAT?), but since two is Mommy's limit that had to do!

Such a big girl! She pulled that door open all by herself . . .

. . . and just walked right in! Her new princess backpack was an especially big deal!

Pre-kindergarten

It's hard to believe that our first-born is in pre-K and in his last year at the school where he has been since he was 14 weeks old. My, how time flies!

He has also officially entered the awkward smile phase, which of course makes him all the cuter to me!

He picked out his outfit by himself, and he was especially excited to wear his new school shirt. And by the way, the sandals he's wearing had a rough summer. After months of sand and sweat, we mistook their stench for dog poop in the car one afternoon. Needless to say, we bypassed Goodwill and put those puppies on the fast-track to the landfill.