There's No Place Like Home

We had a very busy and fabulous Halloween.  We had quite a few parties/activities to attend but everything was a lot of fun.  Evan went as the scarecrow and Caitlin as Dorothy.

The first party we went to was on Wednesday. It was our weekly neighborhood playgroup.  I really enjoyed dressing up the kids for the first time in their costumes.  I actually hadn't even tried them on the kids yet.  I realized Evan's was just a tad small (it said 2T!) but it would work.  They looked so cute in them.  Here's a pic from the playgroup:

On Thursday, Evan had a little festival at school. I volunteered to help and did have fun seeing Evan and his class interacting. What a hard job though taking care of 13 two year olds every day! Here's a few pictures from school:

Evan before school - he was excited!

Evan decorating his cookie

All the boys in his class - aren't they adorable?

On Saturday, we went to a little Halloween party at the Peters' house. They had great decorations, an awesome playscape, wonderful food, and fun games. Evan had a blast (minus the accidental bat to the face he took). Caitlin also enjoyed playing with Claire.

Caitlin playing

Evan playing with another little boy - what else but cars!

Claire and Caitlin - toys in the mouth, yum!

Saturday evening, we went to Evan's preschool for a Trunk N Treat.  It's where members of the church decorate their trunks and hand out candy.  It was a lot of fun!  We enjoyed some trunk n treating, then had some food.  The Blankenships came so Evan was of course thrilled to see Avery.  They played in the bounce house and then we went on a hayride which Evan loved.  Lots of fun!  Just by total coincidence, Ange and I chose the same theme for our kids costumes but it's actually kind of perfect for Evan and Avery.

Evan at the trunk n treat

Evan and Caitlin stopping for a quick pose - probably one the few pictures I got of them together

Dorothy, the lion, and the scarecrow - we just need a tin man!

Best of friends

Dorothy and the scarecrow

All four of the kids - so darn cute!

Family photo

For actual Halloween, we actually had a bit of a rough day.  Caitlin spiked a fever and was kind of miserable most of the day.  So, we decided that Bryce would stay home with her and hand out candy while I took Evan out for trick-or-treating.  He really enjoyed it.  He was also so polite, always saying thank you and just taking one piece (even when they prompted him to take more).  I had a lot of fun going around with him and am looking forward to it next year when we can all go as a family.  People loved his costume too!

Evan and I before we headed out

The rest of Indy

While we were visiting, we had the opportunity to head to another pumpkin patch.  I've actually never been to this one, but it sounded fun and was near somewhere else we had to be.  Plus, my friend Marie's daughter Moira (you may remember them from the baptism) and her mom Joan met us there.  It was great to get Moira and Evan together again although we were sad we didn't have time to see Marie.  

Here the Grandmas pushed the kids in the cars - Evan was very upset when we had to move on to something else.

Moira and Evan

Kids and Grandmas on the Spin the Pumpkin ride

Hayride!!  Evan LOVES hayrides and anything involving tractors.

The pumpkin patch - it was almost Halloween so most of the pumpkins were gone, but we still had fun.

Caitlin with some pumpkins - she kept wanting to eat the grass/sticks.

Oma and Caitlin

Moira, Caitlin, and Evan - it is hard to get a good picture with 3 kids!

On the hayride back from the pumpkin patch - Caitlin enjoyed the hayride too!

Another day, the weather was really bad outside so we decided to check out the Eiteljorg Museum which is the American Indian Museum.  I haven't been there in a long time but was glad they had an area just for little kids.  Probably the most exciting thing was that we saw them setting up an exhibit for Christmas - a train exhibit!  Evan SO wanted to go see that but it was in the process of being built.  They did let him in though to see the trains which was really nice.  He loved it.

Evan playing with some horses

Evan in the general store

Caitlin playing

And last is a video of Oma and Evan riding some horses!!  They had lots of fun together.  Oh, and if you get the blog by email and don't see the video, just click on the blog name (Happenings in the Stacer Household) and it will take you to the actual blog where you can see the video.


Caitlin goes to the Dr. on Wednesday for her 9 month checkup so I'll do her update after that.  We had to push it back because of our trip to Indy and that was the earliest we could get in that worked.  She is suffering from a bad ear infection at the moment (poor girl has had a bad fever since Sunday morning). I took her to the Dr. today for that and she is now on antibiotics but she's been super fussy all day.  Poor baby girl!  Hope she is feeling better tomorrow. 

Fun times in Indy

While we were in Indy for my mom's surprise party, we had time to do some fun activities.  One of our favorites is visiting the Children's museum.  It's an amazing place for kids and Evan always has so much fun.  They were having their Haunted House also so we were able to take the kids through that (it's lights on during the day for the little ones).  We had a blast.

Wee!

In the dinosphere looking at bones

Caitlin checking things out

Trains!  We missed this part last time so he loved watching all the trains.

I think one of these is in his future... he loves these train tables.

At the entrance to the Haunted House (no  pictures inside)

Another picture before Skeletown

At the end of the haunted house

Pictures with Oma and Mema - and our friend Skele

The carousel! I loved this carousel when I was little and so does Evan. I love to watch him ride it. Brings back lots of great memories.

Caitlin took a turn on a horse too

Caitlin and Oma and Mema

Here is a video of Evan pretending to slide like a penguin.  This was in the Arctic exhibit they had.  He had so much fun doing this.  Kept going back to do it again once he figured it out.

We had a blast. My mom bought a membership so I think we'll be going back to the museum every time we come into town.  There are always new exhibits and still more things we haven't done.  Can't wait to go back!

Happy 65th Birthday Mom!

I'm sure she doesn't want me posting about her age, but my mom turned 65 earlier in October.  My sister, brother, and I thought we should do something special for her and so the idea of a surprise party was born.  This past weekend we had the party and it was so much fun.  Thanks to everyone who helped keep it a secret, helped with the party, and came to the party. 

My sister was always planning on being home this past weekend as she was in Chicago for work. So, the plan was that she would occupy my mom all day.  I flew in that morning with the two kids and Mema picked us up at the airport.  Then, we picked up my brother and began a mad dash of preparing for the party.  We picked up the cake and the ham/turkey. We took the kids back to my mom's house so they could nap and then my brother and I headed to the grocery.  We had to do all the grocery shopping and prepare the food in about 3 hours!  My cousin Ann came over early to help (and obviously Mema was there too) so thank goodness they were there!  Everything was ready on time and people began arriving around 5pm.  My mom and sister were supposed to arrive around 5:45pm.  Becca and I texted each other as it got closer so we could be ready.  Finally, they arrived!  Here's a video of the surprise.  (Sorry for the small break in the video at the beginning... I accidentally pressed the stop button for just a second).



She was so surprised if you can't tell.  Really, she had no clue.  Everyone did a fabulous job of keeping it secret.  It was a lot of fun to plan and see how thrilled and excited she was.  Thank you again to everyone for making it possible.

I took some more pictures of the party so here are those. I will post Caitlin's 9 month info soon too... I thought I should get this posted first for all those who were there or couldn't be there and wanted to see it.

Mom and Ella looking at old pictures she brought

Cousin Ann and Tom

Mark, Charlie, and George

Mark and Linda holding Caitlin

Debbie, Ann, and Becca

Will kept an eye on the kids outside - Evan is playing with Matt R.'s little girls

Happy Birthday Mom!

Yeah! Evan enjoyed the singing

Thanks again everyone!  This was a really special day and I'm so happy you could all be a part of it. My mom is such a wonderful person that she deserves a very special celebration and this was perfect! Love you Mom!

P.S. Side note - yes, I flew with both kids BY MYSELF!  Just wanted to let you know that it went well.  Evan was pretty well behaved and Caitlin was good as well. It's definitely difficult to manage but there were nice people around on each flight who were very helpful.  I'd definitely do it again... but maybe not right away :)

Sharing Toys

I sort of alluded in the last post to the fact that Evan must now share his toys with Caitlin (which he of course doesn't love).  Here's a video that I also took tonight of Evan and Caitlin interacting.  This is pretty typical. Evan is usually upset at first that she's playing with his toys (hence the "No, Mine" and trying to take it away).  However, after a little while, he usually is sweet and will sort of play with her.  Not always, but it's so cute when he does.  And then he gets bored and moves onto something else. 

You'll also notice in the video that Caitlin is sticking out her tongue!  She has recently started doing this a lot. It's kind of funny.  I'm not sure why she all of a sudden does it all the time, but maybe because she is SUPER stuffy at the moment and it helps her breathe?? Who knows.  I just think it's funny and cute so pay attention and see if you notice too!

Caitlin Crawls!

I know I haven't blogged much lately so apologies. I have been wanting to post for awhile now about Caitlin crawling. She started crawling (well, the date we are officially counting) on the day of her baptism which was September 25th (great day, I know). Anyway, that's when we really saw her actually move towards objects with some purpose. I always find it's hard to really pinpoint one day when they reach some milestone. Like smiling for instance... of course they smile when they are days old at times but that's not necessarily the first time they smile AT you. So, how do you know when they are smiling at your instead of just have gas? I think you just pick some arbitrary day when they do it and say that's it. Anyway, sorry for the tangent... back to crawling.


Here's a video of her "first" attempt at crawling on the day of her baptism:


And here are two videos of her crawling from tonight... she can totally motor! And it's been this way for a few weeks now. I swear, about a week after the baptism, she was scooting all over the place. She went from 0 to 60 in no time! She loves to crawl to toys, particularly Evan's toys like his cars. So, I'm not too sure HE is glad she's crawling... we hear a lot more of the, "No, mine!" phrase these days.





She hasn't mastered crawling on all fours... still doing an army crawl with some knee action. But I will find her on all fours occasionally with a little bit of revving action sometimes too. I don't think it will be long before she is crawling for real. Watch out Evan!

Pumpkin Patch

Ever since I had Evan, I have been wanting to take him to a pumpkin patch to snap those cute pictures I always see of other kids.  So, a few Mommy friends and I planned a trip this past Friday to Sweet Berry Farms.  It's about an hour away so kind of a drive but well worth it.  We had so much fun.  Aunt Michelle joined us and boy was she a life saver!!  It's so much easier to take two kids anywhere if there's help, and she is fantastic help!

They have a great setup for picture taking and it not being a weekend was a big bonus as far as how crowded it was.  I was hoping to get some super cute shots of the two kids but let's just say I didn't have the most cooperative bunch.  Evan was much more interested in running around with Avery than even thinking of sitting still for a photograph.  Caitlin was much more interested in eating the grass than looking at the camera.  So, my dreams of those cute pumpkin pictures of the two kids is kaput.  I never did get a shot of the two of them together.  Still, I got a few that I like so I'm posting those.  And even if I didn't get those great pics I was hoping for, the kids had a blast.  We petted some goats and went on a cool hayride and bought some pumpkins and enjoyed spending time with the other moms and kids.  Evan and Avery were like two peas in a pod the whole day.  He really loves hanging out with her.  The entire ride there he kept asking, "Where's Avery? I want to see Avery!".  And later that day, we headed to the Blankenships for a BBQ with friends.  Again, the two of them were inseparable.  It's cute to see how much he enjoys playing with another friend.  Overall, it was a wonderful day!!

Evan and Avery posing

Caitlin with the pumpkins

Evan chasing Avery - this was what he did for most of the picture taking

Evan riding the pumpkins in a boat

Evan pulling Avery in the boat

Avery pulling Evan in the boat

Riding the tractor - now this WAS one shot I could get him to sit still for... the problem was getting him OFF the tractor

Caitlin and I - finally a cute picture!

Driving the boat of pumpkins - with Avery of course

Mama and Evan

The only pic I got of them together

Evan talking to the goat

Aunt Shell and Evan petting the goat

HAYRIDES ARE SO COOL!

Look, a neigh-neigh!

The wee ones on the hay ride

That was an awesome hayride with Aunt Shell!  Probably the best picture of Evan from the entire day. I think he had fun.