A Fire Truck Birthday Party!!

At long last (and to the joy of Ms. Raz), the Fire Truck Birthday Photos are finally posted to the blog. WOO HOO!

The boys had such a great time at the party. In fact, Charlie is STILL talking about it. I, of course, had a great time decorating for the party. I ordered customized fire truck decor which I spent a couple of weeks putting together, and I thought it was all so adorable. I also must thank my decorating crew, Grammy, Poppy and Uncle Mattie, for their help. I certainly couldn't have done it without them!

I would like to mention that I took lots of pictures of all of the grandparents, but for the sake of time (and virtual space), I am only including photos of the boys in this blog entry. I am saving the grandparent photos for my Fire Truck Birthday Party photo book which is next on my agenda (along with a few other hundred things).

So, without further ado, here they are:

So, I must explain this photo. I  bought matching fire truck pajamas for the boys.
(Are you surprised?) I wanted to get just one measly little picture of them
in their pjs and this is the best Charlie could do.
A grunt. A grimace. I don't know what you call this.

Chase's photo is a little better. At least he's not scowling at me.

We had LOTS of festive balloons. (I love the polka dots!)

Here is some of the customized decor I put together. That was lots of fun!

I thought these little gift tags were super cute, too!

It's hard to see just how adorable everything was. Just trust me!

Here come the fire fighters now!

He was  SUPER excited, as you can see.

Another excited little fire fighter.

Chase LOVES balloons... or as he calls them, "Ah-LOONS!"

I even had matching napkin rings. Loved it!

And yes, we drank out of fire hydrants. A personal favorite.

Cute signage, eh?

I ordered these cupcake toppers from Cake Sugar Designs. They turned out super cute, too!
(Once I figured out how to apply them!)

More cute cupcake toppers.

See! The fire hydrants are a big hit!

The food! Delish!

I loved this sign! 

So happy...

This is about the only time they sat together.

This was the boys big present from us - a 3' tall fire station!
They LOVE it!

And now to the fun part... opening presents!

Shelby was thrilled to be there.

Sweet face.

See? Thrilled.

The next best part? Cupcakes!

Finger lickin' good!

Shelby tried to make a run for it, but I caught her and brought her back home.
It was all too much excitement for her.

Party's over, so we hit the big wheels!

Aren't they cute?

I think he had fun today.

And so did we!

Home of the Three-Time Champ!

Ok. Bear with me. We're still back tracking here. Next post will have photos of the Fire Truck Birthday Party, but before that, I thought I would do a quick post about our trip to the race shop.

This actually took place before Thanksgiving. Mike had to make a quick trip to the office, so Grammy, Charlie, Chase and I thought we'd join him.  (Besides, Grammy had never been to SHR.)

This is the ACTUAL car that won the race at Homestead, clinching the championship.

Yeah, yeah. Racecar, schmacecar. The boys were much more interested in this  FORKLIFT!

Cute pic!

Dada and Chase. They are joined at the hip when Dada's home.

Too much excitement for Chase.

Charlie was excited to see a Peterbuilt. (From the movie,  CARS.
"I ain't no Mack. I'm a Peterbuilt for dang's sake!")

The boys enjoyed looking at the engine of the race winning car.

It's nice to have a Dada around that knows everything.

Grammy got her picture taken with the infamous car.

Walking around like he owns the joint.

"This is my racecar!" (In your dreams, buddy.)

Charlie has taken over Dada's office.

Thankful for Family (and Being at Home)

Wow. What a whirlwind couple of weeks it's been! In the last three weeks, I threw three parties, hosted Thanksgiving at my house and went to Las Vegas to celebrate Uncle Tony's Sprint Cup Championship. I've had little sleep and have been running on adrenaline for several weeks now.

But, as of this moment, I have NO obligations through Christmas and can just sit back and enjoy the holidays. I am so excited! With all of this extra time on my hands, I finally have a moment to update the blog. Hallelujah!

So, we're gonna back track a bit and remember Thanksgiving for a moment. We had a full house (which I love) and ate all of my favorite foods. Cinnamon corn, sweet potato souffle, green bean casserole and sausage stuffing. Love, Love, LOVE! Oh, and Oma made apple pie, too. Mmmm!

Here are a few photos of our happy Thanksgiving. I hope yours was just as wonderful!

It was so great to see Uncle Mattie! Can you believe he's graduating from college this year?

The boys love wrestling with Dad.

Poppy was a good sport and let the boys crawl all over him.

Grammy spent the entire week at the house. I really enjoyed her visit.

Look at big boy Chase! He's growing up so quickly!

Poppy was ready to dig in!

Great Grandma was there, too. 

Cute pic!

This is the only picture Charlie would let me take. Every time I pulled out the camera, he pitched a fit.
Surprise, surprise. 

Thankful for Preschool!

On Tuesday, Grammy and I spent the afternoon with Charlie at his preschool. We enjoyed a preschool-style Thanksgiving feast, complete with home made butter (made by the class!), rolls, corn, green bean casserole and Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets. (What can I say? The kids were in charge.)

It's always so fun to see Charlie at school, in his element and interacting with his friends. He seems to be thriving! Once again, Charlie has an amazing teacher. Mrs. Jacobson is so sweet and loving and absolutely loves her job. I am so thankful that Charlie is in her class. He has learned so much already and is even beginning to learn to write letters! Isn't that cool?

Here are a few pictures from our afternoon at StoneBridge preschool. What fun we had!

Charlie made this placemat. Isn't it cute?

This is the turkey we decorated. We had to add construction truck stickers. Don't all turkeys wear hard hats? (Don't answer that.)

Charlie, sitting in the circle at school. He's totally focused on what the teacher is saying, eh?

Charlie, sitting next to Clara. Aren't they just too cute for words?

Grammy and Mrs. Jacobson

It was a chore getting Charlie to face the table. I gave up after awhile.

Charlie, grateful for fire trucks. Not Mama. Not Dada. Fire trucks. Ok, then. At least I know where I stand.

Yippee! I got my picture taken with Charlie! It's a Thanksgiving miracle!

Arning Bros. Halloween 2011

What fun we had on Halloween! It is so much fun to be a parent of kids this age. They get so excited over every little thing! I can't wait until Christmas!

Ok, so I'm getting a little ahead of myself...

Halloween night was a blast. We dressed the boys in their costumes - Charlie was a fireman and Chase was a construction worker - and headed out for a little trick or treating. Believer it or not, Charlie was a little leery at first. He wasn't all that excited about walking up to the door of a neighbor/stranger's house - not even to ask for candy. In fact, he totally skipped the first couple of houses.

His younger brother, however, was gung ho from the beginning! Chase walked right up to the door, rang the doorbell, said "Trick or Treat," and even said "Thank you." What a sweet, well-mannered little boy! I was so proud!

After seeing Chase score candy the first couple of houses, Charlie decided that maybe this trick or treating thing wasn't so bad after all, so he decided to join us at the next house. From then on, he was hooked. He hopped from house to house, said "Trick or Treat," very clearly, and said a cute little "Thanks," afterward. Then he'd turn around and head back toward us with the cutest little grin on his face. What fun!

We stayed out until 7p or so, then headed back to the house to count the loot. Each boy was allowed to keep 10 pieces of candy (although we only ended up keeping 10 total because Chase didn't really get it), and the rest of the candy we put back in their Halloween bags to leave out for the Candy Witch. She came late in the evening, took the candy and left Charlie an ambulance and Chase a police car. Isn't she awesome?

Well, that was our Halloween. Simple and sweet and lots of fun. Can't believe it's already November!