Halloween Playdate

We hosted the playdate for our PTA group this week at the house.  We asked that everyone come dressed up in costume or at least in a Halloween shirt so that we could get pictures.  Additionally, I was chosen to host an Earth's Best Playdate Party so we had great goodies from them to hand out as our treats!

This was the largest playgroup to date.  There were 12 moms/dad plus babies.  We ended up moving the party upstairs to the game room to have enough room to spread out and play.  It was a great time.

I made 2 different types of muffins for the adults: Cinnamon Streusal and Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins.  Both were a hit, but the Pumpkin Cheesecake ones especially. I wanted to make stuff that I could whip up before everyone arrived at 9:30 am.   I had planned on making Pumpkin bread and bought a box mix for it when I saw the muffin recipe on the side of the box.  I had everything on hand so I made them instead.  It was a good call since they were delicious and everyone raved about them.

Grace wants to thank Aunt Heather for her Ladybug costume.  She looked so cute in it and never once in the 2 hrs she had the costume on did she bother with the hood on it.

Earth's Best Goody Bag contents - coupons, rice cereal sample, halloween bowl, spoon,

jar of Earth's Best baby food and bib.

All of the goody bags

Muffins and Apples

Grace modeling the bib

Baby way of making friends. 

Cute as a bug

There were some really cute, creative costumes. Kiet as BamBam

Kai as a Chick-fil-a Cow - Kelli made the sign. 

Taking a picture of babies is kind of like herding cats

Just taking the whole group in.

This was about as good as it gets with the group photo. 

And we are missing one baby who refused to be in the picture.

After the group left, we both ended up taking naps and then I began making dinner for the night.  Brad and Krystal were coming over to watch the Rangers first game of the World Series.  I made the Pioneer Woman Lasagna.  Best Ever seems like a big exaggeration.  The reviews are glowing, but I just thought that it was ok.   I've made kind of a quick and dirty lasgna with no cook noodles,  spaghetti sauce, and quick bechamel that I thought had more flavor than this.  I did make a couple substitutions such as using ricotta instead of cottage cheese and mild sausage versus hot and I used better brand of tomatoes, but I doubt those made that much difference.  I just felt like it was a bit bland.  It lacked the sweet bite of tomato I think.  Not sure at this point if I'll try it again.  Maybe I had just way too high of expectations with this recipe since everyone else seemed to like it.

Busy but fun day!

Raleigh

This past weekend we went to Raleigh for Michael (Keith's cousin) and Sabrina's wedding.  It was great to get to spend time with family - many of whom have never seen Grace before.  She was an absolute trooper.   From the plane to the hotel crib to being held by everyone to staying out much past her bedtime, Grace was amazing and loved it all.   It was great to be able to see Michael and Sabrina get married.  The love between them was evident.  It was a wonderful wedding and we loved the food - Carolina BBQ.  Apparently pork rinds aren't something that is eaten very often in Michigan.

On the Plane

Before the rehearsal dinner with Heather

Baby Jail - her crib at the hotel - she looked so sad in there but slept great.

Cristi and Grace

Elizabeth and Grace

Justin with Grace

Kelly with Grace

She just woke up from a nap on my lap.

October is almost over....

It is hard to believe that November is next week.  I really need to start thinking of getting ready for the Holidays.  Christmas lists need to be made, gifts purchased and decorating for the holidays.  I am so excited this year since it will be Grace's first Christmas.  Of course she won't remember it, but that doesn't mean it should be any less.  There will be lots of pictures.

We had Grace's 6 month photo shoot done last month and took some family photos as well.  I haven't blogged much about it since I want to use some of these pictures in our christmas cards.  I have looked at templates on etsy, looked at what my photographer has to offer, considered designing my own, and also looked at Shutterfly.

I've used Shutterfly for Father's Day cards before and they turned out great.  I was looking at some of the christmas designs and there are some really good ones.  These story cards are really cool too.

 I need to remember them for next year.  It is such a great update to the traditional newletters.    Shutterfly is offering 20% off all holiday cards right now which is what got me looking there.  Oh decisions, decisions. 

State Fair of Texas

Last Sunday we all loaded up in the car, met up with the Woy's and headed out to the State Fair.  It was a long day for all of us, but a fun one.  There was lots of fried food, amazing people watching, a HUGE pig, longhorns, and we even saw Frisbee dogs in action.

We learned that next year, we will be back but during the middle of the week.  Boy was it crowded.  We would have loved to do the small farm or the petting zoo, but they were packed and you had to leave your stroller outside something we didn't plan for when we brought the big stroller.

Grace loved just taking it all in and looking around.  She was such a good baby.  She did fuss a bit once she was super tired, but she eventually passed out asleep in the stroller.

I guess we should have brought her sunglasses.  

Big Tex

It looks like she is trying to say 'Howdy Folks' with Big Tex.

A tired baby.

Also on Saturday night we had dinner with the group over at the Woy's.  We were asked to bring an appetizer and a dessert.  I decided to make Onion-Bacon Dip. If you ever need to make a quick easy appetizer, this is it.  Such a hit and sooo good.  It is basically homemade French Onion dip, but with bacon added.  I also made these brownies.  They were really good and didn't taste light at all, but were really messy.  I don't think that I would make and take them somewhere, but they are a great treat at home.    Sorry no pictures of the food.

Big Thanks!!

Monogrammed anything holds a big place in a southern girls heart.  Keith will claim that I tried to put our monogram on everything at our wedding.  And yes I even have a pair of shoes with my monogram.

Monogramming, embroidery and smocking become even more important when you have a baby. There is nothing cuter than a smocked dress and monogramed bloomers on a little gril.  Grace is very fortunate to have family that can make these items and more like burb clothes and bibs.  Monogramming/Embroidery isn't cheap at all.  I am scared to figure up how much I've saved so far.  So we want to send out a very big thanks to 

Aunt Patti the Great!!!  

She has an embroidery machine and has been very gracious to monogram all sorts of items for Grace. Here are a few things that she has made for Grace in the past - She can knit too!

Grace can never have to many burb clothes and we can clean her up in style now.  This is just a few of the many super cute burb clothes that we have.

Adorable hat!

Bunny Ears Hat!  She was the hit of easter.

We also have lots of bibs, but I guess I don't take many pictures of Grace in a bib - Drool or spit up doesn't really photo well.

Cute Bum shot from the 6 month photo session.

The latest creation from Aunt Patti the Great is so adorable.   Halloween Bloomers and Bib!

Mimi made her cute socks

Look at me standing.  

All Smiles in her bib!!  She can't wait for the next holidays to show her bum off again.  

Thanks again.  We love everything that you've made for Grace.  

Another fun day at the Pumpkin Patch

Today was the PTA (yes I said PTA - early childhood PTA) Pumpkin Patch outing.  This was Grace's second pumpkin patch, but the hayride was new to her.  She loved it.  They had a lot of photo op set-ups.  Check this out ( though again technically her second pumpkin patch)    She has always liked standing, but now as long as she is holding on she can stand by herself.

She loved the hayride, well at least the hay.  She wouldn't look at me and was only interested in playing with the hay. This isn't a great picture, but I forgot the memory card for my camera and these are taken with my cell phone.    Our playgroup friends took some but we don't have them yet.

We stopped along the hayride and got to pick out a baby pumpkin.  That is the one that Grace picked.  Just like the last pumpkin patch eating/kissing the pumpkin was a favorite thing to do again.

She was great but was worn out after the morning so we came home to take a nap.  After Keith got home, we decided to try a new to us local place for dinner:  Yucatan Taco Stand.    It was pretty good.  We had a restaurant.com gift certificate and ordered way too much as result.  We do know now that it is a great place for a cheap dinner.  Grace got to experience her first dinner out in a high chair.  As long as there was a steady stream of puffs on her mat she was happy.

Unfortunately the table was at about eye level.  I don't know if this is normal, but she was still able to shovel puffs in.  

A high chair is going to be a requirement from now on at dinner.  We've gone from a baby that would sleep through our dinner to a baby that wants to be in the middle of the action.  As long as she has food she is happy and therefore we are happy. 

Isn't she so stinking cute sitting there like a big girl??  

She's a Star!!

Waiting for her Debut!

Ok, well not quite a star yet, but Grace was in her first movie today.  Our neighborhood is filming a movie.  Don't ask me why.  I think it is just a marketing ploy with a plot.

Either way we were extras in a movie.  All we had to do was walk back and forth at the village shops and they filmed us while the kids (stars) rode their bikes through the scene.  Pretty easy work.  I figured it was something good to do for the day rather than stay at home inside.  The weather was perfect especially since we were told to wear casual summer clothes.  We might go back tomorrow or next week if it is convenient.  They are needing a ton of volunteers.   I just want to make sure that it works with Grace's nap schedule.

This was the big crane that filmed todays scene.

Playgroup

Grace and I hosted playgroup today at our house.  There were about 6 other moms and babies.  It was a great group and it wore Grace out.  She just loves watching the other babies and touching them if they get close enough to her.  

I made a light breakfast/snack for the mothers.  I decided to try a new recipe.  Southern Living this month had a Cinnamon-Pecan Twirl recipe that sounded delicious and let me tell you it was.  Super easy too.   I paired it with a fruit salad and voila!  I wanted to keep it simple and I wasn't expecting a ton of people. Too much food just ends up with more leftovers that I don't really need to be eating.  This was perfect.    

One tired little baby