More Pumpkin Patching!!!

We went to a pumpkin patch on Friday night with Jess's family, our friend Rachel and her boys, the Fletchers and the Steffensruds! Very fun!! Laney's first order of business after acquiring some delicious kettle corn, was to check out this little hay house.

I love this picture of Laney sitting outside the hay house because her feet are propped up on the pumpkin. It reminds me of how I am all the time trying to find somewhere to sit down and prop my feet up on the most unlikely things (all for the love of my boys!) I love that Laney is right there with me!!!

More fun in the hay house!!!

Laney carried this little Laney sized pumpkin around for a little while!

Everyone lined up on their own patch of hay and ready for the hayride. I think that they were all listening to the rules at this point, which mainly consisted of "hineys staying on hay!"

We rode over to feed some cows and then some donkeys. Laney got very excited about the idea of feeding the animals. But when it was actually go time and there were giant cow tongues trying to grab a slice of bread out of her hand, her enthusiasm waned a bit, and I got to feed the animals. Thank goodness for anti-bacterial hand sanitizer!!!

After our hayride, Laney found a mini patch of baby pumpkins (the pie kind) which she then tried to fill her wagon with.

With her wagon so full she could barely pull it anymore, Laney spotted some tractors that needed riding!

Laney and Benjamin took a turn on the little tractor course. Laney couldn't quite get any of the tractor's to actually move, so she required some pushing from me. Then Benjamin's sweet mommy Rachel took over so that I could sit down and find a nearby bale of hay to prop my feet up on. How sweet are my friends!!!

Fun even when stationary!!!

We couldn't leave until Laney's baby got a turn on the tractor. Laney is always such a good little mommy to her babies.

Just before it was time to go home, Laney got to load up her wagon with Tessie and give her a ride. A perfect ending!!! **I wanted to remember something silly that Laney said about Tessa yesterday. Lots of times we call Tessa, "Tessa Doodle." There is a rooster that lives in someone's backyard that backs up to our church parking lot. We hear it cockadoodle-dooing all the time. Yesterday Laney looked up at me and said, "I hear Tessa Doodle!"

Happy Birthday Claire!!!

We got to celebrate Claire's fourth birthday last weekend, and it was so much fun. My sister put together the absolute cutest party ever. It was a Fancy Nancy theme, which is a series of books all about a little girl who loves to get fancy. Jess thinks that Laney is the epitome of Fancy Nancy because of her undying loyalty to all of her purses, sunglasses, bracelets, and all other accessories. So, we knew that Laney was going to have a good time at Claire's party!! We were not disappointed!!!
Our sweet Claire smiling her beautiful smile for the camera. Claire is such an intrinsically kind and compassionate little girl. There are times that I am literally amazed by how naturally it comes to her to be that way. We love her and are so blessed by her!!! Jessica had stations for everyone at the party, so that they could all get fancy with boas, crowns, necklaces, rings, wants, and more!!! Laney's placecard said "Lavish Laney!" Part of getting fancy involves putting on make-up, which is such a treat for Laney. She has her own make-up bag in our bathroom that she loves playing with. And everytime we are at Grommy's house, Laney absolutely has to spend time raiding her vanity! Getting fancy with make-up was a major highlight of a party full of highlights!!!

Then Laney got to paint her toenails sparkly all by herself!!! She was very focused!!!

Next, Todd let Laney give him a makeover. He is so amazing to indulge her!!!She loved painting Todd's nails. The next morning while we were eating breakfast Laney looked at Todd's hands and said, "cool nails, Daddy!" We were glad to know that she was impressed with her skills. Claire got lots of fun presents, and being the sweetest Share Bear that she is, she let Laney help her open up her present from us!
After presents, it was time to sing Happy Birthday to our favorite four year old in the whole world. Jess and my mom collaborated to get the ultimate cupcakes. They were gigantic and decorated to the extreme with pink and purple sprinkles!

Gigantic....like the size of Laney's head gigantic!!!

Along with our giant cupcakes, we got to have some very fancy ice cream parfaits complete with whipped cream, syrup, and lots of sprinkles. There were some happy girls and boys around the table!!!

Laney tried on Grant's hat, which was part of the boy version of getting fancy!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Todd's birthday was last Friday and we got to do lots of celebrating. Grommy and Aunt Hailey brought a birthday lunch over for us on Sunday after church. Laney got to help Todd open his presents!

And blow out his candles.
And some help licking the frosting off the candles. That is definitely the best part of the whole candle in the cake tradition.

The Train!

On Monday we went with our playgroup to ride the TRE train into Dallas. Laney was very excited about going to ride the big train. Jess picked us up and Laney got to sit in between two of her favorite people on earth while we drove to the train station.All the kids were so super cute on the big train. They sat in their big chairs peeking around at each other, listening to the train whistle, and checking out the passing sites. It was so much fun! I am not sure how all of our fellow travelers felt about our troop of pre-schoolers climbing on to their train and crowding them out. At one point, we were singing "The Wheels on the Train" on a very crowded train in Downtown Dallas. I think that we probably provided some people with a story to tell once they got to their destination!
Teresa, the ultimate playgroup member, planned our entire fun outing. She planned for us to switch trains so that we could go underground in a tunnel, which was so much fun for the kids. We got to get off in the tunnel to switch trains again and Laney was very excited to get to sit next to Tessa and hug her while we waited!

We got off the train in Downtown and went to the Plaza of the Americas for some lunch and some hanging out. Our girls threw some pennies in this fountain to make a wish. We later discovered that picture taking was prohibited in the building. More fun things happened but we are such good rule followers that they were not documented!Right before we made it home, Laney discovered this newspaper in the seat next to us and decided that she needed to check it out. What a little grown up!

The Park with Ella!!!

We met Janelle and Ella at the park last week!!! This was when I still thought that sitting down constituted as "off my feet," and I really did sit down most of the time that we were there. Going to the park with this new definition of staying off my feet is going to prove more difficult. Laney and I really love the park, especially in this gorgeous weather we are experiencing, so it might be worth it to me to bust out a pillow and lay down backwards on the slide with my feet up! (jk) Ella let Laney push her on the tire swing which made Laney smile! She loves to push!!!


They did a little tandem pushing that made me nervous. I was sure that Laney was going to knock Miss Ella down, but Ella (in all her cute tiny-ness) held her own!


We brought our lunches over to the tables for a picnic and despite the thirty thousand bees swarming around us, the girls had lots of fun together. They were playing a mimicking game during which they would repeat whatever nonsense sounds the other was making getting louder and louder each time.
It was making them and us laugh pretty hard!!!



Just give Laney a cookie and her bestie and she is one happy girl!!!