Lily - Fall Pictures

I've been busy for obvious reasons and so have not had a lot of time to blog. We've been on the go this fall and are really enjoying our time as a new family of five. I'm not going to try to put the pictures I have in any particular order but just post them quickly so I can get caught up. The picture above is from a birthday party for my cousin's 3-year-old little girl, Sammy.

I still can't believe that Lily is in Kindergarten. (Here she is in the morning before getting on the bus.) She is growing so much every day. We had her parent-teacher conference not long ago, and she is doing so well in school. My favorite comment was from her gym teacher who wrote that Lily is "like a breath of fresh air".

We have been going to playtimes at my Aunt's gym with our playgroup. On this particular day, Lily was off school and able to join the group. She did a great time climbing the rope and showed some impressive upper body strength.

Ingrid and Ryan took Lily to the zoo one day. William could not go because he wasn't feeling well so Ingrid and Ryan got to experience how much easier it is without the 2-year-old. It really does change the entire experience!

This picture was from Lily's field trip to the pumpkin farm on the day that Emilia was born. Lily is on the end to the right.

It was a rainy, wet day, but they had fun anyway!

All smiles.

This video was from our day at the gym. Lily was demonstrating her "hanging bat" move.

Baby baby

Emilia - 2011

Lily - 2005

Two years

William went to his two-year check-up last week. It comes as no surprise that William is off the charts (and I mean way off the charts) for height. At 24 months, he is a whopping 40 inches tall. A common rule-of-thumb is that children are half of their adult height at 2 years old. This would put William at about 6 ft. 8 in. as an adult. I don't really think he is going to be that tall, but I do think that he is going to tower over everyone else in our family by the time he's done growing. Carl and I were joking that we are most likely going to have two girls that are about our height, with brown hair & brown eyes and then a very tall, blue-eyed, blond-haired boy....no one is going to believe that he's really ours!

William is growing in all kinds of ways lately. As you can see in the video below, William has really gotten into naming letters. I had only pointed out the letters on his wall to him a couple of times, so I can't really take credit for teaching him his letters (even if I'd really like to take the credit). He just seems to be really "into" letters and can identify a good portion of the alphabet. He is also talking a lot more, and although the actual words can be a little difficult to understand, he almost always gets his point across. William continues to be a wonderful sleeper and an absolutely horrible eater, but I guess you just can't win 'em all.

Happy birthday, Papa!

A boo-tiful halloween

Lily was so excited Halloween. And who could blame her? With Halloween parades, parties and trick-or-treating, it is a kid's dream come true. I packed her a special spooky lunch with jack o'lantern peanut butter sandwich, ghost and pumpkin-shaped cheese, witch's brooms, and mummy juice box.

They had a parade at Lily's school with the younger grades marching in the parade and the older kids cheering them on.

I volunteered to bring in some snacks for the party. This is the vegetable platter with hummus.

These "pumpkin" rolls were a big hit with the adults. They are super easy to make - just cream cheese mixed with dry ranch dressing, spread over a sun-dried tomato tortilla shell, topped with chopped ham and shredded cheddar cheese - roll and slice.

I also made some witch's brooms for the kids in Lily's class.

One healthy class - these kids attacked the veggie platter!

Trick-or-treating at mom & dad's house: Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the White Rabbit.

Lily even talked me into being the Queen of Hearts!

Party of Five

The Deetz Family - now complete!

One of my favorite sayings from Carl's Grandma Deetz is "Three is what separates the boys from the men". I suppose Carl has now manned up! :)

Snuggles with Emilia

Sisters

Cousin Katie

Cousin Mary

My cousin Kelly

Godmother Angela

Aunt Susie & Uncle Jeff

Angela, me, my Aunt Alice, cousin Kelly and Suzanne

Aunt Ingrid & Uncle Ryan

Halloween Party

WUMCHA has its annual Halloween Party on Saturday which was really great, as always. This year Lily decided on an Alice in Wonderland theme for Halloween costumes. Emilia is the White Rabbit.

Sweet snuggle bunny

William is our Mad Hatter.

Mischievous little man

Lily, of course, is Alice. Everyone was in town this weekend for William's birthday party/the birth of Emilia, so Mary & Katie joined us for the Halloween Party. Here, Mary is dressed as the lovely Princess Belle.

Halloween costume parade. Here you can see Katie as a beautiful blushing bride.

Lily enjoying a snack while listening to the singer/storyteller.