Ralls Cousins Thanksgiving

I'm adding this way after the fact, but here are the three photos I took at Ralls Thanksgiving.  All of my kids were, in fact, wearing pants at the time of the picture.

 

The kiddos and Pauline

Mallory and Evie

Mallory, Evie, Adam, Annie and Kate



Chicago

We went to Chicago a few weeks ago to visit Matt and celebrate Kate and Jackie's birthdays. We had great weather and a great time!

 

We had dinner the first night at the Rainforest Café for Kate's birthday. This guy just kind of popped up behind Kate. Evie was very suspicious.

The next day we had a marathon at the American Girl store.

It was expensive and exhausting, but the girls LOVED it. We did a few special things for Kate's birthday there, and they had a great time.

We went to brunch, where they catered to the dolls, too. So funny.

Kate and Marie Grace

Evie and her Bitty Baby.

While we were there, she decided she wanted a regular doll and not just a Bitty Baby. HA! You are two, Evie.

Crazy girl.

Annie and Caroline. Pre trip to the doll hair salon.

Gigi and Evie.

 

When we finally escaped the clutches of American Girl, we walked around Chicago some.

We checked ourselves out in the Bean.

Evie gave me a million kisses.

Aunt Jackie and Kate.

Uncle Matt, Annie and Grandpa.

The whole group.

Walking to Navy Pier. It was a gorgeous day.

 

Thanks for a great trip Hagemans!



Annie's First Race

Last year, Annie found out a girl in her class ran a kids' mile race as part of a popular 5k race day. She was jealous! She's been wanting to run a race of her own, and she did! I signed up for the Girls on the Run Superhero 5k, Annie the mile and Kate the Kids Dash.

Our friend made Annie this adorable running skirt and Wonder Woman accessories for the occasion. She was all set to run with her buddy Brady. And I was going to run with Brady's mom (of the running costume fame). Then Brady got strep and the weather report was awful.

Annie ended up being the only runner that morning. I had a series of misfortunes that led to just bail on the race, and Kate, once it was confirmed she could still keep her race t shirt, bailed on her race, as well. It was raining and freezing.

Annie did so great, though! She ran the whole time. I was so proud to watch her go! I ran out to meet her about 3/4 of the way, and she was so excited to see me. It was awesome.

She was freezing!!



Happy 5th Birthday Kate!!

Kate turned FIVE years old a few weeks ago!

Five seems like such a big girl age. School age. And Kate seems like such a big girl these days. She wanted her ears pierced for her birthday. I think her main motivation was that Annie does not have her ears pierced, and this was a chance for Kate to do something first. She was really excited about that, as she should be!

The ear piercing itself went down in a classic Kate manner. Kate is so stoic. She's so smart, and sometimes she just looks at a situation with an expression that just cuts right through the bullshit. So we go to the mall, and they are really busy, so they have to pierce her ears one at a time. She was super quiet, as always. The girl did the first ear, and she didn't cry or react at all, really. But when the girl tried to do the second ear--that clearly wasn't going to happen. She was looking at the girl as if to say, "You seriously think I'm going to let you near me after what just happened?!" She just turned her head down so she couldn't get to the ear. We did that for awhile, even though when we asked she said it didn't hurt. Then, the screaming commenced. This also went on for awhile, attracting the attention of another resident we know and her mom, who were shopping at the mall. They came over and tried to convince her, as well. Eventually, Matt and I had to hold her down to let the girl pierce the other ear. Parents of the year.

Kate was totally fine and super happy 10 seconds later, though. She didn't even cry--there was just quite a bit of yelling. She is so proud of her new earrings. She likes to wear her hair so you can see them, and she never forgets to have me clean them.

(We are the worst parents. This is the only picture we took of her on her birthday.)

At five years old, Kate is sweet, silly and serious all at the same time. She is quiet and thoughtful. She loves Annie more than anyone, and she loves to play with her. She loves Evie and loves to have someone to follow her around when Annie is at school. She is reading small words and loves preschool. Over the past few months, she's really started to come out of her shell. She asked for a new friend from preschool to come over to play, for the first time ever! For her birthday, she requested a Barbie microphone that plugs into an iPod so you can sing along to your favorite songs. She is quite the entertainer. As long as she thinks no one is looking. She loves to do puzzles and mazes, play board games, read books and watch tv (she would watch literally all day long if I would let her). She loves ballet and her friends.

We love our Kate, and we can't believe we've been so lucky to have her in our lives for five years!



Halloween 2013

I'm getting this in before Thanksgiving, so I think I'm doing alright.

 

She said she wanted to be Cinderella at first, but when she realized her sisters wanted to be princesses, she went with a black cat.

And this was our best effort. It's impossible to find a non-slutty looking cat costume. Even for a 6-year-old!

Cinderella

And Sleeping Beauty.

She loves this costume. She wears it all around town whenever she can.

They passed out some candy before our friends arrived to go Trick or Treating with us. They were almost as excited to pass out the candy as they were to get it!

The haul.

Happy Kate with candy.



Pumpkins

Kate was the only one who would touch the goop.

Evie isn't in any of these photos because she did not find pumpkin carving interesting at all. I'm pretty sure she even let Annie draw the face for Matt to carve on her pumpkin.

And again with the hair on these girls. I just have no idea.

 

The Final Cinicnnati Chapter

In Cincinnati, we stayed Sunday so we could watch Owen and Liam play football. Sadly for Liam, he took a spill on Saturday and knocked out some of his teeth. So, he was out for his game. We went to Owen's game, and then we stayed for the event that the girls were really the most excited for (sorry, Owen, don't take it personally. Maybe one day we'll have a boy who'll like football!) -- anyway, Emma was cheerleading. Cheerleading. In a real outfit with real cheers at a real game. May as well have been Christmas.

 

I lost my kids to the cheerleaders in no time.

 

Even Kate got in on the action! And Annie knew one of the same cheers the girls knew, so they did it for her. Super sweet.

Emma, Annie and Kate

Eventually even Evie made her way over there.  This is the girls and Emma's coach, who very kindly let them hang around all game. They loved it!!



Tour of Cincinnati, Confirmed Fun

Part of the reason for our trip was to be there for Emma's Confirmation. She asked me to be her sponsor, so now I am lucky enough to be her godmother and her sponsor. Emma did great and now seems even more filled with the Holy Spirit :)

 

Kate, Emma and Annie, who is very serious about this.

Kerri and Emma

 

 

The girls

The Smiths

The day after Confirmation, Emma was off school, so the boys took a personal day, and we all went to the park :)

And this is the part where I realize that I need to move to Cincinnati. In addition to being fun and awesome for ME to hang out with, the Smiths are really good babysitters!

Evie and Liam

Liam, Evie and Owen with a photobomb

Sliding

The boys were obviously great with Evie.

As was Emma.

I cut off his head, but Matt was the first to try the RipStick. (I think that's what it's called?) He was the only Ralls that actually got it to move.

 

I'm going to say that if I had sneakers I could have been more successful, even if I'm not sure it's true. I was holding on to Emma for dear life.

And so was Annie. Like mother, like daughter.

Emma was very patient, but Annie never quite got it. I think her legs were just too small, and that's a legitimate problem :)