October, Part 2--Hope's birthday plus more

We went to Clinton the week-end of October 22 and 23 to celebrate Hope's second birthday.  On Saturday morning we went to Build-a-Bear so that she could make a stuffed animal of her choice.  Adam and Rachel had done the same thing for Jeremiah when he turned 2, and he really got into the whole process of  "building a bear" (or puppy, in his case.)  Hope did not really get into it as much, although she had a very definite idea of which animal she wanted--the monkey.  She really did enjoy exploring the whole place.  Wow, that girl can really move!!

This was one of the few pictures I got that

was not blurry--she was on the move!

Giving Monkey a bath....

...and doing her hair.

Tired girl ready to take her monkey home

Back home with monkey.

Monkey HAD to have a tutu!!

Jeremiah got to make an animal, too. 

(I don't remember the name of his "creature.")

That evening some of their friends came over to celebrate Hope's birthday. She was definitely the star of the show!

She knows what to do with a present!

She got a little help from her brother, too.

"Reading" one of her cards

Bring on the cake!!

The candle and the singing made her

a bit subdued.

Lose the shirt--it's time to eat cake!

Fingers work better than forks. :)

Bedtime story with her new birthday book

We also got in on Jeremiah's last flag football game of the season.  According to his parents, flag football was not the greatest experience for Jeremiah.  They thought it would be more of a learning experience than it turned out to be. Seems like they sort of expected the kids to already know how to play. But, Jeremiah had fun anyway, and he did a great job of cheering for his team. :)  And he looked pretty sharp in his uniform!!

When we left for home that Sunday, we were planning that our next visit would be Nov. 11 for Grandparents' Day at Unity Christian School. Well, that didn't turn out to be the case.  Just a few days later Rachel was very sick with a combination of a UTI and nausea from her pregnancy (that they hadn't really announced yet). It's not easy keeping up with Hope when you are at full strength, and it's pretty much impossible when you can hardly drag yourself out of bed!  So....Grandma to the rescue.  I drove over on that next Thursday and stayed until Saturday.  

Waiting for Grandma to make her lunch

Jeremiah and a couple of his Lego creations

On that Friday evening Jeremiah and Hope got to do some early Trick-or-Treating with some friends, so I got to see them in their costumes.

Such a cute puppy!

She obviously took this very seriously.

Darth Vader and his puppy

Pumpkin carving--Hope wasn't sure

that she liked the squishy stuff. 

That's it for October!