Spider Cookies

For our neighborhood Halloween parade/party, we were all asked to bring something. I'm really not clever when it comes to making things holiday themed so I had no idea what to bring. I did some searching online and came across these and loved them!

Spider Cookies!

Aren't they adorable?

And pretty easy, although a little time consuming!

All they are are Oreo cookies (I did the Halloween ones) with pretzel legs (I had to break them in half because they were too long) and M&M eyes ("glued" on with melted chocolate). The hardest part was getting the eyes stuck on because they're small and the chocolate goes everywhere if you're not careful.  But I think they turned out really cute!

And they were a  big hit!

Halloween, Take 2!

Yesterday, our neighborhood had a Halloween parade/party! We were invited to it last year (even though we didn't live here yet) but we couldn't make it for some reason. So we were excited to attend it this year.

We got lucky and the weather held out for us. It was grey and chilly, but it didn't rain so that was perfect!

We all met in front of one neighbor's house and they had one of the town fire trucks there waiting! We all got lined up and the fire truck led us in a parade around the neighborhood!

After the parade, all of the kids got together for a group photo:

Avery and Cassandra:

Then they let the kids take a look at the truck. Avery got up in it and had a seat, and then was not interested in it at all...it was sort of funny. She had no desire to look at it!

One neighbor opened up her garage to everyone and had tables set up with drinks and snacks (we all brought something)....there was a lot of goodies!!  The kids ran around and had fun and it was nice seeing everyone in costume before Halloween! We had a really great time!

Nine Months Old!

A few days ago, Miss Cassandra turned 9 months old!

We just bumped her up to size 3 diapers for daytime. She's still in 3's for overnight as well, but we'll probably move her up to 4's pretty soon for that! She's mostly in 6month clothes right now. Some 3 month stuff still fits her believe it or not!

Her sleeping habits have been all over the place this month. Some nights, she'll sleep through without waking, some nights she's up twice...and it's never consistent! Even her wake up times overnight are scattered-some nights midnight, others 4am....she really keeps me guessing! She still naps twice a day, but won't really sleep in her carseat or stroller at all anymore.

  She's still nursing, although it's been a struggle some days. She's super nosy so trying to nurse in public is a complete joke-she wants nothing to do with it! She's had a few "off" days where she refuses to nurse unless she's really tired (nap and bedtime) so that's been frustrating too. She's having 2 meals a day now-lunch and dinner. Some new foods for this month include: yogurt, peaches, bagel pieces, cheese, pear, cheerios, mixed grain cereal, veggie lasagna. She really likes almost anything we give her which is good!

  As for new things she's up to...she went swimming at the gym for the first time and really liked it! She also had her first cold! She has started giving kisses when you ask for one-so cute! She has started babbling "mama" and sometimes I think she knows what it means! When you put her on her tummy, she can turn herself around and move a little bit-not crawling but she can scoot herself. If you sit her up, she also spins around on her butt which is funny to watch! She mimics some sounds-meowing like a cat and when we say "all done", she says "duh". She also loves giving hugs to stuffed animals now-as soon as you hand her one she gives it a big squeeze!

Here are her pics for the month (which were next to impossible to take!):

Hugs!

And my favorites:

Sisters

Smiles

The "stinky" face!

And for fun, here are Avery's 9 month pics! (You'll see Avery was doing a lot more at this age!)

Fall Fun!

On Sunday we went to The Garden Factory for their fun fall weekends that they have. We've been there before for their holiday weekends, but never for fall...so we decided to check it out.

Cassandra was ready to go in her pumpkin hat!

They had tons of stuff to do there! It seemed like they had less rides than in the winter, but at the same time it seemed bigger in size and they had more stuff to do than in winter as well.

They had some cat adoption place there and Avery was loving the kittens-I think she was playing with them for at least a half hour! And they had one that looked like a baby Jerri as well!

Avery and I as ghosts:

After the kittens, she was ready for some rides!

First up? The carousel!

After she went on I was walking with her and we heard "Avery! Avery!" and we turned around to see her BFF Josie there with her grandparents!! They were so excited to see each other!

Avery and Josie

They went on the carousel again together and then went into the bounce house. Then they went and checked out the petting farm:

bunnies

Baby pigs-they were so, so small!

Then it was time for Josie to leave so we got in line for some ice cream!

And then Avery and I went down the big slide (which was very fast by the way!):

Then it was Daddy's turn:

Avery won a stuffed whale and Cassandra was lovin' it to pieces-she kept giving it hugs:

After we went down the slide a few more times, we headed to Gabe's parents' house (they had met us at Garden Factory). I put Cassandra down for a nap since she didn't sleep there (silly nosy girl!). I took a pic of her sleeping...she's so sweet!

We had dinner, then headed home. After I put Cassandra to bed, I hit up the store for grocery shopping. It was a very busy but very fun day!

Halloween, Take 1

On Friday our local rec center had a Halloween event so we decided to check it out.

We've done some Halloween stuff in the past, but this year we wanted to try a few new things since the ones that we've been to have just been ok.

I got the kids all ready in their costumes before Gabe got home from work.

This year, Avery wanted to be a "kitty cat" and she chose her costume herself!

Her kitty impression

And she also decided that Cassandra was going to be a mouse! I looked online and couldn't find a really cute mouse costume. They have all of these random animal costumes (peacocks, flamingos, etc.) but not a simple mouse costume...which makes no sense to me at all. So, I decided to do something simple and just dressed her all in grey and had a really cute mouse hat made which I can use all winter long. (You can get one just like it here!)

When Gabe got home, we went to the rec center. When we got there, we had some dinner first-salad and pizza. I had Cassandra in the sling to try and make things easier:

Of course we had to get the scrunched up face

Me and my girls

After dinner, we explored the rec center. They had a trick-or-treat room with fake houses set up and the kids got candy at each one. Then in the gym they had a bunch of games set up for the kids to play. Avery tried all of them and had fun! They had a Halloween tattoo room set up and of course Avery had to get one (added to the 6 she already has on!). They also had a craft room, but we didn't make our way in there at all. Outside they had a hayride  and since it was nice out, we went on. It was a long ride-I think it took at least 20min. Avery was all excited because it was "Cassie's first hayride". I think they both enjoyed it!

Gabe and Avery on the hayride

Once the hayride was done, they were pretty much getting ready to close up shop so we headed home. I think Avery enjoyed herself at her first Halloween event of the year!

Cheerios!

We're experimenting with some finger foods 'round these parts!

But first....I picked up Avery from daycare the other day to find this in her box of goodies:

How sweet is that?! She told me "Mommy is pink, Daddy is orange. And Mommy-I gave you eyelashes and cheeks!"  Too cute! I just had to share that!

Back to finger foods....

Cassandra still doesn't have any teeth so I'm nervous about giving her table foods still. She's mostly just doing purees (besides her beloved Coco Pops!) but the other day I gave her a Cheerio to see how she did with it. And...she loved it! She "chewed" it and down the hatch it went. So, now it's one of her favorites to snack on!

I gave her a little pile of them the other day and she was in her glory!

And Avery wanted her pic taken too!

She's pretty good at getting them in her mouth now!

Love Cassandra's face here!

Yummy!

These girls just crack me up! Love 'em to pieces!

A Big, Fat Catch Up Post

I seriously had about 5 posts drafted...nothing written, just posts I wanted to write. Yeah, those were from 2 weeks ago! And I had probably another 5 I could have started as well. It would have taken me at least 2 weeks to get photos uploaded and get the posts written, so today I said screw it and am just putting everything into one huge post and being done with it. That way, I'll be caught up to today so I'm not back posting for the rest of my life (like I normally do!). So, this post will be extremely random, but it'll get us all caught up to life right now!

Let's see....

Cassandra had her first ride in the stroller without her carseat! I think she loved it!

My Dad and Gabe's Dad have birthdays a few days apart (and so do our Moms...funny huh?!) so we had a birthday weekend!  Saturday (the 6th-which is my Dad's b-day) my Dad came out for a visit. We hung out awhile then went out for a BBQ lunch (yum!). After lunch, we came back to the house for some delicious cupcakes!  We sang of course!

And Miss Cassandra had her first taste of frosting! I'm not sure what she thought of it!

Sunday (the 7th), we went to my in-laws' house to celebrate our other Dad's birthday with all of the Aunts and Uncles!  Of course I brought my camera and forgot to take photos! But I did take a few of Cassandra all dressed up and ready to party!

sporting baby legs for the first time!

This face kills me!

One morning last week when I was home with the kids, they were really into Jerri (when are they not?!) and Jerri was actually coming around a lot and laying down near the kids, etc. Avery was like "Mommy! Take a picture of us with Jerri!"  Of course when I try doing that, it's impossible! It's hard enough getting 2 kids to look at you...throw in a cat and forget it!

What is Cassandra's face? She's like "look at me!"

Very excited about the cat!

Over this past weekend, we went to Buffalo on Saturday for the day. It had been at least a month since we were last there so we were due for a visit!

Cass of course loved the dog!

And again trying to get 2 kids to look at the camera was a joke! But I wanted a picture because their shirts match! Yes, the only other thing we have that matches for them! 

Cassandra sat at the table with us for the first time! I think she enjoyed it! She was sort of all over the place in it though, but oh well! It got the job done!

And I had to get a shot of me and my baby girl....

I could bite that face it's so cute!

This week has been busy-I picked up an extra day at work so I worked M-W. Yeah, nothing gets accomplished on work days! Hence the big, fat catch up post! Halloween events are-a-comin'! Stay tuned!