Fairy Princess

I like to take pictures of the kids in their costumes before the big day because it makes it less stressful for me to get them all ready to go trick or treating and not have to worry about taking pictures at the same time. Plus the lighting is better. This year Paige is going to be a fairy princess, and it is quite possibly the prettiest costume I've seen in my entire life, so we needed to have a couple photo shoots to do it justice.

I love these pictures of her spinning. She is just in her element in this costume.

I wasn't really sure about the pigtails, plus the costume came with a crown, so a few days later I decided to curl her hair and take this baby for a spin in a foresty area - she is a fairy after all.

 With her wand too.

 I loved her curly hair but it lasted for less time than it took to curl it. Oh well.

 I love living vicariously through my children.

Paige's First Day of Preschool

Paige has been SO excited to start preschool. She's basically been waiting all summer long. She's so excited to get to play with her friends, and do something that's just for her. I'm excited too. I love the opportunity to be creative and do fun things with my kids. I volunteered to take the first turn teaching so the first day was at our house. We had a little sign to welcome all the new preschoolers.

Paige was making the most ridiculous faces, it was hard to get a good picture because she was just too excited to hold still.

She is just the prettiest little give I've ever seen. I'm not biased at all.

There are three girls in our preschool class and only one boy (poor little guy) for a total of 4. It's the perfect size for this age group. They have all just turned 3 or are about to turn three so they are young. These girls are all very girly and silly. It's going to be a fun year.

 Here's the whole group sitting for circle time. They were pretty good for their first day.

 Waving hello!

 Working on a craft project.

 And everyone's favorite - snack time!

Good thing we have this trampoline in our backyard now, because when I taught preschool with Lucas there just wasn't anything to do in our backyard so we had playtime inside. It's nice to be able to send them outside for a change of scenery to get their wiggles out and let me prepare for the next project. They were all holding hands and it was adorable!

 We're so ready and excited for this school year!

Paige's 3rd Birthday

Lucas wanted to celebrate and sing to Paige as soon as she got up in the morning on her Birthday, so we stuck candles in her cinnamon roll and sang to her. And of course give her a little present to open.

We went down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with my parents. We went last year and it was lots of fun so we thought we'd keep up the tradition. It was a long drive, but we kept busy reading books.

We stopped for lunch and opened presents,

Then we went to the Aquarium. It was BUSY! I thought we went over Labor day weekend last year, but we checked the calendar and apparently Paige's birthday fell on the weekend after Labor day last year. We will have to remember to go the weekend after next year because it was just way too busy!

The first exhibit we went to was about Jelly fish. The kids thought it was so cool! It was probably their favorite thing we saw the whole time.

 Logan is really in to pointing, so he loved going up to all the tanks and pointing at the fish.

Here he is showing grandma Crapo all the fish.

This big tank was also a huge hit. There were Hammerhead sharks in it that Lucas and Paige loved.

 Logan and Lucas looking at Lionfish! Say that 10 times fast.

There is a kids play area with a cave that the kids can walk through and see smaller tanks inside. This was Logan's favorite part and he ran through the cave and in and out about 30 times.

I love this one of the kids looking into a tank with the sunlight streaming in.

 And of course we had to take a family picture in the room where waves crash over you.

And go outside and get splashed by the waves from the outside too. Even Logan wanted in on the action.

Logan played through his normal naptime and beyond so he was exhausted and passed right out in his stroller during one of our longer walks to another exhibit.

After we were all done at the Aquarium we made our usual stop at Ghirardelli for a sugar overload.

We sat outside and watched the ocean while we ate.

It was a really nice day. And on the drive home Lucas lost another tooth. This is his 4th he's lost. I'm not sure it was fully ready to come out because it bled so much. It was kinda grossing me out. Luckily he was completely oblivious.

We had such a fun day spending time as a family and with Grandma and Grandpa Crapo - and celebrating our sweet Paigey-Paige. We just love her so much! Happy birthday!

Comparison Pictures

I was going through old pictures the other day to see if Logan looked more like Paige or Lucas. I can't decide which one he looks more like.  He has some of the same features as Paige and some the same as Lucas. I think Lucas and Logan have the same chin and cheeks, but Logan and Paige have the same nose and Lucas's is different. I think they definitely all have their own look, but at the same time could totally be triplets.

One thing is for sure, though, Logan definitely looks more like me than Ryan.  Maybe it's just me, but I think he's like a little copy of me.

Another thing I found when going through Lucas baby pictures is that he totally made the same face that Logan does.  I had completely forgotten that Lucas used to do this, and now Logan does it all the time too.  It must be genetic or something.  Or maybe just a baby thing.

So fun to look back and all the fun pictures I've taken. I love pictures!

Birthday Trip to the Aquarium

We decided to make a trip down to the aquarium the day after Paige's Birthday as a fun little family outing.  My parents and John and his family came along.  Before the aquarium we went out to eat at the Fish Hopper as is tradition.  I wish I had remembered to take a picture of my meal.  It was so pretty and delicious.  I always love any excuse to get seafood since Ryan hates it and I hardly ever get to eat it.  I ordered tuna and coconut shrimp, Ryan got a cheeseburger.

The kids always love going to aquariums and seeing aquatic life.  The octopus was out and swimming around, it was so cool!  It was too dark to get a good picture, though.  Here's Paige and Lucas checking out some sharks.

 And some other sea creatures.

 Here was our favorite part, the Splash Zone.  They dump water on this glass walled and ceiling-ed room to mimic waves.  The kids love watching the water splash down and around them.

 Okay, I guess more than just the kids love this part-we all loved it.

 Here's a video of the kids giggling during the waves.

And it's fun from the outside too.

Here's Paige and Lucas looking at a tank full of clownfish, you can kinda see Lucas in the top right corner.

There were some cute penguins there that were really funny and interacting with the kids through the glass, but I didn't get any pictures of it.  I'll have to get them from my dad some time.

Paige decided to take a rest in a big egg shell.

After the Aquarium we went to Ghirardeli to get ice cream.

Paige ate all the whipped cream off the top.

When we got back to the cars, my parents pulled out Paige's birthday present-a cute pink tricycle that she can reach the pedals on.  She loves it!

It was such a fun day!