Remember...

these guys???  Well they are back!  Yep, Hal and Spooky are back in Dublin.  We've seen them for about 2 weeks not too far from their original spot. 

Hal hanging out

Spooky was a little shy so the picture isn't so great but they are both there!

They Say It's Your Birthday...

So let's have a PARTY!  Saturday we had Little Miss Riley's 2nd Birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's and it was a blast!  We invited a bunch of Riley's friends from school and she was beyond excited to see all of her friends over the weekend!  I'll let the pictures tell the story!  Brace yourselves, there's a lot, and I didn't include a lot of pictures of her friends because there were already a ton of pictures!

Licking the frosting can...

A close up of the owl cupcakes

Best balloon ever!  Marc surprise Riley (and I) with it before the party!

Other balln that he bought

Party favors

Mr Jake!

The birthday girl

Riley and her friend Amelia

Riley having fun at her party

Ryan having fun

Riley's friend Isabella (Riley almost wore the same shirt!)

The Nate (in red) and his brother Tristan.  They were very excited to see each other and hugged right away.  The next morning Riley asked to call Nate.

The whole gang, we had 17 kids and their parents!

Give me my cupcake!

Amela likes to dance as much as Riley does

Getting ready for Chuck E Cheese to come out!

A birthday princess!

Dancing with Amelia

Rocking her cupcake!

Family photo with Chuck E

Ticket Blaster with Daddy

Little Leo (1 1/2 weeks old) with his party favor

Opening presents after her nap.  I put the footy on her (which she's never worn before) and she grabed her foot and said "Oh no stuck!"  I had to explain to her that it was supposed be and would keep her feet toasty.  She very much enjoyed her sleeper.  We changed her before bed so as not to risk blister with her brace but I think she going to love footy pj's when she does graduate from her brace!

Watching the muppets with her crown!

gtffffcsx

Owl Mania

Ok, I'm a bit obsessed with owls right now, I think they are adorable, especially on little girl's clothing and bedding. So be prepared for lots of owls in the coming months; like my new eye mask, Riley's birthday party theme and her clothes, hair clips, a decorate pillow, oh and the cupcakes that I made for Halloween (which I think I might remake for Riley's birthday party because they are ADORABLE!)! On our way to the airport on Sunday we were stopped at a light and I spotted these very adorable baby owls! Real, live owls, I saw an adult one a few weeks ago in the evening on the way home from the grocery store, but these two little cuties were just hanging out by the side of the road. I made Marc take a detour and stop to see if they were still there on the way home from the airport so that I could snap a photo of them, that's how obsessed I am!!! (By the way, I did try to find an Animal Rescue place to call to check on them because we were afraid that their fate was not be too favorable but it's hard to find numbers for those places. :( I really hope these little guys are ok!!!)

I named this guy Hal, for Halloween, he was my favorite. He just stood there looking at me and made full on eye contact, it was pretty neat. Marc woke me up in the middle of the night Sunday night coughing and he asked me if I missed my owls and I told him I wanted him to go get Hal and Hal's sibling so I could sleep with one on each side of me!

I really hope Hal and his sibling are ok!

"Tweat!"

I've been working with Riley on saying "trick or treat" for a few days now and she had it down but when the pressure was on it, came out as "tweat!" All I have to say is that Halloween was a colossal SUCCESS! I think Halloween very well may be Riley's favorite holiday. We kicked the day off with a little Halloween present for Riley, how could I resist buying her an Elmo treat bucket! :)

We were invited over to our neighbors for dinner and then trick or treating and I volunteered to bring dessert. So while Riley played, I created these:

Yes, I am super obsessed with owls right now! Marc and Riley also had their Giants/Halloween orange on.

We headed over to our neighbor Alex and Shari's around 4:30 so that Ryan and Riley could play. Our other neighbors Elisabeth and Ian were there with their son Owen and the three kids had a great time playing. I love this picture because Riley is in a super girly, poofy skirt costume and is sitting in a big truck. Toddlers!

Our attempt at getting 3 toddlers to pose for a picture!



















Riley and Ryan both love "One Fish Two Fish"



















Riley and Ryan had a great time chasing each other around screaming (really loudly!)



Cupcakes! I made mini owl cupcakes for the kiddos!






















Trick or treating time! It took Riley and Ryan about a house to figure out all they had to do is knock on a door and say "tweat!" and the person in said house would give them something cool. Riley was all about it. Once she figured it out, that Elmo bucket was in a death grip! She kept stopping and looking at her bucket and taking the candy out to try to eat it (which we don't really give her sweets so I don't know what that was about). At one house I told her to get a Reese's for daddy so she grabbed it, said "thank you," and ran away yelling "daddy" with the Reese's out for her daddy. Too cute!























We wrapped it up at about 7:00, so that we could all watch the end of the World Series game. We did roll with our rolling cooler again this year and a radio with the game one but we all wanted to catch the end of the game, plus the kids were so wired, I knew it would take a while to get Riley to calm down enough for bed. Checking out her loot!

















We let Riley stay up until 9:00 and help give out candy (mostly because she would have nothing to do with saying good-bye to Halloween)! She loved giving out candy too, she would give the kids a piece and keep 2 for herself! Tricky girl!


















Definitely a successful night!