Happy Birthday to my Poppy!

Today, my baby is TWO!  Where the last two years have gone is beyond me.  I can't believe she's been with us, making us laugh, smile (and sometimes she makes us want to tear our hair out!) for two years already.  She may be a diva, but she's the best daughter in the world. :-)

Good morning, Birthday Girl!

Lucas wanted to read Poppy her "favorite" book (according to him) for her birthday.

The flash was brighter than they were expecting.

Here's the fancy lady in her cutesy birthday outfit.

Cheese!  The brand new 2-year old.

She saw an airplane, which was exciting because it's kind of a rare sight in Brookings!

My favorite girl and I. 

 

The next few pictures make me laugh.  The first attempt at taking a picture of all four kids together turned out great, so I have no idea why I didn't stop there and call it good.  Here is the first shot of Justin, Ryan, Lucas and Poppy.  They were all smiling and (almost) looking at the camera.  It's a winner!

Then Chloe the dog got in on the picture action.  While Justin held on to her, Ryan cowered in fear, Lucas hid, and Poppy cheesed it up for the camera.

In this picture, Justin remained calm and smiled happily even as Chloe contemplated making a run for it, Ryan still shied away from the tiny dog, Lucas played peek-a-boo with no one in particular, and Poppy showed us how big her mouth can get.

Freedom!  Chloe made her jump to freedom, Justin thought he was still holding her and Ryan and Lucas were both taken by surprise.  Poppy, as you can see, lost all patience with having her picture taken.  This picture cracks me up. :-)

Here's the beautiful cake!  Let me tell you, this is the work of someone (me) just discovering their mad cake decorating skillz.  Watch out Betty Crocker.  I'm talented with the icing.

Sidenote: This is the same plate that my birthday cakes were always on when I was growing up.  My mom won it as a door prize during Bingo when she was 5 years old, so it's probably considered "vintage" by now! ;-)

Poppy's 2nd Birthday - Part Two will come soon.  Oh yes, this will be a two-parter.  I took 455 pictures.  No lie.  Shoot, this might even need to be a three-parter. ;-) There's lots more to come!

Oregon or Bust!

It has been over a month since Lucas, Poppy, my sister Holly, and I set out on our Great Oregon Adventure.  Holly was nice enough to fly to Seattle to make the 450 mile drive with us and I couldn't have done it without her.  The kids were amazingly well-behaved, we had a ton of laughs (I will never be able to hear the phrase "It's happening!" again without breaking into hysterical laughter!  Thanks so much, Holly!), and although we got a late start and took a few wrong turns along the way, we made it safely to Roseburg one minute before midnight.  Both kids stayed awake (and happy, what a shock!) up until the last hour and a half of the trip when they finally conked out. 

Who needs suitcases when you have Space Bags, old diaper boxes and garbage bags?!  It wasn't pretty, but it sure saved a lot of space packing like this.

And we're off!  Lucas was ready to blast off.

Poppy was prepared to entertain herself with a book and her Magna Doodle.

Seattle and the Space Needle as we hurried down I-5.

Pretty smoke in a field in Southern Washington.

I promise that this looked much more like a tornado before I took the picture...

Arrival time!  We made it before midnight!

We spent the day after our long journey with Holly and Brad in Roseburg.  Grandma and Grandpa (also known as my mom and dad!) showed up in the afternoon.  This time, Poppy wasn't scared of anyone and it was hugs all around.  Lucky for Lucas and Poppy, Uncle Brad's got the hookup.  For real.  He made a call and - BAM!  A real, live police car showed up and Lucas and Poppy got to play in it!  They each got a turn sitting in the driver's seat before the nice deputy gave them each a sticker badge and handcuffed them.  That was Poppy's favorite part by far!  She loves those sparkly handcuffs! ;-)   

 Lucas, Poppy, Holly, Brad and little Chloe dog waving to "Grandma's Honda" as it came around the corner.

Poppy was actually happy to see Grandma!  She gave hugs and kisses!

Future deputy?  Who knows!  Lucas sure enjoyed sitting behind the wheel of the patrol car, though!

And so did Poppy.  She looks like she has a bit of Mommy's Road Rage here. ;-)

Checking out her fancy badge.

Handcuffs are so exciting!

Poppy really liked the handcuffs.  She thought they were bracelets.

Here's a glimpse into my future, I'm sure.  Both of my hooligans getting thrown into the back of a police car.

When it was time to leave Roseburg and head to Brookings, the kids got buckled in and Chloe said good bye.  And gave them the stank eye.

Happy Halloween!

Oh, yes.  You read that right.  I am aware that Halloween was in OCTOBER and it is now DECEMBER and Christmas is less than a week away, however I have been totally awful about keeping up the blog lately.  Just terrible.  I have tons of excuses, but it would take way too much time to list them all here. ;-)


Lucas and Poppy had a fantastic Halloween this year.  I think it is safe to say that it was the first year that Lucas really understood that he got to put on his costume and walk around to all the different houses in our neighborhood and they would give him candy.  Poppy didn't have much of an opinion on Halloween this year, but I'm sure that next year she'll be ready to yell "trick-or-treat" as we walk from house to house. :-)

To infinity...and beyond!!  Lucas was Buzz Lightyear this year.  He chose the costume himself after asking to be a billion other things first.  Luckily, the one Buzz Lightyear costume that was still available in the costume store was the right size!

There's Poppy!  She was - drum roll, please - a poppy.  I know, super clever and creative. ;-) She wore green leggings, a black turtleneck, black knit hat, and a sparkly red tutu (made by me!).

Poppy spotted the big orange bowl on the counter and couldn't resist pulling it down to watch it spill all over the floor.  She was pretty pleased with herself.

On the way to trick-or-treat around our street.

Heading down the street.  We lucked out with the weather, it was cool but not cold and there wasn't any wind at all.  It was a welcome change over Halloween from the last two years!

We left the bowl of candy out with a sign letting the trick-or-treaters know that they could help themselves.  When we got back from our trip around the 'hood, Lucas decided to sit there and pick out all of the candy that he wanted. 

It was a fun Halloween for both kids.  Lucas did very well saying "Trick-or-treat!" and Poppy chose to do air kicks while saying "Boots." :-)