Happy Birthday Grace!!! Happy Halloween!!!

We have had a blast this month with Grace's 6th birthday and Halloween! This year Grace wanted to have a Halloween costume party for her birthday.
She invited all her friends from school and church and we decorated pumpkins, had a spider crawl relay, pumpkin bean-bag toss, there was a huge pinata, and of course cake!
It was so much fun! I can't believe Grace is six years old!

Sofia was Princess Tiana from Princess and the Frog

Grace was Padme Amidalla from Star Wars

Summer's Over!

Today was Grace's very first day of school! All day!
She has been waiting for this day for a while. Especially since most of her friends from church her age started school last year (her b-day is late in the year). I think having an extra year to prepare for this day made it a little easier for me to send her off. How could I not be excited when I look at how excited she is. I'm so proud of Grace for not being afraid. I can't wait to hear how her day goes.
Well, with school staring and the weather already starting to cool way down it's sad to say that summer is really over.
We had a great summer here in Syracuse and some other fun places like. . .

Slipping and Sliding,

experiencing the New York State fair,

going to the zoo,

visiting old castles,

traveling to Canada, and getting sprayed by the Niagara Falls!

IT'S A BOY!!!

We all went as a family to find out if we were going to have a boy or a girl last week! Before the ultrasound, Cass and I were certain we were expecting a girl just by our gut feelings. Grace had been praying for the past six months to have a little brother and Sofi wanted to have a baby sister...with all that said, Grace was beaming with excitement, Cass and I were in shock, and Sofi didn't believe it when the technician told us that our baby was going to be a BOY! I don't know if you can tell in the picture but it was very clear in the ultrasound to see that it really is a boy. I remember when I went to find out when I was pregnant with Grace and when I was pregnant with Sofi it wasn't so easy to tell but with this little guy we were able to tell right away.
I'm looking forward to all the blue, sports, and trucks!

Its been a long time since I have posted anything on my blog, but we have been very busy the past few months. We moved from Rhode Island to Syracuse, New York in the beginning of May. In the beginning of June, Cass started his masters program at Syracuse University and he really enjoys it so far. Meanwhile, I have been enjoying all the excitement while being horribly sick with morning sickness!... Yes, I am pregnant!!!!
I am very happy to say that I am beginning to feel almost normal now that I am just over the 4 month mark and the excitement is really starting to set in. We should be finding out pretty soon what the gender is. We can't wait to find out! We will definitely be so happy if its a girl or a boy!
Grace and Sofia are so excited to have a little baby. They already make such good little mommies! Now that I am starting to show they want to look just like me.

Grace is fascinated with catching bugs in our back yard. We found this huge beetle there one day. Grace was a little creeped out in this picture because the beetle had some feet that could really grip on to her skin. Ewe!

Sofia, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. She loves to dress up and dance around the living room. don't ask me where she learned how to pose. It just comes naturally.

We will be leaving RI in about a week and heading to NY State! A couple of weeks ago, we went to Syracuse to do some house hunting and luckily we found a cute little house to rent for the 14 months that we will be there. Its on a quiet street, close to Grace's school and a few miles from the University. It's a huge relief to know that we have a home waiting for us when we get there!

Dreams really do come true!!

In the beginning of December we went to Florida to the place where all your dreams come true. Yes, we went to Disney World. I have to admit, having never before experienced the magic of Disney world or Disneyland I was a little apprehensive about how a week in Disney World was going to be with all those people and lines. I have to say that it was a very magical week. The only lines we really had to stand in were the ones to meet the characters. It was totally worth it to see the excitement in Grace and Sofi's face when they got to meet their favorite princesses and fairies. We had so much fun!!

Tinkerbell is Grace's favorite Disney character. The line to meet her was the longest line we stood in. I guess it takes a bit more time because they had to shrink us down to fairy size. That's about 5 inches. They think of everything! It was amazing! Okay, I really wanted to meet Tinkerbell too.

And we met our favorite princesses. . .

Belle

Cinderella

Sleeping Beauty is Sofi's favorite princess.
She loves her pink, flowing gown. Sofi was Sleeping Beauty for Halloween

This is down the main street at magical Kingdom. Christmas was the perfect time to go because everything was decorated and lit up with Christmas lights. It just made it even more magical.

Cinderella's Castle

Dinoland in Animal Kingdom

I think Sofi has become a Minnie Mouse fan since we went to Disney Land and she met her.


These next few pictures are at Sea World. We couldn't go all the way to Florida and not go to Sea World!. . . Military members and their family get in free so that helps too!

These dolphins were coming right up to us and they would let us pet them. They really are amazing creatures!

This is the Shamu show"Believe". Grace really wanted to get wet so we sat at the top of the "wet" section hoping to get just a little wet. When the time finally came where the biggest orca splashes with his big fin, I was so glad that we didn't sit near the bottom because the people that were sitting there got completely soaked. We just barely got a mist. Getting soaked in salt water just did not sound fun to me. Grace was a little sad that she didn't get really wet but she forgot pretty fast because the whole show was so neat.

Family photo with Shamu

You can get an idea of how big this tree is by the size of the ornaments.