Chuck E. Cheese.... Where an adult can be a kid!!!

Eliana wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate her birthday and we invited the Marcuz family to join us (their daughter Augustine and Eliana are good friends). Eliana was a bit scared of the animated characters playing in the band and clung to her Dad's lap. You can see her "I'm trying to enjoy this but it is scary" smile in the picture below....
She warmed up to the animated characters but remained terrified of the life-sized mouse that comes around to greet the kiddos - she SCREAMED every time he came around. Of course Raelyn was fascinated by him and kept wanting to go over there :)
Eliana and Augustine discovered a game that they both loved and got rather engrossed in... I lost count of how many tokens went into this game....


To make sure the kids had enough tickets to pick out a prize, the adults had to play some ski ball and the guys had to play a little basketball. We had a great time - both the kids and the adults. The picture below demonstrates how worn out we all were by the end of the night - just check out Ellie's incredibly tired eyes and face!

Eliana's 4!

*** Note - this should have been posted Dec. 1st but I am incredibly behind... just pretend it is December 1st because it will help you feel like you have more time to get all your Christmas stuff done as well!***

While searching for cakes to make for Raelyn, Eliana saw this "flip-flop" cake and wanted it for her birthday. Never mind that she was born in DECEMBER! I had a good time making it and I think it turned out pretty cute. With the left over frosting, I wrote a little birthday "card" out on some paper towel... I am betting you can guess what happened next.....

Yep.... purple frosting all over her face - but she had a great time doing it!

Annual Border Battle Photo....

This year us Wolverine fans didn't have much to cheer about but it didn't stop me from rejoicing in our annual "divided family" photo. Eliana (to prove what happens when you grow up in a divided home) was singing Hail to the Buckeyes (instead of Hail to the Victors) and saying "Go Blue" while wearing her Ohio state scrubs. On the issue of football, she is a very confused little girl.

Sunday afternoon weddings....

We recently attended a gorgeous Sunday afternoon wedding between 2 twenty-somethings at our church. My mom had given the girls matching Christmas dresses and I thought this would be a great opportunity for the girls to wear them. They both looked adorable! I am attaching photos but remember - this was a Sunday AFTERNOON wedding (translation: naptime) and Raelyn only got about an hour nap all day long!

The Traditional Hand-traced Turkey

Today we made traditional hand turkeys. It was a fun time and I just can't resist blogging about the finished products... Look at the difference between little Raelyn's turkey-hand and Eliana's!

Raelyn's thankful for: Brown bear (her first real words... she loves the book!), Mom, Dad, and Ellie.

Eliana's thankful for: friends, intact fingers, mommy and daddy. So I suppose you are probably wondering why intact fingers???? I don't really know myself but she was really certain that she was thankful her fingers were attached to her hand (and no, I wasn't going crazy with the scissors!)

Walking?

Raelyn is in the phase of the newly walking where she walks like a drunken sailor. Needless to say, she falls sometimes at the most inopportune times. I caught this picture after she managed to fall and wedge herself between the wall and the stairs....

and yes, I got the camera before I helped her out :)

Halloween Cuties

Okay... so I am a little bit behind with the blog posts! Needless to say, here are the adorable Morgan girls on Halloween. Raelyn was a beautiful ladybug and Eliana was Cinderella for the second year in a row (I am very glad I bought that dress big!).

Eliana showing off her best princess smile