Our Little Fireman

Well Davis finally got to wear his fireman costume for Halloween. He has been waiting over a month to be able to wear it for real.  He was very excited when I picked him up from daycare and asked, "Mommy is it time to go change into my costume?".    At daycare today they visited with the elderly and got a treat bag!

Aunt Laura bought him a fireman accessory kit this weekend that came with an axe, fire extinguisher, whistle, walkie talkie, badge, and so on. He loves everything and wanted to take it all with him as he went trick or treating.  He was all smiles here as he was getting ready with Daddy. 

Trying on the face mask while we skyped with Chris's parents. 

 Walkie talkie in pocket. He was pretty speechless when we were skyping.  Not sure if the excitement was too much but he just kept smiling. 

 

We were in a hurry to get outside and go trick or treating so I didn't get a ton of pictures like you know I would have liked.  You know one family picture, one on the porch with Hannah and the pumpkins, etc. We actually didn't get outside before it was too dark. Bummer, but we still got a couple cute ones.  I bet I could talk him into wearing his costume again. 

He did great, a little apprehensive at first especially when he saw "big boys with masks".  Masks are not his favorite but he was more confident as we walked around. He went and rang doorbells, called out "Happy Halloween" or "trick or treat" and "thank you" when he was supposed to. At one house he got up on the porch, looked right at the door, and yelled "Happy Halloween",   It was priceless but a little premature as he had not knocked on the door yet.   It wasn't too cold, a little rain drizzle at times but we didn't melt.

 

When we got home I tried to get him to take a couple other pictures but he was not interested, here is one picture with his axe. He was ready to take off his costume and dig into his candy with Daddy.  We all indulged in some sugary snacks as we handed out treats to kids.  

 

Hope you had a fun and safe Halloween!

Davis is THREE!!!!

(Our sweet niece- Claire, who just turned one)

Davis turned 3 on 9/30/2011 and we celebrated with a Thomas the Train Birthday Party with family and friends (thanks for hosting Stacey). On his actual birthday he took colorful cupcakes to preschool to share with his classmates and teacher. He told Chris his favorite part of the day was "licking the icing" from the cupcakes. I can still remember him licking the icing off his 1st cupcake when he turned one...

On our way home Friday night to Winchester we made a quick stop at one of Davis's favorite stores: Bass Pro Shop and he sat on each 4-wheeler and rode on most of the boats.
Bass Pro is a wonderful place to visit with kids.

We decided to go with a train theme because Davis loves trains. It is pretty easy to find Thomas the Train decorations so that made it easy. Our niece Natalie did a FABULOUS JOB making a Thomas sugar cookie cake....

Natalie working hard on all the details

Cousins playing

Grandaddy and Claire cuddling

Family catching up

We decided to play a couple games at the party.
First game- Pin the Number on Thomas.
Birthday Boy Davis got to go first!
Aunt Stacey helped get all the kids ready to pin the number...

Davis trying to figure out how to see through the bandana.

Kendall

Claire did not like the bandanna so we let her go without

Next we played Musical Trains and the kiddos had to sit down on paper trains when the music stopped.

Hot Thomas: We passed "hot" coal around and stopped when the music stopped. Young and older kids enjoyed this game.

Blake and Ashlyn

Davis was so funny

Time to open up presents

Uncle B and Aunt Karen

Fun books... Thanks Laura

Cake time... all smiles

Hayleigh sharing some words of wisdom

I think he liked it- cookie cake and icecream- Thanks Natalie!

Playing golf with his new set, Thanks Pappy and Grammy

Conductor Davis- He didn't want to wear his conductor hat or bandanna at the start of the party but put it on at the end.

I think that smile says it all... plus Grammy asked him what he thought of his party and he said "it was GREAT" !!!

North Carolina ZOO

Chris and I first went to the NC Zoo when we were about 5 months pregnant with Davis and we always had wanted to go back. So we planned to spend a weekend with Aimee in Durham and decided to take a family zoo trip. Here are some fun pics from our time there last weekend. My parents came down with us and we had a fun filled weekend. The NC Zoo has two main continents of animals - North American and Africa and it is very spread out.

Sleeping cougar

Lazy cougar- look at those claws

Alligator

Sea lions - these are one of my favorite animals to watch at the zoo. They swim and twist and turn and they make kids smile and squeal.

Davis trying to tickle their belly.

Another favorite- the Panda Bear. He was busy playing with his plastic toy.

Otter

Aunt Aimee and Davis posing with the bison.

Davis was happy to be sprayed by the little mist stations set up around the zoo.

Red river hogs

Lion eating on a bone.

The chimpanezes are so fun to watch. I also took some video of them.... there was one small monkey would was cared for by another chimp in the bunch because her mother was no longer living.

Davis riding on the monkey's back

We watched the afternoon feeding where the zookeeper threw watermelon in to their habitat and they tried to catch it. It was great they would stand and wave their hands asking for more snacks. The little monkey here is trying to get to his "aunts" snack.

The Thinker... Hondo used to be the alpha male but has retired from this position. He likes to sit by the glass and "people watch".

Playing with Grammy.

This was as close as we got to the giraffes... oh well. No slimy tongues for us today.

Elephant

Grammy and Davis

An albino alligator- they called this exhibit the Swamp Ghost

Baboons running after each other.

Snack time- it was warm and we need something to refresh us- Minute Maid lemonade slushy... Yummy. Plus we got 2 free tickets to the carousel so Davis got to ride with both Grammy and Pappy ... this was one of his favorite parts of the trip. He also like the tram that you can ride to different areas of the park.

First ride on the gazelle... we told him to pick an alligator, lion, or something cool.. but he ended up on this.

Getting strapped on.

Next was the zebra with Pappy. All smiles.

Almost ready to go .... we had a full day at the zoo.

Final pics from the Zoo

Newlin family

Stickley Family Shot (minus Stacey)