Rhodes, the artist!

Rhodes has really been showing her artistic ability lately! On Wednesday, we made milk jug jack-0-lanterns and the girls LOVED decorating them. The only problem was that we had to use black permanent markers to color on them, which could have turned into a disaster, but there were definitely breakdowns when I wouldn't really let them use the markers on their own. After looking for other markers everywhere in our house, I made a mental note to get more washable markers for our house on my next Target run.

Yesterday, the girls looked so cute (as always, of course!) in matching pumpkin dresses, both insisting on pigtails....but, I really wish I had taken an "after" picture at the end of the day. After painting pumpkins at school and then coming home to different coloring projects, Rhodes' dress was no longer orange and both of their faces, hands, arms and legs were colored with war wounds from paint and markers! It started to dawn on me why I couldn't find any markers in our house...

Last night, I had so much fun with my friend, Mandy, at a Cobb Landmarks event - Beer, Wine and Brushstrokes. (Ryan and Rob went to a Young Lawyers Division Halloween party and got the award for best costume as Goose & Maverick! Free movie tickets for us - yay!) We had fun drawing our own little pieces of art (following our instructor's steps - just like Sip N Strokes!) and I was kind of proud bringing my artwork home! This morning, Ryan had already left for work and I got Rhodes up and let her venture into the living room while I had my morning phone call with my mom. Rhodes was awfully quiet and when I made my way in to check on her, I found that she thought my artwork needed a few finishing touches.... (and it seems our pillows did too!)

(This picture does not do her actual artwork justice - there were additions of black on the pumpkin and above it and highlights of red all over the entire painting! Luckily, it blended in a tiny bit since there was a red background already! :))

And that was the end of the markers for the Patrick household...at least for a few more years! :)

Two year stats!

Yesterday, Ali (my helper) and I took Rhodes in for her two year check-up! The girls did great! Rhodes started whimpering as soon as we pulled into the doctors office (every time we go it seems to be for her - and then we've had to go home to the nebulizer - ugh! I kind of want to whimper too!), but once we got in there - they got to color and have fun - the 75 minutes we were in there flew by! :) At the end, both of the girls got the flu mist and then Rhodes got her Hepatitis A shot - she thought about crying, but was distracted by her pretty band-aid (we are BIG band-aid fans...they're practically accessories around here!) and was such a trooper! So proud of my sweet girls!

So...here are the stats:

Height: 35 inches (90%)

Weight: 32 pounds (75%)

Head Circumference: 19.75 (90%)

I went back and looked at Ali's stats and they are actually the exact same height at age 2 (we have pretty tall girls!) and Ali's head was even a little bigger (20 inches!) - but, Rhodes came in weighing 4 pounds more!!! It's crazy to me b/c they now start calculating their BMI at age 2! They didn't tell me Rhodes' though, just told me she was great and growing right on track!

Ali's Fall Party!

Today, I was one of the hosts for Ali's preschool Fall party! Being a room mom, hosting school parties, etc are things that I have always looked forward to as a mother and I love getting a little peek inside their precious little class! We played some cute little games like hot pumpkin (aka hot potato), decorated pumpkins, and ate yummy Krispy Kreme jack-o-lantern doughnuts! It was a lot of fun! Here are a few shots I got from today of some of the sweet little friends...
Ali and Mary Mac - best of friends! (these two are inseparable at school!)

My little pumpkin!

Rhodes at the Art Barn

Fun Fall!

I have had mother's guilt this past week b/c we have been so busy! I had something with different friends three nights this past week, plus Ryan and I went to Athens last weekend while the girls had a blast spending the night with Grandmommy and Granddaddy. I was thrilled that we had one free weekend this weekend with nothing to do! There are so many fun things to do in the Fall with family - and I could not be more ready to take advantage of our free time to do these things!

We kicked off our weekend by heading to The Art Barn (in Canton) on Friday morning with friends! The girls had loved the barn animals that visited their school this week - so I knew they would love it! We got there a little late and probably spent more time driving all the way out there than actually being there - but we had a good time! (I always thought Berry Patch Farms was far out - and we were planning on going there the next day - so I was going crazy when I actually passed it and kept driving to get to the Art Barn on Friday! Yikes!)

The girls (well...especially Rhodes!) loved petting all of the animals....

Drawing chickens for their art project....(and making funny faces!) (p.s. Ali drew her chicken and wrote her name all by herself!)
and playing with bunnies...



Trying to get a good picture with our friend little Mimi! (Cracks me up that Mimi is over a year older than Rhodes and Rhodes is a little bit bigger!) :)
After nap time, we headed up to the square to meet Ryan at his office. Ali has been dying to go up to see all of the scarecrows on the square since she spotted Buzz Lightyear & Woody last week as we were driving by! (She is a little obsessed with Toy Story - as you will see when Halloween rolls around...)
We had some time to stall so we went and played on the Square's train...

Then got our chairs out and tailgated at the office parking lot to watch the MHS Homecoming parade!

The girls loved watching the band and the "princesses" (homecoming court) go by! After dinner, Ryan and Ali went with my dad to the MHS homecoming game! I didn't think Ali would make it to halftime because it would be past her bedtime, but wanted her to so she could see the Homecoming queen and princesses! Sure enough, they made it to halftime, but Ali decided to go, right before the presentation began! :)

On Saturday, we carried on our annual family tradition - Berry Patch Farms to look for pumpkins! :)
Daddy and Rhodeso on the hayride!
We were so excited to meet up with our friends, the Lowery's at the pumpkin patch. Our 4 kids are close in age and all get along so great! (and we love their parents too!) Sweet friends, Ali and Caroline, on the hayride!
Ali and Mama - saying a big "cheese!"

Rhodes and Pres....sitting in a tree! (or on a hayride!)In deep pumpkin discussions...which one should we get?
Rhodes became a pumpkin hoarder...



So strong!
Pumpkin sisters - lots of orange in this picture! (or as Rhodeso calls the color - "oranges")

Love these sweet friends!

Beazer B turns 5!

Happy 5th birthday to our first child, Baxter Patrick! (also known as Beazer, Mr. B, Baxterman, etc) Can't believe it's almost been 5 years since we got this little guy - and thought he would be our only baby for awhile!Such a big boy now!
We love you Baxter man! Hope you enjoyed your extra treats today! :)

Goodbye Disney World!

Our final day - Sunday!!! So sad that our amazing family vacation has come to an end! We woke up early - packed up the car - and did our final walk to the Magic Kingdom as the park opened!

Saying bye to the pool from the lobby...
Final walk to the parks...

Ran into the Fairy Godmother by Cinderella's Castle!

We rode all of the girls' favorite rides one last time and made a stop by Mickey Mouse's house to get a final picture with Mickey and Minnie!

We even rode the People Mover for the first/last time!

It truly was the most magical vacation! Just so nice to all be together - without the tv, internet (I rarely even checked my emails! Crazy for me!), etc! We spent about 3 1/2 hours at the Magic Kingdom that morning and I started getting choked up on our last Monorail ride back to the Contemporary! We were all exhausted, but had the best time!

Can't wait for our next trip back!!

Disney World Day 5 - Hollywood Studios!

Finally, our final full day in Disney World! (finally blogging about it - although I think when we were there, I was already starting to get sad that the end was in sight!)

We got up early to catch the Extra Magic Hour at Hollywood Studios. Luckily we did, because by the time we got our fastpass to the big ride - Toy Story Mania - the next available time to ride was 1:00 already!

After a quick visit with Handy Manny...(Ali hopped out of line when she heard the words "Toy Story"...Rhodes LOVES her friend, Handy Manny!!)....

We decided just to wait in line for Toy Story (estimated time was 55 minutes, I think?) in case we didn't make it to 1:00 at the park. The line was long but it moved fast and I think we ended up with about a 30 minute wait. Luckily, there were lots of fun toys, games, decorations to look out along the way....
Loving their 3-D shades...


My game partner...It was soo fun! (but, I had to shoot for Ali so we were low scorers, unlike my high scoring husband!)
(NOTE: As luck would have it, we did make it to 1:00 in the park and went back to ride the best ride in the park again!) Unfortunately (for some people), the ride was having problems and closed down for a long time! Thank goodness we waited in line and rode it early instead of waiting for our fast passes!

We went and watched The Little Mermaid and then headed to Playhouse Disney - the girls loved it!




Then, we went to Hollywood & Dine Play N Dine. I had switched up our reservations to the less busy character meals a few times and was not super excited about this one b/c we do not watch Little Einsteins these days. The girls LOVED it though - seriously, it may have been one of their favorites. And the food was surprisingly good too! The girls got to get up and dance with the characters and got to see the Einsteins, Jojo (although I don't think we have seen her on tv since Ali was little!) and Handy Manny! (of course he was a hit!)







Rhodes got right up in the middle and was breaking it down with the characters. We do not have very good pictures to show it - but we were all dying laughing watching her be so outgoing and fun and having a blast with everyone - the girl does not meet strangers! :)

You can kind of see her little head in this one...
Big sis Ali joined too - they were having a blast!
Then, on to Honey I shrunk the Kids playset....I thought it was a neat playground - but a little scary for me - so many people, so many things to do - I did not step away from my children, for fear I would lose them and never find them again!
Sliding down a gigantic leaf!

And down some film...


It was a fun day - Ryan and I got to ride the Rock N Roller Coaster (may have been one of my favorite "scary" rides!) and Ryan and dad rode the Tower of Terror! We headed back to the hotel for some pool time and naptime...
....then went out to dinner that night at the Grand Floridan (just for a quick service meal, but it was so nice and relaxing!).

For our final night there, we went out to the grassy area between the Bay Lake and the Contemporary and watched The Incredibles on the big screen...it was nice out and very peaceful! The girls brought out their glowsticks and may have caused some scenes with them...but we had fun...

Then we went up, got our pajamas on and watched the fireworks from our skybridge one final time. Loved how they played the music that was playing at the park for fireworks (Halloween party fireworks) on the speakers - felt like we were almost actually there! :)