Photo Shoot

In late September, we had an awesome opportunity to do a professional photography mini session with a friend of mine from MOPS who is also an amazing photographer - Stephanie Ascari of Cleverly Candid Photography (http://www.cleverlycandid.com).  I was so excited to get to do this, as we've never had a professional family photo taken.  I loved all of them, but here are my favorites (just a few of the 94)...

Busch Gardens

In mid-September we decided to make a trip down to Busch Gardens to have some fun with friends.  It was an up and down day emotionally for Charlotte, but overall I think she had a fun time!  She's still a bit young, and lacking in confidence, to go on rides by herself.  But when she was with her friends she seemed to have a blast...and of course she LOVED meeting all of her favorite Sesame Street characters.  We got there right when it opened and stayed until about 4pm.  The no nap and unwillingness to sit in the stroller factors made for some tough times (and sore arms from holding her), but we had a great visit and look forward to doing it again soon. 

Meeting characters, riding rides (or almost riding rides)...Charlotte was NOT a fan of St. Elmo's Spire.  They wouldn't start the ride with her crying, although I think she would have liked it had she experienced it. Although I don't really like those types of harnesses myself, so I can't blame her.  Maybe next time!  

I think the ladybug cars were the most popular with the kiddos!

Trying to pose 3 2-year-olds and a baby is kind of difficult...

Wondering what the WORST ride at Busch Gardens is?  This one...  Very slow moving dragon eggs in a ferris wheel type configuration.  They would load each egg, and the only "ride" part was moving a tiny bit every few minutes so they could get the next egg emptied and filled again.  Ugh...and it was in direct sunlight.  

Charlotte seems to be making an attempt to escape...

We ended our day back at the Sesame Street Forest of Fun water play area, and Charlotte had a great time!  

First Day of School

She's only 2 years old, but Charlotte is already headed to school!  Well, it's a Mother's Day Out program at a local church, but still, we call it school.  She'll be going 2 days a week for a few hours and even eats lunch at school.  This meant of course that we had to buy a cute backpack and coordinating lunch box for her.

Charlotte was very excited for her first day of school!  She posed for lots of pictures to appease Mommy, walked down the hall of her school with determination, and headed into her classroom.  No tears!  

She was excited to see me when I picked her up, and was quick to recap her day.  They learned about the color blue and the number 1!  We're hoping that she continues to enjoy school, makes new friends and participates in fun activities.  And i'm also hoping that the time allows me to get some things done around the house!  

Another Birthday Celebration

Sunday evening it was time for Kathleen (Aunt Ki-Kat) to come over and help celebrate my birthday.  We'd had dinner with her before we left for the OBX to celebrate her 30th, so we decided to have another little "party" for mine when we returned!

We spent some time on the deck blowing bubbles while Steve grilled us a yummy dinner.  Then we enjoyed the chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes that Kathleen had made!

"Mommy hold you!"

Sitting on the steps with Ki-Kat

The grill master at work!

Mmmmmmm...

Impromptu BBQ

As we were eating brunch at The Liberty Tree, we got a text from our friend Will about an impromptu bbq that afternoon!  Will and some of our other friends had been in the OBX at the same time, and were also evacuated...leaving them with lots of extra snacks, food and drinks.  So...we headed home, got Charlotte a nap, and went over to Will's place to continue enjoying the beautiful day!

Fun activity of the afternoon...running up and down Will's driveway which had just the right slope for fun and potential injury.  Thankfully there were no falls!  

She looks super tall in this photo!

We also spent a while catching the football and blowing bubbles.  We'd also packed her little backpack full of entertainment and activities for her.  Here she is reading Dora on the deck.  

A fun end to a beautiful day!

National Zoo

Since we had to cut our vacation short, and it was going to be such a nice weekend here at home, we decided to continue the fun by going downtown to the National Zoo!  Charlotte's favorite part of the whole experience was the Kid's Farm at the zoo.  They are doing a lot of construction - building a new building for the elephants and giraffes, etc, so we didn't get to see a whole lot of stuff, but we still had fun wandering around.

Peeking in on the miniature donkeys at the farm.  Her favorite?  The brown one named Giuseppe!  

Stopping for a break on the bench

Following the elephant tracks...to the non-existent elephants

More peering through the fence at the farm animals

Cute shoes!

Look! More cows!

Petting Tulip the Cow

Since we were already in the big city, we decided to venture a few more miles to The Liberty Tree for lunch!  We hadn't tried their new brunch menu yet, so we were excited to see what it was all about.  Of course we had a nice visit with Chef Graig while we were there.  Charlotte sat like a big girl on the bench seat - no booster, no high chair!  She played with her notepad and stickers we picked up at the zoo gift shop.

OBX Part 2 - Day 5

Thanks to Hurricane Earl, OBX Day 5 would be our last day of vacation since we pre-planned to "evacuate" on Thursday morning.  :(   But, this day was also my 30th birthday, so we decided to make the most of it and have another great day!

We stuck with our usual morning schedule, this time skipping the beach altogether and staying at the pool for a few hours before lunch and nap.  The camera stayed inside this time around, so no new snacking by the pool pics, sorry! :)

After Charlotte's nap, we headed out onto the deck to use the cool new bubbles that Aunt Jacki brought for us.  Charlotte had an awesome time, which her expression in these pictures will attest to!

I took a lot of pictures, so I had a lot of expressions to choose from, but these were some of my favorites :)

I had brought several dresses for Charlotte to wear for beach "photo shoots," and since this was our last evening at the beach house, I had her change into one for some photos on the deck.  

 And finally, some cute pictures of Charlotte playing with her Grandaddy!

Sneaking up...

Caught you!

Silly faces!

Even though it was cut short, we had an awesome vacation and enjoyed spending time with my parents and Aunt Jacki.  We headed home early Thursday morning, made a quick stop at the Williamsburg outlets and were back home by mid afternoon!

Charlotte even took a quick nap in the car...