We love it when birthdays keep on lasting. Alexandria got this gift card from her Harvey cousins in Iowa, and she knew just what she was going to use it for, something she'd had her eye on for months.
Watching Alexandria open gifts/cards is priceless.
The Tinker Bell Fairies she'd been loving on every time we visited the Target toy aisles!
Probably one of my very favorite phrases--unseasonably warm. And we have had plenty of that this Fall. Hard to believe these pictures were taken in mid-November.
It was bright out, and B was trying to keep his eyes open for the camera.
And then Blake took over as the photographer for a bit...
Probably about an 18 weeks belly shot.
Shortly after this, Matt decided to trash our lawn mower blades. Somehow a patio brick met up with the mower blades.
The kids went out to help assess the damage.
FYI, this is Alexandria's new favorite dress. Jackie found it at a yard sale.
Got some good action shots on this day.
Alexandria's "chiplunk" pile.
Alexandria wanted to spend her actual birthday at Monkey Joe's, but since the Friday following her birthday was Veteran's Day, we waited until then to go, so Blake could come along too.
Alexandria had been declaring all week that she was four she was going to be much braver at Monkey Joe's, but I was still skeptical. Apparently she had some kind of courage spurt though because since she has turned four she has much way braver than the three year-old version of herself.
Another tea party (of the non-political variety) at the House of Harvs.
The kids even found a little table decor from the neighbor's bushes.
This would have been table decor if it would have stayed in the vase better. 
I'm not sure Blake was displaying his best tea party manners here when he was licking the sugar cube remains from the bottom of his tea cup.
It's one of my favorite events of the year (because I am a glutton for punishment, obviously)--family picture day. And trust me, if we had to fight the crowds and go to a studio, family picture day would rank considerably lower on the cool school, but when you have your friend and fabulous photographer doing the shoot OUTSIDE, it definitely makes the day more fun. I'm pretty sure this is the only way I could ever get Matt to consent to a yearly photo shoot too. It's not his favorite day.
This one is probably my favorite of the day!
But this one is a close second.
This is how most of the afternoon went. It's totally to Jackie's credit that we walk away with any pictures where we are all looking at the camera and smiling.
Case in point. Blake is kind of the goofball of the shoot.
Prepare your heart for melting...
Told ya.
This was Matt's favorite pose of the day.
Slowest person to get up gets smooshed at the bottom of the pile. That's me.
Birthdays never seem to last just one day around here. On Alexandria's actual birthday, she woke up to a few more presents and a day of fun with Mom.
She took several Happy Birthday phone calls that day as well.
Guess Who is one of her favorite games right now, and she's getting pretty good at it.
Showing her present from the Hermons to our neighbors.
That night she picked our dinner spot (54th St.) and our dessert place (Twist).
Dad impressed us with his frozen yogurt eating skills.
Matt must have been in the mood to hurt himself when he invited Blake to play some football out back one Sunday afternoon.
The girls stayed inside and played .
Somewhere along the line Alexandria decided that she would have a princess party every year, and she would just choose a new princess for each year's theme. Snow White was the lucky winner for this year. And thanks to some web decorating tips (thanks to Jackie for the great party ideas link), we had a really cute Snow White party.
The cake table...before we had the cake on it.
She got to open a couple of presents before the party. This one is actually the topper for the cake.
Blake's gift to Alexandria is wrapped up in that giant quilt there.
I'm sure that Papa never thought he'd be helping with the decorating for a little girl's birthday party, but he cut these wood pieces up for us. They looked great! And once the party was over, Blake has had quite a bit of fun with them too.
When I was sending out invitation to the party Alexandria kept saying to me, "Make sure you invite Grandma Foiles (who brings Alexandria's favorite dessert, homemade ice cream) and Avaryn."
After all of the gift opening was over, the kids performed a small play about Thanksgiving. The night before we'd read the Berenstain Bears book about Thanksgiving, and he was inspired by their Thanksgiving play. He spent much of the morning before the party working away on his play ideas.
Official play signage.
And after the play, there was some bouncing in the basement!
The less serious bouncers.
And the big bouncers!
It seemed like the kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes several times this year, but I don't have tons of pictures to show for it somehow. I think it has something to do with the fact that we crammed many, many activies into one weekend.
On the 30th we had morning church, Dace's birthday dinner at Dad and Mom's, Jackie took our family pictures that afternoon (more from that later), and then evening church. That also happened to be Trick or Treat night in our town, but we skipped it that night since we were at church and made up for it by Trick or Treating on Monday night at Papa and Ma's house and some of our favorite neighbors by them.
Playing in the tee pee at Papa and Ma's house.
Blake's classroom party was Monday afternoon, so I attended that while Alexandria stayed at Papa and Ma's house.
Waiting for the big parade to start outside the school.
Back at Papa and Ma's house that night.
And then the next morning we opened our goodies from the Harvey cousins.
On the night of the big World Series win for the Cardinals we let the kids stay up way later than normal to watch what we hoped would be a really great memory. Turned out, we got just what we were hoping for.
Watching the excitement unfold.
