Who Doesn't LOVE a Parade???

Pre-parade

 Sunday was the big parade and we had some girls who were VERY excited!  Great Nana and Don drove down and we got to spend the day with them as well!
The girls were poised and in position with their candy backpack when the parade started.  Little did they know they had their very own "candy patrol" waiting on the sidelines.  Anytime someone threw out candy that landed too far out in the street, you can bed Don was out there picking up every piece!  Awww!  Anna ended up on Nana's lap and ended up sneaking a few too many tootsie rolls!  But I'll have to say, I've never seen her sit that still in my entire life!  WAHAHA!!  The Apple Festival always puts on a good parade and this year they didn't disappoint.  The girls came home with a backpack FULL of candy (that I may have recycled to our neighbors for Halloween.......sorry neighbors!) and we got to see more folks that I wish we saw more often!

Pre-parade

Waiting for the parade to start!  Apparently this was too much for Grace!

Cute!

After the parade, we had a little birthday party for Don back at Mom and Dad's house before they took off.  It was great seeing them again before they took off for Florida!

Sneakin' tootsie rolls!

The girls and I then headed out to the Townsend's so we could introduce them to Baby Reggie!  By this point, Grace was so tired she didn't even know her name.  She held Reggie but was pretty stiff and handed him off fairly quickly.  Anna didn't notice him at first.  But once she did, she kept giving him big smiles......and might have tried to give him a good slap on the head a time or two!  We spent a good, couple of hours getting baby snuggles and playtime with Jack before I had two girls who were ready to crash.
We had such a fun day full of a parade, CANDY, a birthday party, hellos and goodbyes to Great Nana and Don, and LOTS of cousin lovings!

Candy patrol!!

Happy Birthday, Don!

Someone needs a nap!

BUSTED!!!

First time holding Baby Reggie!

SO sweet!!

Apple Festival - Take 2

Cousins!

We had another full day of fun to take in at the fest on Saturday.  Grandma and Jack joined us for the first part of the day where we rode more rides (again) and ate more delish, fair food (again)!  Jack played the "toilet game" (WAHAHA!) and, $20 later, won the girls a prize and won Grandma some clothesline!  Because who wouldn't want clothesline for a prize??  WAHAHA!!  Grandma and Jack left for baby duty after lunch and Maggie, Sophie, and Charlie joined us after naps.  Grace and Sophie were excited to get their faces painted and 2hrs later we finally found the face painting tent.  Grace went with a spider and Sophie chose a dolphin and sort of ended up looking like a burn victim! But she was excited!  WAHAHA!  Another fun day at the Apple Festival came to a close but don't worry......we still had the parade to look forward to the next day!!

Dragon ride.......again!

Cousins!

Finished product!

Finished product!

Getting a feather!

Tilta-Whirl......again!

Apple Festival - Take 1

Planting with Papa

The girls and I had a BIG weekend ahead of us!  Not only did we get a new addition to the family, we also had 2 full days of the Apple Festival to enjoy!!  We headed to the fest in the morning to check things out (since the rides don't open until the afternoon) and grabbed one of the best corn dogs you'll ever eat in your entire life!!  I promised Grace we would go back after naps when the rides opened.  As you can imagine, a nap never happened because she was SOOO fired up!!  Mom got home from work and we all headed back for the rides.  Grace yelled "There it is!!  It's the Apple Festival!" for the last half of our walk!  To say she was excited, might be a bit of an understatement!  :)

Grace rode every (ok most of the rides.  She asked to ride the tornado buuuut that will have to wait until......next year?!?!) ride at least 3000 times and begged for more!  She talked poor Papa into riding the Tilt-a-Whirl with her and let's just say, by judging from the green look on his face, he wouldn't be riding it again!  WAHAHAHA!!  Her FAVORITE ride was the dragon roller coaster and I'm quite sure she talked Nana into riding it a half a million times!  Anna got to ride a few rides as well but was perfectly content with walking around and picking up every cigarette butt in sight!

We finally dragged them back to Nana and Papa's and they were both asleep in a half of a second after laying down!  The Apple Fest can wear a girl out!!  AND we still had another FULL day of apple fest fun!!  WAHOO!!!

Carousel

Boatin' with Farrah

Dragon roller coaster!

And AGAIN!

Tilt-a-Whirl......can't see Papa's green face!!

Introducing Our New Nephew!!

Reggie Matthew Townsend

 I am SO excited to announce the arrival of our new nephew, Reggie Matthew Townsend!!  Reggie was born on October 7th weighing in at 8lbs, 12oz!  His birth story is one for the story books!  Laura had an induction that was cancelled, spent the night in the hospital a few days later only to be sent home in the morning, another induction ALMOST cancelled but got called back and he finally arrived around 7pm on the 7th!!
He is as sweet as can be and was wide awake checking everything out while I was at the hospital.  He has chubby, little cheeks AND strawberry-blonde hair!!  LOVE it.....not that I'm biased at all!!  :)
I came back to Bloomfield that night on such a high!  Isn't it amazing the instant connection and LOVE you feel when a new nephew or niece is born!!
What a miracle this little guy is!  We've all been waiting on you for a very long time!!  I hope you know how much you are loved and how thankful we are to have you in our lives!!
Enjoy the following birth day pics!!!  

First bottle!

Reggie and Grandma

Strawberry-blonde hair!!

Big Brother!

Reggie, meet Aunt T!

Wide awake!