Sarah made it to Germany!

Sarah made it safely to Germany and we made the trek from Frankfurt to Edelweiss in the German Alps. Today was Sarah's day to recuperate from the jetlag so we slept in and stayed close to the hotel and just walked down to the city. Tomorrow we start seeing the sights of southern Germany.

Sarah with the tallest mountain in Germany, Zugspitze, in the background.

View from our balcony

 I'll post again in the next couple of days with some more pics from our travels!

Derek

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the Smith Family! 

Derek & I are so disappointed to miss out on Halloween & trick-or-treating this year with Shelby, but we know she is going to have a blast with Grammy & Grampy!

Blogging will probably be scarce over the next week or so as Derek & I are enjoying our time together in Germany & London! But you can expect to see lots of pictures & updates when we are back!

Halloween Party with Playgroup Friends :)

We had a little Halloween party with our playgroup friends recently. It was such a fun time with sweet friends! And it was especially fun to look back at last year's party {HERE} to see how much these little ones have changed since last Halloween! Although them being a year older didn't make it any easier to get a group photo..ha! ;)

On a separate note, Shelby & I made the drive to GA yesterday in preparation for my trip to Germany. Shelby will be staying with my parents while I am gone, and I will be flying out of the Atlanta airport tomorrow evening. We spent today recuperating from the drive (and all of the stress of the auction preparations last week!) and enjoying our time with Grammy & Grampy!

My mom had gotten me & my sister's old doll house & Little People out of the attic before we got here, and Shelby has been having a blast playing with them!! She kept saying: "Grampy play too!" ;)

Fall Festival with Grammy

The pumpkin patch we went to while my mom was here was at a local church and they actually had a fall festival that weekend, so we went back again for some more fall fun! It was a HOT day, but we had a GREAT time!

Hay ride :)

They were doing face painting, but since Shelby has no concept of what
face painting is we opted to go for hand painting :)

I wasn't sure how she'd do with it, but she sat as still as a mouse watching
very intently as the lady painted a pumpkin on her hand.

I couldn't believe how much Shelby enjoyed it!

Shelby attempting to do the "ring toss game," which basically consisted
of Shelby placing the rings on the pegs. ;)

Shelby's very first pony ride!!!

It was so hard to get a good picture of her as she rode the horse, but she was seriously LOVING it!

Shelby has never seen a horse this close up before, so she kept trying
to check the pony out as she rode. ;)

Of course as soon as Shelby got off the pony, she started signing more
and asking to go again. ;)

A shot of the hay ride from afar

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch with Grammy

After Shelby & I were both feeling better, we made a trip to the pumpkin patch with Grammy while she was here. We got a couple pumpkins for our front porch, a few pictures, and some good memories out of it! Shelby gets so excited whenever she sees a pumpkin this year! She always "A pumpkin! I see it!" :)

After our trip to the pumpkin patch, we stopped by McAlister's on our way home for dinner. I think it was the best meal we have eaten at a restaurant with Shelby b/c she was just such an angel! She actually ate what we ordered for her and was so cooperative & patient the entire time. After going through so many months where meal time was practically synonymous with torture, it is like a breath of fresh air when we can go to a restaurant, order Shelby something off of the kids menu, and actually enjoy our meal together. It was a great evening!!!

I am still so thankful that my mom was able to come help us out for a few days! Although I'm not so thrilled with the circumstances of the visit (stomach bugs are the WORST!, it couldn't have come at a better time! It was a great way to break up this month without Derek. Thanks again, Mom!! :)

Cologne Cathedral

Today was my last scheduled day off before Sarah arrives so I decided to make the long trek to Cologne. Most of my other day trips were about 2 hours away by train, but Cologne was 4+ hours away. It was a long day of traveling, but I knew I would regret it if I was this close to Cologne and didn't see the cathedral. I spent about 9 hours on the train to spend about 3 hours in Cologne, but it was well worth it as you can see below! The next time I post, Sarah will be with me in the Alps!!

The Cologne Cathedral

To tall to get it all!

Makes the other cathedrals I've seen look small!

Amazing stained glass

Shrine of the Three Kings which hold the remains of the Three Wise Men

I complained about the 303 steps in Heidelberg, but today there were 533 to the top of the South Spire. Mom would not have liked this point.

St. Peter's Bell which weighs 24tons and is the largest swinging bell in the world.

View of the Rhine from the South Spire

The cathedral from across the Rhine

Love locks are quite the craze in Europe....they completely line the bridge across the Rhine.

Close up.....That's a lot of locks. Apparently they signify everlasting love, so people get real upset when cities talk about taking them down.

 It was a long day and I'm gonna sleep good tonight! Just a week until Sarah gets here and two weeks until I'm home! Its been a great trip, but I can't wait to come home.

Miss everyone!
Derek

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom: Party Details!

One of the many reasons I loved having Shelby's party at Kangarooz was that there was minimal prep work required on our part. We could bring in as much as or as little decorations as we wanted. The only thing you have to bring in is a cake or cupcakes, but technically you could even get away without it b/c they provide ice cream for everyone! With that said, here are a few pictures of little things we did for Shelby's party to make it a "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" party :)

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom cookies :)  I snagged this picture off of the Facebook page of the lady who made them for us. The cookies were party favors.

More party favors for the little ones :)  These are magnetic letters. I loved how the little favor tags turned out!

Here are a few of the cupcake toppers up close to give you a better idea of what they looked like. The party invitation, favor tags, cupcake toppers, & thank you note were all ordered from the Serendipity Party Etsy Shop.

I was this close to ordering a door sign off of Etsy for Shelby's party, but I'm so glad I didn't! Kangarooz has these little white boards on the doors of each of their party rooms and they had already written on it in perfectly matching colors with the party. :)

Again, we were this close to going out to get balloons for the party...but we don't really have a place nearby for balloons, so we decided to just skip it. Wouldn't you know our party host asked us when we walked in the door what color balloons we wanted. :)  Here was Shelby checking out the balloons! We got to take them home and played with them for several days after the party. :)

Shelby's thank you notes that we ordered off of Etsy. I absolutely loved how these turned out!

And I think that wraps up all of Shelby's 2nd birthday posts! ;)  We are so thankful to have had a such a fun celebration for our baby girl where we were surrounded by family & friends! Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate! Here is one last picture of Shelby sending off our houseguests :)

Shelby's 2nd Birthday Continued...Presents & Family Time!

The kids were having such a blast at Shelby's birthday party that we didn't want to take away any of their play time, so we opted to wait and open presents once we got home. I'm so glad we did! Shelby was able to take her time opening her gifts and stop to play with one if she wanted to. Here are a few pictures of opening presents after her party. There are also a few family pictures mixed in as well. :)

Cousin Elly helping Shelby open her presents :)

She was so excited about her number puzzle, she had to play with it right away. :)

Taking a break from opening presents to read her new book from Mommy & Daddy!

Time for another book! :)

BooBoo & Pop-Pop with their favorite granddaughters :)

Playing with a new puzzle the morning after her birthday party

Shelby & Elly playing on top of Daddy/Uncle Derek

Babies in baskets!

The girls wanted to "swim" in the tub :)

Sweet cousins in matching PJ's reading stories before bedtime