Princess Party

Gracie turned 5 on October 17th this year and we celebrated with a couple of wonderful parties. Friday night we had a lot of fun with all the family, cupcakes and food! Saturday she got to have her first 'friend' party :) She wanted to have a princess party complete with princess crowns, princess clothes and great friends. Here are a few pictures from her fun friend birthday celebration!

Gracie, with an extra large smile and her Barbie princess cake! It was a great cake and thanks to Grammy it looked awesome!

Molly, Gracie and Sydney dressed in their princess finest ready for the party!

All the princess friends! It was such a fun group and we all had a great time!

Lily and Sydney with their American Girl dolls!

Gracie on her birthday at Fritz's. It was her choice for her birthday dinner with the family. I think she had a great birthday celebration weekend! I can't believe she turned 5!!

I Heart Sterling!!

We went to Sterling College's Homecoming a couple of weeks ago, it was so great to be back! We enjoyed the parade... with the traditional camels, bagpipes and residence hall floats. I think the girls had a great time too! We went over and watched part of the girls soccer and really enjoyed visiting with Tony, Heather, Hadley and Leila and Steve and Mitzie. It was a beautiful weekend and I did not even make the girls choose which dorm they wanted to live in... yet ;-)

Barry and his girls waiting for the parade to start.

The girls having fun at Cooper Hall!

Me and the girls.

Sydney, Leila, Gracie, Hadley and Molly on the front steps of Cooper Hall! We had such a fun time spending the day with them :)

I Heart Sterling!!

We went to Sterling College's Homecoming a couple of weeks ago, it was so great to be back! We enjoyed the parade... with the traditional camels, bagpipes and residence hall floats. I think the girls had a great time too! We went over and watched part of the girls soccer and really enjoyed visiting with Tony, Heather, Hadley and Leila and Steve and Mitzie. It was a beautiful weekend and I did not even make the girls choose which dorm they wanted to live in... yet ;-)

Barry and his girls waiting for the parade to start.

The girls having fun at Cooper Hall!

Me and the girls.

Sydney, Leila, Gracie, Hadley and Molly on the front steps of Cooper Hall! We had such a fun time spending the day with them :)

American Girl in Kansas City!!

It is here!! The American Girl store came to KC in the Oak Park Mall. Sydney asked for money and gift cards to the AG store for her birthday back in June. When we found out they would be opening a store in our mall Sydney decided to wait to spend her money until we could visit the new store and experience it all!!

We did experience it all, the girls had so much fun in the store. Gracie and Molly even enjoyed it though they were not getting a doll this time.

Here are a few pictures from our fun family night out at the American Girl store!! Enjoy!

Ready to go shopping!

Sydney trying to decide with 'Just Like Me' doll does look 'just like her'

All done shopping! It was fun!

Sydney, Sabrina (she named her doll) and Pepper the snow dog (also from AG store).

Sydney, Sabrina and Pepper ready for soccer!

I think this store will make a girl of any age feel about 8 again and remember how much fun it is to play with a really special doll!

The 10th Annual VanHorn Backyard BBQ Bonanza!

We just had a wonderful backyard bbq this year. A record 106 people this year! Wow! I am only going to post a handful of pictures because I took way too many to post here. God blessed us with a beautiful evening and a fun evening with friends.

Me and my girlies :)

Gracie showing off her BBQ tshirt.

My BBQ co-horts! It would not happen with out them that is for sure! Lori designed the shirts and they are fabulous!

Just a few of our BBQ friends!

Thanks for coming everyone and we hope to see you all next year!

Gracie goes to preschool...

Gracie started preschool last week, she is going three afternoons a week this year. She is really enjoying it!

Showing off her 'new' backpack. Sydney carried it for a few years and thankfully Gracie was excited about inheriting it!

Ready for school!

The First Day of 3rd Grade!

My baby on her first day of 3rd grade... yes... 3rd grade! I can hardly believe it myself. She was looking forward to it and was not even nervous. Is this my child?

Our conversation went something like this this morning:

Her: You're not dropping me off?

Me: No, we are all going to walk you in, Mommy wants to take some pictures!

Her: You don't have to walk me in, I know where I need to go

Me: I know but I want to , it is the first day of school

Her: (big sigh) okay

Dad: Sydney, when you are a senior in high school we will still be walking you in on your first day and taking pictures (probably just kidding, but we will see)

Her: Mom how many pictures are you going to take

Me: only a couple

Her: Okay, only two.. okay?!

Me: We'll see ;-)

I took way more than two pictures and she survived her mom embarrassing her on the first day :)