Our Little Diva:)

The photographer we go to in Edwardsville teams up with a woman in town who makes "Little Diva" items-tutu's and all sorts of fun girly stuff-for a photo shoot:) 

We picked out a cute little pink tutu and then...Katie worked her magic:) 

 Here are some of our favorites!!

What a little ham:):)

A trip to Eckerts:)

Another one of our favorite places to go is Eckert's-we like to pick berries, apples, get pumpkins and pick out our Christmas tree here. 

Last Sunday, we decided to head over to Eckert's to play and eat lunch.  Uncle Larry and Aunt Dawn even came to play with us!  We had a great lunch and LOTS OF FUN playing:)

Driving the tractor...

Playing with Uncle Larry

Loved driving the tractor:)

The rocket was her favorite:):)

What a cutie pie:)



COLOR RUN!!!!

 When Jaycie, Bethany, Sarah and I signed up for the Color Run, we were not quite sure what to expect:) 

While it started a little slow, it turned out to be a really fun time!  I also would call it more of a Color Walk:) 

So-you begin the race all nice and clean like this...

Bethany, Sarah and I were ready to go:)

As you travel the 5K route, there are color stations at every K-

Where there are people squirting color dust on you as you pass by them....

After 2 color stations....

And as you walk, you become more coverd in color...

After this, it was too risky to get out a camera:):) 

The people at St. Louis Bread Company though we were hilarious:):)  

And, what may you ask, were Shane and Mia doing while I was Color Running...

playing in their jammies....all.day.long:):)

What, mom??  Daddy and I are having fun:):):)

 



First Trip to Grant's Farm!

We are so lucky to live close to St. Louis and all of the fun things it has to offer:)  The weekend before I was supposed to go back to school, the weather was BEAUTIFUL-especially after this HOT summer-so we decided to take advantage and head out to Grant's Farm. 

For those of you who do not know, Grant's Farm was the home of Ulysses Grant-18th President of the United States-after the Civil War(sorry about my history teacher dorkiness here)-and has been owned for quite some time by the Busch family.  The operate a small "zoo"-for lack of a better word-out of the farm-and it is home to the majority of their Clydesdale horses:)  Even better-once you pay to park, it is totally free!  But Mia's favorite thing about it, was that you can actually pet most of the animals and she just LOVED that!  She is still talking about petting the horses, donkey, camel, and getting to feed the goats a bottle:)  By the way, Shane's favorite part-since it's owned by the Busch family-that's right-was that you get free beer samples-Oh, Shane:):)  All in all-a GREAT day for the Hannah family!

We parked out by the Clydesdales....and they were so sweet:)  Mia even got to pet them!

Waiting to ride the tram into Grant's Farm-instead of walking in, everyone rides the tram around the farm.  It is really cool because you get to see the whole farm and all kinds of animals!  Mia loved it!

Petting the donkey-which she is now obssessed with:)

Camel time...

Last stop of the day-feeding the goats the milk bottles:)  Too fun!

A new swingset:)

All summer long Shane and I have talked about getting Mia a swingset, and as anyone with small children knows, this can turn into quite the investment.  However, we lucked out that the office manager at Shane's work was looking to sell of a super nice wooden swingset that will last a very long time-and the price was much more reasonable-so we took advantage:) 

Shane went to get it one evening and the next night Uncle Nathan came over to help "build it" as Mia would say. 

It did not take them very long-and then it was time to PLAY!!!!

Mia love, loves the park-and now she has her very own park in the backyard!  We spend a lot of time playing on it and it is one of the first things she wants to do each morning:) 

LOVE my new swing:)

After daddy and Uncle Nathan "built it"

Swinging with my daddy:)

Mommy's turn

Up the stairs....

....and down the slide!!!

A little bit of culture-Chinese Lantern Festival and Sho-gun

The first weekend in Augustr was a fun and busy one for little Miss Mia-on Friday night, mommy and Mia met Roma and Baby Liam-as Mia likes to call him-at the Missouri Botanical Gardens to see the Chinese Lantern Festival that is there right now.

 

It was such a fun night-we had a great dinner and great time looking at the lanterns.  The kiddos were SUPER good-Mia and Liam LOVED the lanterns.  Mia wanted to "ride" the dragons-even though they were made of glass-and even funnier-she kept calling one of the pieces "teacher" because it looked like the teacher in her Brown Bear, Brown Bear book:)

Then, on Saturday night, Shane and I decided to take Mia to Sho-gun, which is a Hibachi restaurant.  We thought she would like the show and the food-well, she liked the food...but we were sadly mistaken about the show:)  There is a "dragon" that comes out if someone is celebrating a birthday-and she was PETRIFIED of it-and, of course, while we were there, it happened for three different birthdays. She did LOVE the chopsticks, though:):)

 Needless to say, it will be a while before we attempt that again!

O'Fallon Splash Pads

The first weekend in August, we ventured to O'Fallon to see the Splash Pads at the O'Fallon park.   We had heard lots of great things about this place and decided to check it out!  It was like water fountains that you can run and play in meets playground:)  We had a blast playing and even took a little picnic.  We had so much fun that mommy and Mia even came back later that week with Jaycie, Jack, Olivia and Milli:)  I wish we would have discoverd this place a little earlier in the summer-but we always have next summer!