Harper's Birthday Party

Harper had a "tutu" birthday party this year. Somehow I didn't end up with any cute pictures, but a couple of you have asked to see them, so here they are. Harper dressed up in her tutu had had lots of fun dancing around.Mom made these really cute tutus to hang from the chandelier. She's much craftier than I am.The girls decorated a ballerina drawing. Harper shoved her cake in her mouth like it was her first birthday. She doesn't always eat like this, but she must have been showing off her good manners:)

Halloween

Halloween is so fun when you have kids. I didn't think that we could match the amount of fun we had last year, but this year was just as much fun. Harper was a little scared of her trick or treat bag because it was a spider, but once we convinced her people would put candy in it she decided she could get over her fear.

The Green Thumb

This is embarrassing to say, but I hardly know how to plant flowers. Harper on the other hand is trying to learn how to garden from her grandmothers. If she's going to learn it will have to be from them, not me!

Daddy's Call Room

Almost every Sunday, Harper and I take Chris dinner at work and visit with him in his call room. Harper LOVES sitting at the desk and "working" so we're thinking of getting her a desk job.

The Virginia State Fair

The last two years, we have taken Harper to the State Fair and had a blast. Last year she liked the animals and even stuck her hand ALL the way inside of a cow's nostril...Yummy. This year was even better than last year. For 2 1/2 hours we didn't hear one whine, which was a record. Harper ran from one animal to the next in the Big Red Barn and had to say "Hey" to all the animals. She enjoyed her first corn dog and rode some rides. We were worried the rides would start and she would want to get off, but she LOVED them.

Aruba

Aruba? You might be thinking, "But y'all were going to Turks and Caicos?!?" Well, thanks to Hurricanes Hanna and Ike, we had to change our plans 2 days before we were supposed to leave. There weren't a lot of tropical options out of the range of the hurricanes, so we went as far south as we could go and decided on Aruba. It ended up being a great trip. I was a little concerned about the 6 total hours of flight time (5 hours from New York), but Harper did great. She had a fever on the way down which made her lethargic and worked out GREAT! We were sad she felt bad, but it sure was nice that she slept most of it. The resort was great and we didn't see one drop of rain. Neither of us finished a book but we loved the time that we got to spend as a family.

Meet the Teacher Day

Today was Harper's first day of school. It wasn't a full day, just long
enough for the moms to have orientation and the kids to meet their teachers.
After today I'll send her in play clothes, but just for today she had to wear
her school bus dress. She insisted in carrying her own bag.

Labor Day

We spent Labor Day at Maymont Park with our friends. Harper, Eve, and Mae had a blast. Here are a few pics:

Riding in Harper's wagon.
The girls sharing a picnic.
I love this picture of Mae with one hand in the chips and one hand eating watermelon.

Silly Billy

Harper is really silly these days. She always seems to get wound up right before bed. The other night we lost her for a minute and she was in Oliver's crate, quiet as could me. Then she opened a package from BeeBee and climbed in the box before ever looking at the present. Silly girl.

Pool Day

We've been livin' it up at the pool this summer. Harper is a water baby. Actually, she's not much of a baby anymore. She wanted to be so independent in the pool, but she kept falling so we had to get her this vest. She looks funny in it, but it keeps her from face planting in the baby pool so we'll wear it. I don't know what Harper would do without her friends, Eve and Mae. Life wouldn't be nearly as fun.

Harper's Baptism

Father's Day was extra special this year because Harper was baptized. One of the new pastors at West End Presbyterian, Matt Purdy, did the baptism. Here are a few pictures:

Bye Caldwells! We'll miss you!

Saturday was moving day for Rush-Baker, Mary DuPre, and Watson. Richmond won't be the same without them. Harper, Eve, Mae, and Watson played outside while the guys packed the truck. Here are some pictures.

Mary DuPre got Dunkin Donuts Muchkins and the girls loved them. I think they probably ate 10 each. Notice the powder sugar on Harper's nose.

She wanted everyone to see just how good the Muchkins were. We have to work on her manners!

Sprinkler Fun

Harper had a blast in the front yard today. The sprinkler wasn't as big of a hit as I thought it would be, but the plain old hose provided lots of entertainment. Both of these pictures are similar, but I couldn't choose between them.

18 month pictures

Chris's sister took pictures of Harper while we were in B'ham and here is the link.
www.heatherswannerphotography.com/harperking
I'm not sure if anyone is interested, but I thought I would post it just in case.

Harper's First Gymnastics Meet

We're back. Some of you have probably stopped checking our blog since I haven't updated it in so long. Most of the month of May was spent in Birmingham for weddings, graduations, etc. Harper and I got spoiled getting to see our B'ham friends so much. I need to work on pictures for the month, but today I'm just posting pictures from Harper's first gymnastics meet. Well....it wasn't really a meet, just a end of the year show, but she did get a medal. Here are some pictures.

Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens

Today we went to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens and played in their children's area. It was the first time that we had visited and it was great. I was glad I had my camera because we got some pretty good shots of Eve, Mae and Harper. For whatever reason I couldn't get the edited versions of these pictures to upload so these are just the pictures as I took them.

Virginia Beach

This past weekend our homegroup from church went to Virginia beach. We had a great time relaxing with our friends and eating way too much. Here's a cute picture of Harper and Hatch. I tried to do a little photo shoot of Harper, but Harper refused to cooperate. I only got one decent picture.