There's no place like home!

Pretty little Dorothy and her sweet puppy Toto had quite an exciting evening!  They had such a fun time at our church's (massive) Fall Festival!  This was Anna Kate's third Fall Festival and Caroline's second (she was 13 days old when she went last year!).  Caroline will probably get into everything a little more next year, but she did a great job riding around in the wagon.  Oh, and she LOVED the petting zoo - except when a goat got right in her face...she didn't like that!  Anna Kate has been so excited for this day to come (she's been talking about it for weeks).  Her favorite part was definitely the bouncy houses!  And the toucan tattoo she got on her hand...super cool.  And feeding the goats.  And the candy.  Who am I kidding, she loved it all!
On another note, our church's Fall Festival is always lots of fun, but we also make sure that we take full advantage of the fact that nearly 2000 people from our community come through our doors.  In years past, everyone has received printed gospel materials, as well as a follow-up phone call and invitation to church, but this year (thanks to my multi-talented and technologically-savvy husband), we were able to do something really neat!  Over the past couple months, our pastor has been doing a sermon series called "Salvation Stories".  Each week we watch a 5 minute video testimony of one of our church members telling their personal story of salvation (all filmed and edited by Luke).  Anyway, he compiled all 6 or 8 of them and had them playing continuously on a big screen outside at the front of the church.  It could be heard/seen by people in line for registration, as well as through the whole trunk-or-treat and many of the games!  Such a cool way to make the most of every opportunity to share the gospel with our community.  Oh, and if you're interested in seeing the salvation stories yourself, you can check them out here.

Ok, back to Anna Kate and Caroline!  I found Anna Kate's little costume at a yard sale this summer and we checked out a Wizard of Oz picture book at the library to get her ready.  She did a great job telling everyone, "There's no place like home!" And Caroline's outfit was pretty simple...black sweatshirt/pants with ears and a tail sewn on, and voila, a Toto costume!  And perfect, since she just learned how to make a doggy sound!

Unfortunately, they REFUSED to cooperate for pictures before we left.  Anna Kate just wanted to get in the car and go already and Caroline just wanted to eat the grass.  This was the best we got.

I did get a cute one of them in the wagon waiting in the registration line!

And a couple of Anna Kate having more fun than she ever thought possible!

Mommy with her big girl!

  

We didn't see much of Daddy throughout the evening since he was working extremely hard getting all 1800-2000 people welcomed and registered, but we did find him right before we headed home!  Caroline was officially done with the Fall Festival at this point...hence the fussy paci face.  Anna Kate could have stayed for hours.

 

And since I like to reminisce, here are pictures from the past two years.

2010

(8 months old)

2011

 (20 months and 2 weeks)

2012

(Two and a half and 12 months)