Becoming a Big Girl

I've had a great time the last week and half with the Princess while the boy's been on vacation with his grandparents. One of my favorite outings with the Princess was when we went to the Botanical Gardens for some pictures with her new kitty cat fascinator (we found it at Claire's) and her Marie dress.

She's a fun one but don't let the cuteness fool you, she's a handful. We've made some big steps to getting her ready to be a big sister. Some of those big steps have come with growing pains. Potty training was attempted and abandoned-we'll try again in a couple months. Her big girl bed has been set up and she's accepted it...for the most part. Every once in a while she'll still try to insist on sleeping in the crib but buying her new Minnie Mouse bedding went a long way to convincing her that the big bed is the way to go. Lastly, time outs are now a regular thing...it probably sounds odd to throw that in with potty training and a real bed but in our house, discipline is viewed as a good thing. She's old enough to be corrected, to be held accountable and to grow as a person. It's not easy or fun for any of us...today a two minute time out for putting clothes from the hamper into the toilet turned into a 20 minute time out because until she sat on the step for two minutes without getting up or playing, her time kept resarting. But in the end, she did it and more importantly, she apologized. The icing on the cake was when I asked if she would make good choices, her answer was a loud "yes, ma'am" instead of the quiet mouthing of the words she's tried to get away with in the past. She's independent and bold and I wouldn't change that for anything but she's also going to be respectful and kind even if it takes us 20 minutes to do a two minute time out. Meanwhile, I'm hoping the blue dye we have in the toilet water comes out of the clothes she dumped.

I'm Back...again.

I'm probably the worst blogger ever when it comes to unexplained blogging sabbaticals. I haven't written since JULY! How crazy is that?! Here's the thing, stuff happened. I probably won't go into great detail on all the "stuff" but I'm back and here's a quick run down of what we've been up to...

*Most importantly, I'm still pregnant. We had a couple complications  (given my history, no real surprises there) but everything is going well now and I'm already huge which is good...mostly. 

*Joshua has a new civi job...this one takes a little explanation. His old civi job fired him. Yup. Fired. He's never been fired before and despite the fact that they always gave him glowing reviews and he's never had a complaint, they fired him...basically, they were tired of having to work around his Guard schedule and responsibilities so when he came back from his two week AT, they let him go. I wasn't surprised because they've been anti-military since day one but I was angry and if I think about it too much now, I'm still angry...but I'm also grateful. He hated that place. They were HORRIBLE. Not everyone who worked there of course but yeah, horrible is the only word for it. Just to give you an idea of the atmosphere, before he deployed they were interviewing people for an open position and he overheard one of the managers say that there was "no chance in hell we're hiring that guy-he's another Guard guy and that's the last thing we need." Then, when Joshua returned from deployment, several of his co-workers thought it was funny to surprise him with loud noises just to see if they could make him jump. Classy, right?! Anyway, I say I'm grateful because his new job is better. I mean it's not hard to be better than his old job but it's WAY better. Like God did an awesome thing better. The hours are a little odd but we're good with odd and he enjoys the work.

*We've started with our new homeschool group and curriculum-Classical Conversations if you're interested. It couldn't be going better. I'm tutoring the 4/5 yr old class which has been a blast and the boy is amazing us with how much he's learning. Actually, our little 2 yr old princess is even trying to get in on the action sometimes.

(1st day of CC-our homeschool group which meets once a week and our 1st day of homeschool at home-yup, in pjs)

(our favorite project this semester...we created a multi-level eco-system...I plan to write a post with more details to come but if you want to build one yourself, you can find the step-by-step tutorial we followed here)

*I was asked to be a pattern tester for a new "ruffle top" which I loved making but unfortunately in the process my sewing machine died :( so now I'm at a bit of a standstill when it comes to sewing.

(here's the finished project...once the pattern is available for purchase, I'll post a link to it)

*The boy is, at this very moment, on vacation with his grandparents at Disney World. I'm jealous. I'm really jealous. But I'm also really pregnant and on travel restrictions...kinda going crazy with cabin fever. I have, however, enjoyed the one-on-one time with our princess. We switched some of the kids furniture around in preparation for Baby 3.0 so now the princess is in a big girl bed and loving it-still waiting to find out the gender but Joshua's trying to convince me not to wait so we'll see if that changes.

That's been us the last couple of months. I plan on spending the next week reading all the blogs I love and have been missing to get caught up on your lives!

PS>I just got a pic from Grandma of our little man and a couple of his cousins at Disney World's Pirate's League...so wish I was with him!

Spitting Image

I've been arrogant at times when it comes to parenting...breezing through with an easy-to-parent son and years and years of nanny experience...infants, teenagers, triplets-heck, even a family with ten kids. I was ready to take on the challenge of parenting head on and do it with ease until one little girl came into our lives and uprooted everything.

It's humbling to have a child who reminds you of all your most negative qualities. I have that and so much more in our little princess.  She's our "strong-willed" child and I celebrate it...most of the time...because I know it means she'll grow up to be a brave woman with conviction and determination.

But then, there are days like today when I wake up and my first thought is "oh no, what is she going to do today?!" It's exhausting. Not just having a strong-willed, loud, sneaky, demanding child...just about all nearly-two-year-olds are that way. It's the way she's strong-willed, loud, sneaky and demanding that's exhausting because it's a reminder of all the areas of my own character that are less than stellar.

It's not that she's stubborn, I'm stubborn. It's not that she's loud and abrasive, I'm loud and abrasive. It's not that she's manipulative, it's that I'm manipulative. I feel like a hypocrite trying desperately to teach her not to be these things when I know my heart betrays me. I'm all these things and I've lived long enough to know that they're not good things. They make life more difficult. They make relationships more difficult. 

I'm starting to realize that all I can do is parent the best I know how and let God do the rest. Which, if you've been paying attention, you know isn't easy for me because like my daughter, I want to control everything. But God wanted more. He gave me a child who is bringing me closer to Him. He's using her to show me that He wants better not just for her but from me and I'm listening.

Time Flies

Hello blogging world...you may (or may not) have noticed my total desertion of this page for the last month (and a half). To be honest, nothing major really happened to drive me away. I just needed a break. I needed to focus on my family and myself. 

Here's a (hopefully) quick breakdown to catch you up...

We cracked down on homeschooling and have officially decided to go with Classical Conversations next year and are super excited about it. 

We had a snow-pocalypse that was a ton of fun...

I got a new .22 rifle for Valentine's Day and we took some good friends shooting... (the boy and one of his best friends had a blast)

I escaped. I took a long weekend and flew down to El Paso (thereby leaving the children alone with Joshua for the first time ever!) to visit this awesome lady...

(cell phone pic...eh, sorry)

Joshua and I had a weekend away...hotel, theater tickets (Cathy Rigby's Peter Pan-I highly recommend seeing it!-that woman is in better shape at 60 than I am today!), dinner out...the basics

In related news, the boy also got to see Peter Pan as his first broadway show with his Grandma. He LOVED it!...he wasn't so much a fan of the pics I insisted we take before he left but I couldn't resist. I love my bow-tie-lovin', suspender-wearing little man!

Also, I've been on a sewing kick...big time. I made a couple new dresses for the girl...

(she was less than thrilled to do pics at that particular moment)

(I got the hat from Halo Heaven)

And finally, the biggest news (for me at least) was that I finally got my much coveted Brother PE-770 Embroidery Machine!!! I'm in love! This was the first thing I made...

So that's what we've been up to...kind of a crazy busy season for us but a good one. 

When Words Are Gone

If you've read my blog for any amount of time or know me in real life, you know we've suffered multiple miscarriages. More than I care to think about much less discuss very often. But even with all my own experience, or maybe in part because of it, when someone I know goes through a miscarriage of their own, I'm often left speechless and numb.

This weekend, I found out that a childhood friend whom I respect and love lost her twin girls. At seven months. 

She lives too far away to comfort her in person and to be honest, I doubt she'd want me there. I wouldn't blame her. The emotions are so raw and so diverse. Anger. Indescribable heart-ache. Bitterness. Questioning. Numbness. Guilt. There's often no room left for anyone else. Most women don't want to deal with questions of how and why, other people's grief over her loss or platitudes about how it was "meant to be."

Granted, each woman grieves in her way and some may want solitude, some a grand gathering to distract her. Some want all traces of the child gone before she comes home from the hospital, some will cling to those reminders like a lifeline. All of that will sort itself out but only prayer and the Peace that surpasses all understanding can hold a woman together when her world has fallen apart. I've experienced it. I know what it's like to be totally destroyed and let the Lord put me back together. I've had friends and family hold me with their prayers and comfort me with their silence. I knew their hearts were with me when I couldn't be with them.

If you know someone going through a miscarriage  here's some tips (in my humble opinion) of what you can do to ease their pain...

*Remember the father. So many times people forget that he's grieving too. 

*If you're not in their inner-circle, leave them alone. Certainly pray for them and send a card or token if you'd like but now is not the time to flood a woman with acquaintances.

*If you are a part of their inner-circle, find out what they want. Talk to the father or mother of the mother. Do they want a group of people to be at their bedside, just a couple or even no one at all? Do they want to come home to the baby stuff or need it removed?

*Drop off food. It's so easy to forget to eat or not have the ability to cook when your grief doesn't allow you to think straight.

*Take your cues from the couple. Be there when they want you, go away when they want to be alone.

*Don't tell them that it's God's plan. Even if you believe it. Even if you know they believe it. Now is not the time.

*Just pray.

Quick Update

Things have been a bit crazy lately but I wanted to stop by and give you a quick update...

We...
*went to the farm, took some family pics (which we hadn't done really since last March!)

*taught a couple good friends to shoot (always fun!)

*finally took the last of the holiday decorations down...yeah, we were sort of those people...the outside stuff was all down on New Year's but the inside stuff sort of just stayed

Joshua...

*has been pulled in 12 different directions all at once but seems to be handling it pretty well and will hopefully be home more after next week

Me...
*finally has a picture of JUST me that I like (no kids, no Joshua, JUST me...wow...it's been YEARS)

The boy...
*is on a photo boycott...he refuses to smile for real anymore

*loves his new bike but not as much as his sister does...(this is her pouting because she didn't get to ride it)

The girl...

*went in for her 18 month well baby check up and is up to the 12th percentile in both height and weight (woohoo she's proportional)...unfortunately she's still not yet 20lbs so we'll be rocking the rear-facing car seat for a while longer

Bubba and the foster puppy...

*Bubba has, for the most part, enjoyed having another dog to wrestle with but I think he's also looking forward to the puppy finding a forever home so he can just lay around

*we thought we had found the foster puppy a home but it fell through so the search continues...who wouldn't want this sweet girl?!

Oh my goodness, I just looked at the clock! I have to get ready, Joshua and I are going to the theater tonight (eeek!). We have tickets for Jekyll and Hyde and I've somehow convinced him to go big and where his dress blues. Meanwhile, I bought a pair of black 6" heel because I'm crazy awesome like that!-my husband is a foot taller than me, I have to do something!

Weekend Wrap-Up

This weekend was a little bitter-sweet. Saturday was awesome for my mom, my aunt and my cousin. They all finished the half marathon at Disney World. 

It was an adventure and I couldn't be more proud of them. The thing is, I was supposed to be there too but because of several reasons...the Army and Joshua's civi job being the main culprits...I couldn't go. I was angry. I walked around pouting like a child. It was supposed to finally be my escape and it didn't happen. Once again, I was stuck at home alone with the kids and the dogs. Yes, dogs. Our Bubba and our newest foster. 

The foster puppy is a sweet one...full of love and joy but she's still very much in that puppy stage so she's a little all over the place. She's a big girl which makes the "all over the place" a little more problematic. Mostly because we have a small house and small children-both of whom were sick this weekend-you know, because Murphy's Law dictates that if you're going to be down, you might as well be kicked.

Thankfully, the kids have recovered, Joshua came home last night and I'm fully confident we will find a forever home for our active little guest.

5 (Post) New Year's Wishes

I've been tagged. 

But it's actually pretty cool...JG from Me and My SoldierMan was tagged by Mrs Banana Pants to post 5 Christmas Wishes...that deadline passed and JG posted 5 great New Year's Wishes so now I'm posting my own (Post) New Year's Wishes. It was pretty tough for me to come up with them because I hadn't really given much (read: none, zero, zilch, nada) thought into a resolution. I'm not against resolutions in general, I'm just cynical about my own abilities to follow through and I can't stand saying I'll do something and then not doing it...sorry, therapy tangent. Anyway, here they are...

5. Be Nice. I should mention that I think I'm a pretty nice person by nature but there's a very cynical, sarcastic, sometimes hurtful side that bubbles over. It's not good. If I was totally honest, it's arrogance and it's rude. So, this is me pledging to be nice...even if you're the idiot hippie type of individual who feels it necessary to openly hate everything I love. 

This one's going to be tough to keep on Twitter.

4. Be Generous. With my time and resources. Specifically, I want to keep fostering puppy dogs one at a time...eventually (read: bigger house) we'd like to become Puppy Raisers who help raise and train assistance dogs. It's so easy to say this week isn't good for us or someone else can do it but if everyone says that, the problem of dogs being put down would only get worse. We lost our precious Murray a couple years ago and now with just our Bubba, we have the space and I can't begin to count the ways it has helped our children grow in empathy and understanding.

This one makes me glad we got rid of all the carpet in the house.

3. Be Together...as in with Joshua, just Joshua. He's home. We've given it time and the kids have adjusted really well. No one's nursing or pregnant (woohoo-my body is my own again!). Now is the time to embrace "us" time. Joshua and I haven't taken a vacation just the two of us (well, apart from a really great road trip to and from El Paso) since before our 4 1/2 year old son was born. This will be the year we escape. I'm not sure where we'll go or what we'll do but I do know we'll have a great time.

Thanks to my parents, we've already got three awesome date nights planned between now and May...for Christmas they bought Joshua and I theater tickets for three different shows...Jekyll and Hyde, Cathy Rigby's Peter Pan and Westside Story. SUPER EXCITED!

2. Be At Peace. I'm not very good with change...particularly change I have NO control over but we already know there will be a ton of changes in the year to come...like huge changes...changes that will effect our family forever. Intimidating changes. There's still a dozen things that need to happen before I feel comfortable posting any real details but I can tell you that I'm proud of my husband and I trust that God will open the doors that need to open and close the doors that need to close. In the meantime, I (gulp) choose peace. 

Ok. I'm a total control freak. This one's hard.

1. Be Aware. I'm blessed. I stay home with our children and we've chosen to home-school so I get the pleasure of spending a lot of time with my children but I've noticed it's easy to go through the steps of life while letting it pass me by. My son will be FIVE in June. My daughter will be TWO in July...it's surreal. I want to really see what they become next. If my son will continue to be overprotective of his sister. How he'll assert his individualism. It goes beyond if Batman and Capt America will still be his favorite super heroes or if he'll still insist on wearing a bow tie as often as possible. It goes to his core...the kind of man he will grow into. I see glimpses of it every day. These years are so precious. And our daughter...wow. She's just at that stage where her personality in all it's glory is really starting to show through and I can't wait to see what aspects are solidified and what traits fade to the background. We call her our little daredevil but she's deathly afraid of water. She's pensive and observant before she declares her opinion...but when she's made up her mind, watch out, there's no stopping that child.

These are the days I wish I could freeze time altogether. It goes too fast.

Don't Wait

I know that by now there are dozens, hundreds-maybe even thousands, of posts about the nightmare that happened in Connecticut last Friday.

I'm not going to write about gun control, school safety or mental health issues...I've seen and said enough on all those topics on Twitter and Facebook. Right now, I just want to take a minute and remind all the parents out there that as unimaginable as it may be, we are not promised a lifetime with our children. 

I have friends who say we'll do XYZ with Timmy or Jane when (fill in the bank). They wait to do sports. They wait to go on vacation. They wait to teach their children to bake or to shoot or to play an instrument. And I understand why they wait...they want their children to be old enough, they want to pay off this bill or remodel that room, they're too busy right now but the bottom line is that they always think there's time. Tragically, there's not always time.

Twenty sets of parents discovered that on Friday in the most horrific way I can imagine. Don't let time slip away or heaven forbid end before you act. Whatever the XYZ is for you and your family, do it today. Don't wait.

May all those affected by the shooting at Sandy Hook find Peace.

Colorblind

Something interesting happened last night. My son drew a picture of he and I holding hands. Before you assume that I've gone totally off the cliff with the whole "my kid is awesome and everyone should know all about everything he does" mentality so many Moms understandably have, this pictures was different. 

He had colored in our skin...a lovely shade of yellow. It was a first-usually we're stick people or just not colored in. I asked him if he had used the yellow crayon because of what our skin looks like and he replied with a "yeah" that sounded more like a "duh." It lead to an interesting conversation today about the different people we know and why they look the way they do. 

Being a white family living in an area that is very white can make it interesting to have discussions like this one but I'm glad we did. Maybe it's because I'm white and haven't faced the sting of racial prejudice but I don't understand when people say we need to be colorblind-don't misunderstand, I would hope to never judge someone good or bad based on the color of their skin but I also don't want to ignore the obvious beauty in our diversity. 

We ended up talking about different skin colors, eyes and hair but I think my son summed it up best when he said "It's cool that God made people different colors because I have different color crayons and I like to use lots of colors in my pictures." I think God had the same idea little man.

How To: Sippy Cup Strap

Our little princess is just that...a princess and at 1 she's still learning that she's not supposed to just throw something down when she's done with it so in an attempt to save ourselves the hassle of constantly having to rinse off or possibly losing a sippy cup altogether (those things aren't cheap), I made a sippy cup strap. It's super easy...

Here's what you'll need...

Ribbon. (I used less than two feet)

Elastic. (I used about 4 inches)

Velcro. (I used a 1 1/2 inch strip)

And of course a sewing machine with thread.

Everything I used was in my craft bin from an earlier project so it didn't cost me anything but if you had to buy everything (apart from the sewing machine and thread) it would cost you about $5-10 and you'll have plenty of extra supplies for another project down the road.

Step 1:

Determine the amount of elastic you'll need for the specific style of sippy cup you're working with.

Step 2:

Pinning. 

Pin the top. 

(I left a little room at the top of the thread so that when I connected the two ends of the elastic it have a nicer edge)

And then stretch the elastic all the way out and pin the bottom of the elastic to the ribbon.

Finally, with the elastic still stretched, pin the middle.

(it will make sewing a little easier)

Step 3:

Sewing the elastic to the ribbon.

Make sure your machine needle is dropped down BEFORE you remove or relocate the top pin to sew or the elastic will snap back.

Once your machine needle is in place and you are ready to begin sewing, keep one hand at the top pulling the ribbon and elastic and one hand at the bottom of the elastic and ribbon keeping the elastic taught so that it doesn't shift around.

This is what it will look like after you've sewn down one side:

(you can opt to sew only down the middle...I decided to do each side of the elastic because I like the visual effect of it better and because that's just that much more reinforced)

Repeat on the left (if you started on the right side of the elastic as I did...or visa versa), remembering to drop the machine needle BEFORE removing the top pin and when you have both sides sewn, it should look like this:

Step 4:

The elastic ends.

Wrap you ribbon-attached elastic around the sippy cup again and double check the length. You'll probably find that because of the ribbon stitching, the elastic is now longer than when you first measured so you may have to adjust for that by overlapping some of the elastic when you sew the ends of the elastic together.

Step 5:

Length of the strap and velcro.

Put your sippy cup with the elastic/ribbon circle around it inside the snack tray of your stroller and determine the length of your ribbon. Don't forget to double check that it can reach the baby's mouth but not hit the ground. 

(since we have a double stroller, I checked the length on both seats as our Princess rides in both)

Then, simply attach the velcro to one side, wrap it as snugly as you want (I like it a little loose so it wears on the ribbon a little less) around the stroller or snack tray bar and attach the second side of the velcro.

Voila. 

A sippy cup strap...makes life simpler. 

Bamboozled By The Baby

We caught the little rugrat red handed. She was inching closer and closer to the trash with her clutched fist outstretched. Inside the thief's hand were my keys and her goal was to properly dispose of them.

In and of itself it's just another night in parenthood but for our family this week, it's much more. For the last week and a half our living room satellite dvr remote has been missing. I had, as always, set it down on the arm of the chair when Joshua and I went to bed. Of course since I was the last to have it, I'm the one responsible (blah, blah, blah) and I must have forgotten what I really did with it.

Whatever.

At lunchtime the next day, I begged Joshua to check the trash-which he had diligently taken out before we knew the remote was missing. I knew the trashman was on his way and to his credit, Joshua did at least a superficial exam of the bag but he didn't see it so we assumed it was still in the house. 

For the record, I'm not a great fan of housekeeping but my house is clean and organized so after not finding that darned remote for over a week coupled with the circumstantial evidence of tonight's attempted key-trashing, we're convinced the little one did it.

To be honest, not being able to watch TV in the living room other than movies on the Bluray didn't totally suck. It meant no TV cartoons. It meant no cartoon channel commercials. It meant less time in front of the TV as a family. Something else I've noticed, our son's attitude has been better. It didn't seem to matter that the shows we allowed him to watch were age and topic appropriate. Shows that had a good message-a moral message often did so by introducing a negative concept first. For example, Phineas and Ferb (love me some Phineas and Ferb, don't get me wrong) introduces concepts like bullying in an attempt to explain to children how to avoid  or even put an end to it. Well, since our kids are homeschooled and still young, bullying isn't a concept they've ever had to encounter and quite honestly, I'd rather they stay ignorant and innocent of such things as long as possible. In my opinion, naivete is under-appreciated.

Before you start rolling your eyes because I'm turning into one of those organic food lovin', anti-TV, homeschooling moms, keep in mind that turning the TV off was the last thing I wanted but it seems to be working out to be one of the best things for our kids and that's all any parent wants.

Will we stop watching TV altogether? HECK NO. TV helped me stay sane during deployment.

Will the children ONLY be allowed to watch movies? Probably not. Maybe. For now, yes.

Do we have a problem with other people watching TV? Not at all. If your kids are less sensitive to it, I applaud you (and am a little jealous). 

Will our children be allowed to watch TV at their friends' houses? Of course. We have rules for our home. We have friends who have different rules and that's ok too...as long as we agree on the big issues.


So that's how our one-year old bamboozled us into turning the TV off and we're good with it...although I ordered a replacement remote tonight, just in case (besides the living room TV is bigger than our bedroom one and the kids do go to bed before us).

Costume Ideas for Siblings, Couples or Groups

It's that time of year again, fall is on the horizon and for us, that means costumes...lots of costumes. 

I know how hard it can be to come up with costume ideas so below is a compilation of some of our favorite costume ideas with contributions from our family and friends...hope it helps!

Peter Pan Characters

So many options for boys and girls when you go with Peter Pan...it was our pick last year when we had a large group.

Pirates

Jake and the Neverland Pirates

(photo credit: creativejamie.com)

Phineas and Ferb

(photo credit: disneymovielist.com)

Last year our friends who have 3 boys all did this...Mom was Candace, Dad was Dr Doofenshmirtz, older boys were Phineas and Ferb and the baby was Perry.

Superheros

Thanks to Pinterest girls can join in on the hero fun...

Source: epbot.com via Brianna on Pinterest

Toy Story Characters

In addition to Buzz and Jessie, you can do Woody, Bo Peep, Slinky Dog, Mr and Mrs Potato Head, Rex, Hamm, Bullseye, Aliens, Sarge (complete with a bucket of soldiers), RC, Wheezy, Stinky Pete, Zurg, Lots-O, Peas in a Pod, Ken and Barbie

Star Wars Characters

This is the one we may do for Halloween this year with the boy as Luke, our princess as Leila and Joshua and I as Darth Vader and Queen Amidala

The best part of going with a Star Wars route is the number of available options...and you can always throw in an extra Jedi or Storm Trooper.

Dr Seuss Characters

Oh the things you can do...

And do...

Classic Disney Characters

*tip: you don't have to go to the parks to get the ears...you can go to Disney's Shopping website and buy them there

Just add Bert to Mary Poppins...or dancing penguins and you'll be a unique and totally fun group.

Flinstones

In addition to Bam Bam, in 2010 Joshua and I were Barney and Betty Rubble and an itty bitty Pebbles, Fred and Wilma (the boy's Godparents and their daughter) met up with us for some trick-or-treating fun.

More fun options...

The Brady Bunch

A Magician and Bunny Rabbit 

(particularly good if you have an older boy and a little bitty girl)

Police and Criminal

(we thought about doing this and making our one year old the cop and the rest of us crooks since she's so clearly in charge)

Bo Peep and Sheep

(another good one if you have a particularly "in charge" kind of little girl...everyone else can be her sheep)

Peanut Butter and Jelly

(the sandwich board type of costume...bigger kids or adults would probably be better at walking with these types of costumes)

A Gaggle of Ghosts

(before pirates were the go-to group thing, ghosts were a popular back-up option)

Beauty and the Beast

Dorthy and Toto 

(or any other combination of characters from Wizard of Oz)

Milo and Otis

Raggedy Ann and Andy

Dora and Diego

Elmo and Zoey

Sully and Boo

(you can always add Mike Wizowski, Waternoose or the CDA agents for a group option)

Bowling Ball and Pins

(great for a big group and gender is irrelevant)

Hanzel and Gretel

Wilbur and Charlotte

Jack Sprat and His Wife

(cute if you have a little chubby baby girl and an older lean brother)

The Adams Family Characters

Mario, Luigi and Princess Toadstool

Whatever theme you decide to go with, have a great time and take lots of pictures!