SNOW!

The kids and I ventured out into the snow this morning. They loved every minute of it and we'll be going back out very soon. We just had to come in to warm our hands and eat a little lunch.

Happy Halloween

Thursday afternoon Lauren had a little fever but I hoped when she woke up on Friday that it would be gone . . . totally wrong! She still had a fever so she had to miss the preschool Halloween party, Elliott's office Halloween party & trick-or-treating downtown. Boo Hoo! Thankfully, her fever broke this morning so we are planning for a little trick-or-treating around our neighborhood.

Family Zoo Trip

Elliott's parents came down for Grandparent's day and took us all to the zoo. The kids had a ball and the rest of us were tired at the end of our journey!

Here is Sawyer, Andrew, Lauren, Ethan & Colton. This was taken after lunch but before we stopped for ice-cream. What can I say . . . we enjoy our food. :)
Lauren & Ethan w/ some huge snake.
Elliott & Andrew w/ some turtle.
Ethan, Andrew & Elliott in the bear cage. All the kids really enjoyed crawling through the tunnel. . . including Elliott! :) Actually, Lauren refused to go until Elliott said he would go with her. Such a good daddy!

A much needed update!

Time flies when you're havin' fun! Where did the last month go? We've been busy and done a lot of things. I only hope I can remember them all!

Preschool started up again shortly after we celebrated Lauren's 4th birthday. She is going 5 days a week and absolutely loves it. We have seen changes in her in just the few short weeks she has been there. She has such a quest for knowledge right now and truly enjoys the process of learning something new. I only hope that she isn't bored when Kindergarten rolls around next year. :) Here is a picture of her on the first day of school this year.

Lauren's 4 year check-up at the doctor went great. She is 44 inches and 42 pounds. That puts her off the charts. Her growth has to slow down at some point! I bought her size 6 jeans for school this year and they fit perfect . . . not sure we'll make it through the whole year in them, though. Lauren loves to craft, play games like Yahtzee and Go Fish!, complete puzzles and practice writing letters and numbers.

Andrew's 2 year check-up was just as great. He is 36 inches and 30 pounds. That puts him in the 75%. He has met or surpassed all the development milestones for his age. He's been potty trained now for 4 months, yippee!! He loves to be outside and just generally loves life. He is starting to develop quite a personality and has a huge vocabulary. We hear new phrases each day. Some of the most recent are, "That's not fair." "Where have you been?" and "Lauren isn't sharing with me."



The beginning of the school year also brought on dance class. This is her first year to dance as she had been doing gymnastics. She is really enjoying it and loves her new tap shoes. Yesterday, we got to see a picture of her costume for recital and it is very cute. I can't wait until May to see her in it!

Our Fair

They could have rode the rides all night long.
On this ride the kids could make Dumbo go up and down. Andrew didn't like it. By the end, he was in tears and ready to jump off. Lauren loved it and probably rode it 5 times that night.
First time on a Ferris Wheel for all of them and they all loved it! I stayed on the ground w/ the stroller and the rest of our loot from the day.
Lauren was bound and determined to go down the Super Slide. We were hesitant but she really wanted to do it. (She is the one on the far right.) She climbed right up the stairs all by herself and was super excited until they let her go from the top. The look on her face at the bottom was priceless. She has decided that she'll ride again next year but only if I go with her this time.

Fair Up Home

Here are a few shots of the kids enjoying the rides at the fair up home when we were visiting Grandma & Grandpa. Elliott went on a week long fishing trip to the mountains of Colorado so we headed for Jewell County. Lauren was really excited for the rides. She told us that she had "super fun".

Let the clean-up begin!

Ugh! This is the current state of our front yard. The storm rolled through about 11:00 AM and it was a doozy! 75 mile an hour winds can do a number on things. We also got 1 1/2 inches of rain in 20 or 30 minutes. Elliott and our neighbor cleaned off the porch so I could open the door but we still have lots to do this evening. To top it all off, about 1 hour after all this took place a transformer blew in the yard directly beside us and started a tree on fire. So we had fire trucks everywhere for a while. Thankfully, there was no damage to anyones house from the fire!

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Andrew is 2!!

He & Lauren have a big party planned for next weekend so he only got a couple of presents to open today.

Water Park

The kids really enjoy going to the water park. I really enjoy the fact we can go in the middle of the day when there are fewer kids. I'm not ready for other kids to be mean to my children. I know that it is going to happen but just not ready to deal with it. Today a kid yelled at Andrew for really no reason at all. Andrew just stood there and looked at him with a look like, What are you talking about? It didn't phase Andrew one bit but it really gets under my skin! ;)


Lauren is much more reserved than Andrew. She doesn't particular like getting her head wet.


Andrew on the other hand . . . he could care less. The wetter the better.

Face Painting

We waited for what seemed like an eternity to get their faces painted but it was so worth it. Lauren was so thrilled with her stars. My parents came to visit and have supper with us that evening and she couldn't wait until they arrived to show them. Then she got to wear them out to eat and couldn't have been more tickled about it! :) When bed time rolled around and she had to wash them off, it was a sad good-bye. We promised that she could have her face painted again so she's been on the look-out for another opportunity.

Andrew sat patiently for the girl to paint a flag on his face but after that he could really care less about it. His was gone about 2 minutes after we came home because he rubbed it with wet hands.

4th of July Play Day in the Park

Our Parks & Recreation department puts on a Play Day each 4th of July. This was our first year to attend and the kids really enjoyed it. It was plenty hot but they didn't seem to mind too much. There was 20 old fashion games and free food for everyone. Here you see Lauren playing Quack Attack. At the completion of your first game of the day, you received a medal & ribbon to wear. Then upon completing any further games throughout the day, you received pins to place on your ribbon. Lauren came home with quite a few pins.

Lauren & Andrew both enjoyed the parachute. I felt sorry for the girl running this one because she was working hard with the kids and in the direct sun. It was hot!

Harvest

Seeing my children riding the combine with Grandpa brings back a lot of memories. I spent a lot of time sitting on my water jug seat. There was no such thing as a 'buddy seat' when I was little so I used the water jug or curled up with a roll of paper towels and snoozed away.



Andrew wasn't so sure about riding but once the combine was close enough that he could see Grandpa inside, things were good again. They both loved the ride and I think would have spent several more hours out there if time would have allowed.





You can see it was kinda dirty out there by the looks of Grandpa's shirt. Lauren got filthy getting off the combine and was quite delighted by it! :)