A Special Visitor

The girls are loving their ballet/tap class they are taking at the community center. They ask pretty much everyday if they have dance class tonight.

practicing their skipping

Natalie, going through the positions with Miss SandyRebecca, going through the positions with Miss Sandy

After their lesson, a special visitor came to class. Santa! Rebecca was thrilled, John couldn't wait to get in on the action, and Natalie was less than impressed.

Photo Catch Up

Sorry for the purge of pictures here, but I have had them sitting on my camera for quite awhile and just finally loaded them on the computer

Girls Dance Class:

- not very good pictures because the doors are closed during class and through the window pictures just weren't working. They are taking tap and ballet and LOVE it!

John's Soccer:

- He's playing for the same team he did in the spring. The team has been doing great. They haven't lost a game yet. John hasn't scored a goal yet, but he tries really hard. :) He is in the blue jersey and black pants in the pictures.

Pumpkin picking & carving:

Six Flags:

Preschool Farm Field Trip:

So Big!

On Tuesday, the girls started their last year of preschool. They are at a new school this year, as their old school shut down. I was upset because it was the same school I went to and I would have loved for all of my kids to have been able to graduate from there. But...I think I like their new school even better! It is much bigger and they have separate music and PE classes along with the regular preschool program. They also have a large art room that the kid can sign themselves into during free play to work on larger art projects that they wouldn't be able to do in a regular class. They also offer Spanish. To offset a little of the cost, I work in the classroom 2 days a month. Wednesday was my 1st day and it was really fun getting to watch the girls interact with their new friends and really get to see what goes on during the day. The classroom got a fish and the kids voted on the name. Natalie's suggestion won the vote. The new fish's name is Blueberry (which also happens to be the name of Natalie's teddy bear).

On Wednesday evening, the girls went to a Stuffed Animal Slumber Party at the library. They wore their pajamas and took their stuffed animal to the library. They got to hear bedtime stories and make a picture frame. Then they tucked their animals in and left the picture frames there. We went back today to pick up the animals and see what they had been up to during the night. Natalies picture frame had a picture of her teddy bear (Blueberry) playing on the computer in it and Rebecca's frame had a picture of her puppy (Bubblegum) playing candyland. They even had a computer set up with a video of what had gone on overnight. It was so cute. The girls were amazed that their animals "came to life" during the night and kept questioning me on how this was possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njG_pQegXRE

Just the 2 of Us

Today I shipped the girls off to Uncle TyTy and (almost) Aunt Angie, so John and I could go to a baseball game together. We had MUCH better weather this time. It was a beautiful day and without the girls to distract him, John was really into the game. We had seats 13 rows up on the 1st base line and a bag of cotton candy. What could be better? Unfortunately, the Cardinals lost in extra innings, but we stayed for the whole thing so that John could run the bases after the game. How cool is that? He gets an autographed bat at the last game, and got to run the bases today? That's one lucky boy!

(he's the one in the middle with blue shorts on)

Fall Fun?

Saturday the kids and I, along with John's family, took the kids apple picking. We had a group of 12, and we were going this weekend specifically to pick the honey crisp apples, as they are only available for 2 weeks. Man, did we pick the wrong day for apple picking! It was 100 degrees out! Not fall weather AT ALL! Plus, due to the all the extreme heat we've been having, and very little rain, the apples were gross. They were all rotted and destroyed by bugs. We usually come home with bags of apples that we never get around to eating. This year, each kid found 2 apples worth taking home. It was so hot and muggy out, we didn't even stay to play on the huge playground. The kids were disappointed, but felt a little better this morning when I made toast with the apple butter I had picked up at the orchard.

A Little Bit of Magic

A few weeks ago I took the kids to the Magic House. We hadn't been in a long time because it can get pretty expensive with 3 kids, but I figured we'd splurge for some "before school starts fun". We started off in the garden area where the kids watered plants and planted seeds. They made little necklaces with seeds and water inside a plastic baggie, and you are supposed to be able to watch the seeds sprout. We may have been able to witness this phenomenon if all 3 of them hadn't lost their necklaces within an hour. We spent a little time in the pretend village, where the kids worked at a grocery store, auto shop, and bank. There was a little boy running around the bank area with handfuls of play money screaming that he was a robber. I am proud to say that wasn't my child!

After playing for a bit we went over to the Picnic Basket to get a snack. The kids devoured their food and wanted to go play outside. I made the terrible mistake of letting them go out the door while I turned my back and threw the trash away. In the time it took me to discard our trash, turn around, and open the door, this had happened...

All 3 kids decided to lay down in the little waterway that you are supposed to take your shoes off and walk through. They were having so much fun I couldn't get upset, but it did sting a little to shell out the money for a day at the Magic House and only get to spend an hour and a half there because the kids were too soaked to go back inside.

I Have a 1st Grader!

Yesterday was John's first day of 1st Grade. This is also his first time of going to school for a full day. We had met his teacher last week and got to see his classroom, and he was very impressed to have his own desk instead of a shared table, like he had in kindergarten. His best friend from last year is in his class again, which we were hoping for. So far, so good. He loves his teacher and is excited that he gets to eat lunch at school and go to recess twice a day. The only issue we had, is that the new shoes I got him gave him a blister the first day he wore them. I guess we should have broken them in, instead of waiting for the first day of school to wear them. He ended up in his ugly, worn out shoes from last year today. Oh, and the bus coming home was 45 minutes late! He didn't care, but it definitely had me worried. I assumed on the 1st day it would be a little late, but 45 minutes was crazy. Plus, it was raining, and I didn't want to walk back home and get the car for fear that's when the bus would come and we'd miss him! It turns out that because of the construction going on at the school, they had the buses line up differently, which resulted in all of the buses getting stuck and being unable to turn and leave the driveway. Ugh!

1, 2, 3 Strikes You're Out...

The kids and I had another Cards game this week. Luckily, we had much better weather than the last game. We were supposed to get down to the stadium at 4:45 to see batting practice and meet one of the players, Skip Schumaker, who I have a huge crush on, um, I mean John's favorite player. My friend Melissa works for the Cardinals and had set it up so we could go on the field and meet Skip. Unfortunately, we relied on public transportation to get to the stadium and ended up missing Cards BP. When we got there, we went down on the field and Melissa ran over to the dugout to see if she could catch Skip before he went to the locker room. He was already gone, but he had left a bat, signed for John, for her to give to him. I couldn't believe he did that! My crush is a good man. I really want to keep it for myself. It's a used bat...so holding it would be like holding his hand, right?

After getting the bat we watched a little bit of the Brewer's batting practice and a ball rolled over to us, which John quickly grabbed and claimed as his own. I was holding the bat, so I was ok with that. After getting our picture taken on the field, Melissa took us around the stadium, around the offices, up to the control room, and we ran into Kerry Robinson, who used to play for the cardinals and now works in their offices. John had him sign the BP ball, even though Melissa said it was a little weird having a co-worker autograph things. But hey, the guy offered!

Next we went to the Kids Club area where Melissa ran into another co-worker who hooked the kids up with throwing a few balls in the pitching speed cages. Then she came back over with Kids Club bags and necklaces for all 3.

We got to have dinner in the Red Bird Club. Bacon wrapped hot dog for me and pretzel covered hotdogs for the kids. Delicious!!

After all that excitement, Melissa had to leave, and left us to find our seats for the game. We didn't stay for the whole thing since it was a night game and we had been down there for so long already. We ate some peanuts and watched 6 innings or so. The kids were beat by the time we got home. It was such an awesome day, and I am so thankful to Melissa for making it such a neat experience for the kids. She and I are going to a game together at the end of the month and I am teasing her that she needs to top this trip to the game. :)

Oh, and we didn't win. Boo!