Mother's Day

I decided to let my husband off the hook for Mother's Day-for the rest of our lives. Someone online posted about how her husband got her a journal and has their kids draw and/or write her one page each Mother's Day. How perfect is this idea?! I absolutely love it. A treasure for me to read and reread as much as I want that grows with my children. With Mother's Day tomorrow and my husband casually asking, "so, what's the plan for tomorrow?" I decided to get this journal started this year. Sometime tomorrow he needs to pull each of our kids aside and help them write/draw one page. I got the adorable journal above at Wal-Mart and the cheapest markers, as my kids don't believe in marker caps. I can't wait to read it tomorrow night!

Our Weekend

I have a lot of blogging catch up to do, but can't resist posting about our weekend. I had such a blast with the kids, I wish the weekend was longer. 

Friday we went out to get supplies for our Halloween costumes and stopped on the way to meet Mater and Sheriff. We pass them all the time but I hadn't thought of stopping for pictures until a friend posted pictures of her son with them the other day. 

He was in Heaven!

Saturday we went to an apple orchard. I was looking for an orchard that wasn't commercialized. I get so tired of saying "no" to all the add on things-$2.00 for the hayride, $3.00 for the corn maze. . . with a family of five it gets spendy fast. I just wanted somewhere that would focus on the plants and picking our own food/pumpkins. A friend of mine told me about Maple Leaf Orchard, and it was perfect. We got a peck of Honeycrisp apples that were so good, the kids were "umm, nom, yum!"-ing the whole way home. I think they each gobbled up two apples in the car! We also picked out six pumpkins and a gallon of cider. 

It was really cold, which kept away the big crowds!

We waited for the ride to the apples, and then noticed the Honeycrisp were right behind the tractor! The hayride to the apples is free.

Bee loved helping Jerry find red apples.

He kept grunting at the apples as he pulled on them. 

Picking the perfect pumpkins. Jerry had enough by this time, so I packed him up in the stroller with lots of blankies.

Our loot!
Disclaimer: Jerry took off his shoes and socks in the car and was only out barefoot long enough to take this pic!

Sunday we decided to carve our new pumpkins. This photo pretty much sums up how that went. . . 

"Ma. Punk. Guts."

She was not happy about waiting her turn for momma to take the guts out of her pumpkin.

At least Gracie was willing to try with her guts if she had a spoon. Sadly, I kept them all outside and the guts were rather frozen so I had to do them all.

Drawing her design. It went from a Pegasus to a vampire to a vampire Pegasus and finally a scary face with four eyes. 

Gracie's four eyed vampire with "Packer stripes." 

Momma's

Jerry's-I attempted Lightening McQueen. At least his face lit up and he yelled "Car!" 

Bee's flower

Our new (improved) front steps.

 After dinner the girls helped me get the seeds out of the guts so we could roast them. I've never tried this before, so I Googled how to do it. They turned out pretty good, but I did end up baking them about twice as long as the original instructions.

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Bee loved rinsing the seeds.

Yum!

Sleeping Beauty

Gracie Goes to Kindergarten

My girl is growing up! My colleagues were amazing this morning, and worked it out so that I could drop Gracie off at school even though her drop off time is very close to the start time of my first class. I am grateful to have been there to see her take this huge step. 

 It's hard to read in the photos, but Gracie's whiteboard says

"Gracie's first day of Kindergarten 

2013-2014

I want to be: A princess

Favorite Color: All of them

Most excited about: Learning to read and recess

I want to know: What is our art project going to be?"

Outside of her classroom-her name is the pink lower left.

Her hook!

She was so excited to be going to school. I asked her if she remembered what her teacher asked her to do before entering the classroom and she said yes, did it all and ran into the classroom. No teary good-bye here. When I got home from work, I asked her how her day was and she replied, "THREE recesses?! Are you kidding me? It's HOT, hot hot!" She then proceeded to tell me how much fun gym class was even though she got in trouble because "the teacher thought I wasn't listening but I WAS!" Likely story. I'm just glad she still likes the class. She likes it because they "got their hearts goin' faster, exercised, and got strong muscles!" I hope I can go a good job nurturing this love of learning that she has. It makes this momma's heart happy to see my girl loving learning.

Kindergarten Registration

Gracie is all registered for Kindergarten! 

It took us three tries to get her school photo looking good; she seemed to think she was a supermodel!

It did turn out great, though! I'm thankful that it wasn't busy when we got there and the photog was very patient.

Dentist

This summer our girls visited the dentist for the first time. 

They were very nervous, so I let them each bring one small stuffed animal with.

Gracie waiting for her turn.

Bee waiting for her turn.

Bee when in first, and she was extremely nervous.

The hygienist gave her some sunglasses so the light wouldn't bother her. 

Gracie, all ready for a cleaning.

She looks nervous, but she really just couldn't tear her eyes from the cartoons for a pic!

Checking out her newly cleaned teeth.

They got to pick a treasure when they were done.

 When we got into the car to head home, they were already asking when they get to go back! The office is next door to a gas station and every time we stop there for gas they ask when they get to go again. 

Our family went to BWW to celebrate a successful trip.