A Special Day with Grandma

On Saturday Adelyn was spoiled by Grandma who took her to the American Girl store as a special date for the two of them. To say Addy loved it is an understatement. I don't think she stopped smiling for 2 straight hours. She went through every part of the store and studied each doll and her accessories. She was completely fascinated. Then they had lunch at the special restaurant and Addy's doll(s) were included in the meal, she even got to take home the cup and saucer for her doll! It was a very special day for Addy and if that wasn't enough afterwards we went to a birthday party at a rollerskating rink. Addy was very brave and did a great job practicing her skating around the rink. It ended with birthday cake in a park, it doesn't get much better than that!

Pumpkin Patch

Friday was a beautiful fall day and Adelyn got out of school early so we all headed to the pumpkin patch for the afternoon. It was just perfect because there was NO ONE there. We are used to completely full parking lots and lines for everything, but apparently Friday afternoons are the key! The kids had fun going through the various mazes and checking out all of the pumpkins. We enjoyed some apple & pumpkin donuts and Grandma bought us pear jam. So delicious!

End of Month

The last week of September was awesome! I had the whole week off of work and got to really be a part of the weekly routine with the kids. I helped with pick-up and drop-off, I got to take Cameron to his basketball class & Addy to gymnastics. Addy's school had curriculum night so I got to meet her teacher and learn about what she will be doing in 1st grade (I love her teacher!) It was a busy and exciting week and I will never take for granted what Brian does on a daily basis. He manages so many things each day and does a great job doing it all without losing his patience. It was a beautiful week so there was a lot of time outside. Addy and I got to ride bikes to school and Cameron had an impressive run of whiffle ball hits in the backyard.

Now we get to spend the next 5 days having fun with Scott and Wendy who are visiting. The kids have been so excited I think they have asked every day for a week if today is the day that Grandma and Grandpa come. 

Happy Fall

Fall is here and Cameron has been busy helping Brian with all of the "jobs" that come with it. He loves helping rake leaves (and then jump into them) and has been helping get the lawn back in shape. Almost every day he tells Brian that he is ready to do some work outside. I don't think there is anything that could make Brian more proud.

School Routine

Our back to school routine has settled back into swing and it's going great. Cameron LOVES his new preschool and I would say we definitely love it too. The teachers are great and he is already completely comfortable with his new routine. It is no surprise that he loves it, for gym he has played with scooters, trikes, balance bikes and a parachute. He got to have music and play with rhythm sticks, bells and shakers while singing and dancing. Oh, and he survived picture day! We haven't seen them yet but he "showed" us several times what his smile looked like and it was beautiful:)

Addy also has loved 1st grade. She still gets to do PE, music and library day. She starts Spanish again in a few weeks. Last week she had to bring a "me" bag to school with 5 things that were special to her and explain what they were and why they were special and she did a great job. She is making some new friends and she pointed some of them out to us last week when we went to her school for the ice cream social. It's unbelievable to think of how different things are from a year ago when we went and we didn't really know anyone at the school and Addy was so shy. Now Adelyn is so confident and we know lots of the families and teachers and feel so lucky to be there.

Here are a few pics Cameron's teacher shared with us.

And the Medal Goes To....

This summer our local library had a "Ready, Set, Read" program and one of the initiatives was for kids to log their hours of reading during the summer. Addy was excited and carefully kept track of her hours and a few weeks ago I took her to the library to claim her free book. What I didn't realize what that her hours qualified her for a bronze medal, but you could get silver with 15 more hours and gold required and additional 25 hours. Well I've never seen a child quite so focused on anything like the way Addy became consumed with reading. There were only a couple of weeks left to qualify and she became obsessed with reading in every spare minute. She brought books in the car, she stayed up late reading, she read on the couch, it was extremely impressive. She reached the silver medalist status on August 31st (the deadline) and the librarian told her that they would extend the timing to encourage gold medalists, so she kept at it.
Last week she met the gold medal status and got to claim another free book. We definitely have a bookworm on our hands! We are so proud of our busy little reader. Congratulations Adelyn!

State Fair Fun

Over Labor Day weekend we continued our tradition of heading to the State Fair. This year was one of the most fun yet as the kids really enjoyed the rides and there was far less complaining than in past years. Addy got a wristband so she could go on unlimited rides and she really made the most of it. She even went on a grown-up ride on the other side of the fairgrounds. She didn't like the one but she was very brave. Cameron wasn't tall enough for all rides and still is a little scared of most rides so he just did a few of them.
The kids loved seeing the animals and we saw the same farmer with the baby pigs that we see every year (my favorite part!) The kids got to pick out a treat and much to our disappointment they picked cotton candy. It was the first time they had it and they loved it. Brian and I both tried it and I can't believe how terrible it is.
It was another great day at the fair and a good ending to our summer of fun!