Preschool

Shane is having a lot of fun in preschool, and I am enjoying all his stories.  It is such a fun age, and I am hearing a lot more about school this year than last, with the right questions of course.  A couple of my favorites:

(we had been talking about one of his friends)

Me: what does he look like?

Shane: brown face!

His teacher had walked him out to the car with another girl and I asked afterwards who it was and if she was his friend.  He said, "well.... she's in my class.... but I'm not really sure."  So I asked if he'd been bugging her (we've talked about getting in people's personal space a lot).  "Yeah."  What did you do?  "Whispered in her ear."  I asked if she told him to stop.  "Yes.  And then suddenly I just moved on to a different girl!"  Did she like that?  "No."  

So naturally I jumped on the chance to go with his class on their "Fall Walk" in the woods near the school.  It was a cold day but we bundled up and the kids collected all kinds of treasures.  Lots of little boys!  

 His teachers are so patient and good with them!

The girls had fun tagging along with the big kids:)

Football Fun

Shane had his last flag football game on Saturday.  He has had so much fun and it has been so good for him!  And we've had a lot of fun watching him.  A couple weeks ago his buddy Carter came to watch him play.  Shane and Marissa LOVE him.    

Sadie loves his mama Katie, and I think the feeling is mutual.  She always volunteers to take Sadie while Josh or I are teaching in church.  

 Then yesterday Grandma Dettinger came to watch him!  It is so fun to have her close here to be able to do things like that.  The weather has turned and it was COLD!

 Here are the "Sooners."  He loved his coach and he was so good with them.

 The last game Shane ran the ball twice and ran the right way and didn't forget to take the ball with him:)  A success!!  And his first trophy!  We will definitely be signing him up next year.

Pittsburgh

(I'm getting creative with my titles aren't I?)

So Josh's program gives him a generous allowance each year for CME (continuing medical education) which allows him to go to some conferences.  We decided to look for one that was within driving distance because they pay for your mileage and hotel if you drive but we would have to pay for mine and the kids plane tickets if we flew.  Then we had to find one that was during a rotation he could get time off from, and there was one in Pittsburgh that fit the bill.  Kind of sounds like a funny place to go on vacation but it actually ended up being a really good place for us.  It felt like our old interview trail days, only he has a job now!  And we have 3 kids now!  And I forgot to charge my camera battery, so these are all off Josh's phone.  Sadie wouldn't fit in the picture but she won the award for best little passenger on the ride there, it was about 5 1/2 hours and she was so content and happy doing who knows what in her car seat?  The little buckets they gave out for Happy Meals kept the other too pretty happy.

We got there Wednesday evening and got situated in the hotel and then walked around the city a little.  There is a big river with lots of cool bridges downtown where our hotel and his conference center was.

We said we wouldn't necessarily call it a "pretty" city but it was pretty cool and had a lot of neat stuff.

We did our usual hotel setup of the two big kids in a queen with some bags in between.  I must have taken this the second night cause Shane didn't end up falling asleep til after 11 the first night.  If the tv is on he will stay awake to watch it- he certainly did not get that trait from his mama!

The next day Josh headed to his conference while the kids and I slept in and ate breakfast in the hotel.  Then we set off to see a little bit more of the town and head to the children's museum.  It was about a mile away so I decided to walk with the kids instead of driving and having to park and navigate one way streets.  We got a pass at our science museum here in Fort Wayne that has reciprocity with it so we got in completely free!    We spent five hours there and still didn't get to everything.  It had 3 floors and the kids could climb between them on these cool things.

Giant lite bright

Sadie wants to be a part of everything

"The garage" where they could build racetracks and all kinds of other things

 The water floor was a big hit

 We made a mess with this big rock drum thing and I told Shane to pick up 20 rocks and he said "I know!  I can count by 2's!  2... 4...6..."  I said who taught you that?  "Mickey Mouse!"

Sadie catching a little snooze with all the water sound effects.

We walked home in the rain and Shane told me "Thanks for letting me get wet mommy!!"

Josh had one more day of conference and we headed to the zoo.  We got in for half price with our zoo pass, and then some lady gave me her extra ticket in the parking lot!  We loved getting to see some animals our zoo doesn't have like polar bears

 and some different sharks and stuff in their aquarium

 also rhinos, elephants, gorillas, black bears, and rattlesnakes.  Shane kept his map and has been looking at it daily reliving the experience.  We walked up to this and without telling him I asked him what it was.  "A gila monster!"  I can just imagine he was thinking, "I've been reading about all these animals and now they're finally here in front of me!"

Leopard pants with the leopard.

That night I wanted to check out a place I'd heard of on food network/travel channel called Primanti Brothers where they make big sandwiches with french fries on them.  It was really good!

Saturday before we left Josh wanted to be able to do something fun with us so we went to the Carnegie Science Center which was also free with our science pass.  Here we are before going into the submarine, there was a huge yellow ducky on the river while we were there, some kind of social experiment from Japan?   The kids loved it.

 The submarine was a real one they used back in the day and it was really interesting

 they also had a sports type museum with it when a bunch of cool things to try out.

We headed back that afternoon.  It was a great little getaway for us, and even better, it was pretty much free!  

Loving Fall

We are loving this fall.  It has been cool in the morning, and then warming up to perfect temperatures in the afternoon.  I keep waiting for the weather to turn and I'm sure it will soon, but for now we are spending lots and lots of time outside!   We went with a moms group to a pumpkin patch and had a lot of fun.  I don't even try to get a picture with them all looking anymore, it's nigh impossible, I'll take one with all of them in it. 

 There was a hay ride

  lots of little play areas and mazes and little ride-ons for them to play in, storytime, and of course pumpkins.  These make it look like we were the only ones there, but really there were probably 20 moms with their kids there.

 It can be exhausting sometimes keeping track of all 3 of them at places like these- in the 2 hours we were there we had a potty incident, Shane swung the rope swing at a girl when he got frustrated, Marissa ran behind the swings and got pummeled, I thought I lost her 3 different times (dang all those mazes), and Sadie was kind of whiny most of the time. Sometimes a little teeny part of me thinks I shouldn't attempt such things.  But most of the time I just brush myself off and keep going even when I'm THAT mom.  Because we always have a lot of fun, and I really think it's good for them (and me), to get out and meet new people and have lots of different experiences.

So here's to many more fun adventures!

Another Fall

Awhile ago Shane was asking me about the seasons and asking what came next after each one and after a little while he said," So does it just keep going?  When does it stop?"  And I answered, well, when you die... I love seasons and I am glad to get to experience them, not just with weather but with life in general.  I am at a season right now of all littles and while it has its down sides it has so much good too.  It is like getting to do life all over again doing it through their eyes.  And with Sadie and Marissa born pretty much the exact time of year 2 years apart, I especially notice that it is like getting another shot at this baby thing.  When I pull out the next set of clothes that Marissa wore and get to put them on Sadie, or put rice cereal in my cart again, so many memories come flooding back.  I feel really happy and blessed to get to be a mom to these 3 cuties.  Here is Sadie, 

 and big sister 2 years ago

Flash forward 2 years.  I love this picture.  Sadie takes so much from her sister,

 and manages to still like her haha.

 We took the kids apple picking last week on a day Josh got  home at a decent hour.  It was a beautiful evening and we had a lot of fun.

 The last time we went was 2 years ago because the apple crop wasn't good last year with the weird weather.  I can't believe how much Shane has changed in 2 years!

 I've made apple crisps, applesauce, apple stuffed chicken, pork chops baked with apples, applesauce muffins... yum.  Soon I'll move on to pumpkin.  And since this post is already all over the place, here is a picture of Marissa's first french braids last Sunday.

 Sadie, much like Marissa was, was super excited to get to eat real food for the first time.

 I have waited til 6 months with both of them and think it has worked well for us because they have been so ready and excited about it.  Love this cute girl, my first little brownie!  Her hair may change but I don't think her eyes will!

Are You Ready For Some Football?!

This is Shane's "football face".  We signed him up for flag football at the Y and so we've been practicing "running touchdowns" in the backyard.

 He had his first game on Saturday, and I'm not sure we have a world class athlete on our hands, but he had a lot of fun!  And it was really quite funny to watch:)  They do a half hour practice than a half hour scrimmage.  Here are his coaches showing them how to get in position- "Ready, set,

 hike!"  and how to block.

 They did some running drills.  Shane is 4th in line.  In the scrimmage they line up across from each other and the coach hands a kid the ball and they run while the other team tries to pull his flag.

 Doesn't he look tough??