Fall Fun

I love fall.  The weather here has been glorious the past few weeks and we are enjoying all the fun things there are to do this time of year.  We picked  a bushel of apples at the apple orchard- a triple whammy- 1)it's a fun activity 2)the apples taste incredible 3)the kids love eating them when they know they've picked them!

 We've made lots of zoo trips

 and been to fun festivals like this Monarch Festival

and watched and played a lot of football!  Down, set, hike!

 There he goes with the ball,

 and shortly thereafter got his flag pulled.  But the first game he did manage to score a touchdown!  We had told him beforehand to keep running until they blew the whistle, and he did- the ref had to chase him down ha ha.

Fall- please stay around for awhile longer!

Sadie's Surgery

Sadie had her eye surgery last Friday, and it was a better experience than I could have hoped for.  Here she is pre surgery with her glasses 

 and without glasses.  Her eyes were definitely getting pretty bad.

 We had to check in for her surgery at 7 am in Indy, so we stayed in a hotel the night before (Josh took a personal day and his mom came to stay with the older two).  Here we are waiting for them to take her back, I think she enjoyed all the alone time with mom and dad!

 She came out of the anesthesia crying of course, but calmed down pretty quickly and fell back asleep and slept pretty much the whole ride home.  Her eyes were pretty sad looking, but they didn't really seem to bother her at all which was great because they had warned us to try to keep her from rubbing them.

 We stopped and got her some popsicles, and saw Grandma had taken Marissa to the park as we drove past on our way home and so we stopped and she downed two popsicles and then wanted to go play!  Needless to say she recovered very quickly, and stuffed her face to make up for not getting to eat that morning.

 The doctor said to try her without her glasses for the time being, and that we will see what our next move will be when she comes back for her second post op appointment in 6 weeks.  I don't think her eyes are perfectly straight but they look leaps and bounds better than before so that is good news.  We sure love this cutie, glasses or not, straight eyes or not!

Schoolgirl Marissa

Marissa has been SO excited to start preschool and patiently waited for a few weeks of Shane being in school until it was her turn.  I had to document her big day, but you never know what you're going to get when you ask her to smile...

But her natural smile showed up when we got to her school.

 She didn't quite understand what I meant when I told her to take a picture with her teacher, but oh well.

 She loves every minute of the preschool experience- and we have played "circle time" at home many times since.  And Sadie and I now have 2 mornings a week to ourselves, which is weird at first, but fun.  When we pulled up to the house, Sadie pointed to Marissa's seat as if to say, "where is she?"  We got inside and I asked her what she wanted to do and she went right over and got Chutes and Ladders out.  She got to hold each guy and have the board on her lap while spinning the spinner without anyone telling her to stop.  Those are the things 1 year old dreams are made of!

Girl Time

I have to say I am really enjoying having Shane in school.  Not that I don't miss him, or worry about him sometimes, but he is really loving it and I have seen so much growth in him already.  And it has been really fun to hear all about his day when he comes home.  One of the best parts though is getting to spend some more quality time with my girls.  We walk him to the bus stop in the mornings and then get to chill for a bit before deciding what to do with our day.   

We have fun doing simple things that Shane has gotten too big for, like playing at our little mall play place.

 It has been fun to watch their relationship with each other grow too, here they are playing "walk" where Marissa walks Sadie like a dog:)

Last week I took them to the zoo and as I was buckling Marissa in the car our conversation went like this:
Me: Marissa, you were really good today, thank you!
Marissa: Yeah, that's why my brother was not there.  Cause sometimes when he's there I do things to him.
Me: Oh yeah, why?
Marissa: Cause sometimes I don't like him.

I thought that was pretty self aware of her ha ha.  She does miss him and ask me several times when he's coming home, but also enjoys the extra attention.  And they play so nicely together when he comes home after being apart all day!

My Kindergartner!

Shane started Kindergarten yesterday!  He was cute to watch in the days that led up to it, he was super excited and wanted to do things to get ready, like practice his letters and numbers, and learn how to tie his shoes.  

 To my surprise, he can do it!  And I'm proud of myself for teaching him because he's a lefty so I really had to think it out!  I just hope his teacher doesn't hate me when his shoes keep coming untied...

 And three days before kindergarten started he even managed to lose his first tooth!  Talk about growing up too fast!

 The tooth fairy came

 Here he is ready for his first day!

The first day the parents brought their kindergartners to school and stayed with them for an hour

 we got to do some fun activities together and get him all settled.  He really wasn't sad one bit, just excited as you can tell:)

 I thought Marissa would miss him a lot but she seems to be doing just dandy with all the extra attention and getting to call the shots.  We had fun making cookies for Shane, and it has been fun to see how things are just naturally a little more girly with just us girls around.

 He rode home from school on the bus and I panicked for a second when all the neighbor kids had come out and he hadn't, but I think he got a little confused because the bus stop is on a different street than ours.  But he loves riding the bus and says he still wants to do it in the morning, even though it gets there at 7:15!  I was pretty proud of myself for getting him there this morning, seeing as he hasn't even been awake at that time for years!!

 We ate our cookies, made a celebratory splash pad trip, and then had pancakes for dinner per his request.  And got them to bed just after 7.  I've never been a "put my kids to bed at 7" kinda gal but am trying because we can't sleep in anymore!

This morning the reality of it all sunk in a little more.  This may be cheesy but I feel like I am entering a new stage of parenting!  Kindergarten here is all day, so it is definitely a big change but he seems to be doing really well so far and most importantly still loves it!  I miss him but it is good to get more time with the girls and the teacher part of me is so excited for him and all the fun things we will get to do and how much he will grow, it seems like he has already matured so much in 2 days!

Chutes and Ladders

Sadie is taking a semi regular nap these days so the big kids and I have been spending a little quality time together.  The favorite choice these days is Superhero Chutes and Ladders.  

 I tried to set the timer to include me in it, but that didn't turn out so well.

 Nor did the selfie...

It is a fun game made even more fun with super heroes, Shane gets some good work on counting, Marissa just places the spinner on a number and then finds that number somewhere on the board and puts her piece there.  And probably most important is learning how to lose- though I will say it is completely necessary for us to choose whether or not we want to go down the chutes:)

Impromptu campout

We got this tent for Josh's birthday and have had something going on pretty much every weekend this summer so we haven't used it yet.  So I figured before summer was over we might as well try it out in the backyard!  Can you tell the kids were a little excited?

 Shane asked me right before this picture, "are we gonna sleep in here til the cows come home??"  What?  I asked him where he heard that and he said that Lambie (from Doc McStuffins) always wants to cuddle til the cows come home.

 We roasted marshmallows on our propane stove and had Reese's smores, and then watched the Lego movie on our laptop in the tent.

I tried to get Sadie to sleep in the tent during the movie around 10 but that wasn't happening so I took her inside and she fell asleep 2 seconds later in her crib.  Josh slept inside with her while the big kids and I slept in the tent.  It was fun, but I think I may have gotten my fix of sleeping in tents with kids for awhile:)