The love of fall

I love fall for several reasons, and the pumpkin patch is one of those reasons.  I love the colors of reds and oranges, the smells of a bonfire and crisp leaves, the sights of my kids having fun with games and mazes, and even the tastes of hot chocolate or apple cider on a crisp day.  Love it! 

We have had a glorious fall and are soaking in every last bit of it before it comes to an end soon.  Today we had the opportunity to go to the DeMoss pumpkin patch with Jan and Luther.  Andy was getting in his final hunt of the season, so he didn't make it. 

Here are some pictures of the fun we had! 

Celebration for a special little guy

The kids and I got to go to Minneapolis this weekend to celebrate the 1st birthday of my nephew Declan!  What a great little guy he is!    

 Rusty, Katie, and Declan... (and baby brother whom we get to meet in February 2012 :)

 My sister Katie made an awesome brunch for us all complete with caramel rolls, pumpkin bars, lots of fruit, hashbrown casserole, a delicious pasta salad, sausages and bacon.  And an amazing chocolate cake in the shape of a pumpkin. 

Declan had no problems devouring his cupcake.  Love it!!!!

 After the party, we took the kids to French Park to play on the rope structure and take a great fall walk in the beautiful woods there. 

The cousins have so much fun together and this weekend was no exception. 

Playing Ring-around-the-rosy on the beach of Medicine Lake.

Fall Hodge-Podge

So what have we been up to the past month???????????  Plenty!  Here's a little hodg-podge of some of our fall activities.

A trip to the Chahinkapa Zoo in Wahpeton with cousins.  The monkeys (the ones in the cage- not the ones pictured below :) kept us highly entertained once again.  I seriously could watch them all day long.   

Kaelynn keeps telling me she wants to be a veterinarian.  I'm thinking it is a very real possibility.  She has no fear of animals! 

 WHOA!!!!!!!

Yep, it's that time of year again.  Ducks are invading my freezer.

Football, football, and more football!  The season has now ended as of yesterday.  The boys had a great time and learned a lot about the game.  It was fun to see them work together as a team and improve each game.  It wasn't a winning season for their team, but it sure was a fun one! 

In the last game both boys had some great blocks and tackles.  Carson is blocking in the picture below.

Carson was quarterback and Connor was center on this drive.  They got it all the way to the 2 yard line.  It was a good drive. 

The Kingdom Kids Choir sang for the first time this season in church today.  Last year we had about 27 students, this year we have 56!!!!  There is not much that gives me more joy than being able to lead these kids in worship of their Creator!!!!  The boys are old enough to be in the choir this year.  They are really enjoying it and so am I! 

Other than these things, the boys have started piano lessons; I am loving my job and am so thankful for it; and all of the kids are doing great in school.  A little shout out to Carson- he has gotten 100% on all of his spelling tests so far. 

Andy is out of town until Wednesday night so life is busy as a single mom the next three days, but I am so grateful for the opportunities God has given us to be involved in so many awesome things.  More and more these days, my prayer is that we would be the light of God to those in our sphere of influence.     

Oscar bound

Oh boy, do we have a drama queen who lives at our house.  Notice I did not say drama king. 

The first week of school was great.  Smiles all around!  This week not so much.  It started on Monday evening after having a long weekend at home as a family.  We put Kaelynn to bed with the usual routine and two minutes later heard hysterical sobbing.  This is very unlike her, so I rushed down the stairs thinking she was hurt or something bad had happened.  NOPE!!!!  Through her sobs she proclaimed that she did NOT want to go to school and that she did NOT like school. 

This was quite surprising as she had not said anything or led us to believe in any way that she had not had good days. 

Unfortunately we have repeated this little scene yesterday morning and also this morning. 

The funny thing is, she gets off the school bus and tells me what a good day she has had.  Thus, the title of the blog post :)  Hopefully she learned her lesson from this morning and we will not have a repeat on Thursday morning. 

First day = success

We have officially started the school year and I am officially a mom of three full-time students.  Oh my goodness!!!  It's great to be at this stage, and yet, there is a little bit of sadness and realization that my little ones aren't so little anymore. 

Kaelynn's first day of kindergarten was today.

She was the first one up at 6:30am this morning which tells you how excited she was.  It was not abnormal for her to sleep until 9:00am this summer. 

I thought about her a lot today.  When Connor and Carson went to kindergarten I wasn't working full-time and was able to go meet them at school and get them to their classrooms.  I wasn't able to do that today and it was hard!!!  But, she did smashingly well.  When I asked her if she wanted Andy to meet her at school, she said, "No, I can do it myself."  She's my confident, independent girl.  Andy is going to bring the kids to school in the morning and then Kaelynn will take the bus from Eastwood Elementary to the kindergarten center.  They will all take the bus home. 

Details- When asked what her favorite part of the day was, she said, "music".  And my heart went "Yes!!!!"  She made a friend on the bus, Sally.  She said she only got to play at recess for 3 minutes (I'm thinking it was probably longer than that).  She had a granola bar for snack and the class has to have a 15 minute rest time with their heads on their desk after recess (which she doesn't like).  She learned a song about a ball in music and she says that all of the girls in her class are her friends.  She thinks her teacher Mrs. Cody is the nicest teacher ever, and she brought home a picture of a bear driving a school bus.  Overall, the day was a success and she is ready to go back tomorrow! 

Here she is getting off the bus, all smiles!!!!!!!! 

This was not the first day of school for Connor, Carson, or me.  We started last Thursday, but I wanted to wait to put these all in one post, so I'll go backwards a little.  It is really hard to believe that the boys are in 2nd grade already. Carson has Mrs. Smith and Connor has Mrs. Kingsley.  Again this year I think they have the right teachers for their personalities.    

 On a side note- both of the boys have been growing like weeds.  We are sending Connor to 2nd grade in a size 7 tennis shoe.  That's adult size 7.    I put his shoe up to my tennis shoe- it's bigger.  Not by much, but it is bigger.  He is pushing 90 pounds and stands right at my chin.  It will not be long before he overtakes me. 

How is my school going?  Well things have been a little crazy the first few days.  A lot of change has happened at Westside for this school year and the special ed staff was not prepared for how much change it would actually be.  My schedule has changed 5 times in three days and I fully excpect it to change again.  The name of the game at this point is to "go with the flow".  I really feel like I am at that school for a reason and am excited to work with the students that I am with.  There have been challenges already, and no doubt there will be more!  But I am so grateful to God for providing this job for our family.  It really couldn't be any more perfect!!!   

It's right around the corner...

Yep, fall is almost here.  We have three days of summer vacation left and then it's back to the grind.  It's really hard to believe that all three kids will be in school full-time and I will be working.  I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to work the same hours that they are in school.  God has been so good in me being able to be a para this year.  I'm really excited about it!  

Kaelynn is very excited to start kindergarten.  She doesn't start until Monday, but is more than ready!  

The boys started football last week and they both love it!  They have great coaches who work them hard, but are very encouraging as well.  They switch positions every play so they get a taste of each position.  They will start playing games against other teams next week.  Andy is especially proud watching his boys participate in a sport that he loved so much.  Carson is particularlly passionate about the sport and puts everything he has into every play.  He loves diving to catch the ball, so he will need to learn to stand on his feet when catching the ball so he can run.  Andy thinks Carson will be a wide receiver and Connor will be a tackle.  I think we have a future of sitting on the sidelines for many years to come :)        

 We have loved spending time with cousins this summer.  My sister Karrie lives in West Fargo and we have done a babysitting exchange just about every week.  The kids love to play together and it has given us moms a little break in the week which is great for the heart and soul.  Kaelynn and Emma have these matching dresses from my mom and just so happened to wear them last week.  Their both heading to kindergarten next week and love talking about what it will be like in school.  It's been fun to see this friendship blossom and grow! 

I'm pretty sure my next post will be about the first day of school :)  Here we go...................

Amazing!!!

This afternoon we went to the Fargo Air Show and saw some pretty amazing skills displayed.  We didn't actually go into the airport, but sat on the campus of NDSU and had an amazing view.  The highlight of the show was the Blue Angels.  It is unbelievable to see the precision with which they fly.  When they fly by, it takes your breath away (and your hearing :).  We had plenty of opportunity to get excited for the afternoon as they have been practicing for the past two days.  It really is awesome to hear the roar of the jets and see the speed with which they go.  I don't have a real great camera for these sorts of things, but I think I got some okay shots.     

My mom used to love to go to air shows, so I thought about her a lot during the afternoon.  

Most of the kids thought it was cool.  Of course our "glass half-empty" child had plenty to whine about, but we didn't let it ruin our time.  This was Connor's pose for most of it :(  

 The other two had plenty of smiles and we heard lots of "That's so cool!" 

We got some okay video to give you a little glimpse of what it was like.  Kaelynn kept telling me her heart was shaking.  I whole heartedly agreed with her. 

We got to see three stunt acts.  This stunt plane was amazing in how it would stop and then nose dive. 

I tried to take lots of little videos of the Blue Angels as they flew by.  This is probably the best one.  If you get dizzy easily, I'd skip it :)