Halloween 2008

This year, the girls went with a medical profession theme. Rachel was a doctor/surgeon and Katelyn was a nurse. The best part about these costumes is that they didn't cost me a thing! I found the doctor's scrubs outfit at Dollar Tree last year for $1 and put it in the dress-up box. We had the white jacket in the dress-up box - I'm not sure who gave it to us, but it was probably in the dress-up stuff that our friend Corbyn gave us. Robert's sister, Kate, is a nurse, so she sent the girls real stethoscopes, masks, and name tags. Thanks Kate!!!! I thought their costumes turned out great!!!

This year we went to a friend's house for Halloween. There were 4 families there and all of us have girls!!! There were 9 girls plus parents. We had a pizza dinner to begin with. Then we all walked around their subdivision and the kids trick-or-treated. They had a lot of fun! After that, we went back to their house and the kids played awhile. Mr. Steven got out some of his musical instruments and Rachel enjoyed "playing" them. Katelyn played the piano a little for us too! A BIG thanks to Steven & Jennifer for inviting us over! We really enjoyed it!!!

Katelyn's Class Party

I left Rachel's field trip and headed back to Katelyn's class party. The "room mom" had lots of fun things planned for the kids. She set up 5 stations for the kids to go to. They were (1) paint a pumpkin mask, (2) play pin the nose on the pumpkin, (3) make an egg carton spider, (4) make a ghost sucker, and (5) decorate your own cupcake! At each station the kids were also able to trick-or-treat! It was a lot to do in just one hour! I think the kids really enjoyed it and had lots of fun! Thanks to Mrs. Nicole for planning such a nice party for the class!!!

Rachel's Field Trip

Today was Rachel's field trip to the Mayfield corn maze. It was a beautiful day to be outside! The kids seemed to have a great time! Rachel & Emily were big buddies today! They had a lot of fun hanging out together, and I had a good time hanging out with Angela (Emily's mom)! We got to go inside a silo that had corn in it. Then we got to see some small animals in the barn. Next it was time to go inside the old dairy barn to see how they milk cows. Dairy farming is hard work!! Next we got to learn a little bit about Jersey cows. Then it was time for the corn maze and then a hay ride. After all that fun it was time for lunch! We hung around a little after that and just played in the fields, ran around, and hung out with friends. It was a fun day!

Wacky Hair Night

Last night was Wacky Hair night at church. Rachel always enjoys these nights. We put ponytails all over her head and used pipecleaners to help make them stand up! I thought she looked really cute! Katelyn doesn't much like to be called out and singled out. Once last year she was all dressed in red on Red Night and got called out in front of all the other kids. Instead of being excited because she was picked to win a prize, she cried and I mean really cried hard! So now whenever they have a dress-up night, she doesn't want to participate! Pastor Chris assured her that he wouldn't pick her if she didn't want to be picked, but that still didn't convince her. At the last minute she did decide to wear a pink headband thing that had pink fake hair attached to it. But I didn't get a picture of that. Robert did some wacky hair too!!! He wore the wig that he had used years ago when he dressed up as Cher and we just added some braids to it. He looked hilarious! But I didn't get a picture of him either. Oh well - at least I got a picture of Rachel!!

Soccer Awards Night

Last night was the official ending of our soccer season. We had the Upward soccer awards night at church. All of the players received a really cool Upward duffle bag. Katelyn's coach didn't show up, so I ended up having to sit with them and get them up on stage when it was their turn. Because of that, I didn't get a picture of Katelyn's team on stage, but I did get this picture of Katelyn with two of her soccer friends before the awards night started.

This is Rachel's team on stage when their names were announced. Aren't they cute all waving to their fans!!! They had a GREAT coach!! (Okay, so maybe I'm a little biased!)
It's been a good season for Rachel! She had a really good group of girls on her team and has made some new friends! Rachel has played well and really has developed a soccer mentality. I think it's a sport that she enjoys and has the potential to be pretty good at it. We think she could be a really good mid-fielder.

Katelyn has had fun, but it's been a long season for us (and we missed 2 games while we were on vacation!). Katelyn does drills great, but when she gets in the game with other people she's much more hesitant and passive. (Of course if you were her size, wouldn't you be passive too?!?!?) While her coach has been nice enough, she didn't really teach them anything. BUT, Katelyn did make some new friends! So that's one positive outcome of a not-so-good soccer season!

Now it's time to move on to basketball! Rachel has evaluations next week! Katelyn is still too young to play, but she can help coach!

Last Soccer Game

Saturday was the end of this year's soccer season. It was a cold, October day, but we can't complain too much because overall we had really good weather this season with mostly warm temperatures and no rain!!!

Tooth #10

Rachel lost another tooth today - bringing her total number of lost teeth to 10! She actually hadn't lost any in a couple of months, so I think she was anxious to lose another one! This tooth had been a little loose for a couple of weeks, but yesterday she really started working it. This morning she was eating some Honeycombs at breakfast and bit into one and said "Mom - I think this tooth is ready to come out!" Sure enough - I looked and it was pretty much layer flat in its side! Of course, loose teeth give me the heebie-jeebies, so Robert pulled it for her. Rachel started losing her teeth when she was 4, and it's been a common occurence around here ever since! I just hope the tooth fairy remembers to visit tonight!!!

Pumpkin Girls

Kate brought the girls these cute pumpkin shirts a couple of weeks ago. Don't they look cute? They wore them to school today. Thanks Kate!

Soccer Team Pictures

Rachel's team
Katelyn's team

Double Surprise

Last Friday we found out that Robert's sister, Kate, was coming up to stay with us while she visited her daughter, Jessica, at college. When I had lunch with the girls at school Friday and told them, they were so excited! They got to visit with Kate a while on Friday afternoon before she had to go to a dinner with Jessica. Saturday morning when the girls got up and went in to wake up Kate, they had another surprise - Jessica had come back with Kate on Friday night and spent the night here too!! Rachel & Katelyn were very happy!!!

Here's Katelyn and Rachel with Jessica.
The girls playing Princess checkers

I'm not sure what's going on here, but I thought the look on Katelyn's face is hilarious!!!

Katelyn's Kindergarten Field Trip

Today was Katelyn's first field trip! The entire kindergarten class (all 8 classes) went to a local fruit & berry farm today. They were able to do several things, including a tractor ride, pick a pumpkin, pick an apple, feed the goats, go through a corn maze, and hear the farmer talk about grafting trees. Katelyn's only concern was the bus ride there. While most kids are excited about riding a bus, Katelyn was concerned. She didn't really want to ride the bus, but the kids have to. She rode it and didn't cry about it, so that's good. But when she got to the farm and I asked her how the bus ride was she said, "Not so good." I don't anything was really wrong, she just didn't particularly like it! Both of our girls are so concerned about car seats and seat belts that the thought of riding a bus without such safety measures scares them. To be honest, I'm not so fond of the idea either!

Here's Katelyn patiently waiting to get started!

Katelyn's prize pumpkin

Katelyn's prize apple

Katelyn with her friend Garrett

Feeding the goats

Katelyn and her friend Avery

Katelyn and her friend Haley

Here's proof I was actually there! (along with Katelyn, Haley, and Madison)

What Do You Think?

Well, I guess you can tell I've been playing with my blog. I liked my old beachy background, but I had grown a little bored with it. So I've been experimenting with some other layouts. I found this background from another website, and then I designed the header myself. So what do you think? I like it pretty well. Not sure how long it'll stay like this, but I think it looks pretty nice. Any thoughts from you?

A Special Surprise

Katelyn had a special surprise this week at school. She was told that a library book had been donated in her honor to the school library and that she was the first one who got to take it home! She was so excited! You see, her pre-k teacher, Mrs. Jeanne, had heard about Katelyn having a rough time a few weeks ago at school (you can read about it here) and she wanted to do something special for her to help encourage her. Mrs. Jeanne really likes pigs, so when she saw this book, she decided that she'd donate it to the school library in Katelyn's name. Thanks Mrs. Jeanne! You made Katelyn feel extra special! And just so you know, Katelyn has been doing great!!!