A Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Nora and I tagged along on Ethan's first kindergarten field trip.  We went to The Great Pumpkin Patch in Arthur.  We have been to this particular patch several times and always have a great time!  It was fun watching Ethan with some new friends.  He was having a great time and focusing on staying with his group, that I honestly don't think he would have cared if we weren't there.  Which is fine :).  Nora and I had a great time together too!

First, they got to pick out a pumpkin.

Then, headed into the 1-room school house to see what it would have been like, back in the day.

Class Picture

Ethan in the hay bale maze.  He loves these things!

Nora and I found our way out too!

Ethan and some boys, enjoying the maze.

The group of boys Ethan ran all over with today :).

Nora really enjoyed looking at the chickens...and yelling cock-a-doodle-do back at them!

Little hay bale maze

She made it!!

Mrs. Warren was showing the boys how pumpkins grow in the patch and a smashed one.

Happy boy after a pumpkin cookie and some apple cider

Nora is to the 3 this fall!

She wanted to put her face in every one of these we passed!

What a great morning with my kids!

Sprinkle for Baby #3

Like I mentioned in the previous post, we went to Salem on Saturday and Sunday for a "sprinkle" for Baby #3.  Abby and Libby planned the event at my parents house and they did a wonderful job!  Everything was perfect!  It was sprinkle themed, as I think you will notice from the pictures.  They got some help executing it all from Kacey as well!  Two of my best friends from Decatur/Mt. Zion, Jessica and Emily, even surprised me by coming all the way to Salem for it (I'm just bummed we didn't get a picture of the 3 of us)!  I was so surprised and teared up a little ;).  Thanks girls for a great afternoon of spoiling me and the baby.

Sprinkles on everything!

Literally!  Even on the popcorn.

The girls even got me gifts.  Haley, Finley and Paige gave me a beautiful book of coloring pages, flowers from around the houses and handmade beaded necklace :). 

Present time.  I had a great helper in Nora.

Enjoy the beautiful weather on the porch for the Sprinkle.

My mom made the baby a quilt and I love it!  The butterfly square was made a long time ago by Noni (my mom's mom).  It's very special to me!  Thanks Mom!!

My hosts, Abby & Libby, and I

After we were all finished and cleaning up, the kids discovered that the balloons had confetti (and a penny) in them.  They had to pop them to see the confetti fly and fight over the penny ;).

Ethan, Nora and Josiah

Popping the balloons!

It was a great weekend spending time with family and a fun shower for baby #3.  As you can tell... I was definitely spoiled.  Thanks to everyone who came!  I am truly blessed!
Here's the loot...after I got home and everything unloaded!

Diapers for days (or weeks)!

38+ Weeks

This past weekend, I was spoiled at a baby "sprinkle" for baby #3.  More on that to come :).  But while there, I had Abby take some family and maternity photos.  I think they turned out pretty good.  Thanks, Abby!

Bunk Bed Room

If you remember, we got bunk beds for Ethan and Nora when we moved them into a shared room (see it here).  If you noticed, the walls were still orange.  Since then, we Jared has painted the room a shade of blue/green, put together the new dresser and gotten some things on the walls.  They have done great with sharing and only once, has Nora fallen asleep in Ethan's bed...with him.

Hat rack for Ethan, Bow holder for Nora.

It looks a little bare with no curtains...but I don't know if I'll put any up.

The bed.  And the girl :).

Nora was very concerned when we painted and there was no "pink" on the walls.  So, I got her these decals for her pink.  It's cute, removable and she loves it!

And, I let Ethan put stickers on his wall too.  As well as his red ribbons from school!  They are for good behavior and already has 3!

So, there it is...the bunk bed, boy/girl, shared room.  It was difficult finding coordinating bedding and decorating (which is why it's minimal).  But it works!

Full Term!

Today marks 37 weeks of baby #3 pregnancy.  It seems to have gone so fast!  I had an appointment today and there was some question on the position of the baby.  The doctors thought we had a breech baby on our hands.  After a quick ultrasound scan, we have confirmed that baby's head is down and ready to go!  I am so thankful for this!  A c-section wasn't in my plans for baby 3 ;).  Now it's just a waiting game!  Maybe I should pack a hospital bag and finish up the nursery...

37 Weeks

Grandparents Day

Our kids are so lucky to have the grandparents they have!  All 4 are always eager and willing to spend time with us and the kids!  So, thank you all for that!  You're the best :)!!  Happy Grandparents Day (a couple days late)!!
Today was grandparents day at Ethan's school.  Grandma Karen came up last night, in order to spend an hour with Ethan at school today!  I stole her pictures from her camera before she left today.  Sounds like they had a great time (even if it was pretty crowded).

The Class "Roster"

Looks so big here!

Ethan and Grandma Karen on grandparent day!

Ethan's paper he made with Grandma Karen

"Labor" Day

I realize that last week was Labor Day, but our Labor Day project took until this weekend to finish.  We have a large storage area in our basement, that I'm very thankful for.  But it has basically been untouched in the organization department since we moved in...3 years ago.  Jared sketched a plan for building some shelves, bought the supplies and got to work last Monday with his trusty 5 year old sidekick.

Measure twice, cut once!  And...safety first ;).

Cutting the boards and stacking the boards.

All was going great, until I walked past a finished shelf, as it was falling.  I really thought I had broken my foot!  It hurt so bad!  Thankfully, I can say almost 1 week later that I am much better and nothing is broken.  Just a nice purpley tint to the side of my foot.

Yikes!

Jared has worked so hard on these and I'm a lucky woman to have such a handy husband!! He worked on them a couple nights through the week and finished up yesterday.  We are now the proud owners of 3 custom built (heavy) shelves for our storage area!  Most of the day today was spent cleaning, purging, organizing and labeling.

Can also double as a bunk bed for triplets!

Still more to organize and get rid of, but it's getting there!

Date Nights

That's right...nights is plural!  Jared and I have been on a couple of dates during the last couple of weeks!
Lets start with our "Zoorific Evening"!  I entered a Decatur Park District contest called #selfiesafari.  You had to take a selfie while at the zoo and post it to Instagram or FB with that hashtag.  During the timeframe of the contest, the kids and I went to the zoo...just the 3 of us (see Last Day of Summer blog post).  The winner got 2 tickets to the zoos fundraiser event, "A Zoorific Evening" AND a family pass to the zoo for the next year.  If you can't see this coming...I WON!!  I never win anything!  Here's the Instagram photo that won it for me ;).

So, the day I found out we had tickets to the Zoorific Evening, happened to be the same day of the event.  I made a couple calls and Roger and Sandra came to babysit the kids for us and we all had a great night!
Basically the evening was an adults only trip to the zoo.  There were food stations set up all throughout the zoo with lots of yummy food.  It was a circus theme, so they had circus acts throughout the zoo as well.  So much fun!  We got up close and personal with some of the animals and the zookeepers were all out and about answering questions and giving us the insider info on zoo happenings.  I loved it, and would consider buying tickets next year!

Feeding the camel! 

Petting the zebra...who really just wanted to bite us!

Fun night at the zoo

We got to see the 8 week old red panda.  So cute!!

Selfie with the wolf 

We even got a private ride on the carousel!

Date night #2= Cardinals game with Abby and Alex.
Friday night we met my parents to drop the kids off with them for the night and we headed down to St. Louis.  We went to the Cardinals- Cubs game with Abby and Alex and had a great time...even if the Cardinals didn't win this one.

35 weeks (+1 day)

Sisters enjoying some Friday night baseball!

My handsome date for the evening!

After the game, we decided donuts sounded good.  Abby had heard of Strange Donuts and we decided to drive a bit out of our way to check it out.  It has to be different (or strange, if you will) for a donut shop to be open at 11pm.  It was definitely worth the drive.  The guys went along begrudgingly, but in the end, agreed that it was well worth it ;)!  Especially after Jared bit into the Maple Bacon donut!

YUM!

Donuts after dark!

We stayed the night at Abby and Alex's house and my parents brought the kids over the next day for lunch at Dewey's.  It was a great start to our holiday weekend!  More on the rest of our weekend later!

More Kindergarten

Since Ethan's first day of school was a half day, we met Jared at Krekels (Ethan's pick) for lunch.  And you can't have Krekels without an ice cream cone...with sprinkles!

Chocolate for this boy!  He wouldn't sit still, so it's blurry.

Pink for this girl!

Ethan's second day of school was a full day and he was so excited to use his new Ninja Turtle lunchbox.  His lunch request:  {homemade} Salami lunchable, snap peas and an orange.  I also put some cheetos in and for a treat, 3 tootsie rolls.  It came home empty!  He said he ate it all except 1 tootsie roll that he shared with his friend (whose name he doesn't remember) :).

Packed and ready!

Walking into school like a big boy! *tear*

And today, being his 3rd day of school...he couldn't get out of the car fast enough.  So, I'm thinking he likes it ok ;)!