Trunk or Treat with Preschool

Emily's preschool had their annual Trunk or Treat recently.  We were able to use the bumblebee outfit for a second year.  We thought with so many costumes on the shelves this year that surely there wouldn't be another bumblebee in her class, but sure enough there was.  No biggie....they had fun buzzing around together.  It was a VERY windy day, but the kids, parents and teachers had a lot of fun.

Fall Family Festival

Our church had our first annual Fall Family Festival a few weekends ago.  It was a lot of fun and very well organized.  There was lots to see and do for the whole family including face painting (or belly painting as seen below - thank you Mrs. C for your artwork), live entertainment, balloon animals, a cake walk and lots of games and food.  Thank you to all the folks who spent many hours planning and preparing this event.  It was such a blessing.

Circleville Pumpkin Show

What a great place to visit to bring in the Fall season.  If you like pumpkin, this is the place to go - pumpkin donuts, pumpkin pies and even pumpkin burgers.  There were lots of food vendors and a few vendors selling arts and crafts.  Thank you to Mom and Miss Mabel for letting us join in the fun. 

Emily - 4 years, 2 mo. - Oct. 16

Emily is excited to see the leaves on the ground and loves to play in them, but she is already asking when it's going to snow.  One season at a time my child.  :o)

She continues to enjoy her preschool and is excited to go every Tuesday.  She has warmed up to her classmates and really likes her teachers.  We attempt on Monday and Thursdays to do some preschool oriented stuff such as Starfall or this ClicknRead  program we were able to try through one of Randa's connections.

One of the benefits of us not having a DVD player in our van is that during our drive/ride to a certain location Emily gets some pressing questions off her mind.  The question of the day last week was "Mommy, if Jesus takes you to Heaven is that the fastest way to get there?"  My response...."Honey, that's the only way to get there".  Emily returns with "yes, but is that the fastest?"  Oh the child's mind.

She has been really cautious these days while riding in any vehicle for some reason and is constantly asking the driver if they are going the speed limit.  It definitely helps keep one in check.

Fun at Pigeon Roost Farm with Preschool

A couple of weeks ago Emily and I had the chance to go to Pigeon Roost Farm on her very first Preschool field trip.  We had a blast.  We had been there before but since then they have added a lot of new stuff, including a big slide, a mini maze and a big fort at the back of the farm perfect the enhancing the imagination.  On our way out we spotted the little store and had to buy some yummy gummy bears for Aunt Holly as thanks for watching Ben so Emily and I could have some Mommy and Me time.

Pumpkinfest

Since we didn't get to go to Pumpkinfest last year, we were very excited to get to go this year.  There was lots to do - shopping, eating the yummy kettle corn and pumpkin ice cream, jumping in the jump house, playing at the playground, visiting family and friends, and waiting to see who won one of these yummy cakes handmade from scratch by Charlie's Uncle Skip.  We ended up getting our name in the raffle later on the day of the drawing and it worked to our benefit because we actually won the mouse cake below. However, because we were traveling back home that same day we offered it to a friend of Charlie's and his daughter.

Fall is here

Benjamin at 11 months

All sorts of changes and discoveries are happening in Ben's life.  He of course is changing in size, already wearing some 18 month clothes, changing in personality and changing in looks with his long hair.  He discovered he could survive and actually enjoy two rather lengthy car rides with women and a little girl and he has discovered that he prefers to be up on his two feet whenever possible although he hasn't quite mastered walking yet.

We have nicknamed Ben "Bam-Bam" this month because, I'm sure as most boys do, he loves to bang on things and see how much noise he can make without breaking something.  He has his gentle moments though that I love.  At night he will rub his hands on my arms before being put in the crib.

Ben still only has 2 teeth, but I'm pretty sure he's working on more as I type.  I don't mind the slow timing because that just means it will take that long for him to lose them.

These Groff babies produce the funniest expressions in my opinion.

This one is still my favorite at 6 days old.

Who says you need toys when you have a big box??

Emily - 4 years, 1 mo. - Sept. 16

Emily is proud to be a 4 year old. She tells everyone she meets that she’s 4 now. Although she keeps pointing out that when she's 6, Ben will be 3 and that she gets to buy a bunny or a kitty.  We keep telling her the motto I heard a lot as a child....we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. 

Emily has developed into a very independent little 4 year old.  We hear many times...."I can do it all by myself".  She is enjoying her tricycle more now since she can ride it and steer it where she wants it to go.

Emily started preschool this month and seems to really enjoy it.  She does ask every Tuesday if her church friends are going to be there too.  

Texas trip continued

Ben's first voice lesson

Enjoying bath time

Texas trip Sept. 9-19

We had been wanting to go visit Randa and the family for a while, but not interested in flying again so Mom, the kids and I loaded up Mom's van and began the tour.  It took about 18 hrs., but broken into 2 days was not that bad at all especially due to Mom's very creative method for helping Emily (and us) pass the time.  She made a chain out of old Christmas cards and at each 30 min. increment Emily was allowed to cut off one link of her chain.  It was good for her to see how the chain got smaller and smaller as we reached our destination.

We had a great visit with lots of fun things including playgrounds, baby pools, balloons, a visit to a big cat rescue center close to where Mark and Randa live, piano playing, "driving" Jeeps, reading and snacking on pretzel rods (or pretzel yod as David would say).