Family Reunion

We were at my parents last weekend for the annual family reunion of my mom's cousins and their families. It was a really nice day. It was at Fox Ridge State Park. Audrey and Henry really love to be outside. Audrey spent most of the time playing with a wooly worm. She carried it around, made a little bed for it, gave it a drink of water. I had to babysit for it while she played on the playground equipment. She was actually pretty gentle with it and surprisingly enough it survived the afternoon. I made her put it back in the woods before we left. Henry boycotted all picnic food except chocolate chip cookies. He ran around and got sweaty and played in the dirt. We didn't get home from Charleston until about 10:30. The kids slept in pretty late this morning and we were rushing around to make it to school. I had Mommy Moments at church this morning and had to go because I had invited a neighbor. After lunch we had to go to the mall to get some more cleaning solution for Audrey's ears and we ended up staying a little longer than I had planned. Audrey and Henry were being so good and we just walked around and looked at stuff. Audrey did talk me into buying her some earrings and a earring/jewelry holder thing. Aunt Sara gave her some earrings this weekend and now Audrey is counting down the days until she can switch to the tiny turtle earrings. She has two more weeks. All the stores had out Christmas dresses and Macy's was putting up their trees. Audrey got all excited and said "Is it only a couple of days until Christmas?" She seemed a little confused when I told her it was a few months away. It is pretty confusing to me too, why all the Christmas stuff is out when we haven't even had Halloween yet. I do have to confess that I have already purchased a couple of Christmas gifts and am starting to think about what to get for people. You can never start to early :)

Henry's New Friend

Our neighbor Karianne and her son Tristan came over yesterday morning for a play date. Tristan is 1 day younger than Henry, born at the same hospital. They were probably nursery mates for a day and we didn't even know it. It was a lot of fun. Henry and Tristan played together really well for a couple of 16 month olds. There was only one melt down over a animated tree stump toy that sings Halloween songs! Both boys were infatuated with it and didn't want to share. It finally ended up in the closet. I think Henry enjoyed playing with someone besides his big sister. She is quite the bully these days. Yesterday evening we went out for supper with Sara and Sean again. Sean is from around here and had a death in the family so they have been in town for a few days. Audrey is always so excited to see her Aunt Sara. We got home a little late and everyone was still a little tired this morning. Audrey said that she wished it was pajama day at school so that she didn't have to get dressed. I wish it was too!

Apple Orchard

This morning Audrey had a field trip to an apple orchard. Sara was in town and she went with us. Audrey got to pick a little bag full of apples. There were some animals to look at and some pumpkins, gourds and mums to see. We bought a couple of pumpkins and some apple cider. Then we went to one of the teachers houses to ride her horse. Audrey was so excited! She was first in line to ride. Henry liked to pet the horse. They both had a good time running around in the yard and playing on the castle/jail playhouse thing! It was really nice weather, but I would have preferred it to be a little cooler. We got a little sweaty! After we were done we went out to lunch with Sara and Sean at Flat Top Grill. We had a fun morning!

Book Club

I had book club again tonight. Hardly anyone was there. I don't know if it was because it was on a different night, or because the book was really awful and nobody wanted to talk about it. I didn't even read the whole thing it was so bad! It was still good to get out of the house for a couple of hours. The girl who's house it was at just got back from a month long trip to France (her husband is French) and she served some good wine and cheese! Hopefully the next book will be better! It is supposed to be a really nice weekend. I want to work on Audrey's room, but Jason wants to clean out the garage while the weather in still nice. There is always such a long list of things to get done!

In the papers again!

So Audrey is getting to be quite the celebrity! She has managed to make it into the newspaper again. If you click on the little box right at the top of this post, it should take you to the page on the newspapers website. If that doesn't work it is http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1362043240/
Night-Out-is-about-more-than-just-crime

Last night our neighborhood association had a cookout for the national night out against crime. At the end of our street there is a circle turn around thing and they blocked it off and had a cookout/potluck and rented a inflatable jump house for the kids. Local police and firemen were there and gave out safety stuff. Audrey even got to shoot the fire hose. The local newspaper was there and took a picture of Audrey with her plate of food wearing a plastic fireman hat. Jason was also interviewed, but must not have had anything insightful to say because he didn't make the cut :) It is really fun to live in a neighborhood where there are activities and people get to know each other. Our neighborhood association is fairly new. A couple about our age started it up last year. We have had a couple of cookouts, a Halloween parade, we had a float in the 4th of July Parade, there is a playgroup. It's really nice. Henry is talking so much! Now he says "tank ew" (thank you) when we give him something. We are still working on please. Mostly he just points and yells right now :) He wants to walk everywhere now. He doesn't want to be carried into Audrey's school, he wants to do it himself. Sometimes when people talk to him in the hallway he gets shy and puts his head in between my legs and hides. Audrey always wants to give him a hug and kiss before she goes into her classroom. When we come to pick her up Henry goes over to the coat racks and gets Audrey's backpack and carries it to her classroom door. He knows which one is hers! The whole thing is pretty cute. He says "sister" and "Audrey" really clearly. Audrey is working on writing lower case letters now. Up until now she has written everything in caps. She is getting better at it. At first she got kind of frustrated. She is getting better and better at sounding out words too. She may be reading and writing before she even starts kindergarten! Her favorite cartoon right now is Word Girl on PBS. It is actually pretty funny. It teaches vocabulary. Audrey really likes words. Right now she is on a "stupendous" kick. She always keeps things lively, that's for sure!

Eww, Ahh, Fire!

Last night we went to Kobe steakhouse with the kids. Jason and I had been to a Japanese steakhouse before and thought the kids would get a kick out of sitting around the grill, the fire and the whole theatrics of it. We were around the same grill as another family with a little boy who was also 4. His name was Louis Charles :0 They called him his full name, Louis Charles, every time they spoke to him. He goes to preschool at Peoria Academy, a really expensive prestigious private school. I felt the pressure for Audrey to be well behaved and act smart. She was mostly. Everyone got a kick out of watching Henry. He had a really surprised look on his face during the huge flame part. He wasn't quite sure if it was fun or frightening. After he got used to it he kept saying "oh" with his mouth formed into a perfect little circle. It was pretty cute. OK, so I was commenting on Louis Charles and then started thinking, we had the names Henry, Louis, and Charles at the table. We pretty much had the British kings covered. Weird! Anyway, Audrey had more fun watching the food being made than eating it. She pretty much only ate the vegetables. Henry did eat pretty well though. He has finally come around and is starting to eat pretty much anything. All in all we had a good time.

Spoon?!?

This is what happens when you decide to give a 15 month old a spoon to feed himself yogurt. He started out doing a great job. I went downstairs to put a load of laundry in and when I came back up he had given up on the spoon and was just dipping his hand in the container and sucking the yogurt off of his hand. He finished it, but I'm not sure how much yogurt actually made in into his mouth :)

We had a great time this past weekend. We went to my in-laws to see Jason's grandpa. He was in town from Florida for a visit and his 80th birthday. It was good to visit with him and Audrey had a great time running around with her cousins. She is still having fun at school. She has homework this year, which she is really excited about. She got a kitty folder that she puts her papers in and then puts them in her new Tinkerbell backpack. I finally gave up on the duck backpack googly eyes :) She also gets a book each week to read at home and fill out a little book report. This week we have The Three Little Pigs. This cooler weather has made me eager for fall. Audrey is already talking about Halloween and Thanksgiving. She loves dressing up and trick-or-treating and she wants corn casserole at Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to apples, wearing sweaters, and going to a pumpkin patch. I think Fall is my favorite season!

Happy Meals

We are still working on adjusting to our new back-to-school schedule. Over the summer we were pretty relaxed with bed times, naps, meal times, pretty much everything. Well, the reality of getting the kids ready and out the door every day of the week is setting in. So far we have all been up pretty early and Audrey has been excited to get ready for school so it hasn't been a problem. I am actually the only one really having a issue with it, come to think of it. On our way home from school I decided we would pick up McDonald's and take it home for lunch. Audrey said that she didn't want McDonald's. Now seriously what kid turns down a Happy Meal. She said that she just wanted a fruit and yogurt parfait. I told her she was getting a hamburger because that was what was for lunch. We came home with 3 Happy Meals, one for each of us. Henry carried his own box into the house because my hands were full. As I went to set stuff down on the counter I noticed that Henry hadn't followed us into the kitchen. I walked into the hall to see where he was and I heard "um,um". He was sitting right inside the front door with his Happy Meal box opened, his hamburger unwrapped and laid out on the floor chowing down on hamburger bun. He cracks me up. He ended up eating more of his hamburger and apples than Audrey did. He even had some of my fries!

A crazy face to match the crazy hair

School and Pierced Ears

Audrey's preschool started up again today. She is in the Pre-K class this year. She goes every morning from 9 - 11:30. There are only 7 kids in her class and they are ALL girls! There was supposed to be 1 boy but his mom decided to put him in another class. She wasn't sure he would have much fun. Here is a picture of Audrey on her first day of school. It is actually a recreation. I just took it a few minutes ago because the battery on my camera was dead this morning. She got some new tennis shoes for back to school. They are Disney princess and they light up when she walks. I have to admit that before I had kids I proclaimed that my children would never wear character clothes or hideous light up shoes. Anyway, she loves them, they fit well, and have velcro so she can put them on quickly by herself. She is just going to get them filthy playing on the playground anyway, right? I don't have a picture of her backpack either because Henry decided to pull off the googly eyes from the cute duck backpack. Now it just looks creepy. I have already glued them back on once today so it may just be time for a new backpack. Audrey was most excited about showing the girls at school that she got her ears pierced. She had been talking about it for awhile but when I explained to her that it was like a needle going into your ear, she had always changed her mind. Well we were at the mall on Sunday afternoon and walked by Claire's. She said that she was sure this time and she really wanted to do it. We even walked around awhile thinking she would talk herself out of it again, but she insisted that she was ready to do it. Well it kind of turned into an ordeal. I wanted them to do them both at one time because I was afraid otherwise she would be walking around with only one earring. She sat on my lap and I held her head still, they counted to 3. She sat very still and didn't even jump. It was over with and she was crying a little when one of the girls said "oh, oh this one is too high". One of the earrings was pointed upwards a little and didn't look right. She said that they would have to take it out and redo it. At this point Audrey is sitting there bawling, mad as can be, and won't even lift up her chin and look at the girl. I was just about ready to say take them out and forget it, when the girl told Audrey that she was just going to take that earring out and clean it and put it back in. Well she was lying and repierced it really quickly without telling her what she was doing. After 2 minutes of crying Audrey was fine and had to tell everyone she met that she just got her ears pierced. She told her friend Emma that you just have to be brave and that it only hurts for a minute.

Its been awhile

So it has been awhile since I posted anything and I don't have any new pictures. Last week the kids and I went to my parents house for the whole week and hung out. We had a good time. The weekend before that we were up at my in-laws and went to "A day out with Thomas". It was at the Railway Museum in Union Illinois. They had a train that looked just like Thomas the Tank Engine that you could ride and other activities. Henry liked it, but was a little young to appreciate it fully, and Audrey didn't seem overly enthused. She said that she just wanted to go back home to Grandma's and swim in the pool. We haven't done much this long weekend. Jason came down on Friday night to pick us up from my parents. We drove back home on Saturday. Saturday night we went out to eat with the Greens and then Emma spent the night here. It was Audrey's first time having a friend sleep over. They did pretty good except I had to go lay down with them to get them to stop talking and finally go to sleep at about 11:00. They also woke up pretty early. It was also my first time getting two little girls ready for church. We just went to the 10:45 service so it wasn't too bad. Everyone was up at 6:30 so we had plenty of time. We even got out of the house early enough to stop for donuts. We ate them in the van though because I didn't want to mess with getting 3 kids in and out of car seats again :)