Friends

A couple of "borrowed" pictures from today of me and some of my favorite people. Thanks Louis and Jenny for a lovely afternoon!

Jonas Turns 1!

Jonas, his family, and some adorable cakes:


Daddy helps Sophie with her "S" cupcake:

Milo and Sophie discuss "old times," like when they were turning one . .

Milo getting way too big!

Me and my "baby"

Maddie (with her friend Andrew) making a mess, as always:

Last Sunday

It seems that I am about a week behind lately. These pictures are from our third trip to the pumpkin patch last Sunday. We went with our friends Andrew and Alexis.

Football Sunday has been markedly quieter at our house this season:

The Marek Fire

Monday's Marek fire was really close to where I work. And although many of the schools near mine were closed, mine was open. So, off to work I went commmuting directly into the plume of smoke and fire. I had a sore throat and a massive head ache by the end of the day.

This picture was taken about 7 miles from my work:


This was about 4 miles from work:


Here, I am right in the "thick" of things, less than a mile from work. It is normally super light and bright at this time of the morning, but as you can see, it looks more like night.

More Pumpkin Patch Time

I am finally getting a chance (6:30 am, before work) to post some pictures from last Sunday's trip to the pumpkin patch.  I'll have to write more later as it is time to awaken my sleeping beauties!

Fall Fun

We made the most of some absolutely perfect fall weather and headed out to the zoo this morning.  We loved the cool temperatures and fresh air.  

Sophie had her two year check up this week.  She is 35 inches tall and 29.5 pounds.  That puts her height and weight in the 80th percentile.  Our preschool called this week to see if we wanted our spot, but we opted to keep her with Betty for a few more months.  I would like her to be able to communicate more clearly and to be potty trained before preschool, so they're going to call us back in January.

Maddie, All Grown Up

Madeline is changing every day, very quickly, much too quickly, if you ask me. Even though these changes make me a bit sad, I am so proud of her.  

Thursday, she participated in her first "invitation only" gymnastics class.  She loved it, of course.  She is the youngest in the group, and the tallest. 

 Madeline is also a Girl Scout now.  She had her first meeting today, and starting next week, I'll be helping out with her group from 4:00 until 5:30.  

Maddie's biggest accomplishment this week, though, is passing her sight words test at school!  Yeah Maddie!  In order for Maddie to move her cloud onto the rainbow, she had to learn 10 "red" words (see, we, have, are, etc).  And now that Maddie has learned all the "red" words, we'll start working on 10 more "orange" words.  She'll have to learn 10 words for each color of the rainbow in order to make it to the (oh so elusive) pot of gold.  I can't begin to describe how much Kindergarten has changed since I taught it 8 years ago . . .

More of Sophie's Birthday

I thought I would post a few more pictures from the weekend. Sophie actually turned two on Monday, but we had a small family celebration on Saturday. She loved the Elmo cake I made for  her with Kent's favorite family frosting recipe (a double batch).

One of her presents was this toy ramp and car set.  She loves it!  

Pumpkin Patch Party

We actually had two cool days in a row! Saturday it rained, which was awesome. Madeline splashed in puddles, and Sophie kept running outside and saying, "It raining, it raining." Today was warmer, but clear, so we headed out to the pumpkin patch. The girls rode the train; Madeline liked it, but Sophie kept a death grip on my arm until the very end. The girls climbed haystacks, meandered through a maze, rode in a wagon, and looked at some farm animals. You know how we love those goats.

Here Sophie kept saying, "Goat eat me? Noooooo!  Goat eat me? Noooooo" and then laughing at her own joke.

This is Maddie riding on the back of a witch's broom:

Happy Birthday Sophie!

The Elmo Cake

I spent the morning completing the Elmo cake with my two favorite "helpers."