Playing Hooky Fall Style

As I was driving to work this morning I was thinking, "I should have planned to pick the girls up early from school and go apple picking". I like to do that once a year because it's such a treat to go to the orchard in the afternoon. School field trips are always there in the mornings and weekends are crazy. I like to sneak in between those. My theory is that it won't hurt my children's chance of going to college if they miss an afternoon of school, and they just may gain a memory. Back to my morning...at school we were doing all things apple today. Graphing, tasting, peeling, and making applesauce. This only heightened my yearning for an afternoon with my kids. By 10:00 I had called all 3 schools and told them I was picking up by 12:30, and called my mom who happens to be in town. I sent my classroom kiddies to lunch and jumped in my car to do the pick up rounds. Sof and Lexi were pumped, Adrienne was worried about things like homework and being late to dance and not getting to bed on time because of homework and dance. Seriously? I'm busy creating a Hallmark moment and you want to be responsible?? Now? Like any good parent I guilted her into going and yes, she was up late doing homework. Oops. But...it was all worth it because once we got there it was good fun. There were big sisters helping little sisters and a tiny Russian squealing with delight. It was an hour of fall fun I was on a mission to have. Now I believe we have to do some baking with all those apples...

Bowling Buddies

Yep, we're on a bowling league. I don't really like bowling, and my score never has more than 2 digits in it, but I have a REALLY good handicap! I always say I love bowling night, I just don't want to bowl. Bowling night is an automatic "see ya kids, we're outta here" night once a month. We almost never see our bowling team besides bowling night, which makes it even more fun to catch up. So, the bowling season started this weekend and I thought, "You know, I should take some pics and blog about it becasue we do have a life outside our kids occasionally". And, there are never grown up pictures on the blog! So, I took my camera and documented the night. You know what I realized? I blog about the kids because frankly we're just not that cute. I think in twenty years though I'll look back and say, "Look at our young selves all having fun and junk!". So here goes...bowling night in visuals...

Dinner is always first. Without it none of us would show up. We have our favorite places and occasionally we get brave and venture somewhere new. This night we wanted to start the season out right so we picked our very favorite family owned local restaurant. The food, drinks, prices, and atmosphere are just right!

They have an old time phone booth we couldn't resist. Yeah, totally posed.

Then finally onto the bowling alley where we approach our first game with enthusiasm. It's in the third game where you hear things like, "Hurry up so we can be done", "Where's Barb? Just bowl for her", and "I'd be happy to pay the same price if only had to bowl 2 games"! But we'll be back for more next month:)

Tutu Cute

Sof is on her third week of dance and we're making progress! Last week she participated in just the "Happy and You Know It" part, this week she did the whole class! She still cried hysterically when she went in though! Next week is viewing week which means parents can sit in on the whole class. I haven't decided if that's a good idea or not. I'm going to go in because I don't want her to wonder why everyone else's mommy is there, but I hope she doesn't cling to me and shut down. She's not at a point yet where I could say, "Mommy has to leave if you don't participate". At the end of the day I don't really care if she dances or not, I just like getting her dressed in her tutu's!

She did not want to pose for a picture! She just wanted to go. Funny, she's always super excited about the idea of dance, she just gets cold dancing feet when we get there!

Potpourri of Events

It's definitely harder to get posts in now that we're in school! Things happen, and I take pictures, and I have good intentions, but then I just can't get it blogged! So here goes, a random assortment of thoughts and events that are only related because of the week they happened in.

One night we actually all(except Adrienne who was at dance of course) sat down to a nice dinner. It was misery. Alexa was crying because she didn't like it(she doesn't like anything that counts as real food, and makes dinnertime miserable every night). We had the usual "eat your damn food or you're going to bed right now" conversation. Sof has been "playing" with her food a lot lately. I've decided that when you're smart enough to learn your colors, shapes, and some letters, you're smart enough to figure out no, stop, and consequences. So...when she dumped her mac n' cheese out of the bowl I took her whole dinner away. She cried, then Lexi cried. Sweet Lexi's heart couldn't handle it. Mark asked why she was crying and she said, "Mom's being mean to Sof!". I then had to explain that it's not being mean, it's called parenting, and if more people did it we wouldn't have so many poorly behaved children in this world! The point of this story is that even when your intentions are right, sometimes life isn't the storybook you want it to be. That night stuck in my head because it really was a miserable dinnertime, but after dinner we went outside. It was a beautiful night and we just threw the ball around, watered flowers, and jumped rope. The laundry was overflowing, carpet needed to be vacuumed, and countertops needed wiping. Lucky me, it was all still waiting when we came in, and I did it with a happy heart knowing we had an hour of quality time that was better than a planned meal, clean house, or organized closet.

Adrienne's middle school musical is "Alice in Wonderland". Of course she had her heart set on being Alice. She was well prepared for the audition and felt good about it. In the Jr. musical there is small Alice, Alice, and tall Alice. This is a problem because Adrienne is pretty tall. Bottom line is she didn't get it. Who knows why, but she didn't. She got the role of "Rose" which is the lead flower in the garden. She has lines and a small solo singing part. It was one of those moments you hate to see your kid go through, but have the responsibility as the parent to make it a teachable moment. When life gives you thorns be the best rose there ever was. Lesson learned.

You know when you think an outfit is cute, but you put it on your kid and it fits just right and looks even more cute then you thought it was going to? That happened...

Even better? I didn't even have to buy that outfit! It came in a package from Grandma. Don't you just love getting mail?

If you take a nap with a toddler running around, check your face when you get up.

I think I blogged about our last performance of the season. I lied. We just had real last performance of the season! It was at a local fair, with rides and all. It was a beautiful day and fun time.

Half the cousins dances, and half the cousins watched!

Livy and Kaitlyn's group

Nice kickline girls!

These kids are so amazing! They are such a talented group and nice kids to boot!

After dancing we had an hour to have some fun before Adrienne had to be back at the studio for choreography. That was plenty of time for everyone to ride two rides.

Sof's first ride. She loved it!

Lexi and Livy had to choose a "big" ride!

So cute to see Kaitlyn being the big cousin. For 5 years she was our baby!

Sorry Natalie, you ARE our baby and always will be!!

Another great week behind us and one on the horizon. The circle of life...Monday-Friday-Sunday, and Monday again...

Fabulous Fall Fun

This weekend was just screaming fall to me. I was ready to dress in denim and browns and get some pumpkin patch photos of the kids. As soon as we found out Adrienne was free from dance, I called my sister and we planned a quick trip to the cottage. We drove in Saturday afternoon, 2 mommy's, 6 girlies and a carload of bags. It's just a nice getaway. It feels like vacation. Plus there's nothing I love more then hangin' with my sis and watchin' cousins play.

My Mom, Dad, and Grandma came out and brought dinner. Pizza, salad, and decorate your own dessert. Yummmm....

Grandma got good time with baby...

Sunday morning started with a trip to the corner stand we L-O-V-E. They have the best pumpkins, best prices, coolest dog, and we basically just love everything about it!

Sof got to pick her first pumpkin. What's more fun than that?

Then we headed down the street to the real cider mill for more Sofie firsts. Donuts, cider, hayride, and some other commercialized stuff that doesn't belong at cider mills. I love seeing this child discover her world.