apple days

the apple days festival is held at ft. riley every fall and last year we missed it, so this year we decided to see what all the fuss was about. there are activities for kids, a small rodeo, and lots of free fun! we first toured all the big time tanks and such... the kids were able to climb in and have a good time taking some pictures... yeah, not so much. i think raegan's exact words were, 'this is not fun! i don't want to take pictures!'





after we exhausted them with pictures, we headed over to the home depot tent. i guess at the beginning of every month home depot has a day where kids can come in and do little building/craft projects, and they had a booth set up at the festival. grace made a butterfly house and raegan made a school bus pencil holder. i think this was their favorite part... or maybe the bounce house.



all in all... a success! grace left saying, 'that was so much fun! it is a good day!' music to my ears.

already six...

happy birthday to grace! she is now 6! she had a great birthday, complete with 2 days of cake, cupcakes and fun! we love grace so much and are so happy she is part of our little family!

big boy beds and blankets

ok, so, bryan was gone... now he is back (temporarily) and i decided it was time to put jack into his own bed. no more crib!!!

i thought that the best time to get him into his new bed was while bryan was still around (before disappearing for 12-14 months around the world) so he could lay the smack down when jack didn't want to stay in bed.

well, we sold the last toddler bed we had and the kids' room just isn't big enough for another twin bed, so i asked my mom and dad if they could bring this old table that my dad made many moons ago. a few years ago, we cut the legs down on the table and used it as a platform for an inflatable bed for raegan... but i thought it might be good for a crib mattress... what do you know? it works... jack's new bed is on a table... and he loves it!

i thought transitioning him to a big boy bed would be a nightmare... you know... never wanting to stay in bed, playing with toys all day and all night... climbing into bed with grace and raegan.

hallelujah... he stays in bed. from the very first nap he took in his bed, he just stayed there and went to sleep. huh... who knew? he did so well, even when the babysitter put him in bed, he stayed. crazy!

well, yesterday was my first official day with putting him in bed without bryan around... and i will say... he got out of bed and was playing. but i laid the smack down and he only got out once...

and today for his nap he got out again... just once... but i laid the smack down again...

obviously he thinks he can walk all over me... little does he know...

now on to blankets... this kid is so into blankets... and no, not the blanket i made him when he turned one... flannel backed = not good enough... (here is a tiny glimpse of it as caroline holds it up).



so, yeah, it has to be silky or snuggly-cuddly on the back for him to even want it...

what does this mean for me? another quilting project, baby! it is in progress, but all i can say is that he better love it! to death!

what is that on your lip?

so, uncle aaron came for a visit on his way out to utah and brought with him a surprise... that's right... a nice mustache.



he asked if i liked it... truthfully, i told him, no.

he asked grace if she liked it... truthfully, she told him, yes.



jack and raegan... no comment...

what do you think?

introducing... raegan... and pre-kindergarten

raegan started her pre-kindergarten year at first united methodist at the beginning of september. she is quite excited to be going everyday, just like gracie. the first week that grace had school, raegan was home all day and she really missed grace, so when her class finally started, she couldn't wait. her teachers, mrs. bahner and mrs. queen, are so wonderful and she loves them and her new class. she has already made many new friends and likes to talk about playing with them and having them come over to our house to play, too.




starting this week, raegan will attend the lunch bunch every thursday and jack will attend children's day out on thursday's too. they will both be gone from 9 until 1 and will have lunch at school, and play. raegan is very excited and i hope jack will enjoy it too! yay for school!