An apple a day...

I recently took the kids to Apple Holler, which has an apple orchard, pumpkin patch, corn maze, and a bunch of other fun things for kids to do. The kids loved it and we ended up with SO MANY apples. The following week we ate apple pie, apple crisp, caramel apples, apples and peanut butter, etc. SO YUMMY.

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away." I told Cameron this to get him to eat up our apples and now he says it all the time.



Kate did pretty well riding in the wagon.....


and then she fell asleep which was even better (and funny to see her face planted like that). And nope those two boys aren't mine, they are Jenn Randall's kids. Thanks Ethan for pulling the wagon for me!

I can't get enough of this boy, isn't Connor the cutest thing??

Door County in a day and a half....

We recently took a weekend trip to the much acclaimed Door County. It really is as quaint and picturesque as I imagined it would be - my pictures don't do it justice. We drove through many of the small towns - Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, Ephraim, Sister Bay, to name a few.

We also....

saw two lighthouses.....

hiked on the trails and by the water....

threw rocks in the bay....

stood under a very large cow (hey, we are in Wisconsin....)

enjoyed the view.....

played at several fun playgrounds......

rode pedal carts.....

enjoyed the scenery at Cave Point (and tried not to fall in the water....)

and ate at a Swedish restaurant......that was a must for me, the restaurant had goats on the roof so we had to see it!!

Hooray for kindergarten!

I was a little worried at the start of the school year about a few things, like how would Cameron handle being in school ALL day? How would I handle Cameron being in school ALL day? But it's actually kind of nice sometimes to have him in school (Shhhhh...don't tell him I said that!) It's nice because then I only have two kids during the day and the house just seems that much quieter. It makes running errands a little less crazy as well, plus when we're out I don't get as many amazed looks and the comments like "Whoa, you must have your hands full!" (I've never known how to respond to that one, I always just kind of smile and say "yep, I do!" I bet this doesn't happen in Utah.....but anyway, I digress.) I love the fact that I get to spend some one on one time with Connor that we've never really had before. He is such a fun cool kid and we do a lot of fun things during the day. And then Connor has preschool for a few hours a couple days a week, and then it is just me and Kate (!!!) So yes, things are going well :)


Connor dressed up for "beach day" at his preschool. He looks forward to every Tuesday and Thursday when he gets to go to school.


Cameron's kindergarten picture. Isn't he adorable??? He was picked as student of the month for the month of September. I asked him why the teacher chose him, and he said it was for "being good and doing good stuff." So there you have it.

A Festivus for the rest of us

This weekend we checked out the Harvest Fest at the state fairgrounds (thanks for the heads up Lindsy!) It was a fun outing, we ate caramel apples and apple fritters, and there were a lot of fun things for the kids to do. I love this time of year....

The petting zoo was a hit (for Cameron at least.)

Kate is staring at that goat rather suspiciously....I think she is grateful to be on the other side of the fence!

Connor wasn't too into touching any of the animals - I don't blame him!

In line for one of the bouncy toys.

Happy Birthday to Kate!!

My baby is 1, I can't believe it! We just had a family party, princess-theme (at the insistence of Kate's brothers, they were fairly confident that's what she would like.....)




OK, so I'm not a pro with birthday cakes, but it works, right? You can see the spot where Kate had already attacked it :)

Yum!!

I bought her a doll because I just realized recently that all she has to play with are Hot Wheels and Transformers (sorry Kate!) She seemed really excited about the doll for about 2 seconds (just in time to take this picture) and then she grabbed it by the leg, tossed it across the room, and headed right back over to her FAVORITE TOY, the........

Busy Ball Popper!!! Now is that a happy kid, or what?

Born to be wild

In honor of the 105th anniversary of Harley-Davidson, which was celebrated in Milwaukee last weekend with much fanfare, I have included a few pics of our recent trip to the Harley-Davidson museum, also in Milwaukee. I am normally not interested in that kind of stuff, but the museum was actually pretty cool. As cool as I thought it was, WE ARE NEVER GOING TO OWN A MOTORCYCLE. EVER. (This is in case Keith is reading, I didn't want him to get his hopes up.) Good thing too, because you can tell from looking at these pictures that I don't fit the part of a biker chick....

The Harley museum didn't hold Kate's interest apparently...

I think I must be crazy.....

This is the day I have been dreading for a long time - sending Cameron off to his first day of school. I still remember MY first day of Kindergarten (many many many years ago) - I was walking with my mom and she was sobbing the whole way to my classroom and I was SO EMBARRASSED. So I vowed not to do this and embarrass Cameron. He really wanted to ride the bus so we waited patiently by the bus stop and the whole time I am thinking DON'T TAKE MY BABY AWAY FROM ME! When the bus pulled up Cameron got the hugest smile on his face and jumped right on that bus, never looking back. The rest is just a blur for me. The bus pulled away and I stood there just feeling so empty inside, and I panicked at the thought of going home, so I just started walking (almost running) towards his school. Luckily for me the school is only 3-4 blocks away, so I arrived there in about five minutes, still not sure of what I was doing there. I was able to see Cameron at the front of the school in the kindergarten line, and he looked really excited and happy to be there, That was enough for me, I felt so much better. I still hung around - with a lot of other anxious parents, I might add - until the kids went inside, but I stayed out of Cameron's eyesight until right as he was about to go in, when I yelled his name and waved. He gave me a bewildered look, undoubtedly wondering what I was doing there, but he just smiled and went on his way. After school Cameron told me all about his first day of Kindergarten and he loved every minute of it. Whew! What a day.......


Does he look excited for the first day of school, or what?!



At the bus stop, patiently waiting.....



At school in line with the other kindergarteners. At this point he has no idea I'm there :)