A field trip with Eli!

On Monday, Eli’s class (all the kindergarten classes) went to Paradise Park.  Each of us moms got assigned a group to keep an eye on for the morning.  In my group, I had Eli, Griffin, and Memphis (his buddies).  Once we got there, we were assigned to a bigger group.  We then went from station to station.   Our first station was cooking!  The kids to make a smore.  Then off to theatre.  And then the kids got to go on a hayride and sing songs.  They also got to pick out a little pumpkiin for themselves.  Then to art where the kids made paper pumpkins with seeds inside.

Then we got some free time and the kids played in a ball pit, played in the water play center, face painted, played outside, and went to do pretend play.  They got to be shoppers and checkers.

I forgot my camera…I know, bummer!  I am hoping his teacher got some good ones and I can get them from her.  We had such a fun time!  Thank you to my wonderful husband that took the morning off so I could go spend the morning with Eli!

A couple days off school

Last week, the kids didn’t have school because of parent teacher conferences.  Jocelyn and Eli both had a friend over so we could make a “haunted castle”.  Audrey also joined in!  Boy what a mess they made, but they were crackin’ up!

jocelyn and laiken working together on the front of the house

Audrey trying to help too!

All 4 of them cracking up…

still laughing!

Eli and Carter were cracking up at Jocelyn and Laiken!

The finished product! 

What a work of art!!! 🙂

 

 

It’s conference time…

We started with Jocelyn’s conference last night.

The first thing her teacher said to us was that she loves most about Jocelyn is her dedication to turn in work that is complete, correct, and looks good.  She doesn’t feel pressured to be the first one finished and she doesn’t mind if she is one of the last ones done.  She has one B and the rest A’s.  In third grade, they also give a grade for effort and those are also very high marks.  She is a very good problem solver and she enjoys reading.  She is a great team player and doesn’t try to be the boss and she helps the team get their work done.  We are dealing with some spelling issues, but she does have an A.  We feel that she maybe doesn’t feel confident during spelling tests.  Hopefully that will come as she improves with spelling.  Spelling just doesn’t come as easy to her as math does.  Overall, we are so proud of the young lady that she is becoming.  She genuinely cares for people and wants to be a good person.  We love you Jocelyn and are so proud of you.

We then went to Eli’s conference.  His teacher is truly amazing and Eli (& us) are so fortunate to have her.  The first thing she said was that our Eli was her little sweetie. He always has a smile and his face and is eager to learn.  His writing is coming along and he is starting to sound out words to write them in his journal.  She showed us his October journal and he has done some pretty neat pictures.  Then there is a place for them to describe what they have written.  I was very impressed with some of the words that he was trying to write.  His letter recognition is coming along well and he is excelling in his patterning skills.  She said that he is always the first one to point out a pattern when walking down the hall or just in the classroom.  He does need to work on self control…not a surpise.  He gets very excited about certain things and has a hard time keeping his hands to himself.  We also need to work on tying shoes!  That was about it.  We finished up and she said ” I just have to tell you guys this.  Eli is very well like in this class.  EVERYONE always wants to be with Eli.  When they pick partners, no matter who it is boy or girl, they always chooses Eli.  When I change their center groups, they always get excited when they are with Eli.  He always has a smile and his face and he wants to be everyone’s friend.”  I about got tears in my eyes when she told us that.  Brian and I have always known that Eli is very well like by ALL kids.  My friend Kelly has always said that Elli will he class president one day.  He is such a personable, tenderhearted kid and I can ‘t wait to see where that takes him in this world!  We love you Eli and couldn’t be more proud of the friend that you are and the eagerness you show in life!

Then I went to Audrey’s conference this morning.  With not being quite 3 yet, not too much to discuss.  But she is really starting to talk while at school.  She is feeling more comfortable in the classroom setting and more at ease with the teachers.  We are fortunate that she has the same preschool teacher that Eli had.  She knows that we struggled with Audrey’s speech (well, lack there of) and so she really tries to let us know how she is doing.  She does need to work on listening to the teachers sometime, but some of that is with the age and I think she is testing them too.  She is really starting to interact with the other kids and talking with them too.  That is awesome and now know that she can talk perfectly fine…she just only talks with SHE wants to. She is a happy little girl and we cannot believe that she will be 3 in a few weeks!  We love you Audrey!  You are the best little cuddle bug!

Well that sums up how the kiddos are doing in school!  Keep them in your prayers that they continue to be respectful and happy kids!

Our visits to the pumpkin patch

A few weeks back I took Jocelyn and Eli to the pumpkin patch for girlscouts.  Audrey wasn’t feeling well so Brian stayed home with her…it was a chilly day!  I helped run the event, so Jocelyn, Eli and Laiken (friend of Jocelyn’s whose mom is my co-leader for scouts) all decided to run the hayride over and over again.  The path it took went right by where we were set up.  Jocelyn and Eli both picked out a pumpkin and then I picked one out too.  Just in case I didin’t get Audrey to the pumpkin patch. 

 

But I was able to take Audrey to the pumpkin patch this past Monday.  It was just her and I.  We both had a lot of fun, as you can see by the pictures below.

You can click on the pictures and they will come up to fit the screen.

(Not quite sure what happened??)

Jocelyn’s pumpkin that she carried all the way from the patch!

Cute pic of Eli and Jocelyn at the pumpkin patch

hayride

You can see in this picture what she was doing

Racing the rubber duckies…

Looking at the rabbits

Playing the swingset at the pumpkin patch

Riding the train.

Audrey jumping on the jumping pillow!

Finding her perfect LITTLE pumpkin!

Audrey on the train at the pumpkin patch

Our girls weekend in Iowa…

Way back in June, the Miley Cyrus concert tickets went on sale.  She was scheduled to be here in KC on the 3rd of October, but I knew that Brian and I would be going to the ISU/KState game at Arrowhead.  So she was scheduled to be in Des Moines on the 9th.  So the Saturday morning when they went on sale, I sat down to order 2 tickets for Jocelyn and I.  I was hoping to get fairly decent seats and was going to give them to her for a REALLy early birthday present.  When my tickets came up it said row 1.  FRONT ROW!!!  You have got to be kidding me!  Brian and I decided that day NOT to tell her until the day of.  I can’t believe we did it!

So we had told Jocelyn that her, Audrey and myself would head up to Iowa for the night to hang out.  Brian had just had surgery, so we left Eli with dad and they had a boys night.

I picked Jocelyn up at 11:30 and we loaded up the car and left at noon.  We got to G & G house, ate some dinner and got ready to go out.  I had told her that her and I would get to go do something fun and we would leave Audrey with G & G.  I told her to think about what she wanted to do.  When we got in the car, she told me that she wanted to go get ice cream and go look at halloween costumes.  But she kept saying “But why are we so dressed up??”

We got in the car and drove a few minutes and then called Brian.  We asked him what he thought we should do for the night.  To make a long story short…she then found out that she was getting an early birthday present and she was going to the MILEY CYRUS concert!  She was ecstatic—her face was priceless!

She asked me where we were sitting and I said I wasn’t sure.  I decided to let that be another surprise.  We got in to the arena, stood in line for a shirt, and then walked down the stairs to the floor.  I gave the attendant our tickets and she said “ROW 1”  and yet again, we surprised her.  She said “Did she say row 1???”

I took many pictures!  I couldn’t resist when Miley was right in front of us.  Jocelyn had a permanent smile on her face!

 

Jocelyn standing in front of the stage.

 

Jocelyn and I waiting for the concert to start.

That big screen behind Jocelyn had text messages on from fans in the audience.  You could text something and it would appear on the screen.  Miley would also write messages to the audience.  She wrote something when she was getting her hair done, and then as she was walking down the hall to get on stage.  It was pretty cool and got the audience really wild!

This is when we knew the concert was going to start.

She was behind the ice…

There she was!

 

 

 

 

I think this is a cool picture

This is right after she waved at Jocelyn

 

I wanted to get a picture of Jocelyn turned around

She was singing The Climb – Jocelyn’s favorite Miley song

Leaving the stage

Great concert!!!

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Then we stayed at Melanie and Craigs that night.

Audrey had a fun evening with G & G.  Well, as much fun as she could, she had a fever.  Poor baby!

We woke up to snow!  Do you see the little snowman that Grandpa made for the girls?

The girls looking at grandpa while he tries to catch some snowflakes!

Cute picutre of those 2!!

Then we went out for breakfast with my mom,  Jami, Ryder, and my cousin Jenny and her little boy Cameron.

Ryder

Cameron

My mom and Jocelyn,  Audrey refused to get in the picture!

 

What we have been up to…

Since I haven’t blogged for about a month,  I am going to do one big post!  So here it goes!!!

We took the kids the the Circus in mid-September.  We had never taken them to the circus before, but we all had a great time.  We sat right behind our good friends, so our kids had fun together too.  We went to the pre-circus show to see the clowns, animals, and other actors.

The kids had crazy hair day at school.  It was also purple day for Eli’s kindergarten class and since he does not own any purple clothing, we used purple hair spray.

Purple and green hair

(It was also Chiefs RED Friday, so they wore their LJ jerseys)

Mohawk…he would have a mohawk every day if we let him! 🙂

She had several pony tails in her hair and they were all striped purple and green.  Then we sprayed glitter all over.

 

We had a family campout with Jocelyn’s GS troop.  We spent Friday night there and came home late Saturday night.  The kids all had a blast with all the other kids to play with.  This was Audrey’s first time camping with us and she did awesome.  They were all filthy dirty when we got home, but that just means that they had fun!

 

Eli lost his first tooth.  Eli lost his first tooth on the 22nd of September.  He was terrified that it was loose enough to come out.  Brian and I had to hold him still to get it out.  Brian held his head and I grabbed a tissue, grabbed a hold of the tooth and it came right out.  He didn’t even realize that it had come out.  He woke us all up at 5:45 am to tell us that the tooth fairy had come.  He lost his 2nd tooth this past weekend when Aunt Jami was watching him.   I need to get a picture of him without his bottom two teeth.

Eli with one tooth gone!  I will get a updated picture.

More pics of Eli playing football.

Their coach got them those black things to put on their faces for the game.

Brian’s parents came down to KC to join us for one of our fun-filled weekends!  Football bright and early Saturday morning, then off to soccer, then to lunch, rest for a while, then off to our last ROYALS game of the season!

Eli with Grandmpa!

Grandma with the girls.  I think it is a pretty good picture!

 Then Jocelyn cheered on Sunday. 

 

Jami called that week and asked if her and Ryder could come visit for a few days.  She also watched out kids for us on Saturday so we could go to the Iowa State/K-State game.

 

 

 Action shot of Ryder going down the slide.

Jocelyn and Ryder on the trampoline.

Audrey tying to get up on the highest swing we have!

Here are some updates on each of us…

That pretty much catches you up to this week.  Audrey is doing well at school.  She is starting to talk more and interact more with new friends.  She says pretty funny things daily that make me smile.  I really enjoy spending the mornings with her.  She really is a happy girl!  That is our main goal with our kids…to see them happy!

Eli is having a blast in kindergarten.  I think his favorite part of school is making new friends.  He is always telling me a new friends name.  He enjoys doing his weekly homework and is eager to learn new things.  He also loves playing soccer and is learning a lot playing football.

Jocelyn is having a good year.  She has had some hard times with the typical third grade girl drama.  She has learned a lot about friendships this year.  I am proud of her for being a good friend.  It is amazing how much she has grown up this year.  She has been such a good helper around the house and with Eli and Audrey.  I am truly proud of the young lady she is becoming! 

Brian had surgery on his shoulder yesterday.  He has his arm in a sling for the next week or two.  He is doing well and I know he is anxious to be able to use his arm again.

And I have been pretty busy too.  Taking on more volunteer jobs!  At times, I am very overwhelmed with every thing on my plate…but I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

 

BUSY!!

As you probably have guessed it…we have been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to blog about any of our activities.  I will work on it over the next few days and hopefully catch you all up on our craziness!!!  Sorry for the delay!!