How Tall This Fall?

2011 Trip to Blake's Apple Orchard...

2010 Trip to Blake's Apple Orchard

What different weather we had last year!!

Apple Orchard

Every year I take my preschool classes to the apple orchard. Where we live in Michigan apple picking is a big thing and there are several orchards with you-pick options.

This year I have a small 3's class so I brought Ava and Matthias along with me to the orchard. It was a fun time with just my two little ones. Ava loved picking the apples and even managed to get a few off of the trees and into the bag!

Her greatest joy was eating an entire apple, core and all! I did stop her long enough to take out the stem!

We were very impressed with this huge pumpkin they had grown.
It weighed in at 400 lbs!

Because Matt was in the backpack the entire time I didn't get many pictures of his first orchard trip! The poor forgotten third child!

Before we left on the wagon ride I did remember to snap one quick shot of him!
For the record he did have a great time watching all the action from up in the carrier! And he got to eat an apple orchard doughnut!




Fast Forward a couple of days....

Julia's class went to a different orchard a few days later and the weather changed dramatically in a few days time! Her class trip was cold and rainy! But that didn't put a damper on the fun had by first grade and Kindergarten! Julia and her friend Faith had fun picking their 5 apples from 5 different types of apple trees!

She also got to bring home a small pumpkin, it was very muddy in the pumpkin patch!


Two very different apple orchard experiences
but still all the kiddos had a good time.
We love living in a place where we can enjoy fun
outdoor activities like apple picking!

The Toothless Wonder!

Julia lost her first tooth last year at school. First she lost it and got a tooth necklace from Mrs. O , the school secretary. But then she actually lost it on the floor of the gym where they eat lunch. Her teacher had everyone looking for it and her best friend Emily found it. Which was really a miracle considering how tiny baby teeth are!

Well she has lost one other since then and just last night she lost her first top tooth and couldn't be more excited about being a toothless wonder!

She thinks its funny that she can't say a few words right because of the empty space and we see her slipping her tongue in the spot feeling for the new tooth.
Seeing our little big girl and her toothless grin just shows me how much she is growing up!

Matthias' First Birthday Party

I can hardly believe that this little man has grown so much in one year into.....











this "Fuzzy Man-Cub"













For Matthias' first birthday we did a jungle themed party for two reasons: One of his many nicknames has been "Man-Cub" from Disney's The Jungle Book and his nursery was done all in jungle prints so he has always been our little wild animal!





Because my niece Anna's birthday is just 5 days after Matthias', we did a joint party. Anna requested a giraffe cake to go along with the jungle theme and Rachael out-did herself with this beautiful and delicious creation! The bottom layer was Anna's giraffe print and the top was Matthias' monkey-man, jungle design.











She even did their names to match their designs and wrote them so that from each side you could only see one name. Very clever!

Matthias is a loving, happy, busy little 1 year old! He loves to give hugs and kisses. He is "talking" all the time but not actually saying many words yet. We are pretty sure there has been a "hi" and "Mama" in the mix of chatter. He is a speedy crawler and cruises around but hasn't tried any independent steps yet
.
His favorite toys are anything his sisters have that he shouldn't have!
Of his own toys, he likes trucks, cars and trains.

Matthias is a good napper and night time sleeper. He likes to sleep with his little green froggy blanket and a nuk (a habit I am wishing I had already broken!) .
He LOVES to eat and eat and eat! We rarely feed him something that he doesn't gobble down!

As with the girls he has many nicknames: Man-Cub, Fuzzy (given to him by Ava when she couldn't say Matthias, she said "MuFuzzie") Boy-Child... and more then we ever even realize we're saying! :)

I always say that Matthias is the perfection exclamation point at the end of our family.
He has forever been a very easy going baby and continues to be an easy-going,
but busy "almost" toddler.

Happy Birthday Matthias Arthur!

Friday was Matthias' first birthday and I just wanted to take a little trip down memory lane back to year ago when this little boy sat still long enough to have his picture taken!

What a sweet, perfect baby boy!

We celebrated his special day with friends and family. It was very busy, so busy that neither mommy or daddy thought to pick up the camera much... so we are waiting for some good pics from Matthias' Godfather Nick who took lots of pictures of this sweet boy.
Happy Birthday Fuzzy Man-Cub!

First Day of School (Part 2)

Today was Ava's first day of "school"

She is going to Kid's Day Out program at 1st Presbyterian Church. It is 4 hours on Wednesdays, they play, eat snack, have a music class, eat lunch and watch a video for the last half hour.

She couldn't have been more excited or more confused. She knew that this was a big deal, but wasn't sure why. At first she thought she was going to Trinity with Julia and wanted to leave with Julia and me this morning. Then she thought Julia was coming with her to her school. Once she totally understood everything she was just excited.
Chris dropped her off (which was probably a good thing for my little personal penguin) and she didn't cry or cling but barely even said good-bye! When I picked her up she was glad to see me but wasn't in a hurry to leave. Just what you want in a first day of school! She is looking forward to next Wednesday.

First Day of School (Part 1)

Today was Julia's first day of 1st grade! She was very excited but also very calm about the whole thing. She barely gave me a kiss and off she went... it kinda made me sad and proud all at the same time!

Since we leave for school so early, it was a little dark still when we took first day of school pictures, and a little cold. None the less Ava and Matthias still wanted in on the action!

This is Julia's 4th first day of school at this house!

Julia and Mrs. Kruse!
Ruth is a dear friend and I am very excited for Julia to have her for her first grade teacher. She has known Julia ever since I started at Trinity when Julia was just shy of 2 years old. She has always been so sweet to Julia over the years and encouraging to me as a mom. She also has three kids (high school and college age) but understands the joys and frustrations of being a busy mom.

Today was a good first day for Julia, but her class lost a lot of students for various reasons and she was missing some of her Kindergarten classmates today. There will be some social adjustments going from a large class to a small class as far as "always someone to play with." She is a social butterfly and likes to be in charge, heaven forbid someone else decide what they will play! I am confident that there will be some growing pains for her this year but I also know that there will be much joy because she loves to learn!


Stay tuned for tomorrow for Ava's first day of school!

( A side note: I had the best first day of 3 year old preschool ever!! We had one crier and 7 happy to be there. They were well behaved and listened. We didn't have to chase anyone down the hall. This day will go down in history as the best first day ever! Karen may disagree, she had to handle the crier/ occasional screamer) :)