Just playing

Here are some photos of the kids from the past week. Just playing, as kids should :)

Looking for bugs:

Our playgroup toured a local fire station. Can you find the kids (+tiger)?

Halloween - part one

Wow - I could really get used to this awesome fall weather (70 degrees and we are loving every minute we can spend outside). Friday night we took the kids to Living History Farms. They host a family Halloween which includes trick or treating, tractor ride, pumpkins, roasting marshmallows and a storyteller. We had a terrific night! Great weather, no crowds, and no crying (by anyone in my family).

As you can see, Kevin is a pirate. We dressed Katie in Kevin's old chickie costume. She refused to wear the hat. When we went to another party on Sunday afternoon she was dressed as a Hawkeye cheerleader (no hat required)!

I just couldn't resist re-posting a photo of Kevin wearing the same chickie costume 3 years ago!

More Halloween pictures this week (preschool party & trick-or-treating still to come...)

Photo shoot out-takes

After church this morning we noticed that both the kids were dressed to kind of match each other. This wasn't planned. We thought we would try to pose them for a Christmas card picture, here are the out-takes...

"Put your paws up" - we say that all the time!

As you know, it's super hard to get a 1 year old and 4 year old to stand next to one another, hold hands, gaze adoringly at the camera, and smile all at the same time! I don't have one of those super-fancy fast cameras so we did the best we could. While not professional, still cute :)

Lots of football talk

It's football talk around here...

Nate is teaching Kevin the proper football stance. No surprise, Kevin always wants to play full blown tackle football. He is showing off his new #85 shirt, just like his Grandpop's football number. My dad sent Kevin a photo of himself in his high school football uniform (circa 1960's) and Kevin just could not believe it was him!

Cousin Isabel took her first steps, finally, during the Iowa/Iowa State game! Nate caught it on video and also snapped this picture of Kevin helping Isabel.

Center Grove Orchard

Well, we have sailed right through our sadness that summer is over and moved directly into fall mode. We might just have to turn on the heat soon if the weather stays like this. It was really chilly downstairs this morning and both kids woke up with cold toes.

We love Center Grove Orchard!

I took the kids for our first visit of the season today. It was chilly this morning, but they didn't seem to mind. The mini-barnyard was just perfect for Katie (and me) because the animals are contained in their pens so they didn't come too close. Kevin loved the corn pool. This was Katie's first "dip" in the pool. I was impressed that she did not eat the corn kernels. We took a tractor ride, played in the mini corn maze and jumped on the giant bouncy pillow. We came home with a peck of apples and peaches.

***Both kids were sound asleep when we got home!*** I could not have asked for a better Thursday. We purchased a season pass to the orchard and have plans to meet Kevin's preschool playgroup there for the next few weeks.

I was only able to snap a few photos on my phone:

Catching up...

Time has slipped away from me, so here are some pictures to catch up!

Kevin was up early today so he had breakfast with Nate.

Kevin received this super cool 3-D dinosaur shirt in the mail from Grandmom & Grandpop last week. He sure loves dinosaurs lately.

2 happy kiddos at the Blank Park Zoo last week:

Adorable! I love this face!

Katie - 15 month check up

Today I took Katie for her 15 month check-up, here are her stats (15 months, 21 days):

Weight: 24 lbs, 6 oz. (69th percentile)

Height: 32.5 inches (93th percentile)

As a comparison, Kevin was 27 pounds & 30.5 inches. Again, I am fascinated by how tall she is! She needs those long, strong legs to run around our house and constantly chase her brother!

"Words" that Katie can say:

-ball

-hat

-hot

-Mamma

-Dadda

-Baby

-NO

-Cheese, trees, shoes (all sounds the same)

When asked "What does a cow say", she responds "Oooohhhh". Sort of.

Here are a few pictures of Miss Katie:

Was giving her her own cup of chocolate pudding a bad idea?

One last photo from the State Fair

Here are the kids on the way home from the doctor and running errands this morning. Katie was wiped out! Kevin is showing off the balloon he got at the mall.