Weekend Away

After Madeleine's party on Friday we packed up the car and headed for central AR for a visit with the grandparents. We spent Friday night and Saturday in Little Rock (of which I have no pictures) then headed to Searcy to celebrate with Matt's aunt and uncle on their 50th anniversary! I'm so thankful that we got to be there to share that special day with them. They have been so good to us......and to so many others as was obvious by how very many, many people attended their party!

The party was in the Cone Chapel at Harding which is BEAUTIFUL! I haven't been on campus much since we graduated a looooong time ago and I was amazed by some of the improvements. I didn't end up taking many pictures (I've got to work on this!) since we were too busy talking and enjoying ourselves. :)

Here's Pops and a very sleep Harrison --- who did great considering the party fell right during naptime.
I snapped some pics of the kids in their Sunday outfits since we were early.

I absolutely LOVE this outfit....and so does Madeleine! It's just so cute!

Madeleine's working on her posing for the camera and Harrison just wants to go check out the cake. :)

How stinkin' cute is Harrison's outfit?! I've decided it's a good thing we're having another baby since I'm not ready to give up having someone to dress in sweet smocking.

We walked around campus a little bit before hitting the road and heading home so the kids could get out the last of their energy and hopefully sleep on the way home. It didn't work.

And what trip to Searcy is complete without a stop at Sonic?? Matt and I spent many an afternoon there in college. And it hasn't changed. Not. One. Bit.

I also have to add this: EVERY TIME we get Harrison a corndog, he bites off the top and turns to me with fascination filling his voice and says, "Look Mommy, a hot dog in there!!!" It never ceases to amaze him that there's a hot dog in the middle. Hahahaha!

It was a great, albeit quick, trip. It took the kids a couple of days to get back on schedule and catch up on their sleep, but I think things are back to normal now. :)

Fall Party

Friday was Madeleine's Fall Party at school -- the first party of the year for the kids and they were sooooo excited! They were already bouncing off the walls when I dropped Madeleine off that morning and the party wasn't until after lunch! :)
Since I'm the room mom for the year it was my job to plan/coordinate it and I had such fun! The kids came in first and decorated their goodie bags with stickers, then while they took a nature walk to look for symmetry in nature (part of their math lesson) Ms. Simpson and I filled the bags full of fun things to take home.
When they came back from their walk they feasted on all the goodies that parents sent. They had cookies, cookie cake, candy, chips, grapes and cheese. It was amazing how much they ate considering they'd just had lunch.

After snacks the kids made Halloween Candy necklaces that I found. They were so cute! They had a pattern to them which they LOVED since they'd just finished learning about patterns in math. They all had a great time putting them together. I didnt' get any pictures of the finished product since they were nibbled away pretty quickly.

We ended the party by dancing to Halloween music with balloons I'd brought! It was a great way to get out all the sugar energy they had. :)

I loved every minute of getting to be up there and see Madeleine with her little friends at school. It was especially nice to get to focus all of my attention on her.....a big thanks to my parents for getting Harrison and taking him to their house for a couple of days!

Fall Fun

Last week the kids and I made the most what seems like it will probably be the last warm sunny day we'll have for awhile and headed to the park after school for some fun! They were so happy to be outside and running and we ended up staying almost 2 hours! Enjoy the pictures of the fun we had...

Just before leaving we headed back to the big playground for a couple of last slides. The kids found a pile of sand full of worms under the playground that entertained them forever. It was funny to see their different reactions.....Madeleine didn't want to touch them and used a stick to poke at them while Harrison was picking them up and wiggling them at me! Ewwww!

I'm so thankful we made the most of that day because it seems like every day since then has been rainy or soggy! What a fun time we had.

The Final Third

Today marks the start of my final trimester! I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is flying by....I still have so much to do. Actually, I still have EVERYTHING to do. :) It seems that when Madeleine started school our schedule got CrAzY!

This pregnancy has not been near as easy as the other two. Mostly I've been so tired ALL THE TIME! And the past three weeks I've been sick and although I've had two rounds of antibiotics I can't seem to get better. :( But, I'm hopeful the end is in sight!!!

However, it's surprised me that even though I've been through this before it's just as amazing the third time. I still love feeling the baby move and I still worry just as much about it. The kids are getting so excited about this little one joining our family! Harrison keeps tell me that he has a baby in his tummy too -- and he sticks his belly out big while he says it! So cute!

What they're teaching in Kindergarden

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Apparently this is what you learn in kindergarden when your school is basically located on the UofA Campus. :) And this is only one of the reasons why I love her teacher this year!

300th Post and the End of the Soccer Season

Friday night was Madeleine's last soccer game -- thankfully, since it's been freezing here this week! We were scheduled to play on Saturday as well, but our coach called it off since it was supposed to get even colder. I think all the parents were thankful!

Madeleine's had such a fun time this fall playing for the first time. She's made a good friend on the team and is already looking forward to when spring soccer rolls around. As we were leaving I had the thought that when we come back for the spring season we'll be a family of FIVE!

She's by no means the most aggressive player on the team, but she's had a blast and that's what counts. You can usually see her cheering and jumping a safe distance from the action. But, she's always the first to cheer for her teamates and I'm so proud of her for sticking with it even when she was tired and cold! Enjoy the pictures!

They only had 4 girls there for most of the game, so everyone got to play a lot more which was nice since it kept her warm! :) Harrison and I spent the entire game huddled up under a warm blanket while cheering her on!

Sign of a Good Day

When our playroom looks like this...
and this.....

(I didn't even DARE show you what the kids rooms looked like)

And my dinner plate looks like this ......

Ahhhhh....it's been a good day. :)

Where We've Been

WOW. It's been such a long couple of weeks around our house. I am very much hoping for a nice uncomplicated week so I can finally get caught up.

It all began almost 2 weeks ago when Madeleine got in the car after school and said she was COLD. She's my child that is NEVER cold. Not unless she's sick. UH-OH was my first thought. Then she said she was too tired to go to soccer that night and could she just go home and take a nap. UH-OH. She must be feeling REALLY bad.

We head home where she heads straight to the couch and proceeds to sleep for 4 hours. Meanwhile I check her backpack and see a note from the teacher saying that HALF of her class was either at home with or sent home with a high fever. Oh boy.....she wakes up with fever over 103 degrees. We give her some motrin and off to (my) bed she goes. The next morning she's still feeling bad but just fever so I'm hoping it's just a 24 hour bug.

By Saturday she still has fever and now has a cough/sore throat. Monday we head to the dr. since she's still not better. She ends up with a bad bad bad ear infection, upper respitory infection and fever virus. In retrospect I wish I'd insisted on a flu test since it took her the rest of the week to get better and she ended the week throwing up. Fun times. My poor girl ran high fever for a week and missed an entire week of kindergarden. :( This is the sickest she's EVER been. EVER. I could probably count on one hand the number of times she's been sick and never for more than 24 hours (now Harrison's another story....). Poor girl lost some major weight this week since the only thing I could get down her was milk and juice. She actually went 2 1/2 days without eating a bit of solid food.

And right now my high kitchen shelf looks like this:

But, thankfully she's on the mend and headed back to school tomorrow. (after sleeping 14 hours last night). And even more thankfully, Harrison's managed so far to stay healthy.....he's just had a tough time without his best playmate this past week.

I think we're done with being sick for the ENTIRE YEAR. Now we can get back to having some fun!