Halloween 10/31/2014

Well, this is only a month late, so I am doing pretty well. This Halloween was pretty uneventful. Elise decided she wanted to be a chef. Easy, right?! Yep, although the costume we got for her, she was almost too big for it. The hat kept falling off because her thick hair makes pretty much all hats not fit on her head correctly. She did look pretty cute, and it was pretty original considering all girls her age were going as Elsa or Anna from Frozen.

She was very excited to wear her costume, and of course she wanted to play with it at home and 'cook' in the kitchen. She got to wear it to school because they have a parade for the Kindergartners to walk around the school.

 As you will notice the boy in front of Elise is wearing a lovely wolf mask. When Maggie saw that and not Elise she totally freaked out. She cried the entire time that we watched the kids walk by. Every time she tried to look someone else was walking by with a mask. So that was super fun to have her screaming and climbing up me. Poor thing...we may never make it to Disney World. Elise had a good time though. :)

 We decided trying to stick Maggie in a costume this year would have been a little nutty. She really doesn't like even getting dressed, and it ended up being pretty cold that night. Luckily Bob doesn't care about the weather too much, so he took Elise around the neighborhood and Maggie and I stayed home to pass out candy. I think we had a total of 6-8 people stop by. So now even a month later we are still eating candy. Also, when she was walking around the neighbors were handing her fist fulls because they too didn't have anyone stop by.

She had a great time! Even the yucky weather didn't keep her away!

Fall Break Part 1

This year since Elise has started school we really haven't had a break, other than the weekends. With the balanced calendar we get two weeks off for Fall Break. It started off pretty uneventful because Bob was working, but we managed to do some fun things throughout the break. Elise was very excited for the break, so she really enjoyed the few days of just being at home and getting to do whatever she wanted.

Our first vacation was for 4 days in Cincinnati. We definitely stayed busy, and had a great time with Bob's parents, Aunt Sis, and Uncle Matt!

First stop...check out the hotel. Well, after we told them they couldn't run around like crazy people, we thought playing on the tablet for a little while was a better option. At least they weren't arguing about it.

Then the next day we hit up this place called EnterTRAINment Junction. As you will see, it is all about the trains!! It was very cool, and a lot bigger than what we expected. I think the kids had a really good time. So if anyone is reading this and your child likes trains, this is the place for you.

There was another area that was more of a play place that the kids got to explore. Maggie really liked this little train where you could shovel 'coal' into the engine. She liked putting the 'coal' on the shovel and counting them.

I did it!!

(And she did too, all by herself.)

She really likes to slide!

Elise and Aunt Sis explored the larger play area. This is a big deal for Elise because she doesn't like heights. And you can see that she was pretty proud of herself for going down the big tunnel slide.

These pictures are just some of the ones we took. This place was huge! As you walked through an area the trains changed and the scenery changed. It also changed eras and time periods to show how transportation changed with the trains.

There were also periods of 'night.'

More attractions! A small train track was set up outside that the kids could ride on. None of the other adults were brave enough to ride the little train. So I got to ride with the girls!

Fun round house!

This was the other fun area, and almost worth the cost of admission! They had an indoor pumpkin patch and trick or treat area. It was a fun little maze that you walked through and you could pick up a piece of candy at each station. Then you ended at this pumpkin patch. The kids got to pick out a pumpkin and decorate it with stickers. The large pumpkin in the back ground actually talked and moved its eyes. At first I thought it was just had a motion sensor on it, but someone had to be close by with a microphone because Elise carried on a conversation with it for a good 3-5 minutes!

Then Elise got a spray tatoo!

Maggie, of course, found the crayons and colored for awhile. 

Elise decorating her little pumpkin.

Elise and Maggie chatting up the pumpkin. 

Bob thought this was funny! "O'Malley's Chinese Buffet"

We were headed off to the last area, and thought I would wear Maggie instead. It gave us a warning that there were optical illusions and uneven floors. Doesn't she look tired from the walking she had already done?

Here are some of the pictures that Bob took while we walked through some of the fun house. It was divided into different areas. Most of which Elise did NOT like because there were flashing lights and things designed to startle you.

Overall it was a great time at the place. We were done in time to get a late lunch at Culver's. Though Maggie slept through most of lunch. Bob took the first shift while I ate, then I held her the rest of the time. They are just so sweet when they sleep!

First Day of Kindergarten!!

Wow, where has the time gone?! And the summer for that matter. It went by so quickly and here we are starting school. 

August 4th, 2014

 She was very excited and the morning went great! She was somewhat concerned about missing the bus, but we had plenty of time this morning.

Here we are, waiting for the bus. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to take her because the bus seemed to be running a little later than usual. Fortunately we have a neighbor a few houses over that is riding the bus too, and the bus driver is nice enough to come pick up the kids in the cul-de-sac. The 'stop' is supposed to be down at the corner. I allowed plenty of time to walk down there if we didn't see the neighbor out. But he was waiting in his driveway. So we walked over to hang out. 

His mom said that the bus driver was nice and he would pick the kids up in the cul-de-sac, and she had talked to him at open house and said that was still the plan. But we kept waiting and we had already seen a bus come by and an appropriate time. I was really beginning to think I would have to take her! She really wanted to ride the bus and kept saying we could wait more, but I told her that school still starts at a certain time and she needed to be there. Fortunately it finally showed up!

She gave me a big hug and kiss and got on the bus without any hesitation!

I know she will have an awesome day and I can't wait to hear all about it!

Bye!

It is already entirely too quiet. Even with Maggie here I feel a little lost. We are working into a completely different routine. It is going to take some getting used to, but I am sure I will be able to find a few projects to fill my time! ;)