Halloween at Dance Class

We truly got our money's worth (or time's worth since they were homemade this year) out of their costumes. Their first opportunity to wear them was to dance class. All the dancers come to class dressed up the week of Halloween. Even their teacher, Miss Sue wears her giant pumpkin costume. They were a bit cumbersome and Megan's even suffered some popped stiches, but they were determined to wear them! Megan was Ming-Ming the superhero duck from Wonderpets and Claire was Wall-E (yes, we're still in the midst of that obsession).

Would you like to have a roll in ze hay?

This past weekend, our church had a hayride/weenie roast at Stoneycreek Farms. That is right up our alley. We love Fall and all activities that it includes. We got to play games, roast hot dogs and smores, play with friends from church, and take a pleasantly long hayride. The highlite for the girls were their glow in the dark bracelets (that and all you can eat individual bags of chips). Ian stayed with Mimi so we could stay out extra late!

I don't remember liking the bus this much

Movies, toys, bikes, trips, museums, zoos...the list of things we buy for and do with our children could go on for days. Who knew all we had to do was put her on public transit? She is absolutely giddy to run to the bus stop every morning. She's ready to go about twenty minutes before she needs to leave and she struggles to wait in the house. What's the appeal? I wish I got as excited for anything as she does to ride the bus each day. Kudos, Megan. Embrace the simple things, I guess.

Megan's second first day of first grade (say that ten times fast!)

Last Wednesday, Megan started at Cumberland Road Elementary. She was so excited to get to ride the bus! I, of course, felt a little ill as they pulled away. She did great! We are happy to announce she has adapted well. She is blessed with a wonderful teacher that we believe truly cares about Megan thriving at school. She has made friends, learned their routines quickly, and looks forward to going every day. What a trooper she's been. That is one amazing kid. Thanks, God.

Chief Mechanic, front left tire

This apple didn't fall far from the tree. Ian likes to be out in the garage when Eric's working on his car. Last week, Eric was taking his tires off and apparantly Ian was paying attention. Yesterday, he went out the garage and picked up the correct tool (I do not know what it's called) and went to the car to try and loosen the bolts himself. Eric was beaming with pride. I smell a go-cart purchase coming soon.

Starting to get it

Ok, so I know I could never come close to understanding Christ's love for us, but I'm starting to get it. An hour ago, I was so frustrated with Claire, I had to walk away from her for fear of handling the situation with her very badly. Now, as I look at pictures I took yesterday, I am smiling thinking about her. That has to be something like what God feels for us, I would imagine. We break his heart everyday with sin and our stupid choices. But at the end of the day, he's still smiling down on us with more love than I can fathom. Pretty darn cool. Lord, please grant me the patience to deal with my blessings.

Down and Dirty

Prrof positive that he's all boy...he LOVES dirt. If I can't find him for more than a couple minutes when we're outside, I know he's up to his elbows in it. This morning when I dropped him off at school, I looked down and his right hand was mysteriously covered in dirt. I thin kit's coming out of his pores now. Oh well, the girls like to be clean. Two out of three ain't bad!

Give those noses a break...let's pick apples!

Ok, picking apples in 80 degree burning sunshine was not ideal, but the cider slushies that followed were. They were enjoying themselves for about an hour, then we hit a wall. Ian especially enjoyed pulling the wagon himself. If fact, he wouldn't let anyone else even try! So, we took our 15 pounds of apples and headed home. The baking has been fierce and steady.

What a handy little man!

Ian loves jobs around the house. His favorite is sweeping and/or vacuuming. Hand him a broom and he's happy for hours. He also likes to water my plants. Unfortunately, we had about a week recently when the pots on the front porch were empty. That did not stop him from getting his work done.

Ian's First FIRST day of school

Yes, you read that right. 19 month old Ian James has followed in his sisters' proud tradition and is attending God's Kids pre-school. He goes Tuesdays from 9-2, which is just enough time for Mommy to remember how fun he is to be around. He loved his first day. His teacher said he even made a friend, Brendan. His favorite part of the day, however, was the fire drill. Apparantly he thought the alarms and organized chaos were quite hilarious. I'm so in for it.

Dancing Queens

We have entered year two of dance class. They have moved up from "Creative Movement" to "Pre-Ballet". I think Claire could have used another year of Creative Movement, but they both are very happy to get suited up and go every Tuesday.

Trip to Great Grandpa Strauss's

A favorite tradition we look forward to each year is all the Strauss's heading south to Fairfield Glade, TN, to spend Labor day weekend with Great Grandpa Strauss. He's 81 this year and still golfs almost every day of the week. He always has new jokes for us (though not always for the younger Strauss's) and we all love seeing him each year. Alonf with that, we get to see lots of cousins, aunts, and uncles. Our kids travel pretty easily (thank you, God, for in car DVD) so it's a fun trip for all. The girls really got the hang of putt-putt this year and got some holes in one!

Claire's "1st day"

Claire had two days at Heritage before the "change", so I thought I'd go ahead and show how cute and happy she was that day!