October FUN!!

A certain blue-eyed boy turned 2 on 10-11-12! We had fall break that week so we had his actual birthday ON his birthday since it was such a cool date. If you can't tell from the pictures, he's a HUGE Elmo fan!

Caden and Kenzie have very different tastes. One thing that he LOVES is cherry/grape tomatoes!

His exceptionally talented aunt Kristin made these adorably delicious cupcakes!

For Halloween, Caden was our little monster (appropriate!) and Kenzie wore the Cinderella "marry" dress that I bought her in NYC!

Fall isn't the same without a trip to Cedar Hill Farms in Hernando, MS!

He was not a fan of the goats!

Karis, Van, and Kristin joined us and Brian's parents. They loved it!

These two tickle me with their faces!!

Getting so big!!

I'm back!

OK! So I haven't posted since August because when I tried to post again not long after that one, I got an error message saying I had used up all of my free storage! YIKES! And since so many of our family and friends are on facebook, I didn't think the extra expense to PAY for additional storage was warrented. But I like to go back and browse my blog when I'm especially missing my kids during the day. And today I thought, "Let me just try again...maybe they've increased the amount of free storage!". I don't know if that's the case or not, but it let me add this post! Now I'll try to go back and add a few pictures of Caden's 2nd birthday. My friend and coworker Lindsay Keegan took these pictures at Shelby Farms and they turned out beautifully! Enjoy!

Kenzie's in Kindergarten!

 IT'S KENZIE'S FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!!

I can't believe it. Having her here for preschool should have prepared me, but it was still a shock! And considering she's been telling me since MARCH that she wanted to go to Kindergarten, it wasn't hard to get her up and moving this morning!

She got to wear a new outfit and her new tennis shoes this morning!

 Brian surprised us by meeting us at the school with donuts from our favorite shop in Millington! He got up super early just to drive all the way to Millington and back!! He definitely gets the "BEST DADDY" award!

Ethan and his mom came early so we could walk the kids to their classrooms together. They're almost right across the hall from eac

That's her super-awesome teacher, Ms. Ebbers!

SO PROUD!

I snuck back in after I said "bye" and she was already hard at work. She had no idea I'd walked right back in. Hopefully that concentration will carry on throughout the year!

Nana and Pop surprised her with "First Day" flowers when she came to my office after school!!
 She had a super-fun day!!!

Busy time of year...

The end of April is usually the last of my steady pace of life for the year and this year has been no exception! Kenzie had her last tumbling class on 4/23 and her teacher invited parents in to observe. This is definitely not Kenzie's favorite class because there is so much downtime between her turns at different activites. But she stayed with it until the end and that's all we ask. She will definitely be returning in the fall to begin her 3rd year of dance. THAT, she loves!! We're looking forward to her recital on June 2nd!

Come one, come all! It is at 10:30 am at the Cannon Center and admission is free!

This past week, Oak Elementary celebrated 25 yrs! All week the teachers and students worked on decorating their hallways in different themes. Then on Friday the classes rotated around to the different activites outside each classroom and hallways and enjoyed an in-house field trip! Back in 1987, when the first group of students started school, the classrooms were finished, but several other parts of the school including the office and cafeteria, were still under construction. So we decorated the office in "caution" tape and barricades and original blueprints! I had several of the little kids ask if I was Bob the Builder's sister!

Lunch with my Kenzie!

2nd/3rd grade hall was the Seasons and life cycle of the Oak

K/1st grade hall (including Kenzie's class) used the book
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to plan their activities and decorate!

Mrs. Barsch, Mrs. Ohl, and Mrs. Keegan made this awesome quilt!

Oak Acres was created by the PTA years ago and had fallen into ruin. So in anticipation of celebrating 25 years, the 5th grade teachers and several PTA volunteers revitalized it! It's beautiful! A WONDERFUL outdoor classroom for the kids!

Kenzie and her classmates planted several flowers in the "Acorn" garden!

She loved pretending the gazebo was her stage!

Saturday was the Community Celebration so Brian and Caden joined us at Oak for the day! We took them on a tour around the halls inside, then enjoyed activites outside and

hot dogs and birthday cupcakes (of course!).

Before

AFTER!!

Burying the new timecapsule. The original one was badly decomposed
and you could barely tell what anything was.

Hopefully this one will hold up better!

Kenzie and Ethan didn't stray far from each other all day!

Caden enjoyed playing in the sprinkler while his Daddy and sister finished their naps that afternoon!