Our trip to the Apple Orchard

Yesterday was Hadleigh's 1st field trip. We went to an Apple Orchard in Indiana. It was so cute! It was also Hadleigh's first trip on a school bus! When we arrived at the orchard, we did the petting zoo first, and then we were able to quickly check out the gift shop. Then, we had lunch, and a tour of the apple orchard. It was interesting, and the kids all loved picking their own apples. We then were able to see where they are washed, sorted, and packed. The orchard also has a bee house, where the bees make honey, and the kids learned about the bees and honey. The moms were able to go and get their free apple doughnut while the kids were in the bee house! YUMMY! OMG, those doughnuts were to die for, and I'm not a big doughnut person! Then, they learned about photosynthesis, and what it takes to grow the trees, and it takes 44 leaves to make one apple! How interesting! It was a fun day. Hadleigh fell asleep on the ride home.

Ashton had early dismissal, so he was able to get off the bus at his friend's house. My friend Amy, was also on the field trip, and Ethan and Ashton got off the bus at her house and her MIL was their to watch the boys. Sawyer was at my friend Tiffany's house, and when I came home, she brought him home and I watched her daughter Lauren, so she could get things done at the shop. Thank goodness for friends and our babysitting swapping! lol

Hadleigh and I want to take Jerry, Ashton, and Sawyer back to this orchard because we had such a great time! :)

Room mom day at Hadleigh's school

On Tuesday, I was the room mom for Hadleigh's class. All the moms take turns, and it was our day. That meant, we brought the snacks, juice, plates, cups, etc. She was also the leader for the day, and she did the calender, weather chart, and fun things like that. She was so proud doing those things. It was so cute! :) The kids are all adorable. They read books, played, did an art project, did some little math stuff with these cute bugs. I loved observing. When the kids went outside to play, I had to do the cleaning. That is the deal with the co-op, the parents have to do the cleaning, the parents are the ones that basically run the school. It's a very parental involved school, which is nice, although cleaning bathrooms is no fun! lol I had to clean the bathroom, the entry way door, and then vacuum the entire classroom. It went fast and was so worth it to watch her and her friends at school.

Happy 33rd Birthday Jerry!

Today is Jerry's birthday! It seems like I had just given him the really cool Guess sweatshirt for his 17th birthday! lol I was going to make his favorite lasagna and a cake, but he has a nasty cold, we all have had it :(, so he wants me to wait until he can taste his food. We went out to dinner on Friday night with my parents for his birthday. They gave him some money for clothes, because he really could use some new ones, and it's easier to try them on in person. I gave him a set of bean bag boxes that I had a guy that works with my dad make. He was happy, and now at get togethers, our family and friends will have fun playing bean bags. So, it hasn't been too exciting of a day, but he did get rained out of work which was nice for him.

Mommy and Sawyer time!

Sawyer had his 1st day of music class. He loved it. I took Ashton and Hadleigh when they were little to King Music for their Kids program. They LOVED it. I just can't find a time on our schedule for the class or another drive over there. I was so excited to find out that a place in our little town offers these classes! How awesome is that? It works out great, because I drop Hadleigh at preschool and then at 10:15, Sawyer's class starts, and as soon as it ends, we head back to pick up Hadleigh. It's so nice to have something like this so for my little man and I to do. We will be looking forward to our Thursday morning music classes!

Dylan's baptism!

We had a busy Sunday! I'm on the Christian Education board at our church, we basically do things for the Sunday school and the kids of the church. Sunday was the 1st day of Sunday school, so we had a rally day. I had to be there early to help set up. We have games, food, and a bounce house. Members of the church brought meals, either hot or cold for the dinner which is held after church. We had a great turnout!

Church is after Sunday school. The kids did a balloon launch at the end of Sunday school, which was so fun. After that, most went to church, because they pastor did a backpack blessing that day, so everyone brought their backpacks. It was so cute! We had 255 people in church! That is just amazing! After church, the dinner was held and the kids could play the games and jump in the bounce house. We couldn't attend the dinner because we had Dylan's baptism!

Dylan Marie did great for her baptism and didn't even make a peep! Her dress was gorgeous! Nancy and Mark had a dinner afterwards at their house. It was a nice day, but poor Sawyer didn't get his nap, so he was crabby! We went home for a few hours after Dylan's party and then decided to take a ride into town to see Mike since he was heading back to Colorado the next morning. We found him, and ended up at my fil's and we ordered pizza and hung out on their deck. It was nice to get a chance to visit with Mike while we relaxed.

Help for Hurricane Katrina!

I'm just so sad and devastated when I think about the people that were affected by the hurricane. It just seems so unfair. Of course, we want to do anything we can to help. We donated money on Friday night during the concert. You could pick either the American Red Cross or the Salvation Army, and I told the operator to pick the organization for me. I know they both do such great work. I still wanted to do more though. Ashton brought home a paper where telling us that the school was collecting care kits and money. So, off to Wal-Mart we went to buy the supplies needed to make 20 care kits. I would have loved to do more, but I thought that was a good number. The kits included a new hand towel, new washcloth, travel size shampoo (I did the shampoo/conditioner in one, because I'd go nuts without conditioner lol), travel size toothpaste, toothbrush, band aids, a bar of soap, and a comb. They also wanted soap dishes, but every store I checked was sold out of them because of all generous people collecting things. I felt bad that I couldn't include a soap dish, but I guess they stick the soap back into the little box it comes in?

The school had a contest to see which class collected the most, and the winner gets an ice cream sundae party. I hope his class wins! :) They collected 45 kits, I think that includes my 20. I'm not sure though. It felt so great to be able to contribute somehow.

Our trip to Kelley's Island, Ohio

This is my favorite picture from our trip!

It was wonderful! We had an amazing time! It's such a beautiful place and not too far from home. It was so relaxing. We stayed at a beautiful bed and breakfast, that Julia Roberts had stayed at. We stayed in the same room as she did. We didn't know that when we picked that room, I guess she has good taste like we do! lol The room was on the 3rd floor and we had panoramic views of Lake Erie. We used bicycles to get around the island. We had our vehicle there, but most people travel by bike or golf cart. The golf carts were $8/hour to rent, and that was the reduced fee, so we chose to do the free bicycle thing! lol It was good exercise and was really fun.

We ate at some great restaurants. They have a winery there and we ate dinner there the first night. We ate dinner the next night at this place called the Island House. It is in an old house, but it super modern. I really liked it. I don't usually like modern things, but it looked kind of neat in this old house with the old trim. The owner did a wonderful job with the decorating. The light fixtures and everything fit in so well. The waiters were awesome and the food was delicious. We had lunch at a this cute tavern called The Winking Lizard. It was good and had a great view of the lake.

We had massages one night. I had never had a massage before, but I really enjoyed it. We went hiking in the woods and found the old lime kilns that were used when there was a quarry there. There used to be a few stone quarries on the island, and there still is one today. We saw the glacial grooves, which were very impressive.

Of course, I called home a billion times to check on the kids! lol We left a day early, but we had done everything we had wanted to do, so it was nice to get home a night early, especially since we had so much to do the following day!

Busy school year so far!

As I posted earlier, Ashton already had a fundraiser for school. He did really well, selling over $500 worth of stuff. We will find out this week if he was one of the top 5 sellers in the school. He hopes so, because he really wants to win that stuffed lion. Of course, I had to buy some things too, and did get quite a bit of Christmas shopping done, and all of my wrapping paper is bought. :)

His school also had a book fair, where Scholastic sets up a bookstore at the school, and the kids and parents can go there and buy books. I had to work it one day, which I just loved, because I LOVE books. They even had an adult section, with cookbooks and other grown up books. Cookbooks are a huge weak spot for me, so I had to have 3 of them! lol I spent so much money there, but I'm a firm believer that you can never have too many books. Ashton picked out some great books, and even bought one for Hadleigh.

The good thing about writing checks to the school all the time, is that the school is benefiting from this. I really want to help our school anyway I can.

Hadleigh's first day of preschool!

Hadleigh's first day of 3 year old preschool was Sept. 6. It was only for an hour, and the parents were able to stay. She did really well, and jumped right into playing. They have many neat play areas, such as dress up, science, dolls, trucks, kitchen, puzzles, etc. They also have a pet bunny named Copper, and Hadleigh just loves him. She is definitely my daughter, because she is animal crazy! They did circle time where they did a weather chart and the calender. Then, they had to take turns saying their name, age, if they have siblings, into a Dora microphone. Hadleigh would not talk into the microphone, which I don't blame her lol, but she did talk.

Thursday was her 1st day, where it lasted the entire 2 1/2 hours and I left her, and she did great! She didn't care that I left at all. If you would have told me a couple of years ago, that she wouldn't be screaming and attached to my leg, when I left her at school I would never have believed it. She has grown so much! :)

A picture from Ashton's 1st day of school!

Here is my little boy, ready for his first day of 1st grade! He is having so much fun with 1st grade and it really doing well. His favorite thing of all is having his own desk. We had Open House at his school on Sept. 6, and he couldn't wait to show us his classroom and his desk. He is very organized, and I knew he would be, because he is at home too. lol We love his teacher, she is just wonderful!