Sunday, September 29, 2013

Branson Weekend


We scheduled a quick weekend trip down to Branson with the Michel family and met up with Jaime and her new boyfriend Brett.  We decided to try Silver Dollar City again now that Ledger is older and more willing to ride the rides.  The weather was beautiful and we loved taking pictures of the kids amongst the fall decorations.  Unfortunately, Ledger wasn't that interested in riding too many of the kid rides.  He rode the kiddie coaster and liked that and then we had to bribe him to get onto the flying elephant ride with aunt Jaime (he wouldn't allow her to let the elephant FLY though).  So we went back to our old faithful -- the Flooded Mine ride.  We can all ride it and we like "shooting" the targets!  After a while, Ledger started to warm up to the idea of rides and went with Brett and Chris on the "River Blast" ride where you ride on these rafts and everyone is armed with built-in water cannons.  They had so much fun that they rode it twice and all three boys were SOAKING wet when they were done.  So they decided to go ahead and ride the river rapids ride -- a true "big kid" ride.  Ledger had a great time!!  So just as we were getting comfortable riding the rides, the weather took a turn for the worse.  Storm clouds moved in and the rain began pouring down.  We found a nice sheltered table where we had snacks and planned to ride out the storm, but after an hour and the rain wasn't letting up, we bought SDC ponchos and ran for the parking lot.  So our day was cut a little short, but overall we had a great time.








Saturday, September 28, 2013

Fall Photos


We had a mini photo session through Enchanting Bliss Photography that was very successful, despite having a very rough start.  Mommy managed to bribe some smiles with bubbles and candy and the photographer was talented and quick enough with the shutter to get some great shots.  I'm so pleased with how these came out! 















Saturday, September 21, 2013

Fall Into Fun...

I love fall... Who doesn't?  Football and pumpkins and cooler weather....   Ahh.  Fall is great.

We went to Stutzman's and picked out our pumpkins pretty early this year.  I really like the weird pumpkins -- pink or bumpy or spotty.  But we mostly stuck to regular orange punkins. :)



The boys have loved playing outside on the swingset.  Since the weather is a little bit cooler in the evenings, usually we are outside playing after dinner until it's time for bed.  We also really love blowing bubbles and driving the John Deere power wheels around the yard.



Don't you love this picture? It's kinda blurry which makes it looks very vintage!
When it's too hot to go outside, the boys love to stay inside and play Legos.  Ledger LOVES Legos right now and Locke likes to do whatever big brother is doing.  Lucky for us, Locke really doesn't put the Legos in his mouth too much, so we can let him enjoy this toy with some mild supervision.


Since fall has started, we can usually be found at Salina Stadium on Friday nights cheering on the Salina South Cougars!  It is Ethan's senior year, but he tore his ACL on the last play of their first game and is going to require surgery to repair it and physical therapy that will keep him on the sidelines until the spring.  We are still there though -- it's free entertainment and the kids love it.


Sunday, September 15, 2013

When I Grow Up


If you ask Ledger what he wants to be when he grows up, he says "a firefighter".  That is particularly funny because he is very scared of the fire alarm and fire drills that they do monthly at preschool.  To help ease his fears and show him what it's like to be a fireman, Jarod set up a visit to his rural fire department.  It was so special!  Jarod let the boys climb in the fire trucks, try on the firefighter gear, and check out all of the fire equipment.  Locke enjoyed it too -- such big kids!










Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Ledger's First Day of Preschool

2013
Teacher: Mrs. Freeland and Miss Joy Soukup
Age: 4
Favorite Color: White
Favorite Food: Hot Dogs
Favorite Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean

Ledger was so excited to get back to school this year!  On his first day back, he ran to meet up with his classmates, grudgingly posed for pictures, and excitedly found his cubby and told me that I could leave. It's fun to see him come out of his shell this year -- none of the anxiety that we dealt with last year.  Every day, he's more of a big kid.


(L to R) Ledger, Hollis Murdock, Simon Flores, Maddox Girard





As per tradition, on the night before school starts, the "School Fairy" came to our house to deliver a bag of goodies to Ledger.