Tinker Bell

Caitlin's preschool halloween party was this morning. She was so excited to dress up as Tinker Bell. She picked out her own costume this year. She was so cute. She danced and pretended to fly while I was taking pictures of her.

My sweet Caitlin

Caitlin has had a very hard week. She woke up last Monday morning with a horrible cough. I was helping her go to the bathroom and found the biggest hives all over her body. I was so concerned. Brett kept assuring me that she would be fine. Her cough kept getting worse and the hives wouldn't go away. She started scratching herself raw. She was just the most pathetic looking little girl. She had no appetite except push up pops! She has missed a week and a half of school and is finally feeling better. She still has the scratches as battle scars. I had to pin her down to give her a breathing treatment one morning and it broke my heart. This is so unlike her. She is the most passive child that we have. I called Brett in tears and told him that she is really sick. He talked to one of the ER docs and they told him to NOT bring her in. She would catch something worse if we brought her in. She never ran a fever, so I was OK with his response.
One morning while trying to convince her to take MUCINEX, she said, "will the medicine help me sing again" ? Of course I said, "YES"!
We are going to try school on Thursday.

I took this picture of her in our backyard. I have been trying to convince her to come outside to take pictures all week. She finally was feeling up to it and ended up being so cute. I have just found out about this new editing software and just sat down for a minute to try it out. I can't wait to play around with it more.

Pumpkin Patch

Daddy's little peanut!

That smile was on her face the whole time.

Caitlin loved all the signs in the corn maze. I don't think the other two even read them as they ran right by.

Follow the leader...

DEAD END!!!!!

On your mark, get set, GO!!!!!

I love the fall. Maybe because it is my birthday, but the leaves are just beautiful. Going to the pumpkin patch and corn maze is a family favorite of ours. We have this great family owned pumpkin patch just around the corner from us. They have the best corn maze. This year the kids were so cute. They ran ahead of us and found the way. Brett and I just followed them and laughed at how cute they were. They would crack up and yell, "DEAD END". Between all the ran, cold weather, and sickness, we weren't able to go until this weekend. The kids picked out great pumpkins. The little pumpkins were a hit this year. The kids got a big one and little one each. They thought that it was great to get two pumpkins. Madison said that it would look like we had 6 kids. Thankfully, she added that that would be too many kids in our family. I reassured her that three is the perfect number for us!!!!!

Pumpkin Doctor

Blake's second grade class was able to carve pumpkins. Someone donated surgeon caps for the kids to be pumpkin doctors. Blake has never been a fan of the gooey stuff in the pumpkin. Come to think of it, he has never scooped it out in the past. I was hoping peer pressure might set in and he might just do it.

Both Caitlin and Madison were home sick that day, so I couldn't go up to the school to help out and watch.

His teacher wrote me an email about how funny Blake was. She said that he wasn't interested in touching "the gooey stuff". She kept encouraging him, but ended up giving it a good scrape at the end. While she was scraping it out, he said, "Every doctor needs a good assistant".

He was so proud of his pumpkin that he did MOSTLY by himself. Check out all the eyes that he put on it!

35 years YOUNG!!!!!

Favorite restaurant in K-zoo --- Fandangoes!

Brett got us this car service for the night. LUCKY LADY!!!!

Wow, where has the time gone? I am still struggling with the fact that I am getting older. However, I think that my 30's have been the best years so far.

So my birthday celebration was just amazing. My parents came down to visit and help me out while Brett was in Arizona. We went to our usual RED ROBIN birthday celebration dinner Friday night. My parents took my kids and headed back to their house for the weekend. I had about 3 hours of alone time at my house. I must say that I actually was bored. My wonderful three firends from the Detroit area came that night and we went out for the night. I really miss those girls!

We tried to sleep in the next morning since we had no kids, but just couldn't. Why is that? We watched a movie, did a little shopping and then got ready for dinner. We met several other K-zoo girlfriends at the restaurant. We had a great time eating delicious food.

Sunday, I met my brother in Jackson to get the kids back. I was ready to see their smiling faces. They looked like they missed me over those two days.

I also went out to dinner with two friends that weren't able to make it out over the weekend on Monday night. I definitely loved celebrating my birthday for 4 nights.

I definitely need to hit the gym hard this week to burn up all those CALORIES that I consumed. I love birthdays!!!!!!

Cheerleader - GO WILD CATS!!!!

Madison was so excited about Cheering. She did a three day cheerleading clinic afterschool. The highschool cheerleaders taught the girls some cheers. She cheered at the Friday night highschool football game.

Brett and I have never been to a highschool football game before. Those private boarding schools really sheltered us. It rained all day on Friday and I was even thinking about bribing Madison into NOT going. Being out in the cold and rain wasn't exactly appealing to me. Brett called and told me that we were going. He said that she worked hard for this and that she was going to go and cheer. So we all bundled up and headed out. We were actually going with our good friends - Madison's cheering partner. As we were walking into the stadium, it stopped raining. YEAH!!!!! It was a little chilly, but at least not wet. Madison was so cute and loved every minute of it. She can't wait until next year. Blake and Caitlin liked the popcorn at the concession stand. I liked all the school spirit. GO WILD CATS:)
"Peel Banana" was her favorite cheer. At the end of peeling the banana, they sing - GO BANANAS - and the girls start jumping up and down in circles. Caitlin even sings it now...

Dear Tooth Fairy

Loosing teeth has been a theme in our house this past week. Actually, I think that Blake was a little jealous of all the attention and money that Madison got from her tooth ordeal, so 5AM one morning he came into my room and told me that his tooth fell out. It was actually loose for quite some time, but he doesn't like pulling them out. He tends to let them sit there forever just hanging by a thread.

He was a little upset because he said that he couldn't find it because it was so dark in his room. I told him that the toothfairy would still give him something. I convinced him to go back to bed and we could look in the morning. I must say that I kind of forgot because our day was so busy. The next morning, he told me that the toothfairy never came. BAD MOMMY!!!!!

I told him that he should leave a note for the toothfairy tonight and he might still get something.

Blake wrote the cutest note all by himself.

Dear Tooth fairy,

I am sorry that I lost my tooth and I can't find it.

Can you try to find it?

Tell me where it is __________________________?

Tell me where you hid my money or toy _____________________________?

From Blake

Brett and I loved his note and couldn't believe that he wrote such a cute and thoughful letter. He even wrote it in correct letter format with very little spelling errors. He is so grown up.

How could we resist such a cute letter? The tooth fairy took the letter and day late into account and left him with a good chunk of money:)

We never found the tooth.

A Week of My Crazy Life!!!

I keep waiting for a "normal" week. I'm am starting to see that that is never going to happen with three kids and all their activites. How can 3,5, and 7 year olds keep my life so hectic?????

Well, the week started with a long weekend. It was Brett's weekend to work and we hardly saw him the whole weekend. He did wander to bed at some time and was called in during the night and then was gone before I got out of bed again! Those are tough weekends. I'm not quite sure who it is harder on - him or me!!!! Especially when the weather was bad and we couldn't get outside.

Monday playdate after school with a new family that we met. I ordered pizza because I just couldn't make something big.

Tuesday - Madison started Cheerleading Clinic. I had to have her to school at 3:30. I picked up Blake and two little buddies to come over and play until after Cheerleading. We went right to Soccer after Madison came home at 5:15. I took the girls with me in the afternoon to get a flu shot. Madison was a little traumatized because a TON of blood came out of my arm. Caitlin was just happy that it was me and not her:)

Wednesday - I watched a neighbor boy in the AM. Caitlin also had gymnastics. Madison had Cheerleading Clinic again. She got home at 5:15 and off to gymnastics again. Brett met me at the gym and I had to head right over to 2nd grade curriculum night. I am trying to catch my breath!!!!

Thursday - Horseback riding for Madison in the afternoon. Cheer Clinic for Madison after school and Mad Science for Blake! When we all get home at 5:15 - we are home for the night!!!!! YEAH for Thursday night. Oh I forgot about Blake wanting to spend his money from the toothfairy. Hopefully I can talk him out of a trip to the store. I just want to eat dinner at the table tonight.

Friday - We are going to watch Madison cheer for the highschool football team. SHe is so excited!!!!! Her little cheers are so cute. Go MATTAWAN!

Besides all the crazy driving that I do, I have been trying to fit in running or the gym for myself. One day this week, I met my friend at 5:30AM just so that I could get my exercise done for the day. I am definitely loving having an hour to myself and letting all the stress out once a day!!!! I now am making sure that I get that.

Did I forget about all the time outs, fighting, grocery shopping, baths, books, homework, fighting, packing lunches, laundry...laundry...laundry, cleaning, fighting, and trying to get to bed at a reasonable hour?????????????????????????????

Verhage Apple Orchard

My little Angel

Oma and Opa enjoyed the fun

Caitlin finding her special apples

Caitlin picked this special one for Oma

Caitlin's preschool class!

Caitlin's preschool class went on a field trip to the orchard. As you can see, it was a little chilly that day. It was very special because my parents were both in town and were able to make it to Caitlin's first field trip. She was so excited about all of her friends riding on the tractor with her. We went on a hayride, picked an apple off the trees, watched cider be made, tasted the fresh cider, ate donuts and then headed home. Caitlin was so cute all bundled up in her winter coat.

From Tragedy to Triumph

First there was one missing -

Then there were TWO!!!!

Caitlin is still a little worried about the missing teeth and blood.

It all started with a voicemail from the babysitter on my cell phone. I was at a much needed night out dinner with friends when I decided to check my cell phone to find a frantic message that was left about 30 minutes prior about Blake pulling Madison's tooth out and her being very upset and needing to talk with me. I felt so bad for the babysitter and Madison that I hadn't heard the call. I quickly called back and Madison had settled down and I was not needed to come home. I was a little relieved about things being OK now, but just couldn't really enjoy the rest of the time. I was under the impression that it was her front -top tooth. I was so worried about it being empty for a long time. I finally decided that I should just get home and left a little early.

I was definitely relieved to find Madison in bed with a BIG smile on her face and it being the bottom tooth. Much better than the top teeth. She had her tooth in a baggie and was ready for the tooth fairy. She was so cute with a missing tooth and a very wiggly second tooth.

The story goes like this - Madison playing cat with Caitlin. The kids love to pretend that they are on a leash and someone is taking them for a walk. So Madison had Caitlin's blanket in her mouth and was being led around like a pet cat. Blake decided to play and pulled a little too hard and out came a tooth!

Today, while playing card games, she said that she would be right back and not to come up to her room. She pulled her second tooth out all by herself. She is one tough cookie. Later she told me that she wanted more money because I told her that we would go to Toys R Us tomorrow. I guess she wanted more money to spend there so out came tooth number 2.

All in All - it turned out fine. She is very excited to go to school and show all of her friends. I told her no more teeth pulling for a while.

My girl of many talents

Madison never stops amazing me with her talents. That girl is good at everything she does and she wants to learn it all. There isn't a thing yet that she doesn't want to try.

She has always loved watching Grandma sew. The foot petal has always been fascinating. So this time, Grandma decided it was time to teach her. It was the cutest thing. Madison had a look on her face that just glowed PROUD!!!!! She knows how to do it all - pin up and down, where to put her hands, foot petal and a pretty straight line. Next time grandma said that they would try to sew something for her to keep. Thanks Grandma. I definitely don't know how to teach her:) Maybe I should be taking lessons as well.

Soccer

Blake and Madison have started soccer at SoccerZone. Madison was very excited about it because she has never taken it before. Blake did take a 6 week session last Spring. Madison picked out a pink ball and was ready to go. We go about a half hour early so that Caitlin can play with us. I am even able to get out on the field and play with them. They like me to be the goalie!! They learn skills for the first 30 minutes and then play a scrimmage game for the last 30 minutes. Their teams even play against each other. Sometimes that isn't so good. Blake gets very upset if Madison's team wins :) Madison is very good and has great endurance. That girl runs circles around Blake.

Blake is a Junior Star

Madison is a Kangaroo Kicker!