Little Miss Independent

Sadie has always been very independent (not sure where she gets that from?!) So when she came down the stairs last week with her hair done ALL BY HERSELF for dance class, I couldn't break her heart and fix it. So this was how she looked all day....

Yes, she was quite proud that she put those tiny little rubber bands in her hair all by herself.

And this is how she spends most of her free time at home...in her 'classroom'

She plays school almost all the time...you'll notice some stuff taped to the wall (this changes from day to day) as well as her purse and gloves hung up at her desk!

She even uses our old, broken ipod and puts it in this little elephant vase (baby gift from when she was born) to pretend she is the teacher playing music for her class.

(Her teacher at school plays all their music from an ipod!)

And this 'mess' on the floor is no mess.....OH no no no...and don't try and call it a mess either! This is not something that needs to be cleaned up....this is part of her class. Each kid has their own book as well as a few people who still have 'snack'.

Sadie loves to play school and I have often been asked not to interrupt her when she is doing story time with her students. I will have to try and video tape her playing school one of these days because you can tell she is word-for-word saying what her teachers say. Thankfully they are wonderful christian women who set a great example for her!

Celebrating one special woman

Last month we went home to Madison to celebrate Matt's mother's 60th birthday. Her birthday was on October 8th, which conveniently fell on a Saturday. So we spent the weekend with Matt's family, celebrating his mom!

Matt's youngest sister Mollie wasn't able to come home, so after we finished a wonderful brunch that morning, we skyped Mollie.

And it was one of the most perfect fall weekends we could have asked for. The high was around 80 all weekend and the fall colors were at their peak in Madison.

(Matt and Wyatt playing some football in his parent's backyard)

The biggest hit of the weekend? The trampoline! My kids rarely get to use it because Matt's parents spend most of their weekends in the summer up at Stormy Lake. So when they realized we would be at Grammy and Papa's AND the weather would be warm, they couldn't stop talking about jumping on it.

(bad picture but this just shows what Blake was up to...he LOVED it!)

(I, on the other hand, could barely watch him as I thought he was going to break a bone just about every other jump. And yes, that is dirt on them. The trampoline hasn't been covered or used since last summer, so it was pretty dirty. But I'd say we cleaned all the dirt off by the end of the weekend!)

What beautiful colors!

The kids loved playing in the leaves....something else we don't have much of with all the young trees around our house. Blake would throw the leaves up and then make this face as he waited for them to come down!

And we couldn't forget the tree climbing...

"Can I go Daddy?"

This has to be one of the best trees for climbing

Watching Uncle Ty see how high he could get

On Sunday, we went out for the official birthday brunch after church to a WONDERFUL restaurant called Sardines. The atmosphere was great and we were right on the lake.....and the food was amazing!!

Matt's mom and her mother, Gigi (as my kids call her, for Great-Grammy)

(and no, they truly didn't even plan their outfits!)

You can always count on my kids to help open any gifts.

Brunch was running a bit later than Blake would have liked, so we were thankful for everyone who attempted to 'entertain' him!

The whole crew...from l to r...Uncle Neal (mom's brother) and his wife Trish, Mom and Dad, Mom's parents Gigi and Dye-Dye (Grandad), our family, Matt's brother Kyle and his wife Christy, Tyler, and Matt's sister Cammie and her boyfriend Chris.

The weekend wouldn't be complete without a picture in front of Lake Monona in Madison.

We had such a wonderful weekend celebrating Mom. So many people have been blessed by her life and she has raised five wonderful kids, been a great example of a godly wife and mother, and an amazing grandmother to our three kids. What a privilege to celebrate her!

Halloween...for the kids!!

This year for Halloween we had a Pirate and his parrot and their princess.

And for some reason, in this picture, Sadie wanted to hold her baby doll. It wasn't a part of the costume nor did she take her trick-or-treating, but she insisted on having her in the picture!

..cutest little tail!!

And I forgot to include pictures of our carved pumpkins in the carving post, so here they are. Mine is the Mickey Mouse and Matt's is the sideways one.

Wyatt's pumpkin is on the left and Sadie's is on the right. Wyatt and Sadie both drew their faces on completely on their own and Wyatt also carved his completely on his own! They both did great jobs!

All ready to go!!!

Blake was such a trooper...he walked up to every door just behind all the big kids and said "Thank you guy" or "Thank you girl" to each house. And he walked for over an hour and a half on his own....there was no way he was going to let us carry him! He even ran for the first half!

Some of the neighborhood kids we went with....actually, i just noticed that these are all kids belonging to the couples we went to our Halloween party with! They are all such great kids and I am so thankful for how they look out for the little ones!

Blake came in first and he and I continued to hand out candy. He loved looking through it and getting to eat some of it. While he was trick-or-treating, he kept saying, "Sucker no in bucket" because he wanted to eat it right away. So once he walked inside I was able to say, "Blake, I won't put it in your bucket. You can eat it."

Wyatt was focused when he got home and also really tired.....look at that bucket all full of candy!!

And Sadie's hands were freezing!! The poor girl didn't say anything and she had mittens on, but when Matt felt her hands he was shocked at how cold they were. She then said, "Daddy, they are okay. I can still move some of them!" Oh dear! Thankfully she was just fine.....tough girl!

The next day we started a new tradition and went to a local orthodontist to donate our candy to be sent to the troops. The kids got to pick out their favorite ten pieces to keep and then we took their candy in and they got $2/lb. They both decided to put one dollar in the water bottles we have at home from church for providing clean water to villages in Africa as well as Haiti, and then we went to Target and they both picked out new toys for the bathtub. It was a huge success and they felt really good about 'giving their candy to the soldiers' while still getting to keep a bit for themselves!! And I loved it because I don't have to have the battle of how much candy they can eat for like the next month!