State Fair 2012

We decided to tackle the State Fair again this year.  I have to admit, we are definitely a city family. Kate & Will aren't too into the farm, but a little taste of it once a year is a great learning experience.  Here we got our first food on a stick for the day..... eggs on a stick.  YUMMY!

We arrived right after the gates opened and headed to the Little hands on the farm exhibit.  The kids got hands on experience on how our groceries get to the store for us to buy.  Kate loved putting on the cool hat & apron to get started.  Will glanced at the option, but chose to pass and stick with his Lightning McQueen sunglasses instead.

Will has a little bit of a hoarding issue at home.  Since he was just a toddler he has loved to collect piles of little trickets & walk around holding them in his hands all day long.  So he was all about collecting all the produce from the garden in his bucket. 

Once they collected the produce, they loaded up some hay and hauled it away.

Milking the cow is always a hit.

Later we went to see the newborn animals.  Just our luck, 10-15 minutes before we arrived a sheep gave birth to 2 lambs.  WOW, we weren't prepared to explain those graphic details to the kids when they asked why the Momma sheep looked the way she did!   And I love my husband, but he chose to "get distracted and walk away" when the questions started pouring out.  Bless his heart!

Face painting is always desired.  Kate does an awesome job holding still and not touching her face the rest of the day to keep the artwork looking great.

Will, not so much.  He had to sit on my lap so I could manually hold him down & still to get the spiderman painting completed.

Ta Da!   They loved it!  Will couldn't wait for it to dry though so he could put his sunglasses back on.  That boy can't go anywhere without those!

There was a nice playground area for Kate & Will to run around on before we left.

Kate was climbing and jumping off of everything.  We stayed about 4 hrs that day.  Of course we had to get the corndogs, onion rings, tenderloins, cheese on a stick, and lemonade shake ups before we waddled out and swore to ourselves we would never ever eat that bad again!   Until next yr that is!

Kate's first day of 1st Grade!

The first day of 1st Grade has arrived! Kate was SO excited to get back to school & see all her friends again!

Last night I asked her to make her first day of school sign.  I asked her to add a 2nd sheet to say what she wanted to be when she grows up.  She said she had to decide between a zookeeper, barber or teacher.   She said she may end of doing all 3 of them... starting with a zookeeper for 3 yrs, then retiring and becoming a teacher or barber.

In West Des Moines, kindergarteners are picked up at their doorstep. However,  after kindergarten you are assigned a bus stop to walk to.  Our stop is a small walk down the road.  Kate & Will were little chatterboxes with their friends this morning waiting for the bus to arrive.

"It's Here!"  Kate wasn't nervous at all.  I walked her right up to greet Ms. Patty her driver while Brett had to hold Will back from boarding the bus as well.  Poor Will, he desperately wanted to join her!

 On a funny note,  this afternoon I was patiently waiting for Kate to arrive at the same bus stop once again. However, the bus pulled up and there was no Kate to be found.  Ms. Patty stepped off the bus and deeply appologized stating she dropped Kate off at our driveway instead!  Weirdly enough, the bus does have to drive past our house to get to our stop, so Ms. Patty twisted the rules a bit and thought she'd just drop Kate off at home.   So there Kate was at home and I was down the street at her bus stop!  So funny that I would miss her on her first day.  We got everything straightened out for tomorrow. Best of all,  Kate thought it was pretty cool that she got to be home alone for those brief 5 minutes it took me to get back to the house!  Oh, the little pleasures in life!

The highlight of 1st grade so far is that Kate no longer has to sit at tables. SHE HAS HER OWN DESK!!!! Her desk is labeled and right at the front of the classroom.  There is a Katie and a Katelyn in her class with her this yr.  We're hoping she gets to be called Kate, and not Kate V. like last year.  Because, if you ask her,  she is NOT Katie, her name is Kate!

She was super excited to meet Ms. Burger last night at the Ice Cream Social at school.  Ms. Burger seems very sweet and caring.  I think Kate will love having her for her teacher very much!  

When it's hot, we get wet!

We have had some fun times in the water during the month of August.  Kate & our next door neighbor Parker have spent lots of time together playing in the sprinkler and running around the yard being crazy.

We borrowed Grandma & Grandpa's big waterslide for our neighborhood BBQ a few weeks ago.  Brett filled 300 water balloons as well to add to the fun for the kids.

Our friends put some cute games together.  Here Will isn't too sure about finding the bubblegum in the mountain of whip cream using only his teeth.  He did NOT want to do that!

Kate on the other hand, dug right in and found the gum.  But then the obstacle was to chew the gum enough to blow a bubble.  The 1st person to do it won the game.   Poor Kate hasn't mastered bubblegum bubble blowing yet!

A few weeks ago I peeled Brett away from studying at the library to join us at the Clive Aquatic Center.  The kids were so excited to go.  

I was so glad Brett came along because the kids are definitely at 2 different skill levels.  Kate took 6 weeks of swim lessons this summer, so she is up for anything.  She swam everywhere and ran through everything. 

Will on the other hand thought those waterfalls looked pretty sketchy.  So Kate & I ran through them about 50 times trying to show him how COOL they were.....

He tried the Big waterfall once, but then slowed down his pace a bit and opted for the smaller versions that don't pound down on his head.

Will loved having Daddy join us at the pool.

Kate just loved being silly the whole time!  It's hard to believe our summer pool days are coming to an end!

Progress with the Toe Nails

Will hit a HUGE milestone this past month!  Since he was tiny he has always had a horrific fear of getting his toenails trimmed.  Why you say... I HAVE NO IDEA!!!  He is fine with trimming the fingernails, but screams, cries, drools and snots all over with the toenails.

However, something clicked this month one day when Brett took him out on the deck to complete the "torture" task once again.  Will actually held it together and didn't cry!  I was dumb founded!  From now on,  Brett gets to continue this task and work his toe nail trimming magic.

In addition, Will has also made progress with his haircuts.  We've been cutting his hair since he was a baby. We have always had to distract him with songs,  a t.v. show, silly faces, suckers, candy....whatever to keep him still and occupied.  Now he knows what's going to happen & how he has to sit to get "the coolest hair ever!"  No suckers or silliness required.

Spiderman has been the craze lately.  Will puts his costume on at least every other day and runs around trying to climb the walls.  Well, last week, Kate decided to be spider girl.  She dug out her Halloween costume from when she was 2 and put it on. The tall black boots and all.  Only 1 little thing missing...... she forgot her pants!!  Good thing Daddy wasn't home to see this one!