Dairy Farm

The week that school started, two of my teacher friends and I took our kids to Ropp Dairy Farm in Normal. Our friend Katie teaches first and they bring their school kids here for part of their field trip. It's a small family owned/operated dairy. We had a great time... the kids got to pet some baby calves, try to milk a mama cow, bottle feed calves, see how cheese is made, sample some cheese, and take a hay-rack ride. It was a very HOT day, but we had fun. We of course had to purchase some cheese curds to bring home for daddy to try (Sadie was excited to tell him!) After our Dairy adventure, we headed over to Miller Park/Spray Park. We ate our picnic lunch and then put the kids into swimsuits and set them loose--they had a great time. We were all pretty much exhausted by noon!
Jodi, Sadie, & Emma--petting the calf. When the girls first walked into the pen, Sadie looked at me and said "Mom, where are those pink things that you get the milk out of?"

Kinnick and Eddie (the two littlest boys) were the only ones brave enough to try milking--although they didn't really get the concept, they just did what the girl told them to do!

All the kids liked doing the bottle feeding. Our calves name was Emma--so they thought that was pretty cool.

Sadie & Kinnick on the hay rack--Kinnick's first experience...

Sadie at the spray park--the kids weren't really in picture mode at this point!

Macey--6 Months

6 Months is a hard milestone for me. Now, Macey is closer to her first birthday then she is to the day she was born. I really, really, REALLY want her to stay little! We are having lots of fun watching her learn new things...

Our biggest "first" this month was starting solids! In the word of Sadie "Macey is a champ at eating peas!" Peas and everything else she's tried... She loves eating her food. She sometimes screams when I don't feed her fast enough or give her enough to eat. So far she has had rice & oatmeal cereal, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, & bananas. She likes it all.

Her 6 mo. check up was last Monday (8/15) and she weighed 11 lbs. 10 oz. Our doctor was a little concerned because she wasn't on the chart for height or weight. She knew K was very small also, so she looked up his weight at 6 mo. and Macey was a pound lighter. Besides starting solids, I added in an extra nursing session (10:30 before I go to bed). This has worked very well. Macey still goes to bed as normal at 7:30 and I wake her up to eat and she goes right back to sleep. (I'll probably keep this up for about a month or so.) We were in the Dr. office yesterday for K and weighed Macey for fun--12 lbs. 9 oz.--a whole pound in 1 week! Wahoo!

Macey is also sitting up on her own. She is still a bit wobbly, but she can sit for several minutes. Sadie loves to help her practice sitting up (and was very excited to put a sticker on her baby calendar!)

A new activity that Macey loves is swinging. We walk to the park often and she enjoys the baby swings very much.

We love our little girl SO much! We are loving watching her little personality develop.

Bits & Pieces

Here are some various moments throughout our summer that didn't end up in another post... This is Sadie's friend, Mikenna. Her b-day is 4th of July and we've been gone the last three years, so we never get to go to her party. This year we invited her over before we left for Grand Bear to open her present and make "pinkalicious" cupcakes (Decorated the same as in the story!)

My mom gave Sadie this little pie plate that was my grandma's. Sadie was so excited to try it out. My mom sent home some pie dough after one of our visits so we made this blueberry pie! Sadie and Kinnick devoured the whole thing!

Sadie giving her baby a ride in the bijorn...

Stephane and I took the girls to the theater to see Toy Story 3. (Kinnick and Macey stayed with their favorite babysitter--Miss. Alyssa.) Sadie did get a big antsy (good thing there was only one other family in the theater. I think she was most excited about the popcorn, soda, and candy. She did tell Marc all about her favorite parts.

Doing some painting out side with BIG paper and textured paint brushes...

Being silly at lunch...

The last few times we've been to Aldi I let Sadie take her small shopping cart with us. I helped her make a list ahead of time in her little notebook. She's in charge of getting everything on her list and she gets to pick out one special treat. This has really helped making trips to the grocery store with three kids much easier! (Thanks to my sister-in-law Cori for this great idea!)

Ms. Jennifer recently got a new puppy dog--Billy. The kids have loved visiting him and getting to know him the last several weeks.

We had our first campfire of the summer a few weeks ago. We helped the kids make smores--this was Kinnick's 1st "smore experience".

My parents kept the kids for us so Marc and I could go to my 10-year reunion. Has it really been 10 years?

Streator has an old-fashioned ice cream truck this summer... Needless to say, we have had a hard time getting it to stop at our house. (It usually goes a block from us.) This time, Sadie stood on the sidewalk and waved really big and it saw her! The kids very much enjoyed their special summer time treat!

Sadie continues to have rest time every day for at least an hour. It is becoming a rare occasion that she actually falls asleep (only once or twice a week). This day I had to wake her up for an appointment and this is what I found!

Kinnick and his buddy Eddie playing in the mud puddles--boys will be boys!

Emma's 4th birthday party--the REAL sleeping beauty was there to paint fingernails and do hair. The girls had a blast (so did the boys--Emma's cousin Caden ran around all afternoon with a green pony tail pinned to his head!)

Our friend Liz and Ryan welcomed baby Clayton to their family on August 14th! We've had fun getting to know him. (This little Cubs outfit was passed down with love!)

Scrapbooking Weekend

For Christmas this year, we got my Mom a scrapbook and told her we would do a girls scrapbooking weekend this summer. She has made amazing scrapbooks for each of us five kids and has yet to do one for herself. She spends many, many hours on our books, so we thought that all of us girls working for a weekend would be a good way to get a lot done. We had a great time! We decided to meet at Jessica's house in Edwardsville. Mom, Kassie, and I met there Friday afternoon. We put the kids down for a nap and did a lot of sorting and organizing so we would be ready to work on pages that night...

For Friday dinner we made homemade pizza. Sadie and Kinnick made a little one for themselves. I'm sure this will be a tradition we will continue (thanks for the idea Liz!)

The finished product!

Macey is really practicing sitting up--here she is with Grandma!

This is a little sample picture of our workspace!

Kinnick decided to check things out and join the fun.

Sunday after church... Me, Jessica, Kassie, & Mom (picture courtesy of Sadie!)

Aunt Jessica reading to Kinnick

Sadie's very first scrapbook page! She enjoyed working on this project throughout the weekend. She of course had to add lots of stickers and brads to it! (Unfortunately I didn't get to keep the finished product because she discovered the paper cutter and cut it into 3 pieces!)

Aunt Jessica lives by a lake and there were LOTS of geese and ducks. Sadie & Kinnick loved feeding the birds and a few different occasions (and can't wait to go back!) Sadie was so funny the 1st time we fed the ducks--there was one duck who wouldn't swim up to eat her bread and she was very concerned. She saved some bread for him and kept telling the other ducks not to be so greedy and to share with their friend. The loner duck eventually swam close enough that we could through him some bread!)

Kinnick loved the ducks and geese--he just kept laughing and pointing!

We had a great weekend and got pretty much the whole scrapbook done. We decided to pull out all the vacation and Christmas pics to make two separate scrapbooks so those are future projects!

A Sad Good-Bye

I originally meant to type this post back in May... just now getting around to it, but it seems more fitting to write it now. Today was the first day that the kids came back to school. This was one of my favorite days as a teacher--seeing their little faces. After labeling a bajillion things, I finally got to put a face with a name. It's also exciting to go back and to see all of my friends who I hadn't seen over the summer...

I'm beyond excited to be starting a new chapter in my life--but I'm also sad to be closing the door on this chapter. Although I plan to teach again--I don't know what grade I will get and I'm pretty sure it won't be at Oakland Park. Oakland Park has been a 2nd home to me for the last 5 years. I've made amazing friends who have made a huge difference in my life both professionally and personally. These friends helped me learn the ropes at my first teaching job. They were there through the births of my 3 children. We've laughed, been frustrated (and sometimes angry), laughed, cried a little, and laughed. I couldn't have asked for a better experience to begin my teaching career.

I will miss the school, I will miss the parents, I will dearly miss my co-workers, but most of all--I will miss the kids. Those Kindergarten children were my reason to go to work every day. My job wasn't always easy, but it was guaranteed that I would be giving and receiving LOTS of love each day.

I loved knowing that God was using my talents to make a difference. I feel like I am giving up a piece of who I am, but I know that being a teacher didn't give me value in God's eyes, nor does being a stay-at-home-mom. I am valuable to him because HE created me. HE blessed me with my job at OP and HE has now blessed me with the opportunity to stay home with my children during this season of our life. I am so excited to see what else HE has in store for me!

I'm sure that I will continue to experience sad reminders... like seeing the school supplies in Wal-Mart, or meeting an OP kindergartner at Marc's softball game, or seeing past students in the grocery store, or seeing the crossing guard out my window... but for now I find peace knowing that I am exactly where God wants me to be--and there's no place better!

Singin' in the Rain...

or playing in the puddles! Kinnick LOVES to play in puddles--if there is a puddle, he'll find it (and jump in it). I must admit I really love watching him and rarely do I stop him from doing it (that's why we have play clothes!) On this day, Sadie was gone and Macey was sleeping. We were waiting for Marc to get home and he entertained me for a good 20 minutes!

Ready for a bath!