Sister-Sister

Leaf Hunting

Last week we went on a leaf hunt... I got out all of my leaf books (including Going on a Leaf Hunt) and we had fun reading about leaves and talking about why they change color. Next we went out to collect some leaves. Our goal was to find red, yellow, orange, brown, and green. This wasn't hard at all because we live next to a huge park with tons of different trees.

Kinnick and Macey enjoyed a stroller ride (and a fall treat!)

Sadie rode her bike so she could help me pick up lots of leaves. (I'm loving that she's riding her bike more and more so I don't have to wear Macey on our walks--she's getting really good, we go for mile plus walks!)

Kinnick and Sadie--showing off our leaf collection.

Sadie and I classified the leaves by color, size, and shape. We also used some of our books to identify a few different types of leaves... and of course we had to make some leaf rubbings!

Tot Music Central

This year is the first that Sadie is old enough to join "Tot Music Central" at our church. Tot Music is for 3-5 (not in K--they have another group that is K-5). They have practice each Sunday night and periodically perform during Sunday morning services. They also do a few songs each year at the Christmas Program. Last Sunday was Sadie's first performance... she was so excited to sing on stage! These are some of her friends (whose parents are in our small group)--Maddie (in the matching outfit), Emma, & Carson.

This is the whole group--they sang "I'm a Little Lovebug" and "Buggin' Along with God's Goodness" The boys had spider gloves and the girls had ladie bug gloves. My favorite was hearing Sadie emphasize "buggin along with God's GOOD-MESS!" as she sang!

Obedience Chart

On our fridge these days, you'll see a "Gorsch Family Obedience Chart". This idea came from several different sources... I heard a friend talking about starting a kindness chart in her house. Her boys got to put up stickers when she saw them being kind to each other (unprompted). They had to work as a team to fill up the chart. I thought it was a really good idea and filled in the back of my brain. I wanted to implement something, but really wanted it to focus on obedience (love the kindness idea, but obedience is a bigger priority at this point!) Two of my girlfriends had recently read the Duggar's Book and passed it along. I read about how they have a "Yes Mam" chart--they earn pennies each time they say yes mam and obey. I liked this idea b/c we've always taught Sadie to respond to us when we ask her to do something (and sometimes she's not so good at it.)
Here is a picture of the kids with their first completed chart! They get to put a sticker when they respond with a "Yes Mom" or "Yes Dad" and obey quickly, thoroughly, with a happy heart (borrowed from my sister-in-law). Kinnick gets a little more help and extra reminders--if Sadie gets a reminder she doesn't get a sticker. (However she is always quick to ask "Mom, will you tell me another thing to do?") It's been a fun way to reinforce how we want them to obey...

I wanted to keep their rewards focused around fun family activities. We talked about it and Sadie requested Chuckie Cheese for their first reward. I agreed thinking a big reward for the first chart could get them more motivated. They completed their chart so we headed to Chuckie Cheese. We had a coupon for 20 free tokens for Sadie's 1/2 birthday so we enjoyed about an hour of fun for free! We then took the kids to McDonald's play place for lunch and did some shopping... The kids are started on chart #2--this time they are working for a family movie night.

Brookfield Zoo

Marc had Columbus Day off, so we headed up to Brookfield Zoo. It ended up being an 80 degree day--pretty nice. The zoo was busy but we got to do/see a lot. Sadie was very excited to have a picnic at the zoo (as you can see, she wore her "picnic" shirt!) and was also excited to see many animals--most of all the rhinos! I think Kinnick has been to 4 different zoos now, but this was the first time that he was pointing out animals and calling them by name. This was Macey's 2nd zoo trip, but the first time she enjoyed looking at the animals. The day was long and exhausting, but very fun! We ended it with dinner at Cracker Barrel on the way home. (With 3 kids who missed afternoon naps, it was not our most enjoyable dinner, but very yummy!)

Kinnick LOVES to read and always points out animals by name in books, he was very excited to name the animals at the zoo!

Macey was such a happy girl all day--we're grateful that she is a very easy going (so far!)

Hiking at Spring Lake

We enjoyed the last weekend of "summer" weather with a Sunday hike. We went to Spring Lake Park (in Streator). It's a great little park with lots of trails and a pretty "waterfall" to look at. The kids had a blast--we found all kinds of things on our hike... red berries, a hot pink plant with berries, LOTS of hedge balls, and some thorny trees. After our hike we enjoyed ice cream cones at McDonalds!

This is the little waterfall.

Marc & mini-me :)

Sadie loves playing on playgrounds that have little bridges--she calls them noisy bridges. She loved walking over this bigger version!

Pumpkin Painting

A few weeks ago on a trip to Wal-Mart, I let Sadie & Kinnick each pick out a pumpkin. (That was funny--Kinnick picked up the first one he could touch and Sadie had to look at EVERY pumpkin.) Sadie had been asking me for awhile if we could paint a pumpkin. I told her we could paint one and save one to carve. So we painted a pumpkin... I told Sadie ahead of time that Macey could put a hand print on the pumpkin, but when we got the paint out I changed my mind--Sadie was disappointed but let it go. Macey was perfectly happy to watch the process.

Sadie and Kinnick helped me pick the paint colors. We also used glitter, sequins, and buttons.

Sadie was a little bossy (does this surprise anyone?)

The finished product!

Sadie--3 Year Old Interview

In Her Words...

Favorites:

Favorite Color: Pink
Favorite Book: Junie "Buh" Jones
Favorite Song: I'm a Little Lovebug (from Kid's Choir)
Favorite Store: Dollar Store
Favorite Game: Ice Cream Game, actually Hungry Hippopotamus
Favorite Restaurant: Turtles
Favorite Toy: Dollies
Favorite Cartoon: Dora
Favorite Food: Macaroni & Cheese, actually yogurt
Favorite Outdoor Activity: Riding my bike
Favorite Indoor Activity: Play with Barbies

Family Questions:
Who is in your family? Mommy, Daddy, Macey, Buba, & Wrigley
What is your favorite thing about Daddy? When he stays home with me when mommy is at a meeting
What is Daddy's Job? Work at the bank
What makes Daddy Happy? When I tell him questions
What job do you like to do with Daddy? Clean up toys
What is something Daddy always says to you? That he loves me
How does Daddy make you laugh? Sits on me
How do you know Daddy loves you? Because he's my Daddy and I love my mom and my dad and my brother and my sister and Wrigley
What is you favorite thing about Mommy? When you take me for a special treat like ice cream or Chuckie Cheese or something
What is Mommy really good at? Playing toys--like blocks
What is Mommy's job? To work and play with us
What makes Mommy happy? When you smoosh me on my bed when I'm laying under the covers and we play that game and I scare you
What job do you like to do with Mommy? Help cook cookie dough and cookies and do exercises
What is something Mommy always says to you? Get your shoes, get dressed, we have to leave!
How does Mommy make you laugh? When you tickle me
How do you know Mommy loves you? Cause you say that you love me
What is the best thing about being a BIG sister? When I take care of Macey and Buba and babysit them
What is the hardest thing about being a BIG sister? I have to take care of Macey and Buba ALOT!
What do you like to teach Macey & Kinnick? To listen and obey our parents
Where is the best place our family has gone? Pizza Hut
What is the most fun thing our family has done? Go out to eat and play on the playground that's inside the building that we ate at

General Questions:
What is something you're really good at? Taking pictures and taking care of Buba and Macey
What do you love to do? Take baths
Who is your best friend? Carson & Megan
What do you like to do with them? Play at their house and play babies
What do you want to be/do when you are big? Work at school--teach kids
Why do you have to obey Mom & Dad? To keep our baby safe and Jesus likes it when we obey our parents
What is the hardest thing about obeying? When I try to but I can't and then you guys don't trust me, like when I lie
Why do you go to school? I'm a big kid.
What do you learn at school? Good stuff like my ABCD letters and what day it is
What is your favorite thing about school? Dinosaur painting day
Why do you go to church? To learn about Jesus more and learn to be a good listener from the Bible and have story and snack
What do you learn at church? Good News about Jesus
What is your favorite thing about church? Playing with my friends

NOTE: Wouldn't you know that out of all the family experiences we've had, Pizza Hut comes out on top!

Macey--7/8 Months

Well... time continues to slip away--I didn't get Macey's 7 month update and now she's almost 8 months! We keep calling her "smiley Mace" because she is always smiling! She is very social and loves to "talk" to people.

She is a terrific eater! She LOVES graham crackers (well, any kind of cracker really!) She is trying a lot more table food these days. She likes to feed herself--mac & cheese, spaghetti, pancakes, biscuits, peas, corn, small pieces of banana, cereal, etc. The last time she was officially weighed was at 7 mos--she weighed 13 lbs. 10 oz.

She is very good at entertaining herself, as long as someone is in the room with her... if you leave her by herself, she will scream bloody murder!

She is starting to get into more and more. She likes to play standing up, but hasn't pulled herself up yet.

She is crawling now. She drags herself and occasionally goes up on her hands and knees to crawl. She still doesn't go to far (which is just fine with her mommy!)

She loves playing with toys and puts everything into her mouth.

She loves bath time also. She splashes and grabs the toys. When I lay her down she smiles and kicks away.

I'm trying to savor the moments b/c I know that all too soon she'll be big... today I had to look through Kinnick and Sadie's baby books to remind myself that they were this cute & innocent once too!

Tanner's Apple Orchard

We've enjoyed going to Tanner's every year since Sadie was a baby... This year we were lucky to take two trips to Tanner's! Our first trip was September 18th. We met our friends Andy & Lindsey (and Andy's family) for a day of fall fun... As we were preparing to leave, the weather did not look promising. About half way it started pouring rain! While we were in the car, we prayed that the rain would stop and that we could still have a fun day. It was still raining when we got there, but by the time we were done eating lunch the rain had cleared and we ended up with a pretty nice day.

After lunch, we fed the goats and then ventured onto the playground... We've never gone into the play area before (it's $5-$8 kids and adults pay, but for this day adults were free so we only had to pay for Sadie!) The playground is BIG with lots to do. The kids played on lots of different types of play things, played in a huge sandbox, road ponies (twice!), went for a barrel car ride, and road pedal go-karts. After the playground we hit the gift shop (this is always a big event with lots to taste). Before we left we went to the bakery for cider donuts for the kids and an apple strudel for us with our favorite--hot caramel apple cider!

This was the best pic I could get of the three kids!

Macey's first trip to Tanner's

Sadie of course never misses an opportunity for a close-up.

Kinnick loves to pet/feed animals. Sadie is a bit more apprehensive, but they both had fun!

Both kids had fun riding pedal tractors on the playground.

Kinnick loved his pony ride on the "Iowa Hawkeye" horse!

Macey & Aunt Lindsey

Pedal Go-Cart Ride

Macey decided to take a little snooze.

Kinnick loved trying to pick up the BIG pumpkins.

The kids enjoyed their little bottles of cider and their donuts on the trip home.

Our 2nd Trip...

Our 2nd trip to Tanner's was October 3rd. We went with our friends, the Shinkeys. It's our tradition to go together each fall... We had great weather--a little chilly (before all the 80 degree days) but not too cold or windy. Tanner's was packed--the parking lot was FULL (and they have a huge lot). We managed to get some tables for lunch so we ate first. After eating, the kids played on the train and fed the goats. We decided to pick some apples this year. We picked a pumpkin a few years ago, but this was first time picking apples. The kids had a great time. Marc helped them each pick one to eat (Sadie ended up eating two!) and we quickly filled our bag with 4 different types of apples. They had fun riding on the covered wagon through the orchard. After apple picking we headed into the gift shop for treats. It was so busy that we had to wait in line for about 1/2 an hour (it's not uncommon to wait over an hour on weekends!)

Kinnick is trying to get Macey to smile for a picture.

Macey looked adorable in her "Daddy's Little Punkin" shirt, but wouldn't cooperate for a picture.

Kinnick was getting tired and snuggled up for the wagon ride.

Megan, Carson, & Sadie riding on the covered wagon.

Sadie found a good one!

The kids posed for some pictures in the orchard.