Visiting Great-Grandparents

While we were home, we took the kids to visit all of my grandparents... This is them with my Grandma and Grandpa B. My g-ma had a basket of books for trick-or-treat treats--my kids loved that! (They of course got some candy too!)

Kinnick took his book right over to my grandpa and asked him to read it!

Our next stop was visiting my grandma Henry--the kids were getting a bit restless (during nap time) but did a good job!

Fall Fun with Cousins

The weekend before Halloween, my brother's family came for a visit. The kids had a blast playing together and we fit in lots of fun fall activities!

We started Saturday morning by making pumpkin pie play doh (thanks Jennifer!) This was perfect b/c it was pouring rain and the kids were bummed that we couldn't go hiking. Jadyn helped me make the play doh and the kids had a blast playing with it.

Sadie and Jadyn with thier matching hair (Sadie requested a hair-do just like Jadyn's!)

For lunch we went to Burger King--the kids had a great time playing!

By afternoon it was dry enough to venture outside. We raked a BIG leaf pile and the kids had fun playing in the leaves. The all jumped in and spent quite a while throwing the leaves.

Kinnick was cracking up at Jaren throwing leaves on both of them.

Next we carved pumpkins. Jadyn helped cut them open and all the kids helped clean them out (although it ended up being mostly me and Trista). I carved a hawkeye and Jason carved a cat.

Sadie was much braver this year... last year she didn't want to touch the insides.

We ended the night with s'mores over the fire pit... it was such a fun-filled day! (Trick-or-Treat pics coming soon... when I get my camera back. I left it at my in-laws!)

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!)