Nuts!

Tonight I got to get away by myself and shop for fabric with my girlfriend Lindsey. We picked out some fabric for a new dress and some PJ's for Kailyn and also some matching ones for her new doll she'll be getting for Christmas. While I was gone Ryan took the kids up to the tree farm to play with Maggie (the dog) and see if Uncle Aaron was around. What a night of fun.......throwing rocks (a.k.a. raccoon poop) and talking about what squirrels eat. The following is the conversation my family had:

Kailyn: "Daddy, what do squirrels eat?
Ryan: "They eat nuts!?
Kailyn: "GROSS!"
Ryan: "Not really, we eat nuts. Like peanuts and walnuts....."
Will: "and Donuts !"

Even though I wasn't there I can only imagine how priceless this little conversation will be!

Got Passion???

Our little football lover.....need I say more!

We love your passion Will!

Pumpkins!

Last night we rolled up our sleeves and worked as a family to carve the kids' pumpkins! What a fun evening of learning and listening. This year Kailyn chose to have daddy carve Ariel and Will chose a guitar (and if you know my kids you would know how fitting those choices are)! Taping on the templates so we could transfer them to the pumpkins.

The kids helped empty out the seeds and "guts" of the pumpkins......Kailyn thought it was great fun and Will, although he didn't gag this time, still was a little unsure about the smell!
The main pumpkin carver in our household....I was just pulled up from the minor leagues this year to help with Will's guitar, since it was pretty easy!The finished products......not bad:) Happy Halloween!

9 Frames!

Last weekend we had a family date night with Uncle Chad and Aunt Lib. We went out to Vitales for pizza and then headed to Zeeland lanes for a few games of bowling! The kids got to use a lane with bumpers and managed to beat me both games:) Here's just a few pics of my little bowlers:They were so proud of their bowling shoes!

Tougue hanging out and all:)Really getting into it!Will helping Uncle Chad keep score.Kailyn would sit at the end of the lane until her ball made it to the pins....and let's just say that most of the time that took quite a while!

My Favorites!

The following pictures are my attempt at a fall mini-session with Kailyn and Will! I'm pretty happy with how they turned out....so here is a glimpse at my favorites:) The first few were taken at Dutton Park and the rest were taken in a huge leaf pile that Ryan blew for us!Typical Kailyn and Will....so silly and ADORABLE!Too cute.....I love this one because Will has his arm around her for a change!Love K's goofy smile on this picture....love it!My absolute favorite....will probably end up on our Christmas cards this year!My little diva!My handsome little man! Love that dimple:)

Thanks for doing such an awesome job Kailyn and Will......your pictures turned out great!

Unexpected Fall Fun!

With the weather being forcasted in the 70's, I asked the kids where they would like to go play and they chose Tunnel Park. We've only been there once before and they loved the dune and being so close to the beach...I didn't even show them the tunnel until today! So we packed a lunch and headed to Tunnel park to play on this beautiful fall day!At the top of the stairs, ready to run down the dune!The kids weren't very interested in the playground today, but I did get these two shots before we brought out the sandtoys and ate lunch! Then they wanted to go through the tunnel again, so I grabbed the sandtoys and we headed to the beach, where I wasn't really expecting them to go in the water once they put their feet in! Boy was I wrong! As you can see from the next few pictures, they both went the whole way in, fully clothed! It was numbingly cold.....I don't know how they could stand it, but the main thing is.....they had a BLAST!!!!! So we stripped for the car-ride home and took hot showers before naptime.....gotta love unexpected fun days:)
Love your fun-loving spirits Kailyn and Will!

Ballet Cousins!

This week was take a friend week at Kailyn's dance school! Without having to think, but a split second, she knew she wanted to ask Brook to come with her:) The girls were both really excited to do ballet together and were hamming it up for the camera before class even started! When Miss Marie asked Kailyn how she know Brook, she told her that Brook was her friend...which is true, but also her cousin...too cute:)Posing like ballerinas!So thankful for such a cool opportunity to share our awesome dance school with someone we love! Thanks Avalon!

Collages

Kailyn recieved this neat farm collage kit for her birthday and since we were doing farm animals this week we ended with this AWESOME craft! The kids really took their time and loved creating and being silly:)Our finished products.....excited that there are two other animals yet to do and tons of supplies to do them with!!!

Egg-speriment!

This week we talked about farm animals and the things they give us. So to go along as a science experiment we put eggs in vinegar, water, pop, tea and soy sauce. The kids predicted that the eggs would change color in the pop, tea and soy sauce. We let them sit all week and then pulled the eggs out. The kids were right about the color of the eggs changing and all different shades of brown. We also discovered that the vinegar ate the shell away and made the egg larger and squishy! The eggs also sank to the bottom of each glass, except the soy sauce.....interesting!What a fun egg-speriment!!!

Got Soccer?

Saturday we were able to make it to one of my nephew, Michael's soccer games. I was pretty impressed with how well these little guys (if being in first grade can be considered "little") played the game!He also just lost his first tooth a few weeks ago and is showing it off for the camera!

Hamming it up when he noticed I had the camera aimed at him:)

All the kids (except Payton).

Sink or Float?

The first week of school we started with the letter A and talked about apples. One of the things we did was to see if an apple would sink or float. The kids both predicted that they would float....and they were right!