Schappacher Farms

The Halloween marathon continued Monday morning. We started off at Gracyn's weekly Mommy and Me bible time (Reagan tags along). After it was over, we grabbed a quick lunch and then Daddy met us to take Gracyn home for a few hours. Reagan and I were off with her class for a field trip to the pumpkin patch at Schappacher Farms.

It was a beautiful fall day and I had a great time focusing on her alone for a few hours. Reagan is my wanderer....it is a small miracle that we have never lost her (at least we hadn't until later on Halloween night), so one of us will ALWAYS be on her field trips with her. If I ever had any doubts about that they were confirmed when I, along with the rest of the group was listening intently to Farmer Butch talk to us about the animals. I heard one of Reagan's teachers shout for her and looked up to see her wondering off to the corn fields 50 yards away. That girl is in her own happy world sometimes!!! Once we corralled Reagan back to the group we feed donkeys and cows and saw (from a safe distance) the turkeys. Farmer Butch told us all about working on the farm and gave us a pumpkin to take home.

I enjoyed the day with my girl and thought the farm was fun. Good thing, because I hear we go there again in kindergarten.Between Reagan and Gracyn I could get the same tour 4 times in the next few years!


In true Guess girl fashion, Reagan is a head taller than all of her class.


Farmer Butch chose Reagan to demonstrate how to feed the cows.


My girls love animals!!!


Loving this sweet time with my girl.


There she goes off to see the rest of the farm.


The whole class.


Sweet girl!

Trunk or Treat

Pumpkin carving complete, it was time to continue our family day at the church where Reagan goes to school. They host a fall carnival and trunk or treat every year, and it will definitely be one of our new favorite Cincy traditions. The girls were excited to put on their costumes for the first time. We got them dressed and headed out for an afternoon of bounce houses, games, yummy food, and costume parades. The evening finale was trunk or treating through row after row of festively decorated cars and collecting loads of candy. We spent hours out there, had a great time and made it home just in time to tuck in very tired little girls.


Introducing Pocahontas, The Sugar-Plum Fairy and Rapunzel. Pocahontas wasn't exactly in the mood for pictures, so it took some work (Read: threatening to be late to the fall festival) to get cooperation. Someone's always causing trouble with the group shots!


Reagan knew just what she wanted to be for Halloween. She wanted the Sugar-Plum Fairy from the Nutcracker, fashioned after a Barbie Ballerina book we have. We had the white dress, she chose the accessories. Whatever you do don't call her a "wedding girl". She IS NOT a wedding girl and she doesn't take kindly to being called such.


Sweet Rapunzel. She calls herself "Punzel, Punzel!" The hair sealed the deal, it matched her hair so perfectly we had to go with it!


Pocahontas, again not thrilled to be photographed. She wasn't sure what she wanted to be for Halloween, until we found this at the Disney Store. She loved it. Perfect since Pocahontas is one of their favorite movies.


We didn't do a great job of taking pictures once we arrived. But here are Tommy and Gracyn having a little hot dog snack.


And, Mommy and the girls.

Pumpkin Carving

The Halloween festivities were fast and furious around here on Sunday and Monday! I kept thinking, this is great fun, if it doesn't kill me!!! We started our Sunday bright and early so we could teach our classes at church during the 9am service. We then attended the 10:30 service, ate lunch and headed home to carve pumpkins. The girls were super excited and definitely had in mind what they wanted. They cleaned out the guts, sketched out their ideas and then Daddy carved them up. We took a minute to admire our finished products and then it was in the house to get costumed up and headed to the next event!

Here is my group getting ready to work. Addison was dressed like her sisters at church, but she is extremely warm-blooded. So, I can convince her to dress season-appropriate while we are out, but the minute we arrive home, she is back in the shorts and tank tops. The girl is never cold.


Reagan was too funny trying to carry that pumpkin around. She finally gave up and rolled it all over the place.


Gracyn went with the Mrs. Potato Head pieces we had from a previous year.


Cutie finished her pumpkin.


Addison's is done.


And here are my 3 sweet girlies with 3 cute pumpkins.

Fall

Love the crisp, sunny fall afternoons, with a yard full of kids.

CATS the Musical

Sunday afternoon I took Addison and Reagan to see the Mason Children's Theatre production of CATS! Wow, I am not sure what to say. If anyone has seen that musical and knows what it is about, please fill me in! Actually the theatre group did an AMAZING job. It was incredible to think that all the performers were between the ages of 9 and 18. The costumes, stage and acting were outstanding. Unfortunately, I think the story was just a little abstract for my girls age. Reagan enjoyed it more than Addison did. They both must have asked me 100 times what was happening and I didn't have any answers for them.

In addition, I learned a hard lesson about general admission seating....it was the only option for this show and it just doesn't work well for us at this phase of life. We had to get there early to get decent seats in a large theatre, and then we couldn't leave them or we would loose them. So, we arrived 45 minutes early, the show started 15 minutes late and there was a 20 minute intermission (during which we couldn't leave or we would loose our seats). That made for a grand total of nearly 4 hours in our chairs....a bit much at this age. Don't worry, we did squeeze in FOUR potty trips, during the show....two first half, two second. At least our seats were safe when we were up mid-show. It was an interesting day. I love taking my girls to see live shows. The same group is performing Dr.Doolittle in the spring, I think that will be a much better choice for us, and I will know to at least bring jackets to try and save our seats!!!

Breaking the Rules

These two know that Maggie isn't allowed on the furniture. She actually does get on the guest bed downstairs, but that is all. We bent that rule a few times and she fully took the bed over! Addison let her sneak in there a few days ago and now we are done. They have started out sleeping together every night since. However, since Maggie is a roamer and a snorer, we move her downstairs to "her room" (the guest room) before we go to bed.

Addison looking guilty


Now Maggie is the guilty one,

Pictures from the Pumpkin Patch

Last Sunday, after church, we headed out to Shaw Farm in a tiny little town near us. We met the Jackson family, friends from Tommy's office, at their house and then followed their crew of 6 out to the farm. It was a glorious day....warm and sunny. The kids ran around amongst the pumpkins, posed for a few pictures and then we went on a nice, long hayride through the woods. After the hayride, we went into an old barn and ate snacks while listening to a blue-grass band. Finally each child picked their perfect pumpkin to take home and we called it a day. Such fun building our Cincy traditions and discovering new places we love.

Paws for Reading

Our local library has a reading program called, "Paws for Reading" each fall. We just discovered it on the final day last year and the girls loved it! Today was the first day for this fall and we were there bright and early. They had about 10 different dogs their and Addison and Reagan couldn't leave until they had read to each one of them. Graycn read to a few and then came out to build puzzles with me. They girls get a sticker with a picture of each dog as they read to them. They are on a mission to collect them all. I know we will be headed back for the dog's day in November.

Action Shots

We are about midway through our first soccer season. It has been fun and interesting. Her poor team, The Mason Comets, hasn't won a game since the first week. They have lost the last four 1 to 0. Turns out playing 9 on 9 soccer makes it really hard to score! Her team is still a little disorganized, for instance today, at the start of our game, we only had 7 of our 10 players. 2 more trickled in late and one wasn't there. We have a handful of really good girls, but also a few that just do not want to play soccer. Their parents have them sticking out the season....but they just don't like it. I feel bad for them. Addison likes playing goalie best. She usually plays one quarter as goalie, 2 quarters of offense and one quarter as a defender back near the goal. She takes it all very seriously! The team today scored on her, and that is the first time she has let a ball in. She did a great job and blocked their first shot, but she wasn't able to get her hands on it and throw it out and they turned it right back and took a second shot on her, that one went in. She was not too happy with herself. The verdict is still out if she will play next year. Today she told me, while putting on the layers of socks and pads that she was doing gymnastics next time, because you didn't have to put on so much "stuff".


She is serious about defending her goal. And she coaches from there too. She is always encouraging/instructing her teammates when they are down the field.


She is ready to block the shot.


She got this one.


She stays attentive and ready.


Now she is headed into offense.


She was working hard to keep that ball.

Reagan 4 1/2

~Reagan had her 1/2 birthday a few days ago.....she picked out cookies for all of us at the grocery store. Hard for Mamma to believe we are rapidly headed towards five. Last week, we went to eat lunch with Addison at her school and I watched Reagan skipping down those halls knowing she will be headed there next year. Mama isn't ready for that!! I better brace myself, because her registration papers will be coming soon.

~Reagan has a new best friend at school. His name is Charlie. They are inseparable during class and so precious together. Reagan has lots of sweet girl friends, but if she is in a group setting, without one of her close friends, she will ALWAYS play with the boys. During Addison's soccer practice, I am usually on a nearby playground with Reagan and Gracyn. Reagan is just one of the group, in a pack of 1st grade boys. She plays tag with them every week and keeps right up with this crew of boys that is 2 years older than her.No one seems to ever question that she is the only girl and that she is much younger, it is just a given that she always joins their game.

~She is my most musical. She remembers songs quickly, loves to sing and plays with her piano and guitar from Steve and Nea, quite often. She is the only girl with her own playlist on the ipod. We listen to her songs in the car every day. She has quite a mix....Taylor Swift, worship music, Wizard of Oz, Annie, Lion King, Carrie Underwood and more.

~She loves hats. Her favorite is a purple hat that Grandma got for Addison at Gymboree back when Reagan was just a baby. She wears it all the time!

~She loves spelling and letters. She is learning at school to use lower case letters, she is always asking and trying to figure out how things are spelled, and if Addison brings home a really easy book from school, with lots of repetition, Reagan will read it.

~Reagan and Daddy teach the two-year-old class (Gracyn's class) at church every other Sunday. Reagan is so sweet with the little ones....they love her. She is also getting a chance to be the big sister while Addison is at school. She and Gracie are having a sweet time together, and I love watching Reagan get to be the leader.

~She is faithful with her prayers. Whenever she is worried about someone or something she always says we need to pray about it. Often she tells me in the morning, that she was praying about something in her room last night.

~Reagan and two other big sisters and good friends, Faith and Payton, come along to a bible study class for the baby sisters. Oh my, they have a blast, but the 3 of them can get a little out of control in there!!! Makes me realize how siblings often get banned from activities.

~She loves to draw. The last pictures are of her coloring the whole row of landscaping rocks with chalk. There are probably 150 rocks in that path and she has decorated them all.

~Love my sweet Reagie girl. She's our teensy-weensy, snuggly, happy, loving precious one!