Picture Day 10/23/10

Today was the day of our family pictures shoot. We booked another shoot with the same person we did the last two shoots with. She is very reasonably priced, we get her for an hour, and we get the disc....oh, and she gets some really good pictures!

We wanted a fall themed shoot this time. We normally get pictures taken the second week in November so they are taken around Marc's birthday. We decided that at this point, taking them 4 weeks before his birthday would be fine and we could get our fall theme in. We went to a place called Schwallier's Country Basket. All morning we were watching the overcast sky and hoping the rain would miss us. I remembered from a previous shoot that Susan, the photographer, told us that a little overcast were better conditions for shoots then bright sunny skies, so I thought, cool! Well, on our drive there it started to rain. :-( By the time we got there, it had stopped raining so we went and checked out the goats while we waited for Susan to get there.

There were vending machines with goat food. You could put in it a cup attached to a pulley system that you then cranked a wheel to send the cup of food up to the top of a ramp and the goat ate the food you put in the cup.
Samantha thought it was funny that this goat stuck his head through the fence for Samantha to pet him. :-)
One of the things they have there is a huge mountain of bales of hay. There is a tunnel through the middle of it that both kids crawled through and then Marc climbed all the way to the top of it!
Another thing they have is a tube slide that was a about a story high. The first couple of times Samantha went down, she didn't pick up her feet so she went down really slow. After she watched her brother a few times, she figured out she went faster if she picked up her feet. :-)
One thing that this place had that I have never seen before is a corn box. It is like a sand box, but with corn kernels. The kids had fun scooping and pouring and piling and having fun.
By the store there were 2 wooden horses for the kids to check out.
By the time we got done with the hour long photo shoot an then some playing time, we were all (the kids especially) were filthy! It was a dirty but free and fun couple of hours. :-)

Yum! 10/20/10

I love fall! One of the things I love about fall is that the chill in the air makes me ready to make our first batch of chex mix! :-) We make it by splitting into half and mixing it in disposable pans. So, since there are two pans and we have kids, each kid gets to mix the ingredients together.Once the kids got the dry ingredients mixed up, Daddy and I take over and get all the seasonings on and cook it. It has to cook for an hour, so in the process, it makes my house smell yummy! The kids were very glad to try to fruits (or chexes) of their labor. ;-)
The first batch of the season turned out yummy! I think it was all the great helpers that took part in making it. :-)

Detroit Pistons Game 10/13/10

Ok......so those of you that us, know that we are at all sports people. But, the other day, we were sitting at Marc's swim lesson when someone comes up and offers us free tickets to go see the Detroit Pistons at our local arena for the following evening. We thought, what the heck, it was free, and we thought Marc might enjoy it, and oh yeah, Daddy says "They have really good nachos there". Glad he has his priorities straight. ;-)

So, the next night, we piled in the car and drove downtown. Of course, any time we are at an event at the arena we have to get snacks. ;-) Marc chose cinnamon sticks and Samantha shared my popcorn.There was a company out in the walkway that was giving away pens, crayons, mini-coloring books (which came in VERY handy with Samantha) and sets of boom whackers. Marc had fun banging them together and Samantha had fun trying to whack Grandma. ;-)
Our seats were way up in the nose bleed section, but hey, they were free! We kinda liked being up that high. We could see everything that was going on in the whole arena.
It was a fun evening. My Mom and I didn't see a whole lot of the game, we were busy trying to keep Samantha occupied. She watched for a little while in the beginning. She looked down at the court and told us to look at the monkeys down there. ;-) We left right after half-time so Marc could get to bed a decent time since it was a school night, but it turned out to be a very enjoyable evening.

1st Grade Field Trip to Klackles 10/12/10

This morning we headed off to Klackles Orchard for a field trip with all the other 1st graders. :-)
When we got there, we all gathered under a tent to learn about how apples grow and the proper way to pick an apple. After we learned our information, we all piled on some wagons and headed out to the apple orchard to pick some apples.Marc with his student teacher, Miss Moran.
Marc with his teacher, Mr. Steinbacher.
After every one picked their apples and got back on the wagons, we headed out to the pumpkin patch.
After everyone picked pumpkins, we once again piled onto the wagons and headed back to the entrance. When we got to our assigned tent, we found YUMMY donuts and cider waiting for us. They even had enough for us parents to have some too! :-)
After cider and donuts the kids had about 45 minutes for some free play on all of the tons of things to do there other than apples and pumpkins. The plan was to have everyone stay and eat lunch together. But, one of the families we drove there had to unexpectedly leave early (before lunch started). I felt really bad about Marc having to leave early, so after I took the family back to the school to get their car, I took Marc to McDonald's for a special lunch.
We got to Klackles once or twice each year in the fall. It was a lot of fun to see what it was like going with 85 other 1st graders and their families. :-)