Brooke's 6th Birthday

We celebrated Brooke's birthday with doughnuts in the morning and then she picked Steak and Shake for dinner (2nd year in a row). She had her party at Build a Bear and because she only has 15 kids in her whole class, she was able to invite all of the girls from her class. She had a GREAT time and I will have to say that girl parties are MUCH calmer than boy parties!

Halloween

Andrew was Albert Pujols, Luke was a ninja, and Brooke was a cat. We began the evening with the annual neighborhood parade and firetruck visit. Notice that Brooke and her two best friends were all cats! Every year we have lived here we have the perfect Halloween weather for trick or treating. Once again it was a cool, crisp fall evening. Andrew, who has never loved dressing up finally had no costume dilemmas this year. He felt very comfortable in his baseball clothes. I wish he would have gone as a baseball player the past ten years! It would have saved us a lot of grief! Luke, however, had costume woes as his ninja ties weren't in the proper place on his arms and legs. Luke takes his role playing VERY seriously! Brooke, who usually gets tired after a few houses, was on fire and could have trick or treated all night. She was thrilled with the obscene amount of candy she got, but the funny thing is she has hardly eaten any of it!

More hiking in the fall

We couldn't get enough of the beautiful fall hiking this year. We are trying to earn our 4th badge in the fall hiking spree.

This is my favorite tree at the kids school. It sits in the middle of their schoolyard. It really sounds as though I am friends with these trees, doesn't it?! You wanted pictures Lauren!!!

This is in our neighborhood.

This is one on a hike at O' Neil Woods.

Fall in Ohio

The color this year is just absolutely beautiful here! Everytime we are driving around I just go crazy looking at all of the trees. When the sun is out they look like they are on fire. As I was driving Brooke and a friend home today, I kept pointing out all of the beautiful trees. Brooke leaned over to her friend, sighed and said, "My mom is kind of crazy over the trees." She is right! This is when I love living in Ohio. Maybe Brooke should remind me of the beauty of fall in February when it is tough to be an Ohioan!

Girls trip to Houston

Matt is such an awesome husband to stay and take care of the kids while I went to Houston to have a college roomate reunion trip with Krissy, Melissa, and Cynthia. I got to see Holly and Kathy, too. We always pick up right where we left off and just laugh non stop the whole time we are together. We accomplished all of the typical girl stuff - eating, shopping, movies, and makeup at the Mac counter. Now if I could only figure out how to get those eyelashes back on!

Visit with Lauren and Anneke

We had the best time with Anneke and Lauren. Anneke has being two and a half down! She is full of life and energy and kept us entertained with her funny sayings. We had fun doing fall things like picking pumpkins, apples, and going on a hike. Brooke loved taking Anneke into her school for show and tell. My favorite was reading Sesame Street Firehouse and No David 16 times!

Andrew's first piano song he wrote

As much as Andrew complains about piano, he does get inspired at times. One afternoon he sat down and composed this song. He called it "Mystery in D Minor."

Triathlon weekend

We had a great time as we all participated in a triathlon over the weekend out at Portage Lakes. I raced on Saturday morning along with two of my friends, then the boys raced later that morning, then Matt raced the next day. The weather was perfect and everyone did great. Luke came in 1st in his age group and 4th over all. Andrew came in 5th in his age group. The other kids we encouraged to do it had a great time as well. Luke's teacher from last year came out to watch which thrilled him. The boys definitely have the racing bug now! Brooke does too. She has been practicing on her princess bike and tells me that she is going to go "super fast" in the race next year.

First day of school

The kids had a great first day of school. It's hard to believe I have a 4th grader, 3rd grader, and kindergartener! This is the only year that they will all be at the same school so I am going to really enjoy this year. We are still amazed that Brooke was all smiles as she got on that bus considering she had so much anxiety over the summer about going to school. In keeping with tradition, I followed the bus to the school just to make sure she got there OK. She did. Now she loves it and comes home happy every day. What a blessing! The boys also love seeing Brooke at school and Andrew is so excited that his class gets to be reading buddies with her class.

Mentor Triathlon

The boys had a GREAT time competing in their first triathlon. It was a 100 meter swim in Lake Erie, 3 mile bike, and a half mile run. They did awesome and can't wait until the next one. I just wanted them to have fun and enjoy themselves, which they did. Matt and I were so happy for them. The other boy with them is Akash, who is one of their good friends in the nieghborhood.

Innsbrook with my family

I can't believe that it took us so many years to get back to my parents lakehouse at Innsbrook. The kids loved being there and can't wait to go back. It was so peaceful and relaxing. We were all constantly entertained by my two year old niece, Anneke. I forget how funny they are at that age. She is quite hilarious and had us singing Elmo songs all the way back home. Thanks Anneke! In addition to hanging out with my parents, Lauren, Johan, and Anneke, we made good friends with the ticks and chiggers! The highlight for me (maybe not for Matt or Johan!) was swimming the lake again once I got over my fear of the Leviathan that lives in it. It felt great to do that after all these years. Thanks Mom and Dad for the great time!