You've Come a Long Way, Baby

Editor's Note: 400 posts. FOUR HUNDRED POSTS. Imagine how much collective time that is! Writing, photo taking, journaling. It's been a fun 3 years in the life of our little blog. I hope Katherine treasures this someday. Her Mom is too lazy to scrapbook, so this has been an attempt to reconcile that.

So...it's been a fun filled week of Halloween activities. We had playgroup here yesterday and although I was sad to miss it, my friends hung around until my bus came so I could see them. I had fun helping Mom prepare the treats the day before. Later, my pal Carson came over to play in the afternoon. We're going to go out tonight and make the rounds in the 'hood. My pals Addie and Adam are coming over to go with us. Hopefully, Zach will let us put his costume on and have some fun! We had pumpkin pancakes for breakfast and I'm having my party at school today, no costumes allowed though -- BOO!

We're taking off to the farm tomorrow. Dad really wanted to go today, but he put tricks and treats before combines and tractors, thanks Dad!

Have a SPOOKTACULAR day! More photos to come after the fun tonight! Oh and you'll have to see the cool triceratops-o-lantern Mom carved for me!

Love
Katherine






Zach's killer smile














Spooky Spiders


















Mornings are for the birds!

Soccer Mom no More

I have a feeling now that soccer is done Mom will make us take the goofy sticker off the car, nuts! I had fun at my last match today, even though it was ch-ch-chilly. No goals for me this year, but I've gotten a lot more participative and really have been getting into the game. Zach has fun seeing how many times he can get tangled up in the nets. Mom almost had to bust out the jaws of life. I'll never forget my team, the SHARKS and the great coaches I had. I even got a medal, sweet!

Later we went to the fire department to redeem all my monopoly bucks from this past week. I even bought mom a candy bar since she schlepped us around to 20 businesses all week to collect our stamps. I was amazed at how much they offered tonight! I got a new webkinz, candy and a variety of fun toys for Zach and I. Mom won a gift basked in a raffle. I was sad though because Mom didn't realize there was a costume contest going on and I didn't dress up. Mom took us out to dinner afterwards and then we came home to watch a movie. Dad went home to help farm, but he should be back tonight.

Halloween is just around the corner. What are YOU going to be?!?!

Bean Countin'

What a long project this was! It was fun, but took up several days. One afternoon to sort the dried beans. One afternoon to paint and dry. Lastly a 2-hour block to glue the buggers on. But it turned out pretty beautiful, if I do say so myself.

So we had early release today, which is really everyday for me, except Mom doesn't bust my hump as much in the afternoons on days like this. I had a great week at school, we're learning to write numbers now and counting by 5s. I need to work on following directions the first time and paying attention, but I'm getting better. We've been playing Town Monopoly this week. Basically, we go around to each business in town, collect a stamp on our monopoly board and draw monopoly money at each stop. Tomorrow, we get to go to the fire dept and cash in our dollars for prizes! I already have $852 monopoly bucks (Zach gave me his). I wonder what cool stuff there will be?

I have my last soccer match tomorrow, hopefully we don't get rained out! We may or may not go farming with Dad...I really want to do the activity mentioned above AND we may go see the Kit Detective movie. Either way, I'm sure we'll have fun!

Better go screw off some, it's 3 o'clock dingdongs!

Katherine

I had a very eventful past three days! On Friday, we took our class field trip to the fire department here in our Village. Mom was able to drop Z-man off at a friend's house, so she could come with us. We had so much fun! The fire truck picked us up at school and we rode ON TOP to the fire house, that's right, ON TOP, sirens and all. We learned all about fire safety and prevention. That night, we tested all of our smoke detectors at home and made sure everyone knew our safe place. We still need to get a ladder to keep upstairs in the bedrooms though. On Saturday, Mom took me to a sweet little orchard to go apple pickin'. We had just enough cash on hand to pick 8lbs of apples. The orchard was nothing more than someone's house with a sweet little set up. The older couple that lives there was so nice to me. They let me feed cat food to the catfish (yes, that's right) and cat food to the ducks. The kitties and ducks loved to play with each other. We will definitely be going back there again soon. Next time, we'll bring Zach. But don't feel bad for him, he had fun hanging back home with Dad. Since Dad will probably be farming the next couple weekends, Mom kept him very busy around the house.

Today was football day, of course, AND Mom and Dad's 6th anniversary. They had thought about going somewhere for the weekend, but with the upcoming Disney trip, they decided to keep it low key. So we had a nice day together as the family. We went to the mall later today (something Dad hasn't done since pre-France days) and finished off the night with fine dining at Le Homard Rouge (that's Red Lobster for you laymen). It was pretty, well, fishy, but you know, Mom had a coupon, so we had to go there. Seriously Mom, enough with the coupons. I made a very nice card for Mom and Dad that they really liked. I'm pretty happy to have them for my Mom and Dad. I think they're happy with the arrangement too :)

I've got a fun week of school coming up. Disney is 3 weeks away! Holy cow, where did that come from? Mom still has a lot to do to get ready.






Feeding the ducks














Pickin' Apples, just my height














Silly faces

Real Lipstick

I was drawing an apple tree today and kept telling Mom it was "real lipstick". She couldn't understand why I was putting lipstick on a tree. Then it clicked. Realistic. That's a big theme at kindergarten, keeping our drawings realistic. Hmmm. We were also talking about the upcoming Presidential election at home today. I later asked Mom if she would be the "prisoner" someday. President, prisoner, pish posh -- it's all the same. Mom said she already is a prisoner. A prisoner of love that is. Ewwww.

I had a faboo weekend. Lots of traveling and I'm plum tuckered out. Good thing we had no school today. I had a great time Saturday celebrating Papa Miller's 79th birthday, I think he had fun, too. Aunt Corrie made an awesome cake. On Friday and Sunday, I got to spend time with Grandma & Grandpa D on the farm. It was the usual activities of chasing Zach around and giving him tractor rides. My cousins were there on Sunday, so I was happy to see them. Grandma gave us another batch of goodies from her garden.

I also had a great trip to the orchard on Friday. I sure love seeing my old playgroup pals. I miss out on playgroup now that I am in school. The little ones started having big meltdowns around noon, so we had to miss the apple picking part, but the playground, cider barrell rides and petting zoo made up for that. Zach even took a pony ride with me! We took some cider and donuts to Grandma's since she didn't go there this year.

Time to get ready for soccer! Happy Columbo Day folks!

Did someone say ABBA?

We've been working really hard around here trying to reinforce what I've been doing at school. Granted, there are times where I am not as compliant with my mother as I am with my teachers. I mean I just get home from a long morning at school and I just want to play! Who wants to sit at the table going through the same ol' schtick each day? Mom is trying to come up with some more creative ways to learn rather than just the basics.

So today we did some patterns with my beads. We're learning about AB ABB AAB and ABC patterns at school. We made one of each pattern with my lacing beads. I made a green and gold one for Nana and an orange and blue one for Dad. After that, we did some moon sand outside. I made a dinosaur circus. Speaking of dinos, I was pretending to be one today at recess and busted up my glasses again. Just the nosepiece, but it still warrants a trip to the optomiterist which is not very close by.

Zach has been doing well at keeping Mom busy in the mornings. He's a little ball of energy. He is constantly asking for "cackoos" (crackers), which is getting a little unerving. If he was a dino, he'd be a snackasaurus. He's really gotten tall lately! And he is so much fun to play with. He understands a lot of what we are saying and can play with me better.

Tomorrow we're going to the local orchard with my pals from playgroup. No school, sweet! Thanks Chris Columbus. You may have not really been the first to discover America, but in this case, I'll give you your props.

After that, we're heading to both sets of families homes for the weekend. Should be fun...

Later
Kater tater (what a horrible nickname, mom)

Dirty Laundry

Look at all this laundry Mom has to wash! Geesh! This was taken Friday night around 7 before Dad got home -- perhaps the one time of the week that we are ALL the nuttiest.

We had a nice, relaxing weekend at home. I couldn't play soccer because of my cough, but I showed up to support my team. Maybe I can play Monday night. Mom picked up a train table for Zach this weekend and he loves it! All you hear is "choo, choo" from the basement all day. Today, Mom took me to see the Music Man. It was a long, 3hr show, but I really enjoyed it. All the singing and dancing was so much fun. It was just nice to get to spend some alone time with Mom and to get out of the house for a change!

Going back a couple days, on Friday, we had early release because of the homecoming game. Mom made the crazy, painful choice to take us to the parade....it was NUTS! The big kids were real jerks and pushed us little ones around for the candy. The kids on the floats were kind on being naughty and I didn't have much fun. But, I did get lots of candy and it was a beautiful day. Zach saw plenty of tractors to keep him entertained. I mean, it is nothing like the parade I last saw, with cows marching through the streets, but it was entertainment.

I've got a short week coming up because of Columbus Day. School is going well. I got my first "report card" this week. I did really well in almost all the categories, I just need to work on my listening and forgetfulness. Same things that we deal with at home, but Mom thinks I'm doing pretty darn well considering how I am THE youngest in my class.

That's all for now. Hope you had a splendid weekend. Go Bears!

K

Graduation

We figured now that Zach is 20 months old (wow!), that it is time to give him a chance at sitting at the table with us. Bye bye highchair! He really loves being at our level and we think he's even eating better. He does much better if you give him a fork and a plate. He's quite good at it!

I hit another milestone at school yesterday. I earned over 20 stickers, so I got to chose a prize. We earn stickers for remembering our blue folders that carry all of our important papers everyday. I chose these cute baby dinos. My teacher said she was hoping I would get them. Guess she knows me well!

We've found 3 wooly bear caterpillars in our yard, so I was able to take them into school today to show my class. We don't usually do show and tell, but the teacher made an exception since we're talking about nature and fall right now. Apparently, these little guys will hibernate all winter in the cage and make their chrysalis in the spring. I hope I get to see it!

We had a great past weekend at the farm. The weather is cool now here. Perfect for fall activities. Now if only my baby brother didn't nap all afternoon, maybe we could go do some of them!

Have a grandiose week!

Katherine