A Happy Halloween 2009!!

Halloween is SO much more fun with a little one, don't you agree?!! As you can see Katelyn was Scooby Doo for Halloween this year, and what a cute Scooby at that! I really think she had a great Halloween celebration full of fun activities. There was a "Fall Festival" at Carbon Valley Academy, her classroom party, The Copeland's annual Halloween party, carving a pumpkin & roasting the seeds, trick-or-treating, and a new tradition this year-donuts & cocoa at the Schneider's! YUM! Of course she has more candy than one child could possibly eat in a lifetime, and the Reece's Peanut Butter Cups keep calling my name, but overall we had a very happy Halloween 2009.

Like ZOINKS, it's Scooby Doo!!


Katelyn had fun at her school party. Both classes participated in the "spook parade" and then went "trick-or-treating" with their own class. Each child was asked to bring in treats for the class. Then the children took turns standing behind the doors to the kitchen, storage room, and the bathrooms and passed out candy when their classmates knocked on the door and said "trick-or-treat". The kids LOVED being in charge of handing out their own treats. In this picture it's Katelyn's turn to hand out candy(except she had a small box of game cards for everyone instead of candy).


After a tasty treat of crackers and cheese(cut in the shapes of ghosts, bats, and pumpkins), Halloween cookies & apple cider, teacher Karen read a spooky story to the kids.


Scooby and mom


Our friends, the Ditlows, invited us to Carbon Valley Academy's Fall Festival. This picture of Mike & Katelyn was taken there. Katelyn had a great time at the festival doing the cake walk(several times, but never won a cake which is a good thing!), playing in a bouncy castle, watching a karate demonstration, and other carnival-type games.


On Halloween morning we starting carving our pumpkin so we could roast the seeds. Katelyn wasn't overally impressed by the taste of the seeds, but Mike & I liked them.


Mike asked Katelyn to tell him what shape to draw the eyes, nose, and mouth for our jack-o-lantern. He followed her directions, but right after he finished Katelyn started to bawl. We asked her what was wrong, and she said she was upset because the jack-o-lantern wasn't scary enough. She was really upset! So I retrieved one of the smaller pumpkins from the front porch so she could draw a scarier face on it. How 'bout that, my 5-YEAR-OLD didn't think something was scary enough?!!


Scooby & the not-scary-enough jack-o-lantern


This was our 3rd year to attend Jen, Treva, & Shea's Halloween party. We look forward to this party every year, it's SO much fun!! In this picture Katelyn(I mean Scooby) is getting ready to take a whack at the pinata!


At the close of the party, the kids went on a parade.


When we returned home from the Copeland's Halloween party, we had leftover chili(I think it was even better the 2nd time around!)and got ready to go trick-or-treating. This year Mike took Katelyn out and I stayed home to hand out the candy. After trick-or-treating, we headed down to the Schneider's for their traditional "donuts & hot cocoa" on Halloween. YUM!! Seriously, I think Tera's donuts put Krispy Kreme to shame!!! It will be hard to wait for next Halloween-maybe we should start a "Donuts on Veteran's Day" tradition!! Happy Halloween everyone~

How the Rajewich's spend a "Snow Day"!

It's 'snow' secret that I love SNOW DAYS!! I always have-when I was a child, especially when I was a teacher, and now as a parent! I love having a "bonus" day off during the week to spend with my family!! We got hit pretty hard on Wed.-Thurs. with our first big snowstorm of the season; I'm guessing at least a foot of snow, but more in areas where the snow "drifts". I really appreciated that Susan, the director of Katelyn's school, had the courtesy to call me on Wed. afternoon to say that school would be cancelled on Thursday. Therefore, making it unnecessary to set my alarm clock or watch the endless list of school closures on T.V.. SO how do the Rajewich's spend a snow day??

Well, first we get to sleep in until 8:00!! WOO-HOO, no alarm going off!!! Then, since my little girl likes to "ease" into the day like her mother, we cuddle in bed while she watches cartoons and I read my book club book.
CHEERS!!

Mommy makes bacon and waffles for breakfast! YUM!!

Daddy has to dust off the 'ol snowblower!!

Mommy makes homemade chili in the crockpot for supper!

Katelyn & daddy put puzzles together and play lots of games like Go Fish, War, Scrabble Jr., and Chutes & Ladders.

And of course we have to go outside for a bit and play in the snow!!!

And make snow angels!!

And try to dig out my playground buried in snow!

And we have popcorn and watch movies from Blockbuster!!!


The Farmer's Almanac is forecasting that Colorado will get a lot of snow this year. As for us, we sure hope they're right!!!

Raise your hand if...

you're just a little bit obsessed with teenage vampires in love. Seriously, your hand's not up?? O.K., if you've read the Twilight series more than once, your hand should be up. If you have The Vampire Diaries on your TIVO, raise your hand. If you've played "Twilight", the board game, get that hand in the air!! If you waited in line with dozens of teenagers last year for the Twilight movie premiere, raise your hand!! If you have seen "Twilight" the movie more than once(or own the DVD-SARAH!) then get that hand up there!! Come on, I know I'm not the only one!


While the Twilight series is still my favorite when it comes to teenage vampire love stories; I have to say The Vampire Diaries are a close second. And I am beyond obsessed with the the Vampire Diaries t.v. show on the CW!! I have also read "The Immortals" series by Alyson Noel, and am planning to start "The Vampire Academy" series by Richelle Mead-anyone read those yet?? So why teenage vampire love stories? I really don't have a good answer for that one. I've never been interested in vampire stuff before. Anne Rice would scare the you-know-what out of me. It's really not about the vampires at all; it's the love stories that are so compelling to me. The same theme runs in all of the vampire love stories: true love. True love that goes beyond all boundaries and reason. That's what I really love about these books.


Future "Twilighter"!


The clicker says 22 days until the New Moon premiere and I can hardly wait!!! Have you seen the trailors for the movie yet? It looks awesome! So next month on Nov. 20th, my peeps and I will once again be standing in line with a bunch of hormonal teenagers eagerly anticipating the opening of "New Moon". But more than that, Nov. 20th will mark the 1-year anniversary of our Moms-Night-Out. Our little mom's night out group has shared so much over the past year. We have grown so close in our friendships. We have come to rely on each other, trust one another, confide in each other. We have shared birthdays, holidays, trips to the park, zoo, museums, you name it, we've probably done it. These women have become permanent fixtures in my life, and I cherish my friendships with each one of them. I had to live here (in Colorado) 10 years before these amazing women came into my life, and if it took some teenage vampire books to bring them to me, then so be it. This one's for my peeps~I love you all.

SO why teenage vampires in love? Well, why not???

The heart wants what the heart wants...

and my little girl wants a dog with all her heart. SO much so that most of the time she pretends to be a dog. Every day Katelyn is a different dog, and it doesn't matter where we are I have to treat her like a dog. This means when we're shopping at Target I have to hold a pretend leash and say "good dog", or "come here puppy", or "heel girl", and I also have to "pet" her all the time. Katelyn has no qualms about barking or panting in public either. I can only imagine what the other patrons think-they probably think I'm some sort of horrible abusive woman who treats her child like a dog.

We have read countless number of library books about dogs, and Katelyn is full of facts about all the different breeds. Katelyn pretends to be her "new favorite" breed of dog every day. For example, yesterday she was a Doberman, today she's a Beagle named Beagley(naturally), and last Thursday she was apparently a Dalmation. If you look closely at the pink shirt she's holding up in the pictures below, you can see all of the blue dots she drew on her shirt representing the spots of a Dalmation, "Downy the Dalmation" to be precise. I have no idea how or when she was able to draw blue ink dots all over her shirt because there were actually four adults in our home that day and none of us saw her do it. And when I finally discovered what she had done, it was hard to be mad because when your little girl looks at you with those puppy dog eyes after you exclaim: "Katelyn, what did you do to your shirt?" And the response is: "I'm a Dalmation, Mommy, and these are my spots!" Well, what are you supposed to do??!

Well, what I'd like to do, no what I'd LOVE to do, is get my little girl a dog. Unfortunately her father is 100% opposed to the idea. Why? Namely because of the poo. Doesn't matter how many times I've promised to clean up the poo and to be solely responsible for said dog, Mike refuses to budge an inch on this issue. I mean, come on already, every child deserves a special pet to grow up with and especially "onlys" who don't even have siblings to rely on. Every child needs that special friend who loves them unconditionally, who never gets mad at them, who will sleep with them, play with them, comfort them, take care of them, etc. I was blessed to have the most wonderful little dog growing up. His name was Whitney and he was a Cockapoo that we got when I was about 13. Whitney was the runt of the litter, a tiny white dog with black spots, and absolutely the sweetest heart of any animal I've ever encountered. Whitney lived to be 20 and gave our family 20 years of love, laughs, and joy. I still miss him. (Sorry, dad, I know that was tough to read.)

Anyway, so what about Josie you ask? Well, first of all, Josie is 16-17 years old and most of the time could care less about Katelyn. Secondly, Josie is pretty sickly & may not be with us much longer. I have spent over a $1,000.00 in the last month trying to find out what's wrong with my sweet little kitty. And even though Josie doesn't have much use for Katelyn, Katelyn really loves Josie. I know Katelyn's heart will break when Josie passes, as will mine. Even more reason for Katelyn to get a new pet. Right?!!

So, Mike, since I know you read my blog from time to time, I'm just gonna lay it on the line and tell it to ya straight up: You're seriously dropping the ball on this one Chief! Katelyn is little now, but she won't always be. NOW is the time to get her a special friend, a pet she can grow up with. NOW is the time to make her dream come true. NOW is the time to give her her heart's desire. So here's the deal: When Josie does finally go to heaven, something I accept will happen sooner rather than later, I WILL get Katelyn a new pet. I would love to get her a dog, but if that is still absolutely out of the question, then we will be getting a new kitty and possibly more than one. I would really love it if you came on board with me, so that Katelyn can grow up with the memory that BOTH of her parents made her dream come true. It's your decision now, Chief, because my mind is already made up!

Move Over Jared~

there's a new gal in town!! Not that I would care to eat Subway every day for a year; but I have had the occasional Subway sandwich on my 50 pound weightloss journey. 50 pounds. WOW! I've lost 50 pounds!

I began losing weight in late summer of 2008. Not because I was on a diet or exercising, but because I didn't feel well. I was having terrible stomach pain and acid reflux problems which in turn made it difficult to eat or to keep much down. So by the time I finally made it to a doctor for tests, I'd lost 10 pounds. The tests revealed that I had a condition called Gastritis which is "inflamation of the stomach lining" probably caused by the large doses of Ibuprophen I was taking to try and alleviate my constant back pain. The EGD also diagnosed me with Acid Reflux Disease. So I was told to stop all Ibuprophen-based meds and to start Prevacid for the Acid Reflux Disease. Following doctor's orders, I did start to feel better almost right away. And because the scale said that I'd lost 10 pounds, I decided to try to keep the weightloss going. I was able to lose another 15 pounds by eating less food and exercising a bit more, but I wasn't necessarily following any specific diet.

Fast forward to April of 2009 and I'm sitting at the neighborhood park's picnic table talking with my friends about how I've lost 25 pounds, but have hit a wall and have not been losing any more weight. That's when Tera said I should go to a Weight Watcher's meeting with her, and how about Wednesday. I agreed and joined WW on April 15, 2009. (Heartfelt thanks to my friend, Tera, who has been an amazing friend and supporter on my weightloss journey. I am forever grateful-you don't know how much!)And since beginning WW in April, I've lost another 25 pounds for a grand total of 50 pounds.

So that's how this journey began. But the focus of this post isn't necessarily about the 50 pounds I've lost, but about how losing that much weight has changed my life. But before I tell you how much happier I am today, I'm going to give you the numbers, the raw data, because one of the greatest lessons I've learned is how to be honest with myself. "The truth shall set you free"-whoever said that was one smart cookie! Whew, here goes: my starting weight was 259 pounds which incidentally isn't my all-time high; no, that weight is forever etched on my OBGYN chart from the day I gave birth to Katelyn on July 29, 2004: I weighed 234 pounds when I got pregnant with Katelyn and gained 30 pounds during my pregnancy for a grand total of 264 pounds. 264 pounds-it's hard for my fingers to even type those numbers, but it's important that I do it because I have to own those numbers. Because that's something else I've learned on this journey-I'm responsible. I had to face myself. I had to understand why and how it happened. I had to forgive myself. And I had to find the strength to change it.

So, here I sit today: 209 pounds. And I've never felt better about myself. I love every pound. I love every inch that's me. My weight hasn't been this low since my mid-twenties. And I have weighed less, but I was so miserable at the time it didn't matter. I couldn't see it. When I was age 22 I lost a lot of weight, something like 75 pounds and got down to 155 pounds, a size 12. Perfect for my 5'7 1/2 body. But I couldn't see it. I was so depressed, so lost, so lonely, and I had no confidence, absolutely none. So from age 23 or so to age 38 I managed to get to 259 pounds. Now you have the history. So how has losing these 50 pounds changed my life?

1. I am full of confidence. Seriously, someone should bottle it up and sell it. I walk straighter, I hold my head up high, I smile more, I love myself-maybe for the first time in my life. I look in the mirror and I'm proud of the reflection.

2. I no longer take medication for Acid Reflux Disease and haven't for about 4 months. I can eat any food I want, and I have no need for any kind of antacid. I am probably in the best health of my adult life.

3. I would no longer qualify to be on "The Biggest Loser".

4. My daughter told me the other day: "Hey mom, you're almost medium!"

5. I've gone from a size Women's 24 to a Ladie's size 16-18. I've lost 6 clothing sizes people!!

6. I love to go shopping and I always find clothes that fit.

7. People notice that I've lost a lot of weight and comment. (I can't tell you how much I appreciate the compliments & supportive comments!)

8. I am no longer out of breath when I go up and down stairs.

9. I have adopted the Weight Watcher's program as my diet, but also as my way of life. I expect to reach my goal weight following the WW diet, and then continuing on "Maintanence" for the rest of my life.

10. I have a support group. I've been on lots of diets in my almost 40 years, but this is the first time I have a support group. I go to my WW meetings EVERY week, and the support from my friends there has made all the difference.

11. Food is no longer my friend, but purely sustenence and nutrition for my body. Now this doesn't mean I don't still struggle with "emotional eating", but I have a much better handle on it than ever before.

12. I eat so healthy. We're talking all the right number of servings of every food group every single day.

13. I've learned that my weightloss is just another aspect of MY journey. I'm not in competition with anyone else. I don't aspire to be a certain size or number because someone else is or because someone else thinks I should be. I'm doing this for me. And that's perhaps the biggest accomplishment of all.


Summer of 2008: 259 pounds

Today at 209 pounds


Is 50 pounds really a lot? Yep! In this picture Katelyn (almost 50 pounds) and I are wearing the same pair of jeans-my old size 24's!

And here we are sharing a skirt, also a size 24!

Good-bye size 24!!!


So where do I go from here? Well, I'm about halfway to my goal weight of 155-160 pounds which is considered a healthy weight for someone my height and bone structure. And when I reach my goal, I will have lost 100 pounds. I also plan to set better exercise goals, although I wish I had Jillian here to tell me to get my *@#+*^%$ to the gym!! HA! Anyway, I'll keep you posted, and hey, thank you my friend for reading this post. "I get by with a little help from my friends", and you know who you are!! Love, Shell

Can You Feel It??

There's something special in the air-can you feel it?? I'll give you a few hints: there's a chill to the air, you're wearing blue jeans now & a jacket in the mornings for sure, there are pumpkins on the front porches of your neighbors, it's dark by 6:30 & if you're like me you already have your pjs on(oh, come on, I know I'm not the only one!!), you've fired up the fireplace a few times, and of course the leaves have changed to the most beautiful shades of red, orange, yellow....

IT'S FALL!!! And it's my favorite time of the year! I actually feel better overall in the fall & especially my mood is improved(except for PMS week, I'm still a b---). I'm just not a summer girl, never have been. 90-100 degrees day after day, no thank you. All the bugs, especially the wasps & mosquitos, again, no thank you. The only good thing about summer is that Katelyn is home with me 24/7. Seriously, I'm just not a hot weather gal. I could never say retire to Arizona where there are no seasons. I would need serious Prozac. In Arizona they have hot, very hot, stifling, and not as hot. That's it!!! When the subtle "change" from summer to fall occurs I actually FEEL it! Aside from the obvious changes that you can see, ie. the leaves changing, pumpkins etc., the transition from summer to fall has a physical effect on me as well.

The first sign that fall is approaching is when Starbuck's brings back the Pumpkin Spice Latte. Just a little bit of heaven in a cup! Seriously! I have one almost every day. (3 WW points, but I will not give them up-ever!!) Besides, milk does a body good, or so I've heard!

If there's a prettier place to see the changing of leaves in fall, I haven't been there yet. It's absolutely gorgeous in Colorado right now. With the mountain backdrop & the bright shades of red, orange, & yellow leaves, I just can't help but smile. I know I'm a goofball, but it's true I actually smile out loud at God's beautiful creation!

Reading a good book in front of a warm fireplace, snuggled up in a blanket, fall-scented candle burning, sipping something like hot cocoa or coffee, with a little rain or snow outside my window, maybe a little popcorn, and a rambunctious 5-year-old playing in the basement with her daddy is my idea of pure perfection. I can not think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon. I'm so glad we finished our basement so I can send the two of them down there to build forts, wrestle, play games or whatever, so I can read in comfort, peace, & quiet.

I am a huge fan of holidays! I love a reason to celebrate & fall has some of my favorite holidays: Halloween, my birthday(yes, my birthday is officially a holiday in this household!), Thanksgiving, and even though Christmas (which is my favorite holiday) is technically in the winter season, I start preparing and decorating in November.

Halloween takes on new meaning when you have a little one. I always liked Halloween, but I love it now. Katelyn gets SO excited!! We carve pumpkins, roast pumpkin seeds, dress up & go trick-or-treating, hand out candy, attend Jen & Treva's Halloween party(an event we look forward to all year!), have a Halloween party at Katelyn's school complete with parade, watch Halloween-theme shows on T.V. Even at 39, I still look forward to "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" as much as I did when I was a kid!

I'm very excited to be turning 40 this year. I mean what's all the fuss about? Not only am I in better physical shape than I was at 30, but I feel better about my life overall. It's not that I have it "all" figured out yet, it's just that I'm a bit calmer, a bit wiser, a bit more confident, and a whole lot more grateful!! Grateful for so many blessings which brings me to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is sadly becoming the forgotten holiday. I mean the stores already have their Christmas displays out. Thanksgiving is still an important day in our household. A special time to gather with family & friends and to give thanks for the many blessings we enjoy. I am so blessed. I have a loving family, hard-working husband who is also an amazing father, incredible daughter who has brought such love, laughter, & light into my life, good health, and the best friends anyone could ask for. I don't take any of it for granted. And I am reminded every fall on my birthday and at Thanksgiving just how good I have it!!

I also cook differently in the fall. I love to make chili, stews, and soups-not something I do a lot in the summertime. I look forward to making pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie and really anything with pumpkin it. In general, I bake A LOT more which makes Mr. Sweet-tooth VERY happy. I look forward to the big Thanksgiving feast we have every year with the same traditional foods I grew up eating at Thanksgiving.

I look forward to putting my "Christmas Village" up in early November. Because it takes me a week or longer now, it has officially become a "holiday village". Katelyn loves helping me, and someday it will be my great pleasure to pass everything on to her. (Maybe she'll still call me up, and ask me to come help her set everything up!)

I look forward to visits to the pumpkin patch, circus, Miller Farms & Anderson Farms, long walks around the neighborhood, cuddling, puppet shows, Christmas shopping, my birthday(did I already mention that?), going to the zoo, taking a drive up in the mountains, museums, the new fall t.v. shows(The Vampire Diaries rules!!), holiday-themed movies, rainy/snowy fall days, decorating our house, and the list goes on...

I love fall. I truly do. And right now it's snowing just a little, the fireplace is burning, my "fall leaves" candle is scenting my whole house, and Katelyn would like me to pop some popcorn, cuddle up, & read some stories. It just doesn't get any better than this!

A bloggable moment!

We have this catch-phrase in the education biz known as "the teachable moment". It's when something comes up during a lesson that wasn't necessarily on the lesson plans, but the teacher takes that opportunity to discuss "whatever came up" anyway. I love when these "teachable moments" ocurr because I think the students often have "a-ha" moments. I know I do. Well, being a mom offers a lot of "teachable moments" too. And now that I have a blog, I've come up with my own catch-phrase: "bloggable moments!"

So yesterday, while I was upstairs cleaning Katelyn's bathroom, (and she was downstairs left to her own devices), she called to me to come see what she had done. What had she done? Well, she'd taken all of the letter/picture stickers from one of her workbooks and plastered them all over herself. It was pretty funny. I think there may have been a time when I would have thought, "oh, what a waste!" and been angry. But not anymore. Now I just seize the "bloggable moment" and reach for my camera! Afterall, they were only stickers, and her smile & laughter means SO much more to me than a bunch of stickers!!

See for yourself!

ZING! ZANG!! ZOOM!!!

Want to see an excited 5-year-old? Tell her/him that you have tickets to the circus and that will do it for sure!! Katelyn loves the circus, so when we heard that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was coming to town, we decided to take her again. Right, she's been before; I think this was her 3rd time. But it never gets old, and the circus changes their acts each time so there are always new surprises. Mike & I LOVE going to special events with Katelyn. We absolutely look forward to it as much as she does, if not more. We both love to watch her face light up with excitement. I can't imagine not sharing these special moments with her.

This year's circus didn't disappoint either. It was full of magic tricks, high-wire acts, acrobats, and animals~tigers, dogs, horses, and elephants to be exact. I will say that the circus of 2009 is different from the circus of my childhood. For one thing, the acrobats no longer fly thru the air with the greatest of ease, but are hooked to a cable suspended from the ceiling so they can't actually fall to the net below or their death, whichever. (We sat in the 3rd row and could actually see the cable; but I imagine if you were sitting higher up you wouldn't see the cable.) Still, I think the acrobats are brave, (or stupid), because one thing's for certain you wouldn't find me riding a unicycle across a highwire-cable or not!!!!

My favorite part of the circus is always the animals. I am just amazed by how well-trained they are. I find myself constantly saying, "how'd they get them to do that?" Katelyn was very impressed by the animal shows too, especially the dogs. Doesn't surprise you does it?? For me, it was the tigers. The trainer had total control over all (8) of them, just him and those 8 tigers in a cage with only one way out. Didn't he hear about Sigfreid or was it Roy? Whatever.

Why is it a $5.00 hotdog at the circus tastes SO much better than a weiner from your own fridge?? And the popcorn?? Don't even get me started on how much I love stadium popcorn!!

After the circus, Katelyn informed us that she had changed her mind and was now going to be an acrobat when she grows up. Mike and I were both like, uh, no-I don't think so!!! I know it's important to be supportive of your kid's dreams and all, but if she wants us to pay for her college education, she better stick with vet school!!!

These are pictures from the pre-show.


Did you know elephants can play basketball?

And paint too.

And what's an elephant's favorite treat? Nope not peanuts, it's a loaf of bread! Betcha didn't know that!!


It costs a pretty penny to go to the circus or any other big event like it. But it's SO worth every cent. Sure we could put that $200 away for a rainy day or save it for our retirement or whatever. But the bottom line is, Katelyn's little now. In 10 or 15years do you think she's gonna want to go the circus with her parents? NO~Of course not; she'll be too busy with her friends, or LORD help me, a boyfriend. We, as parents, don't get these moments back. The smiles, the laughter, the curiosity, the joy, it's all happening right now. We don't want to miss a single opportunity to share something new and exciting with her whether it's going somewhere on vacation or to the circus, the theatre, or the pumpkin patch. Now. Now is what matters. So what's up next for us...Disney on Ice here we come!

CARPE DIEM!!!

Miller Farms

Riding on a hay wagon

Hold on, it's gonna get bumpy!!

Gathering vegetables to put in my bag

Katelyn, Jody, Ryley, & Sydney (also pictured another friend from school also named Katie)

YEE-HAW!!

Showing a pumpkin already decorated

Today Katelyn and I went on a field trip with her school to Miller Farms. What a beautiful day! Plenty of sunshine! Katelyn and her good buddy Sydney have gone to school together now for 3 years and Syd's mom, Jody, & I have gotten to be really good friends. (Syd's little sister Ryley started at Children's House this year too and she is just adorable.) Anyway when Jody told me she was taking the day off to go on the field trip too, we were all able to ride together! We had such a great time!

Miller Farms, located in Platteville off of (historic) route 66, has been a working farm since 1949. The whole concept at Miller Farms is that they'll grow it, and you'll pick it!! So, we all loaded onto hay wagons pulled by tractors which took us out to the fields. Today we were able to pick red potatoes, carrots, onions, pumpkins, and sweet corn! YUM! Can anyone smell the stew yet?

Katelyn's class has been talking about farms and what grows on a farm. So what better way to learn than to actually go to a farm and pick your own vegies! Not to mention how much fun it is to bounce up and down as the tractor pulls the wagon around the fields! Her class has also been talking about Fall, and what a fun way to spend a beautiful Fall day!

After the field trip Jody & I took the girls to McDonald's for lunch. Hope we can all go together on next month's field trip too!

W.O.W Children's Museum

Today Katelyn had her first field trip of the new school year. I feel so blessed to have a flexible schedule so that I can go on her field trips with her. I just don't want to miss anything that I have the opportunity to be a part of! And besides I love the smile she gets on her face when she tells the other kids that her mom is going on the field trip. Her face just lights up!!

The W.O.W Children's Museum, in Lafayette, CO, is a wonderful hands-on museum for young children. Katelyn has been several times, and knows her way around the museum with ease & comfortability. Some of the exhibits are permanent like the life-size pirate ship, the stage for dress-up & dancing, the sandbox, music room, etc. But the museum also offers temporary interactive exhibits from time to time. Katelyn's favorite things to do are: dress up in animal costumes, "perform" a show on the stage, and play on the pirate ship.

All aboard!

Making giant bubbles

Learning about money

That's one cute leopard!

Or dinosaur!

And of course a PUPPY!!

Shiver me timbers!

Ahoy Matey!!