Madeline's First Field Trip!

Oh man, was Mads excited!!

It was time for her very first school field trip!  Not only that, but it included her first ride on a school bus!  :)

I was contacted by Maddie's teacher, Mrs. Bear, last month about chaperoning the Kindergarten field trip to The Little Farmer in Fond du Lac.  It so happened that the field trip was scheduled for Wednesday, October 23rd.  Since it was a Wednesday Andrew was able to come along and chaperone too!  I had a group of five students, including Mads, and Andrew had a group of four.  

We started out with the bus ride to Fond du Lac.  Mads shared a seat with two other girls that were in our group:

The class stayed together throughout the trip, stopping in the barn to learn about bees, aphids, and ladybugs. 

 Checking out the bees:

 After we learned how the bees and bugs help the apples and pumpkins grow we were able to go out into the orchard and pick a Cortland apple.

 Mads found a big one!  (The apples were super tasty!)

 After picking apples we headed back to the Apple House where we saw how they sort and bag up apples.  We also went into the giant refrigerator and found out that the light goes out when you close the door!  :)

Then it was off on the hayride!!

Andrew and some of his group.  Yes, it was CHILLY!

 We stopped at the pumpkin patch where all the kids were able to choose a pumpkin - the only rule being that it had to be the size of their head!

 Mads found a winner!

 Dad & Mads cuddled up to stay warm on the ride back for lunch!

 We ate our brown bag lunches in the craft barn and then it was off to the playground to burn off some energy!

Mads gave Daddy a ride on the trike!

 After a nice long playtime we headed back to the bus, but not before we took a class picture!  (Mads is in the back, next to the student teacher with the orange scarf!)

 Riding back to Oshkosh on the bus!

 Hey Mads - how was your first field trip?  TWO THUMBS UP!  :)

4 Months - A beautiful stone for a beautiful girl

Saturday, October 19th, was Amelia's Four Month Birthday.  We weren't able to spend a lot of time with her as we weren't able to get to Monroe until late on Friday night and we had to return to Oshkosh on Saturday morning.

What was different about this visit was that Amelia's memorial stone had been placed on Monday, September 30th.  The kids and I were able to see the stone when we were in Monroe over the weekend of Oct 12-13, but Andrew had not yet seen it.

There are many symbols and meanings on the stone:

We had the heading "Our Beautiful Daughter" inscribed because from the moment I saw our baby girl I wanted everyone to know just how absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking she is.  Also, the letter that we wrote to her and sent with her to heaven starts with "My beautiful Amelia."  

The cross with the rose on the left side was chosen for two reasons.  First, the cross shows the love and protection of God and Jesus - Amelia's guardians and protectors that are with her in Heaven.  Secondly, the rose.  There is no color to the rose on the stone, but to us it is a pink rose.  Pink roses have special meaning to me.  They are beautiful, just like Amelia is, and I tend to see them whenever I think of Amelia and ask her to let me know that she's doing well in Heaven.

The two pretty butterflies were chosen by Madeline.  The kids came with us to choose the stone and as we were looking through the images Mads saw the butterflies and told us that Amelia would love them and think that they were very pretty.  No negotiations were needed, butterflies from Mads it was!  :)

Beautiful Amelia's memorial stone:

The dancing pink flower from Nathan with notes from us on it still sits on the stone: 

 One of my dear friends and her daughter decorated with gourds and a Happy Meal scarecrow!

 When we visited our baby girl on Saturday Mads placed Amelia's four pink roses:

We also put in a shepherd's hook for future decorating options (we wanted to get it in before the ground freezes!)

 Happy 4 Month Birthday, sweet sweet darling girl.  We all love you so much!

The Little Farmer

Since Wednesday, October 9th was an early release day for Mads we decided to use the time and the beautiful weather as a fun family day!  As soon as we picked Mads up from school we headed on down to Fond du Lac to The Little Farmer pumpkin farm, apple orchard, and all around fun place!  We've gone every year since Mads was a tiny tot!  (You can see a recap of that trip from 2008 here!)

We stopped at the measuring worm first.  Mads couldn't wait to see how tall she is this year, she did grow a bit!

 So did Nate!  (You'll notice that the kids aren't wearing any coats - we're pretty sure this is the first time we've gone and it's been warm enough to not need a coat!)

 Goofs!

 How stinkin' cute is this picture!

 Nate had a blast driving the tractor:

 And Mads had fun taking a trike for a spin:

 They climbed up on the hay bales

 Jumpin' down with Daddy's help:

 Mads took a nice picture of Andrew and I!

 Adorable girl!

 The boys!

 The girls!

 This was one sweet tire swing!!  Watch out for the hole in the bottom, though!  :)

 Mads is "rooted"

 Weeeeeeeee!

 Atop the tractor tire mountain:

 And last, but not least - definitely not least, we finished off our trip with the yummiest and caramel-est apples you've ever eaten!  YUM YUM YUM!

The Little Farmer is such a fun annual tradition!  

Girl's Day!!

Sunday, October 6th, was a day for Mads and I to hang out.  A girl's day, ALL DAY LONG!

We started out early by enjoying a nice breakfast of coffee and a snack at Starbucks.

Maddie's coffee was actually a hot chocolate.  

 After coffee we went and got Maddie's hair trimmed up.  Nothing big, just a slight clean up on the ends.  

Look at the big shot chillin' in the backseat: 

 Next we headed up to Appleton to start our shopping.  We went to Kohl's and Old Navy.  We did some serious Christmas shopping - little Michael is pretty much all set!  :)

Then it was time for lunch.  We stopped at our favorite place - Noodles!

Mads had a big ol' bowl of Mac & Cheese!

 Yum!

 We finished up in Appleton by heading to the mall (where Mads found some sweet new turtle earrings and butterfly hairclips) and Toys R Us.  Then we went back to Oshkosh for pedicures.  Mads said her favorite part of the pedicure is the hot towels and hot rock massage!  

Pretty toes!

After our pedis we went to the Outlet Mall.  We strolled around there for awhile until Mads requested going to play at the park.  So, we headed over to the park where Mads showed off her upper body strength!

 She also got a little dizzy on the spinner!

 Park fun!

 After the park it was time for a movie.  We did break the rules of Girl's Day by meeting Daddy and Nate at the movie - but it was still a fun time.  We saw Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2.  Very funny, I would highly recommend it! 

When the movie was done we left the boys behind and headed over to our favorite ice cream place, Rhapsodies.  Mads chose a banana split!  She had never had one before, so I was surprised by her choice, but she loved it!  

 After our yummy ice cream was all gone we headed back home.  

Mads shows off our treasures from our shopping adventure:

 We got in the house, put on our jammies and cuddled up on the couch.   

Mads was asleep on my lap by 6:50.  It must have been a fun day to be that tiring!

Mads kept telling me that our Girl's Day was the best day of her whole life.  I love that little peanut!