September 2015

Kara quickly adjusted to her morning routine and getting ready for school each day. Surprisingly, Kara wasn't late to school once and didn't give Mom too much of a hard time.. Kara has school every morning, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays she stays for a full day and has Kindergarten Enrichment in the afternoon. So far, Kara is really enjoying school. Kara is doing very well with her reading (she recently tested at a 2nd grade reading level) and with her math.  She's also having a lot of fun learning new science information.  She comes home everyday with some new little tidbit that she learned in school.

For Labor Day, Aunt Amy had a little party at her house.  The girls had a great time chasing Briley and Ruby and playing with all the adults.  The girls had a little extra fun once they got a hold of Aunt Amy's phone.  Check out the pictures.

We decided to plant a couple of trees in our backyard.  We planted an Autumn Blaze Maple and a Honeycrisp Apple.  Maybe we'll be getting some tasty apples in a couple of years!

The last weekend in the month, we headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park outside of Estes Park to check out the elk.  It was fun, but we probably won't attempt it again for a couple of years.  We had planned on having a picnic dinner and then hanging out for a couple of hours and watching the elk.  However, the girls were ready to leave right after we got there (long care ride). Fortunately, there was a bull elk waiting to surprise us in the tall grass!  We got our dinner out, sat down, and there he was!  The girls loved it.  We also saw several other elk and heard a little bugling in the distance before we left.

Kid quotes:
Emily: "This is my only choice" after she sat down on the sidewalk when Dad gave her the choice of either riding her scooter or walking home from the playground (see the picture).

Link to pictures from Labor Day

Link to other pictures from September

Kara's Weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's

Kara spent the weekend of August 16th hanging out with Grandma, Grandpa, and their dog Ruby.  Kara had a great time, mostly she had two (and for a bit three while Aunt Amy was visiting) adults at her beck and call.

While Kara was gone, Emily had an explosion of words!  We're not sure if it was the fact Mommy and Daddy were able to give her their undivided attention, or if it was just that Kara wasn't there talking over her all the time, but either way, Emily was showing off her verbal skills.  She has been learning the names of the Sesame Street characters (though she's never actually watched Sesame Street, just read the books).  We took Emily to the library during her weekend, and she immediately gravitated to the computers, which had a picture of Elmo (the pied piper of children, as Heather has said).  She also knows the Count (she throws her head back for Mommy and Daddy to say "ha ha ha"), Cookie Monster ("cookie"), Bert (which she can say surprisingly well), and Zoe (though she calls her "I dunno" and shrugs her shoulders because that's what Daddy did when Emily first pointed her out).  Emily also had her first peach during the weekend, which she inhaled.  She's also been saying "Thank you" (sounds like tee go, but close enough) and "welcome".  Such a polite little girl!

Link to pictures

Daddy, Let's Go Look for Bugs!

Almost every day when Daddy gets home from work, the first words out of Kara's mouth are: "Daddy, let's go look for bugs!"  Her favorite bugs are roly-polies (which were Daddy's favorites as well when he was a kid).  She also enjoys finding slugs, worms, beetles, ants, and grasshoppers (though those are very hard for her to catch).

Since we got home from our visit to Georgia, Alabama,  and Florida, life has been pretty busy.  Daddy has been working long hours on a recent project (which he successfully completed about a week ago), and Kara and Mommy have been keeping busy with gym classes, art classes, and play dates with the other kids in the neighborhood.  We also broke out the hiking backpack for our first hike of the year during Memorial day weekend.

The first weekend of June was an exceptionally busy weekend.  We kicked it off by visiting Louisville's Touch-A-Truck event.  Kara was very impressed with the helicopter they had there, but she was immediately drawn to the little train they had driving around the parking lot.  After waiting in line for about 15 minutes, Kara finally got her turn, which was very short-lived.  It was probably a little too much for her, and we got her out before the ride was over.  We spent the rest of the time crawling around dump trucks, bulldozers, and school buses.  The next day, we headed over to Aunt Amy's house for a "June Birthday" family party (Mommy's and Grandpa S.' birthdays are both in June).  Kara had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa's new puppy (a Chocolate Lab named Ruby), Aunt Amy's dogs (Belle and Briley) and running around the yard.

Some recent Kara quotes:
"You do it yourself!" - To Daddy after he asked her to help him clean up her puzzle.

"Those are the coolest socks I've ever seen!" - Checking out Daddy's work socks

"Look, a stinky sock!  I am making a mess with Daddy's clothes."

"I am being a goofball!"

"Let's go show this to Mommy" - excited to show off her latest bug find to Mommy (she seems to be particularly proud of her worm and slug finds)

"My rolling pin broke again, oh dear.  I need glue to fix it."

During the closing credits of Beauty and the Beast, Kara jumped up to dance and announced to Mommy, "I am beauty and you are the beast.  Let's dance!"

Link to pictures