Apple Farm

Last Friday a person in our neighborhood put together a little Apple Farm Tour for all the little ones of the neighborhood that could go. Bubba was SO excited to go and hang with his "Best Friend!"
Johnny Appleseed himself led us through a maze while singing, clapping, and marching. Then he showed the kids how to make apple cider and red the book "Johnny Appleseed" to the kids!
Next we were off on a hayride around the orchard. I'm SHOCKED at how small orchards here are compared to orchards in MN/WI. Bubba didn't know any different and LOVED it!
During the hayride, Johnny stopped at the pigs and brought them the left over apples from the cider making. They had a hay day! Bubba was OBSESSED with the pigs from there on out. He didn't want anything to do with picking apples, making scarecrows, or even food. All he wanted to do was get back t the piggies!
He quickly drank his apple cider and ate his apple donut, so he could get back to the piggies as fast as possible!

Here he is at last, feeding the "baby piggies" a bottle!

We had tears and fits even an hour after we got home because he wanted to see the "baby piggies" again! It was a fun day for him, and he didn't want to leave! Now a pet "piggie" is tops on his birthday list! (:

Tow-Mater Look-a-Likes!

For BIG Mistakes Only!

Last Friday, Johnny came home with a prize from the prize box at school. A HUGE pink eraser. On the package it said, "Only for BIG Mistakes." He was showing Curtis it, and Curtis casually picked up the eraser and started trying to erase Johnny! Made me laugh out loud and I had to share the story! My kids are growing up fast!

Chicago

Two weeks ago, I met my friend Lynne in Chicago for our annual girls weekend. (She has a list of cities she wants to see while she lives in the US and Chicago was in the top three). If you remember correctly, two years ago on our girls weekend my wallet was stolen. Last year her one year old son broke his leg. I was praying that this weekend would go off without a hitch and it did! FINALLY we had a nice relaxing time together!

We flew in on Thursday night, and after a good nights sleep, we had a little coffee and did some shopping. For lunch we met my cousin Kelle who I haven't seen in 6+ years for lunch! Was SO nice to catch up with her and meet her new little baby girl, Emma!

Emma whispered in my ear that I was her FAVORITE second cousin!

Seriously, isn't she ADORABLE?

Lynne and I can shop all day and NEVER get sick of it! We shopped a total of 6 blocks in two full days. ( 12 hours Friday and 9.5 hours in Saturday). It was SO nice to try on shoes/clothes without little boys rolling their eyes, breathing hard like they are dying, or acting like idiots in a changing room! (BTW- here we are on another vacation, and we are caught in the same outfits. NOT planned or bought together! That's how you know that you were meant to be BFF''s).
After all that shopping, we decided it was time to get "Wild and Crazy!" So, I went and got my ears pierced. (First hole). I know, I know....this is just too much excitement for y'all to handle in one blog post!
We shopped more and walked around Michigan Ave. all day. Once I got back to the hotel I was taking everything out of my bags, and never realized what the bag I carried around all day said. We were dying of laughter!

Finally, it was one last Starbucks before getting on the "L" and heading back to the airport!

Great vacation and as always it went WAY too fast!

I'm BACK....

The other day I was upstairs making beds. I called downstairs to Bubba to see if he was OK. He didn't answer me. I called a few times, and heard nothing. So, my heart started beating a little faster and I quickly went downstairs to look for him, and this is what I found. There he is hiding under the end table, watching TV, while sipping on a can of Diet Coke I had left out on the table! TYPICAL BUBBA!!!!!!!!!

What's New...

Johnny loves Kindergarten.

Here is my "Chick-a-Chick-a-Boom-Boom" tree right off the bus!

Cute idea for all my teacher friends out there.

Once September hit, baseball started again.

Here is Johnny after he got his cast off going to his first practice!

He was so excited!

We went to Johnny's practice first, and then afterwards headed up to Curtis' baseball tourney.

Bubba wanted to be JUST like his brothers.

It was our first tourney here in the south and we were defiantly rookies. As you can see, every family that goes to games has a sun shade to sit under. We were sweating our butts off, and a family of a team that was playing after our game set up their tent for us to sit under. Guess what I'll be buying next time I'm at Dicks Sporting Goods?

Curtis plays catcher and loves it!

Here he is on deck.

Between games... little league fields down here are AWESOME!

After the tournament we went to Mc Donald's and Curt-Dog was pumped up that if you were in uniform you got a free ice cream cone! He like's what Uncle Kyle said, "You should wear the uniform and go to Mc D's EVERY DAY!"

Had to capture a pic of Bubba after he fell asleep in the car the other day!

This is what happens when two crazy kindergarten kids get together for a playdate!

Lots of battles, play fighting, and silliness! (:

The kids LOVE catching tree frogs on our deck.

Curtis caught this big tree frog last night!

I hate to admit it, but Johnny likes the Carolina Panthers. Today, I told him I was going to disown him and without missing a beat he replied, "That's OK, I'll just go live with Aunt Ann Marie!"

His big brother thinks his outfit and behavior is worthy of a swirly!

Erik and I did nothing to stop him! (:

"Mom of the Year"

Johnny brought home his FIRST ever homework assignment in Kindergarten. He had a book bag, and we needed to put his name on it and decorate it. So, off we went to Michael's Craft Store. We bought iron-on letters and puffy paint. It didn't take long for me to win the "Mom of the Year Award" at school this year....now did it?