Applicious!!!

Fall is arriving here in Michigan.  It is beautiful to see the variety of trees as their leaves change color.  There are bright reds and yellows appearing daily.   There is a crisp feeling in the air.  Last weekend we participated in some fall celebrations, both applicious.  On Friday we went with some friends to Fenton Applefest.  It is like a fair with rides, cotton candy, apple-filled treats and games.  The girls and Dan played a gun-shooting game together and won.  The girls faces expressed great joy and pride as they each picked out a stuffed unicorn.  Brinley described hers as cuddly and "unicorny".  (Only appropriate, I guess)  On Saturday we were invited to a friend's family's home where they had apple trees.  They let us gather apples (yummy macintosh) and we watched and helped (a little) as they made apple cider, apple crisp, and applesauce.  They even let us take some of it home.  What a treat!!!  It was so fun for the girls to pick the fruit and watch it transform (or smash) into foods that we love to buy and eat.    Yesterday for Sunday dinner we had applecider and slushy pink applesauce with roast beef and bread on the side---- and oh yeah, applecrisp for dessert.  Lainie took great pride in the applecrisp made only from the apples she carefully picked and gathered.  By the way, has anyone heard of an apple called Mutsu.  It is DELICIOUS!  One of my new favorites.  In honor of our weekend and the upcoming presidential elections I am posting a gadget at the bottom of the blog where you can vote on your favorite apple.  I know it is difficult to choose one, but see how you compare to the majority of fellow bloggers. -M

First Day of Kindergarten

I'm experiencing technical difficulties with my page here. I guess the trouble is I lack technical abilities. So I will forego the descriptions of each picture and just say that Lainie was the most beautiful and excited kindergartner I've seen. She just completely owned that first day, and she had that look on her face from the moment she woke up. Glowing! I was able to get the morning off to take her with Maren, Brin, and Isaac. Maren and I felt almost silly hanging around after class began. (They allowed the parents to stay awhile for a sort of transition period) It was obvious that some of the children needed that time, but Alaina seemed to be in her element from the moment she sat down at the magna doodle table. In fact, Maren and I walked over to her a few times to say goodbye, and she just responded with a curt "bye" and that was it, back to making friends and doodling. I guess maybe that "transition" time was as much (or more) for the parents than some of those new little students. We were finally able to pull ourselves out the front door (Brin wondered why we were leaving Lainie behind) and make that long two block journey home. Maren and I were both taking long, deep breaths all the way. I definitely understood why she had to push back tears, she was losing her wonderful little friend and helper for half a day, five days a week. Lainie is easy to miss, for sure. I felt silly, though,  that I found myself also wiping the "burn" from my own eyes. I just had this image on repeat in my mind. It was of our little two year old Lainiebugs right after we moved into our new house. The neighbor kids were all congregating on our front yard to see who the new guys were. Alaina was basquing in her newfound popularity and then, out of nowhere, the thought came to her and she felt it important to share with her crowd. "That's my daddy, he is my prince charming!" The image still fills my heart to the brim with warm and fuzzy stuff (the neighbor kids weren't quite sure how to respond).  That image kept running through my mind, with one other thought. Was this the beginning of the end of all that sweet and innocent daddy loving. I know they are, but why do those days have to be numbered?? 

Ok, enough pouting, Lainie is the focus, not her poor dad. The truth is, I know she will always love me and be my sweet little girl, because that's just who she is. I love her soul! And she will be such a great kindergartner. Her mother has prepared her well! Below are pictures of her first day and some of her first day on the bus, too (the next day).  

HAPPY KINDERGARTENERING ALAINA GRACE!!

lainie 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

We had some fun with the normally barely tolerable chore of family pictures this summer. It's so rare to have the whole family together on either side, and we were lucky enough to be together with everyone on both sides. First, for Kari's wedding with the Higbees, and then at the Beckstead Manor in Pocatello. Mom (Kristen) did such a great job of planning and coordinating it all. Dad (Rob) wasn't so sure about the green couch the photographer brought, but I think it looks great. Dad has been really interested in competitive shooting recently, and introduced us all to tactical shotgun shooting during our stay. We had to get the guns and have some theme pictures while we had the attention of the photographer.

The first thing Lainie did was get fresh mud from the pond on her clean pants. There was alot of bustle and an emergency tide stain pen was produced. 10 minutes later she had duck doo-doo on her pants. Wow, I was amazed.

I just wish we had videos of the adults trying to get the kids to smile (I'm sure I was the worst) . They are all smiles when they are doing what they want and then we dress them up and tell them to be still and stay clean and we expect them to keep on a smiley face. Oh well, they did a great job.

I've finally posted a video

Isaac is a lucky man to have two such affectionate sisters. They love to make him giggle. It's no wonder he is such a sweet mannered kiddo.