End of Summer

It's the middle of September...what?!  The temperatures are definitely cooler and Fall is in the air.  Unlike most of you who are ready for Fall weather, I am not!  Summers in Ohio aren't that bad...I wish it was Summer year-round!  I feel like we hardly got to enjoy the pool.  Guess there's always next year, right?  With the cooler weather has come more playing outside and a new school year!  Below, you'll see Cadence's class pointing to their new classroom.  This was the last day of class in their 3-4 year old room and they were celebrating with pajama day.  Totally cute.

That evening, Danny and I both picked up the kids from school and explored Cadence's new classroom.  She's now in Pre-K!  Her teacher is super nice and obsessed with owls.  There are owls everywhere!  Here's Cadence in her chair enjoying ice cream in her PJs.  Oh yeah, she got to choose a treasure one last time out of the treasure chest in her old classroom, hence the swim goggles. :)  We're excited to see what Cadence will learn this year.  I think by this time next year, she'll be ready for kindergarten for sure! Crazy, I know.

Adorable

Outside of her classroom. She chose her horse, Puddin', to take to school that day.

My mom got some cute pics of the kids one Friday while we were at work.  Look at that face!

Must have liked breakfast

Before my parents moved in, they prepped the garden space that the old owners left behind.  They planted tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, and peppers.  They did a great job!  I can't take any credit...I think I watered the garden, like, twice.  

The same builder that built our house will be building my parents' house.  They came and put up a sign.  And no, my dad doesn't always dress like that...I think my mom caught him post-run while they were picking veggies.  Ha!

I love this picture of Colin...he looks so sweet!

They both like art time.  Cadence a little more than Colin. Colin's usually into throwing crayons or dumping over the water from the water colors once he's lost interest.

Our family friend, Dawn, picked out this toy from the movie, Planes, for Colin's birthday.  Both of the kids love it.  Colin's gotten to the point where he can ride it himself and uses it as a walker.

I forget what caused Cadence to become upset, but look at little brother comforting his sister!

How flipping sweet is that?!

For a while, Cadence did not want to get her hair cut.  She was kind of obsessed with how long it had gotten.  She would call herself Rapunzel.  I eventually talked her into a haircut by hyping up the experience.  She had a blast at Cookie Cutters and her hair looks so much healthier now.

I treated her to a trip to Cabela's afterward

We also found a Belle costume at Costco that she HAD to have.  We thought it would be her Halloween costume, but I think she's already changed her mind.  

A boy and his pup.  I think he loves her as much as Cadence did at the same age.

Fun at the mall!

We've got some future artists on our hands, people.

The weather really has been beautiful lately.  Danny and I keep comparing it to our time in San Francisco.  It's been getting chilly at night and then low 70s during the day with sun and low humidity.  We try to get outside as much as we can on the weekend.  Danny found a Buckeye tree down the street - Cadence is OBSESSED with finding Buckeyes.  We have quite the collection now.

Fair Fun and Other Festivities

This year was the first year that Danny and I attended the Ohio State Fair.  I'm so glad we finally decided to make a trip.  It's crazy that we'd never been before - when we lived on campus, we could practically walk there.  I used to be able to hear the fireworks each night of the fair when I lived in my apartment.  We were both pleasantly surprised by the fair and the kids had a great time!  Yes, there was plenty of people watching to be had and loads of unhealthy, delicious fair food.  We knew all of that would be there.  But there was so much more!  We saw some dairy cows and a newborn calf.  We also saw plenty of sheep - some that were even getting shaved.  We enjoyed some ice cream and checked out the Big Butter Cow.  We also saw some of the horse show.  Would you ever imagine that there would be girls doing gymnastics on horseback?  Crazy!  The horses were beautiful.  The best part was that Cadence wasn't afraid of anything.  She got right up to the animals and rode some rides!  Since she turned 4, she's gotten this sudden burst of self-confidence and courage...and we love it.  Colin had a good time too, but he was super tired by the end of the night.  

The kids were able to pet the cows.  And no, that's not a bindi on Cadence's forehead.  Ha - ever since she had her face painted at a birthday party, she's obsessed with putting gemstones on her forehead.  

There were 3 sets of Clydesdale horses that were competing for first place.  One set traveled all the way from Canada!  

The winning set - beautiful

We went down the slide while Mom hung out with Colin.  Cadence loved it and screamed the whole time.  That's Danny with Cadence, me, and my dad - yup, kids at heart.

We watched Cadence go on the Merry-Go-Round.  It went too fast to get a good picture of her on it.  Colin was kind of over the whole fair thing by then.  Poor lil' guy.

We let Cadence run around the cooling station for a good 5 minutes - she was soaked

Earlier that day, Mom took the kids to the playground at their church.  Look at the future American Ninja Warriors!

On Saturday night, the church had their first annual festival. It was a pretty big festival for their first year!  Cadence's favorite part were the blow-up slides.  Again, she was fearless.  We bought her a wristband and lost track of how many times she went down the slides.  They were super tall and super fast!

Last week, Cadence's daycare had their first annual gallery hop.  Her teacher told them they were supposed to dress "fancy".  All of the fancy talk inspired her to dress up like a princess one night - shoes, jewelry, crown and even eye shadow and mascara :)

During the month of July, Cadence's teacher focused on an artist each week.  They started with Georgia O'Keeffe, then moved to Wassily Kandinsky, then learned about Claude Monet, and finished with Robert Rauschenberg.  We were blown away with how much Cadence learned and was able to tell us each week.  She learned about where the artists lived, their art style, etc.  It was super cute and a great idea.  At the end of it all, they held their gallery hop.  The classes replicated artists' work and it was all hung down the halls for the parents to see.

Monet's Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies

Cadence's Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies

Cadence & her buddy, Brynn, in front of their classroom's Rauschenberg collage

My friend, Tyler, invited us to her daughter, Addison's 4th birthday party last weekend.  The girls haven't seen each other since they were 2, but they had a blast.  Cadence had the balloon artist make a blue puppy for her.

Our new found daredevil got on the "big kid" swing all by herself.  She actually requested that we push her higher!  What?!

Here she was back at the beginning of July in the "baby" swing at the park.  We could hardly let go of her because she was too scared of the swings!

Colin?  He's not afraid of anything.  He can't even walk by himself yet, but he was determined to get on those swings!  He held on and I was able to let go! I didn't really push him though...we're not there yet :)  A lot of parents wish for their babies to stay babies.  Not me.  I can't wait for Colin to be able to run around.  I know, it's going to mean more chasing him around, but he wants to explore and be like his big sister and being able to run and be more independent will be great for him.  I really need to get some of the things he can do now on video.  When he's excited, he'll say things like, "Ooooooh, whhhhhhhhhhat's that????"  It's totally cute.  When he wants something, he'll rub his chest as to sign, "please" and will make the "pppff" sound with his mouth like he's trying to say it too.  He's also started to say, "yeah."  It makes me laugh.

And the piece de resistance!  Cadence in the pool...swimming by herself!  Again, a few weeks ago, she was like a baby koala gripping whoever was holding her in the pool.  Each week, she's made some progress.  She would go under water for a second with us.  She would jump off the stairs to us.  Things like that.  Then, all of a sudden, last weekend, she told us to let go!  She was so proud of herself that she told the kids at school the next day.  It was so much fun.  Look, Mamaw and Papaw!  She's finally getting some good use out of that Puddle Jumper!