What a good sport!!!

I have to share these pics with you. I could not be more proud of Cam and the hard worker that he is!!! He loves being a principal! Not only is he really good at what he does he is one good sport:) For the PBIS Kickoff assembly at his school he let a kid "pie" him in the face. Kids who have exhibited positive behavior and received a certain number of Wolverine Pride tickets were put in a drawing and two of the names were drawn. Those two kids competed in a free throw contest and whoever won was able to "pie" Cam in the face for a school wide assembly. The students really get a kick out of this! Cam has done it in the past years. He said there is a possibility of him getting dunked in a dunk tank in December for a fundraiser for the PTO:)

I had to add this pick of Rocky their Wolverine school mascot at the assembly. Kaitlyn and Colin are terrified of him! What 3 year old wouldn't be right?!?! He is a little scary:)

4th Birthday Countdown!

On Sunday when we got home from visiting Grandma and Papa Willis we had a surprise visit from Grandma and Papa Young. They stopped by to bring over a project that Grandma had been working very hard on for a long time. Grandma Young loves Uppercase Living stuff and has used some of their designs to decorate her new house. She saw this idea in the catalog and decided to make us birthday countdowns. They are SO cute!! We cant wait to use them! We already put our magnet(its made on a cookie sheet so its magnetic) on the number 30 so its all ready to start the countdown when there are 30 days til our 4th birthday!!!

Thanks Grandma....we LOVE them!!


Colin's got wet on accident in the bottom right hand corner so Grandma ordered a new Uppercase living birthday countdown calendar so his can be fixed. These will be so much fun to pull out year after year and countdown to Kaitlyn and Colin's birthday!!!

Pumpkin Picking at Grandma and Papa's Farm

Last weekend we went to visit Grandma and Papa Willis. We were so excited to see them! They grow pumpkins on their farm and we went to pick some special pumpkins grown by Papa! Mommy didn't feel too well so she didn't take a lot of pictures:(

Look at this huge one!! Great choice Kaitlyn and Daddy!!

It was muddy but we had fun driving out to the little patch where the pumpkins were. Papa drove us all back there...we were happy we didn't get stuck in the mud!!

Great pumpkin Colin and Daddy!

Our cousin Everett came out to pick pumpkins with us!

Thanks Grandma and Papa for letting us pick so many pumpkins!!!

Colin and Everett were playing cars. K, C and E all play SO well together!!

We also went to the Discovery Depot which is a fun children's museum. We love going there and Grandma and Papa have a membership so we can go every time we come back to visit! Here is Kaitlyn taking Papa's order at the "diner".

Colin was scooping Grandma some ice cream...yum!!

How cute are these three:) We had no idea that Everett had the same matching pj's and Kaitlyn and Colin. They were so excited! We tried to get Ike in the picture but he was very busy playing:)

The kids played lots of hide and seek. This is where Kaitlyn hid every time which made the game very easy to find her. She would close herself in there and wasn't afraid at all. Silly girl!!

We had a great weekend with Grandma and Papa! Thanks!!! Here we are at home proudly showing off our pumpkins!

We decorated two of the smaller pumpkins with Mickey.....

and Hello Kitty!!

Kaitlyns 5th Surgery Date

Update: Her surgery is set for Novemeber 19th....the day after her 4th birthday:(

After a LONG ride yesterday to get to see Kaitlyn's surgeon we arrived:) I drove over an hour to get to Glenview Hospital to see Kaitlyn's surgeon only to find out after parking the car, getting inside the hospital, getting the kids settled and going up to check in that her appt was at Westchester. I think they could see the panic in my eyes that I drove so far and somehow messed. They called over and Dr. Vicari said to come whenever we could get there. He's so wonderful!! We always see Dr. Vicari in Glenview and I scheduled her post-op appt after her surgery so I must not have been listening when they told me it was in Westchester. SO we got back in the car and headed to Westchester. Instead of taking me 30 min it took me 1 hr and 15 min!!!!!! I was almost in tears because my Nav system got me lost and Cam wasnt with us because he had a conference to go to....how funny is it that my Nav system wasnt working!!! So we arrived and Dr. Vicari took us right away before his patients that were there waiting...I was so grateful for that! The kids were SO well behaved and I was proud of them! Vicari thinks that her site looks good and will continue to improve. I said that its hard for Cam and I who see her everyday to really notice the progress. He said everyone responds differently to the laser and he wants to do 2 more laser surgeries this winter. The winter is the best time for her since the sun during summer time is so bad for her scar!! The first surgery will be next month. He only does these on Thursdays so we are aiming to do it the day after the kids birthday on Nov 19th. I will call tomorrow to hopefully set the date. If they cant do it then we will have to wait til Dec 3rd because of Thanksgiving. He said after these 2 laser surgeries he would like to wait about a year or so to see how she heels. The dermabrasion surgery wouldn't possibly happen for a few years he said. So as of right now 3 surgeries left...hopefully:) Everything is also really dependent on how she heals. Like he said every kid is different so his procedure plans are just estimates. Thats pretty much it! She knows she is going to have another surgery but we are not going to talk about it anymore til the night before. Theres no need for her to worry!!

She is SO brave and we could not be more proud of her!!

Homemade Tomato Soup!

We decided to make some yummy homemade tomato soup this afternoon. Thanks to my friend Kelli for the recipe! We love it!! I am not a Campbell's Tomato soup fan but I absolutely love this homemade soup on a cool night with a sandwich or a salad!! Yum! Kaitlyn and Colin wanted to help me make it too. We ended up having it with a salad (yes my kids absolutely LOVE salads!!!) for dinner tonight since Cam was late at school and it was just the 3 of us. I just love when students make POOR choices after school and now Cam is still stuck at work at 9pm still dealing with a situation! Anyways, back to the soup:) Kaitlyn was helping me read the recipe!

Colin would rather build soup towers than help cook:) This was his "who hoo" face...he was so proud of his soup can tower!!

Kaitlyn decided to make a tower too....Colin was trying to blow it down:)

Here it is mid fall!

They love to press the buttons on the blender!!

Kaitlyn was making a silly face as if the blender was making her whole body move and yelling....WHOOOO!! Silly girl!!

Enjoying our yummy soup before our salad. We make it easier for the kids and let them use straws to "drink" their soup:) It was YUMMY! Thanks to my little helpers!

Basketball Class

Colin started basketball class today. I am so excited that he has his own sport to participate in and Kaitlyn has her own by doing dance. I think its good for them to participate separately verses always being together. Colin was SO excited!!!! The class is in the multi purpose room at a little church in our area. Their teacher did a great job teaching them different skills ans Colin really enjoyed it. Thanks Kristina for taking all of the pics for me!! At home tonight Colin was showing off his skills like how to shoot the ball properly "like you are holding a pizza" he said. Here is Colin stretching.
He Shoots, he SCORES!!!

Dribbling super fast!!!

It was so cute to see Colin and Madi partner up for stuff. Kaitlyn did so well sitting out and watching. Cam and I told her that she does dance with Madi and Colin gets to do basketball with Madi and she was fine with it. At one point she was even rooting Colin on...too cute!!

Getting some air on that shot!! Great job Colin!!

I asked Kristina to take this picture of Kaitlyn. She packed her own bag of stuff to bring to Colins class. I had no idea she brought her digital camera!!! She took it out of her backpack and started taking pictures of Colin. Like mother, like daughter!!

Playing a little one on one with the teacher:)

GO TEAM!!! Colin cant wait to go back next week!!!

Harms Farm

Last Thursday I was invited to attend the kids field trip to Harms Farm. I was SO excited that their teacher asked me to help out! Being a teacher I have to say I was impressed with how well their class of 3 year olds behaved and how smoothly the trip went!! Miss Maureen is wonderful and is so amazing with the kids!! Kaitlyn and Madi were super excited to be on their first school field trip!! They were checking out the animals!

Colin liked the little calf!!!

The kids went on a pumpkin train ride through the woods and to a small pumpkin patch to pick out their perfect pumpkin!!!

Colin choose the smallest pumpkin.....

Kaitlyn choose the largest pumpkin in the patch. Cracks us up how different they are in that way.

Kaitlyn & Madi showing off their pumpkins:)

Colin and his new friend Reese:)

We spent some time in one of their green houses that was decorated really cute for Halloween. The kids had snack, did a craft and heard a great story from Miss. Maureen. It was great to meet all of the kids in their class and see how well K & C interact with their new friends!!

Kaitlyn & her new friend Clara working on their art project.

Colin making his pumpkin!

Doing the pumpkin polka:)

Kaitlyn loved the bubble machine!!!

Climbing like a monkey up the hay stacks!

Class Picture!! Miss Maureen and Miss Debbie are the best!!!