Fall fun with leaves

We have lots of trees in our front and backyards, and those require a lot of pick up during this time of year.  Ellie and Tommy have a blast helping Mikey with the leaves.

Wanting to pick Tom up to help him put the leaves in the trash.

Silly pose

Deep in the pile

You can barely see them.

Fun with the blower.

Tommy got in on the action.

Now...all the fun with leaves didn't come without a price...Ellie's eyes hurt from all the "leaf dust".  So she "needed" a double eye pack for her eyes to feel better.

Pumpkin Patch Trip #2

This time we went on an outing with Ellie and Tommy's school.  It was a great afternoon, lots of friends around us as we took Deanna Rose Farmstead by storm.

Feeding the baby goats

Feeding and petting at the same time

Headed down the big slide

Funny face while playing in corn

Hanging with his friend Abby

Ellie and her friend Brady on the hayride

Ice cream on a 50 degree day

And a...plastic tractor train ride?

Mom squeezed in with Tommy

Best Friends

Snapped this while taking a walk the other day....

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch #1

We took the kids out the a pumpkin patch in Liberty, MO with plenty of fun stuff to do...fun for the whole family.

Standing tall - 3.5 feet for our favorite 4 year old.  We did make Tommy stand up and he was 2.5 feet.

Pumpkin slide

Posing while climbing in a clubhouse

Cheese

Tractor Merry Go Round

Hey Buddy!  On the hayride to pick out pumpkins.

Tommy was pretty sure he needed a green pumpkin.

What can we say, the green pumpkin was a hit!

Family pose on the hayride.

Fun Outing at the Park

Took some good shots of Ellie and Tommy playing together at the park.

A Fall Football Game

A couple of weeks ago, we headed to a KU football game.  We sat on the hill and watched the game, and had some pre-game fun with some friends.

The Injury

We had an incident the other day where Ellie accidently hit her hand on the car.  She asked for ice on it when we got home...and Tommy (who has to do everything like his sister) got in on the act.  His new nickname is "The Parrot"

The Art Fair

Ellie and Tommy's school recently hosted an art fair...and we were able to grab a picture of Ellie in front her creations. 

Ellie and her 100s

Ellie has been working hard at school, and her teachers sent me these pictures the other day.  They have a counter that helps the children count all the way to 100, and when she did it for the first time, she wanted to save it to show me.  Other children wanted to use it, so her teachers snapped this pic.

The Lake with Papa

We recently had a great trip to the lake with Papa.  We had lots of fun at the pool, on the boat, in the kayak and doing lots of fun things along the way.

Rockin his life jacket on the dock.

His single favorite activity at the lake.  We will a bucket with rocks, and he throws them in the lake, one by one.  This goes on for hours.

They like to do it together.

More rock throwing.

Even dad gets in on the action.

With Papa at the pool.  Can't for the life of me figure out how to make this picture right side up.

Ditto with this picture of goggle face.

Same verse, same sock, but they had fun jumping in the lake from the beach.

Eating on the beach.

3 Part Ellie Birthday Celebration

Sorry for the belated blog...we have had an abundance of activities in August in our family, starting with some birthdays and ending with a great trip to the lake.

We now officially have a 4 year old in the house.  Ellie turned 4 on August 18th, and we had many celebrations to mark the occasion. We kicked it off with a birthday party with friends the week before her birthday, and then we had a classroom celebration followed by one at home.

I am so proud of who Ellie has become.  She is a very strong girl, and I mean that in a great way.  She is independent, assertive and very smart.  I think what I am most proud of Ellie is how great of a big sister she is.  She takes incredibly care of Tommy.  Every morning she gets a huge smile when she sees him, she takes him into her room to play while we get ready.  She shares her toys, her animals, her babies, her everything with him.  She is really funny too. She loves to tell us stories from her day.  She is also really into reading. Grandma Postlewait gave her a "chapter book" for her birthday - Charlotte's Web, which she has been so excited to read.

We love Ellie so much, and are lucky to have her as a part of our family.

Party #1 - At an indoor playplace, it had some crazy fun things to do

Climbing through a tunnel

Crawling up to the top

Getting ready for cupcakes

Blowing out her candles

At the table with all her friends

The future Mr. and Mrs. Burgess?

Ellie loved being the one to hand out cupcakes to her friends.

This was her class celebration.  They line out all the months of the year around the sun, including their birthday month.

Then she holds the earth as she walks around the sun 4 times, showing her 4 years on the earth (people, this is deep stuff for preschool, but she loved it).

Showing a poster that we made showing her through her 4 years of life.

Cupcake mustache

Clowing around...please note her brother's growing cupcake mustache.  He has to always be like Ellie.

This was her actual birthday.  We had family over to celebrate.

An American Girl doll!!!

You can see she had a lot of presents!