Happy Birthday Grandma!

My Paternal Grandmother turned ...drum roll please....95 on Monday! When we were home this weekend we celebrated with the Rosfeld family. Potluck supper and birthday cake were enjoyed by all. Lookin' good Grandma!

Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you....


What a beautiful lady!


A hand with 94 more years of life!


Three generations...missing my Dad!

Weekend of Events...

As you probably have already noticed, Papa's Pumpkin Patch was a hit! Despite the lack of pumpkin pictures, we did manage to get some pumpkins. There so many other things to do there that picking pumpkin's was the last thing the kids had on their list of to do's. That evening was the 4th annual Fall Bash. This is a new tradition my sister and brother-in-law's family have put together. It is a great evening of fun, food and fellowship with neighbors, family, and friends and takes place at the pumpkin patch.

The next morning was early church, a little shopping and a Schmidt family gathering at Morning Star Ranch. The kids had lots of fun on the playground there.

Too wet!

The rain and cool weather has kept us inside the last two days. Now, for most folks this isn't a bad thing. That is, if you can cuddle up next to a fire, with your sweety, a hot chocolate, and a good book...but, when you have 3 high-energy kids that need to run, it IS a big deal. We have had to be creative in our playing. Katina discovered that lining up chairs at G & G Bartel's house makes a pretty good train. So, we have tried that at home. When the chairs were not working properly they decided just to sit on each other and get Dad involved as well. Made for a fun picture. So, as we look forward to more rain tomorrow, we know that we'll break a heart or two when they ask "Play outside, can we?"



Other news at our house? Alex, being the wonderful teacher he is...received news that he is the Conservation Teacher of the Year for the state of Kansas. He gets an all-expense-paid trip to Wichita to the KCDA Convention in November and "gets" to give a speech on how he teaches this in the classroom. I am very proud of him!!!

We are looking forward to a fun weekend - a Schmidt family gathering in Florence, my Grandmother's 95th birthday party, and visiting Papas Pumpkin Patch - owned by my sis and her family. (www.papaspumpkinpatchks.com) We'll report back in pictures next week.

Another fall update...

It's been a week since our last tree update...so, enjoy the gorgeous tree - thinner at the top, but almost all orange.




"Wow - it's so pretty, Mommy!"

We attempted to rake leaves this afternoon only to find out that as soon as we raked an area of our lawn, the wind had blown more leaves from the trees to make our hard work seem pointless. So, we bagged what we had raked into piles and went in for supper. We'll continue that project another day!

Snakes!

Sometimes plans change, and then they change again....and we all adapt. I think the most important thing I have learned as a parent is that you can think you have plans and control over a situation, yet being able to be flexible in all situations is the key. I have become much more relaxed about everything. So, after plans changed numerous times on Friday, we ended up staying in Manhattan at G & G Bartel's for the weekend.

The challenge during home KState FB games is always how to entertain 3 kids while the other adults are at the game. After accidentally borrowing a Family Fun (http://familyfun.go.com) magazine from the doctor's office, Katina discovered an arts and crafts project....creating our own snakes. I wasn't so excited about this since I cannot stand snakes - dead, alive or behind a glass wall. But, my daughter convinced me it would be fun. So, after finding cardstock, googly eyes and situating everyone around the table, we created 4 slithery looking snakes. I have to admit, it was very easy and turned out really well. Most importantly, it occupied about an hour of our Saturday afternoon. Here is the finished product!

Tree update

It was humid and warm this afternoon. We are looking forward to the forecasted cooler, wet week ahead. Then it will feel like fall!

KSTATE Kids

Saturday, we all chose to wear our purple garb - I guess we hoped it would help the cause. The kids were cute either way and we had fun getting good pictures. Go KSU!