Lunch with Brooke

Today was Grandparent/VIP day at Brooke's school. Since all of her grandparents were unable to make it, I went as her VIP. I didn't want her to not have someone there for her. But then I found out they had "extra" honorary grandparents for those children didn't have anyone. I guess they found people from the community to come. One grandparent was the librarian's dad. So that was nice that they did that. The lunch left much to be desired. They said it was going to be a turkey dinner so I was thinking turkey, mashed potatoes, a roll maybe. Nope, it was turkey, stuffing, corn, and apple crisp for dessert. I was excited for the apple crisp but it really wasn't very good either. Oh well, I wasn't going for the lunch, I was going for the company. I love being at Brooke's school so I can get a feel for what they do. I volunteer on Tuesdays so I have some sort of idea. They have lockers that they put their coats in when they first get to school. She just got the green hand put up because she can zip her own coat and can help others so I guess that's pretty exciting for kindergartners.

After lunch we were able to go outside on the playground with them. Brooke showed me her favorite places to play. It's a big playground. I didn't get a picture of her in the sandbox. I'm pretty sure that's where she plays a lot because she'll come home and you have dump all the sand out of her tennis shoes!! And yesterday I dumped some out of her coat!! One time when I talked to her about it she said, "do you want me to stop playing in the sandbox?" I said that it would be great, but I don't think she listened.
This is another little girl in her class. Her name is Lisa. They have the same pair of tennis shoes. Brooke is pretty excited about that.



And here is Charlotte with her pink eye. She really doesn't look that bad. I was just trying to get a close up picture and get her to close her eyes but it didn't really work. She woke up a couple days ago and her left eye especially was swollen and puss coming out. So I took her to the doctor and sure enough it was pink eye.

Roasting hot dogs by the campfire

Last night we roasted hot dogs by the campfire at the Thompson Farm. Here are some cute pics of it.

Charlotte had her ears covered because someone was using the chainsaw and she thought it was too loud.

This if Charlotte and her friend Whitney.

And the fall colors. I just love fall!

Trip to Indy

We had to take a quick trip to Indianapolis this weekend. We have renter's moving into our house November 1st who will hopefully buy it in a few months so we needed to clean out the garage. It ended up being a beautiful weekend and we went to Southeastway Park for a cook out. Robin and her kids came too. We had a fun time playing frisbee, gathering firewood, playing on the playground and being together.










And then, as we drove into Big Rapids, this is what we saw. Isn't it beautiful? I don't think a picture can do it justice.

Field Trip to the Apple Orchard

Brooke and I had a great time on her field trip today. We went with her class to an apple orchard. Unfortunately it rained most of the time. So my pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have liked and many of the animals were hiding so we didn't get to see them. They had goats, reindeer, ducks, a wallaby, zebras, miniature ponies, and more. We got to feed the goats, tour the cider mill, go on a wagon ride to pick apples and gourdes and play on all the fun toys. Everyone in Brooke's class has a "name shirt" which is handy for volunteers and field trips so that's what everyone is wearing over their coats in the pictures.


On the wagon ride to the apple orchard, before it started raining
Picking apples, now it's raining

Two of the boys in our group, Xavier and Brendan (Sorry it's a bad picture)
This was in the Cider Mill. They were showing us how they make apple cider.




All the cider is being squeezed out. Can you see it? Look closely.

Someone feeding a goat. (Not Brooke, she was afraid)


The goats




This was a fun game. It had a cup attached to it and pulled on the strings to make the cup go up or down. There was like a tree house up top where the goats could walk to, so I think you could put food in there for them and send it up to them.

Just playing

Can you tell it was raining?

This was everyone's favorite part. They just wanted to play!


This was a slide the kids could slide down. And it was perfect since it was raining because it was enclosed. I wasn't trying to get a picture of the mom, she just kept standing there. I guess she was waiting for her child to come down.

The whole class!

General Conference

So this weekend is General Conference. I really have a hard time paying attention to Conference with my children running in and out. Not to mention the mess it makes after it's all over because I let my kids have a run of the house. When else do we sit in front of the t.v., or computer in our case, for 8 hours in one weekend. Do we really expect our kids to listen or be quiet? For those of you who watch Conference at home, what do you do with your kids? Any suggestions to make it a more enjoyable experience? Not that I don't enjoy the speakers, but I just have a hard time with my kids around.
I did get them to actually watch for a few minutes during the second session when the children's choir was singing. Here is Brooke singing along to "I am a Child of God".


The things they did to entertain themselves:

Here's a picture Brooke took of me. Don't I look tired? But do you like the new haircut?

The mess afterwards, but only part of it.

Thompson Farm

Yesterday we were invited to an Octoberfeast at one of our Branch member's farm. The girls had a great time, especially on the hayride. Brooke actually rode 3 times! They had some goats and some cows, and a couple dogs. They definitely had lots of land. Unfortunately my camera battery died on me during the hayride so these are all the pictures I got. The first one is another little girl in the Branch, Maya. She's 6. They also had a cool double decker gazebo that the girls enjoyed climbing up (with dad's help of course). We had lots of fun. Charlotte even said on the way to the car "I had fun!"