The NCA Spring elementary music program was all about kids around the world.  Each class was assigned a country and their costume and songs reflected that country.  Clara's class had France and she was chosen to have a speaking part to introduce their portion of the program.  She spoke in French and then Dalton translated into English.  I was so blown away by her ability to learn to speak in another language and then perform in front of hundreds of parents!  She did so well! Her maturity, courage and willingness to perform really surprised me.

Basement Kitchen Install

Back in May of this year, Tom and I decided we wanted to spruce up the basement.  It really needed some hlep...we had my couch I bought right after college and it's coordinating chair, along with a tv and our office furniture in a fairly large walkout basement family room.  It was a mish-mash of old stuff that we have accumulated and used over the past 9 years.

We first decided to have the concrete floors stained.  A crew came and ripped up the carpet, scored the floors to look like tile and stained them a caramal and dark brown combination.  Then we ordered some furniture, designed the kitchen and entertainment center, bought a tv and speakers, and prayed it would all come togther nicely one day. 

It is still a work in progress, but starting to take shape.  The floors are done, the entertainment center has been built and delivered, furniture is here (along with a new rug) and the speakers have been wired, installed and hooked up to a new tv.  It's a lot more fun down here now!

The kitchen cabinets were installed today.  Next step is to have black granite countertops installed.  We also need to put the drawer pulls and door knobs on and pick out a sink. 



The openings towards the top right corner are for an ice maker and a small refridgerator.  The top middle cabinet above (it's raised up about 6 inches) has four stem glass holders.  The cabinet opening underneath is for a micorwave.  To the left, in the corner, will be the undermount sink.







This is the raised up bar top...still needs some black granite going across. We will have 2 or 3 bar stools here.

 I'll post some other pictures of the floor and the rest of the room soon.  It needs a bit of a cleaning right now.

Pumpkin Patch

Last week Clara, William and I along with a friend and her 2 kids, took a trip to a local pumpkin patch.  We rode on a hayride behind a big, old tractor to the pumpkin patch where Clara and William found some pumpkins.  There was also a bouncy house, corn maze, pumpkin painting, and a train ride.  We all had a blast :)

Buddies

I took these today in the front yard.  William really likes Chelsea and she is so good to him too.  She is gentle with him and doesn't mind him messing with her ears or pulling on her fur.  When I see William being a little rough or messing with her face, I tell him to give her 'nice pats' and he immediately will start patting her head and back.  It's really cute!

Can you see the hay bales in the background?

Trip to the Corn Maze

This past Saturday we took a little trip to a local corn maze. A man with some extra acres next to his house planted the corn and mowed down the paths for the maze.  He is working with his church's youth group to raise money for their mission trip and half of whatever proceeds he makes will go to them.  Pretty cool idea. 

The checkpoints along the way were bible verses and thank goodness for those checkpoints! We could coorelate those with the map checkpoints to figure out where the heck we were going.  We might still be wandering through the corn without that map :)

It was fun for Clara  - she would run up ahead and whenever there was a fork in the road, she would stop and yell back to Tom about which way to go. 

William sat in the hiking backpack and was happy as a clam.  It was a tad on the hot side out there...where did our Fall go?


Getting William into the backpack

He loves it in here and I love this picture!

Starting out on our a-MAZE-ing adventure.

"C'mon Mommy and Daddy! Hurry UP!"

How do we get out of here??

11 months old!

Can't believe my sweet baby boy is one month away from his first birthday!

William is growing up too quick...he's pulling up on the coffee tables, the wall, my legs..however he can get himself in the standing position.  Then he lets go and just bounces up and down and balances all by himself!  He are encouraging him to try and take a step, but so far he hasn't made a move.  Won't be long I'm afraid.

He also is babbling quite a bit, saying dadadada, nininini and pointing at objects and having little conversations with us about them.  He especially likes the chickens.  It's cute when he spots a chicken - he points and starts getting excited.

Sleeps great, good eater, puts up with his sister's antics...overall a super wonderful little boy!!

Riding in the hiking backpack at the corn maze this past Saturday.

Riding Sassy

This blog post is dedicated to Clara's Auntie Ann in honor of her first horseback ride :)

Clara got to take her first horse ride yesteray on our neighbor's horse, Sassy.  Gary and Mary have 7 or 8 Missouri Fox Trotter's.  We frequently drive the Ranger over to their barn and check in on them.  Yesterday, Mary's nephews, ages 2 and 3,  were down for the weekend from Kansas City and were going to ride.  They asked if Clara would be interested in riding also and she said yes.  Tom and I both thought she would chicken out when it actually came time to get on the horse, but she climbed right up and sat with Gary.  They went on a nice trail ride around the perimeter of their 10 acres. 

Clara really enjoyed it and we were pretty proud of her too!

This was taken right after she got on Sassy





I like the little smirk on her face and how she's holding on to the reins.



Feeding Sassy some grass after her ride.