Fall Family Fun

As I said before, since summer is over, there is much to look forward to during the fall season.  It seems like we are busy most weekends with something, but I'm glad we carved out a few weekends to enjoy the beautiful fall days we had this year.

First, we enjoyed the Gladfest parade!  Unfortunately, we didn't get to see Kyle because we were on the other side of the street, but a good friend was able to snap a picture for me!

Next, we went to another pumpkin patch with the family.  It was a pretty day and full of fun!  

We had our annual pumpkin carving party, but because of the World Champion Royals, not many pictures were taken because we wanted to get inside and watch the game!

The next day, we headed to Grandma Debbie's house for our annual trick-or-treating event!  It's full of good food and good candy!!!  The kids have a great

time running the neighborhood!  

New Niece-Hatteline Faith Weaver

What an exciting year it's been waiting for my sweet niece Hattie!  I love everything about this sweet girl and I'd like to think her chubby cheeks take after me!  

You will see in a later post how this little munchkin arrived into the world, but we are super thankful God blessed our family with her!  Most of you know how close my sister and I are and we grew up playing house on a daily basis-it's super fun to still play house with my sister and her sweet girls!  

And here she is saying "Hi" to our class!

Fall Field Trips

As I've said before, it's difficult to step out of my classroom to enjoy field trips for my kids.  With my sister's maternity leave, we were able to swing it, so that I could attend field trips with my kids this year!  

As you can see we had a fun time!

Dance class

Well, Miss Rachel finally opened her own dance studio, so Natalie and Kianna started going on Tuesday evenings.  

I have been so impressed with how the girls have progressed and they both just love it!  Poor John will have to keep footing the bill for this hobby!  

Once we made the decision to enroll in dance class, we decided to skip gymnastics for this year.  Well, after one week of no gymnastics, my little gymnast was begging to participate in gymnastics.  After a lot of talking, John and I decided it would be best to move facilities and I'm

so glad we did!  I promise to take pictures of her in gymnastics-the set up is different than our other gym!

Back to School

It's so hard to believe that I have a second grader and a Pre-Kindergartner!  While it's easy to get sad, I'm truly enjoying the stages my kids are in.  

Kyle began Clardy this year and is loving the bigger school with Mrs. Michaels.

Kianna is going to King of Kings and has Mrs. Greene and Mrs. Hilgenkamp.  They are such good teachers for Kianna.

And there is nothing like seeing Baby Rylee on your first day of school!

More Summer fun

To end our summer fun before heading back to school, we went to Crown Center, went to Storytime at the Kemper Museum (awesome-the kids loved it) and had a Baby Sprinkle with a few close friends for Baby Weaver!  

While the end of summer is bittersweet because I miss my babies terribly, I'm excited to see all the fun fall activities that lie ahead!

Summer Activities

This summer the Bigs participated camp-like activities outside of our regular fun days!  Kyle and Kianna both took a class that Mrs. Greene offers through the district.  We look forward to those every summer!

Kyle was able to participate in the Kemper Museum's FREE program this summer and really learned a lot of art, specifically sculpting!  While it was a great experience for him, the drive was less than impressive-30 minutes each way!  It makes me appreciate my short commute to work!  

Kianna enjoyed a Fancy Nancy show at the library and once again went to dance class at Studio 10.  You can see Miss Rachel came to support the girls at their recital.  This fall the girls began dance class at Miss Rachel's studio!

Kyle was also able to participate in a basketball camp through Upward Sports and even won the overall Christlike award.  As his mom, I am super proud of him.  He isn't afraid to live his faith and that speaks volumes about his character.  My prayer has always been that my children will live and walk like Christ in all

situations.  He did just that during his camp experience.

Of course, we enjoyed time with our teacher friends.  We spent some time

with Miss Rachel and baby Rylee this summer.  We spent a day making baby food and just hanging out.  It's amazing how much we get to talk about when we aren't teaching!  You can see Natalie has taken a liking to babies!

Family Reunion and Boise, Idaho

We enjoyed a 2-week vacation stint this summer.  Our trip started out rocky as we had can trouble on our way home from the family reunion.  We had a lot of people praying for our safety and God sure was with us the entire way home.  

We started our trip by seeing the Royals play the Cardinals in St. Louis and while we came up short, it was definitely a game to remember!  

Next up was our trip to Boise, Idaho!  We had a blast and I think John is ready to move there!  He was able to cross another state off his list.  

Grandma broke her foot the day before, so we got some royal treatment on the way to Denver.  The plane rides there were uneventful, but on the way home was another story.  We will keep those secrets to ourselves, but John and I are still married, despite his little mess-up, which he still blames me!  All that matters is we can laugh about it now!

Below are pictures from our trip, we had a great time visiting and it's always fun to enjoy the cool evenings out on the patio. I'm still in awe how late the sun sets there-I wish that was the case in Kansas City!