Trunk or Treat

*It's been a while since posting, so read down for more*

This was our 2nd of like 8 Halloween events this year. The ward Trunk or Treat. Perfectly simple: trunk or treat, donuts, hot chocolate, 1 hour long (THANKS SHAUNA!). The kids had a great time. I'm sure more (and better) Halloween costume pictures will come shortly. We've got a lot more parties to attend. Scarlett is the duck the year. This costume has been worn my her brother, sister, and 2 older cousins. It will retire this year. Sofia insisted on wearing her ballet costume. Since I paid $50 for it, I happily helped her don it. Grayson was a cowboy. His boots were found last minute at WalMart. Tadj did his beard... it needs work for the next party.

Sibling love...

I've been noticing more and more the last couple of weeks that our kids are starting to actually like each other sometimes. I've caught Sofia with her arm around Grayson showing hime something on the computer and then later Grayson with his arm around Scarlett trying to teach her something too. This day, I caught them reading their FAVORITE Scooby Doo book together. No, this wasn't staged... they were in fact reading the book upside down... I don't know why.

Blakes Orchards

We made our way back to Blake's this year, but this time with Grayson's preschool class. Lucky for us, some friends in our ward go to the same preschool and so we got to hang out with them too. It was SUPER cold, like 35 degrees, and Scarlett had been awake in the middle of the night so she was very cranky. We never allow the pacifier outside the crib, but something told me to grab it on the way out the door. I was glad I did. She was still miserable, but at least had the paci. We each got to pick a pumpkin and five apples and had cider and donuts with the rest of the class. We also got admission into the fun play area.
Here is our group on the "train" getting ready to head back from picking our pumpkins.
Miserable Scarlett still wanted to climb the straw mountain.

OT Reunion

In December of 2002, all of us graduated from OT school at Wayne State University. We decided to have a reunion this year with all of our families. Of course I was put in charge. Here's the big gang that came minus a couple husbands who couldn't attend and a few who were taking pictures. Look at all those kids!
Sofia and my friend Danielle's daughter Olivia were "BFF's" for the day!
We met at Kennedy Memorial Park in Eastpointe which was the perfect spot so the kids could run and play the whole time.
Grayson and Brian's son Caden on the slide. Grayson kept calling Caden his brother. HA!

Tigers Vs. Blue Jays 9/11/09

Thanks to our GREAT friends Angie and Joe, Tadj and I got to go to Comerica Park on Friday and watch the Tigers lose :( from a suite :) . It was AWESOME. It had it's own seating area inside with it's own bathroom and was fully catered with hotdogs, quesadillas, chicken fingers, chips, and all the pop you could drink. It was sooo fun. We got to walk around the park for a little while and really got a kick out of the people having to wait in huge lines for the bathroom.
Since it was 9/11, the Tigers invited a few police officers and fire fighters to stand on the field for the national anthem.

Our hosts, Angie and Joe

Joe and Tadj with other friends Dave and Marie

Just the girls

Tadj and Joe sitting inside for a while.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

On Tuesday, Grayson started preschool at Avalon and Sofia started Kindergarten at Koepsell (yes, I'm driving to 2 schools!). Grayson's teach is Ms. Francis, and Sofia's is Mrs. Zentz. We're so excited for such a fun year!!
Poor guy. You can still see all the awful bug bites from camp Hazelwood. We had to assure his teacher that it WASN'T chicken pox.
Scarlett thought she was going too, so we took her picture. She cried for 1/2 an hour when we left.
Little miss Kindergarten was cool and confident for her first day.

Our sweet school kids.

Sofia at her locker

... and at her desk

I forgot to get a picture of Grayson in his classroom, so I got one when he came out. He said he had fun and met two kids, but couldn't remember their names.

Camp Hazelwood

The kids went with Grandma and Grandpa Hardie to camp Hazelwood over the Labor Day weekend. Cathy had all sorts of crafts for them to do!!! They came home with great projects that unfortunately I don't have pictures of. These pictures are from Friday when I was at camp with them.
Tadj found a toad out in the field that was really cool to play with until it jumped out of Tadj's hand and scared the kids to death.

The kids around the fire enjoying some roasted marshmallows.