Fall Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Reagan's birthday party

Cooper had a BLAST at Reagan's birthday party at Dynamics Gym in Branson! In fact, I'm not sure who had more fun--him or me! We both had lots of fun jumping off the trampoline floor and into the foam pit! Cooper also loved swinging on the rope swing!

Weekend trip to Elk Falls

At the end of August, the boys and I took a little trip to KS for a family reunion with my mom's side of the family. We stopped in Independence on the way and met up with mom, dad, Zach & Laura and played at the park, had a picnic, and went to the zoo. The boys had SOO much fun! Ok, I did too!

Cooper's Preschool

Wow! I can't believe I haven't posted on here since July! I knew I'd been busy, but I didn't realize it had been that long! Anyway, the beginning of the school year is always a busy time for any teacher--and this year has been no exception! I'm just glad that I was able to start the school year WITHOUT a wheelchair this year! :) Cooper started preschool at Forsyth Preschool at the end of Aug., and he absolutely loves it! One of his best friends, Reagan, is in his class, so he was thrilled about that! He loves recess, the class guniea pigs, his teacher, snack time, and well, everything actually! He tells me about "center time" and how he gets to play with stamps, play-doh, or beads, and he tells me about the "funny" jokes that he tells his classmates (trust me, they're really not funny at all!) The only reason I laugh is because they're SO far from being funny that it cracks me up to think that HE actually thinks they're funny! :) It's cute how excited he is every week to do his "homework" (which usually consists of things like drawing a picture of a certain thing, having someone read to him, telling 5 people his full name or his teacher's name, etc. He received his first progress report last week. The marks were M (for mastered), P (for progressing), or N (for needs more time and practice). I'm proud to say that he received ALL Ms except for 2 Ps. The Ps for for "helping during clean-up time" (not surprising there--he hates to clean up--but seriously, who does?) and "showing respect to others." We had a talk about that one! :) I'm glad he loves preschool, but a part of me is sad that my "baby" is growing up!

Florida vacation with the Julians

Jim and I had the rare opportunity to go on a vacation with our good friends Jim and Melissa Julian--without any kids! Although I missed the boys and kept thinking about how much they would enjoy this or that, I THOROUGHLY enjoyed myself and didn't want the vacation to end! We went to Orlando and Daytona Beach. Melissa and I had a lot of fun swimming, laying out, and shopping while the guys went golfing 2 different times, and we all had a blast at the beach (the boogie boards were SO much fun), and spending a whole day at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We got express passes, so we didn't have to wait in any lines--or if we did, it was like a 5 or 10 minute wait! There were signs at the entrance of each ride telling you how long the wait would be--most of them said 45 min. to 1 hour. Our max wait was about 15 min. with our express pass! It was DEFINTIELY worth the extra money to get! Because time is money, you know! And as a result, we got to go on practically EVERY single ride there!! The ones we didn't go on were ones that we either didn't want to go on or just missed the time for (if it was a show). It was a GREAT day! We also at LOTS of good food while on our vacation! (I gained 5 lbs. from the 4 days we were there!!) Some of my favorites were the Hard Rock Cafe, Rainforest Cafe, Bahama Breeze, and Inlet Harbor. The Rainforest Cafe was the coolest place I have EVER been to! About every 20 min. or so, the lights would flash, thunder would roll, rain would fall (but not on us), and all the animatronic animals would "come to life" and start moving around a litle bit and making noises! It was VERY cool! We had to wait 1 hr. and 45 min. to get a table, so it was 10pm by the time we got to eat, but it was definitely worth the wait! The whole vacation was amazing, but I was still very glad to be back with my sweet boys--who got spoiled rotten by Granny and Papa the whole time we were gone! :)

Summer T-Ball games

I know I had a previous post about t-ball, but those were just pictures from Cooper's t-ball PRACTICE--not the actual games! (not that there's much difference!) So, here are a few pictures from Cooper's t-ball games. Just like last summer, he LOVED it and is already practicing and looking forward to next year.

4th of July in KS

We had a fun time celebrating the 4th of July in Kansas with my parents, Grandma Fry, Zach & Laura, Molly, Brain & Cindy, and my cousin Jer from California. We started the trip by meeting my parents and Zach & Laura in Independence for a fun evening of mini golf, the park, the carousel, and Braums ice cream! The Independence park has the most amazing prices I've ever seen! It was $1 per person for mini golf, $0.25 per person for the train ride, and (are you ready for this?) $0.05 per person for the carousel!! With prices like that, we could have spent the whole day there without spending over $5! :) The next day, we hung out at Grandma Fry's house, played some Dutch Blitz, set off some firecrackers, ate lots of good food, and finished up the day with a trip to the Elk County Rodeo! It was Cooper's first rodeo (he kept calling it a radio!) and he really enjoyed it! His favorite parts were when the clown rode a dirt bike and jumped over several men lying side by side on the ground and the bull riding! He also really enjoyed the fireworks after the rodeo. I had a good time visiting with my best friend Tabby Hogan and watching her kids and my kids (and lots of other kids) play together. It was a great evening! The next day after church, we had lunch at Grandma Fry's house and made homemade ice cream (with strawberries from my mom's garden)! What a great end to a perfect 4th of July weekend!