4th and 5th grade!

August 24th was the first day of school this year. Cade is in 4th grade and has his same teacher as last year, which is a very good thing. Maddi is in 5th grade and has a teacher who is new to the school. When I started taking pictures of the kids, Emalyn went and stood right next to Maddi copying her every move so I had to get pictures of her too, even though she's not in school yet.

Maddi had pe on the first day so she had to dress accordingly. Emalyn has become obsessed with socks, so she is sporting her "i dressed myself 2 year old look". She always wants socks on and they never match and then she puts her crocks on over the socks. I don't remember my other kids being so oppinionated about clothing, especially at such a young age. She's going to give us a good ride these next few years, I have a feeling.

We had well visits for both Maddi and Cade the other day so they could get their forms filled out for their inhalers for asthma at school. Cade was off the chart in height at 58 inches. Maddi was 70th% in height at 56 inches.

Sweet little Maddi girl. The new rage is having feathers in your hair. I totally don't get it, but whatever. It's not permanent so we let her get one. She got a red one that she paid for herself ($15, what a ripoff) and then she got a purple one at a birthday party last weekend. Everyone of all ages have those silly feathers in their hair. Maddi was very excited to start back to school. She has 28 kids in her class and only 10 of those are girls. Maddi seems to do well with boys, so she'll probably like that. I really hope Maddi has a wonderful school year. It's her last year in Elementary School!

Cade has changed so much in the last year. Last year before school I asked if he wanted to shop anywhere in particular for school clothes and he just said "I don't know where you buy my clothes." This year, he had to have a certain type of shoes, certain clothes, and even planned out what to wear for the first 2 days of school. I'm afraid he might start liking girls this year too, which makes mommy sad. He's my baby boy, but he's a cutie, so I know the girls will like him. Last year he had a comment for each girl like "she smells like cheese, she doesn't brush her teeth, her hair's never brushed, etc." I hope he has a wonderful school year too like he usually does.

This is our new neighbor, Abby. She is 10 and in 5th grade like Maddi. They have hung out a few times and I think she is a really sweet girl and Maddi and her will be great friends. She put on her glasses after she saw Maddi wearing hers. I think it made them both feel better about wearing glasses.

I'm pretty sure I embarrassed Cade and Maddi when I walked with them up to their classes. When we got to the crosswalk at school, they both said "bye mom". I told them I was coming with them, so no need to say bye yet. Once I got up to their rooms, I realized I was one of the only parents in the 4th and 5th grade areas. Neither of them were too thrilled to have their pictures taken in the class. I know they need to spread their wings and fly, but sometimes it's hard!

Maddi got to choose where to sit for this week. She sat by her friend, Abby (who has her eyes closed). After school I was talking with her and she said she was torn what to do because there was a new girl sitting at a table all alone and she wanted to sit with her but she also promised Abby she'd sit by her. In the end, 2 other girls sat with the girl who was alone. Maddi just has a very tender heart and is always caring for others. It's truely a gift. She's so wonderful!

Both kids had a great first day! Maddi really likes her new teacher. Emalyn was thrilled to see her Bubba and Sissy too. The next morning, I was talking about the kids buying lunch at school and Emma went over to the cabinet and got out their lunch boxes and handed them to them. I think she knows that the big kids are back at school and remembers what that's all about. She knows it's her alone time with mommy, and she has pretty much attached herself to me like velcro. I don't think she's feeling well and has had a low grade fever, so hopefully this velcro thing is just a stage. Otherwise, it will be a long school year!

Texas Weekend in Chicago

This little cutie has become quite independent. Whatever she wants, she gets or demands until we get it for her. Here she had gotten out several boxes of cereal and you can see she was very proud of herself.

This weekend the Texas Rangers were playing against the Chicago White Sox. Brett has tickets for work and he was able to get the tickets for Saturday and Sunday for our family to use. Cade was so excited to get to see the Rangers and Josh Hamilton play again. He made Maddi wear his Rangers hat because she doesn't have any Rangers wear. He had been talking to her about it since the beginning of the week. Emalyn and I wore our Rangers red.

Our seats were right by left field, where Hamilton plays.

Happy to root for our Texas team! On a side note, it was Mark Beuhrle bobblehead night. We got 4 of them. After the game there was a guy outside who asked if we wanted to sell ours for $5.00. We sold one of them because what do we need 4 of them for? Maddi decided to sell hers too (because she she's saving up for an ipad). I saw them selling on ebay the next day for $30-$40! That guy probably saw us in our Texas gear and knew we were fresh meat for a scam. Kind of funny, actually. When I told Cade, he said he's hanging onto his until Mark Beurhle retires or gets inducted in the Hall of Fame so he can sell it for even more money. Pretty smart kid, I guess.

The Rangers won by a long shot Friday night but on Saturday, they lost by 1. This was the winning run for the Sox. The Rangers lost Sunday too :(

Time for liccorice ropes!

It was a gorgeous night for a baseball game. We all had a great time and even Miss Emalyn was so good.

Emalyn and Daddy.

Third child...she gets to eat as much liccorice rope as she wants. It made her a little crazy. She started jumping up and down in our laps and then making crazy eyes. We'd ask her "are you a sweet baby?" and she would shake her head no with her chin tucked down and her eyes rolled up in her head like she was possessed. We were all cracking up!

Sunday, Cade got to take 2 friends to the game with him and Brett. They had a blast.

Both of his friends like the White Sox but one of them really likes Josh Hamilton too. He borrowed Cade's Rangers hat and wore a Sox jersey, he was torn who to root for.

Cade was very happy that he caught one of the shirts that the girls throw out between innings. It's from Brett's phone and it won't let me rotate it. Sorry.

Maddi also had two birthday parties with girls from dance so it was a busy weekend for Maddi and Cade. It was the last weekend before school starts back and it was a great way to spend it.

5 on Friday

Five Things from the past week:
1. Maddi and Cade had their first "job". They walked the Ford's dog, Boji, once a day for 3 days while they were gone. They had someone staying at their house but Boji needed a walk during the day while that person was at work.


2. Emma has become such a great "helper". I found her feeding Cocoa. Cocoa's food was already in her bowl but she decided to hand feed her.

3. We went downtown Naperville with the Laymans. We had ice cream at Cookie Dough creations and then went to the park. Maddi climbed to the top of this tree (in sandals too)and it gave me a heart attack. After she climbed down safely, all 4 monkeys decided to climb up but not quite as high.

4. Our neighbors that moved to Texas came back for a quick visit. It was a last minute surprise and it was so great to see them. They spent the night with us and I snapped some pictures the morning before they left.

Ellie turned 2 in May. They moved at the end of June. When she got to our house this week, she walked by her house and said "that's my house. Will you open that garage for me?" It was so cute. Poor thing was probably so confused. Ellie and Emma were so happy to see each other.



Donuts for breakfast!

All of the kids were so happy to see each other again. They've been gone 6 weeks and we've seen them twice. Once in Dallas and once here. We look forward to seeing them again at Christmas, if not before.

5. The kids found out who their teachers are going to be for the year. They have always posted the class lists on the doors at school but they changed it last week because of privacy issues. We had to go online and put in their name, birthday, etc. and then it showed us a picture of their teacher. That night was spent calling around to friends to see who's class they were in. Cade was thrilled that he got his same teacher as last year, Mr. Struck. He was an amazing teacher and we are so happy Cade will have him again. Cade also has quite a few friends in his class. Maddi got a teacher that his new to her school this year. Her name is Mrs. Saldana and she looks really nice from her picture. Maddi has a couple of friends in her class too. Both kids are really looking forward to school starting (I have to admit that I'm looking forward to it too).

9!

We have had lots of rain this summer. Not too much, but enough to keep everything nice and green. Cade was teaching Emma about playing in the rain one evening. What a good big brother Cade is!

August 12th was a big day in our house. Cade Forrest turned 9 years old! He was greeted with gifts from his sisters.

Maddi made him a very sweet card. She punched holes in the back and wrote "I'm watching you" so she was watching him as he read it. Maddi and Cade get along very well, but they have had more brother/sister moments lately (aka argueing). It was nice to see that they really do love each other and hear the sweet things that Maddi wrote to Cade.

Emma didn't exactly know what was going on but she enjoyed the ribbons and she kept saying "happy Bubba" all day.

We got Cade his basketball goal for his birthday a few months ago. He got it early so he could enjoy it this spring and summer. The girls got him a few things at the dollar store and gave him some money to help him buy his ipod touch he wanted. Maddi is helping Cade put on this throw and return ball he got from his sisters.

He also got a light up yo-yo. We went to the dollar store for plates, napkins, party favors, etc. for his party. I secretly gave Maddi some money to buy the things that Cade said he liked/wanted. She was excited to be on a secret mission.

Later that morning, we went to Sports Zone for a few rides on the go karts.

They seemed to be pretty good drivers, but I don't think they're ready for real cars.

After go karts we went for ice cream before we went home for lunch. We ended the day at Red Robin for dinner for the birthday boy.

Saturday morning was Cade's party. I was worried it might rain and it was all outdoors but the weather was PERFECT! This was one happy birthday boy.

After all the boys arrived, we went to the field in front of our house to play some baseball.

Then we walked over to the clubhouse to go swimming. It was adult swim when we got there so they played in the spray park. Luckily there was hardly anyone at the pool and they pretty much had the place to themselves.

9 boys for a 9th birthday celebration. He's the last of his friends to turn 9 and one or two already turned 10 this summer.

Waiting for the whistle to blow so they can jump in...

...and they're in!

They played some games.


And they had some swim races. Cade really into brackets when the college basketball tournament started. He wanted brackets for his party so they were split into 3 teams of 3 and they did brackets for swimming and basketball.

After swimming, it was time for pizza and then birthday cake!

Make a wish...

...and blow!

I hope all of your wishes come true.


Goofy boys. Maddi girl missed the whole party. They had a guest choreographer come in to teach them a dance for next year. The party was from 10-1 and dance was 10:30-1:30. She was here for about 10 minutes before she got picked up by a friend to go to dance. It was a bummer that she had to miss it all.

That cake was delicious! It was a blizzard cake from Dairy Queen. It had a layer of vanilla ice cream topped with fudge. Then it had a layer of chocolate cookie crumbles topped with a layer of reeces peanut butter cup blizzard. The whole thing was topped with crushed pb cups and chocolate drizzle. 4 of the boys didn't want any cake and I was so happy because that meant for us!

Miss Emalyn loved the ice cream cake too.

Present time. Cade ended up with all gift cards or cash except two real gifts. He got enough to buy an ipod touch. The funny thing was that the boys were playing with baby dolls they had found in the basement.

They said the dolls were creepy, but they sure seemed to enjoy the dolls.

They were hugging on them and everything. Very strange.

Emalyn has recently discovered popsicles and will randomly ask for one. She enjoyed her popsicle while I wrote down the gifts Cade got.

Then she found one of the friends shoes and decided to try it on.

Love that little face!

The last thing at the party was 3 on 3 basketball games. It was pretty fun to watch.

Emma loves having Cocoa on a leash. Cocoa usually complies but she was going against Emma's wishs right now.

She was much happier to sit on the front porch.

More basketball! Cade's team won the swimming and basketball so he was very happy. It was a great party and Cade said it was his favorite birthday ever. Cade is such a great boy and we are honored to call him our son. He's very responsible and kind and really loves his friends and family. He's one smart little cookie and I can't wait to see what wonderful things he does with his life. I love you Bugaboo!

An hour after the party was over, the dark clouds rolled in.

It started raining and rained off and on through the night. I am so thankful the rain held off until after the party.

Later that night, Cade had a friend come over to go out for dinner and spend the night. Maddi got to go with her friend Kate, from dance, to the Selena Gomez concert. Here they are at the concert. It was a surprise for Kate from her parents and she picked Maddi to go with her. I heard that they danced all night and even made it on the big screen.