Falling for Fall...

So, a LOT has happened in the past 2 months! Summer has officially come and gone (and now today, on Oct. 25th, it was 80 degrees! But it's too good to be true, back to chilly weather and rain tomorrow, sigh...). Ava started her last year of preschool at St. Paul's in the middle of September, and she loves it. She is going 4 mornings a week (M-T-W-TH) from 9:00-11:30am. It's not a lot of time, but considering that our school district only has 1/2 day Kindergarten (2 hours and 45 minutes and that is IT!), it will help ease her into going to school 5 days a week next year. I have to admit I will be VERY happy when my two are at the same school for a few years! It feels like I spend the entire day running them to and from their respective schools. I only have 2 children, I can't imagine what it would be like to have 3, or 4, or 5! Hats off to all you supermoms who do it all!

We just finished up Outdoor Soccer at the YMCA, and Aiden and Ava both LOVED it. I love that the Y fosters a non-competitive environment, and Aiden had a great coach. Sadly, his team lost every.single.game they played, but it didn't seem to matter one bit, and they were all fantastic sports and had a great time. Aiden did score one goal, but it was actually when he was playing on the opposing team because they didn't have enough team members show up. Poor kid, but he was very good about it, even though his team lost because of the goal he scored against them, lol. Ava loved soccer and the attention she got from her pretty hairdos :-) They both want to play again in the spring and we definitely will!

Aiden has been having a bit of a hard time transitioning at his new school. The year started off so well, and then he started having problems crying every day at school, saying he was tired, or lonely, or missing me, or having trouble making friends. He had a playdate with a boy from his class today and it went very well, and he has had two good days in a row at school, so I am hoping we are through the worst of it now. But it was a rough couple of weeks there for all of us, his teacher and principle included! Luckily, they are both wonderful and have been great at working with me and Aiden to try to get past this. I think we're through the woods now....hopefully the rest of the year is smooth sailing with lots of new friendships!

Aiden started taking karate this week, so that is exciting for him. He has his first lesson tonight and even though a misdirected kick ended in some tears, he did great and really liked it. The first month and the uniform are free...after that the price tag is pretty hard to swallow for a family on one income (I really can't count my two shifts a week at the Y as "income," it's more like petty cash, haha), so I guess we will see if he really wants to continue or if it is just something that can help build some much needed confidence skills right now. At any rate, he is excited about it :-)

In other news, my twin sister had her baby shower a few weekends ago in Michigan, and that was really fun. I made her an owl diaper cake with hair bows, and I had a LOT of fun making it and I think she loved it. She's due with her first baby (a girl--Abigail:-) in January, and I am so so so excited for her arrival. My sister is going to make an AMAZING mother, and my kids can't wait to have a new baby cousin! They have a lot of cousins on Chuck's side of the family, but they are all grown-up or in their teens, and several of them have kids of their own who we do get to see occasionally. I'm just really excited for my sister and her husband and this next stage of their lives--I can't wait for Abby to get here!

I think that about sums up the last 2 months. The kids are SUPER excited for Halloween next week. Aiden is being Spyro (from the video game Skylanders) and Ava is being Merida (the princess from the movie Brave). They can't wait for trick-or-treating with their friends. I just hope it's not too cold that night! Tomorrow night we are going on a haunted hayride at Lake Farkpark. We've never gone before and heard it's a lot of fun, fingers crossed that the rain holds off and doesn't ruin our ride!