St. John's Fall Festival

Alden's school held their fall festival on September 24th. They have a bounce house and games for the kids to play.

Alden made it through one time, but the next time he got stuck, so he crawled out the side because we weren't paying attention!

Our friend Lindsey Gross-Rhode made this out of gutters! The kids had fun making their own "pirate ship" out of styrofoam, tinfoil, sticks, paper and stickers!

MOPS Henry Doorly Zoo Play Date

My MOPS group had a playdate at the Henry Doorly Zoo on September 19th.

Alden, JD, & Clair played on the Lions while we waited for the other moms to arrive!

JD, Alden, & Clair had a great time together!

Alaina has the cutes smile!

And Ashleigh (and Alaina!) are always so stylish!

We had 9 moms & 1 dad and LOTS of kids come to the playdate! Christie's husband Mike was very brave hanging out with all of us women! (Mike took the picture for us!)

Jayger, Alden, Grant, and Mikenna liked to run ahead of all of us! They had so much energy!

We hit the gorillas and then walked over the Petting Zoo. Grant & Mikenna liked the goats.

The kids always find this ball so much fun! They got very soaked this time!

JD & Alden are only a few weeks apart in age and are getting to be pretty good friends!

Alden keeps getting taller and taller and taller....

We had a fun day with our friends, but it was challenging keeping up with all the kids and making sure we didn't lose one or two! My kids slept the whole way home!

Richardson County Fair

On September 16th, I took Clair & Alden down to the Richardson County Fair in Humboldt (where I grew up). We met my mom, Aunt Karen, & Aunt Lisa before the parade at 11:00am. The kids were impressed with all the tractors, fire trucks, and bands that were in the parade! (It was much larger than the kiddie parade that the kids walked in Plattsmouth the previous Friday.) It was very chilly and wet, so we all had to bundle up!

After the parade (which the kids got ALOT of candy at), we went and rode rides! Alden rode on the cars and the train, while Clair chose the Carousel!

Alden didn't want to quit riding rides, but we persuaded him to walk up to the Band Parent's Stand to have lunch. My cousin Kayla met us there, as she was back from college in Kearney. I had my standard fair lunch: Chicken Noodle Soup & Raisin Creme Pie!

We walked around and played a few rounds of Picking Up Ducks because it was easy and the prizes seemed the best for the money!

We rode the shuttle down to the AG building to see the exhibits. The kids thought it was fun, and I thought it was so cold! We sat and watched the "free act" in the park and the kids actually did very well with that! Their cousins - Emily & Drew Moyer- joined them in the park and shared their cotton candy with Clair & Alden. I got a carmel apple to go and we got to see our friend Subby Anzaldo (his Entertainment agency provides the acts that we see at the fair).

Then it was time to go! We were all tuckered out! The kids were asleep before we got out of town, and I wished I could sleep too!

My Princesses

Clair & Samantha got dressed up in their princess dresses because we made a video of them singing for a contest! They were so cute! Clair loved being BELLE and Samantha has always loved ARIEL!

Sunday School Kick Off!

I am in charge of our Sunday School once again this year! We had our Sunday School kick-off party on September 11th. We had 19 kids in Sunday School (which is great compared to our average of 7 kids each Sunday last year). We also have some new teachers which I am thoroughly thankful for!! We have A LOT of 3 year olds! If all our 3 year olds come to Sunday School at the same time we could have 11 of them! This is awesome for the future of our church!

Each year, I take pictures of the Sunday School kids and put them up on a bulletin board in the hallway! Its fun to see how they each grow up over the summer!

One of the bulletin boards reads: "GOD'S LOVE IS SO BRIGHT, I GOTTA WEAR SHADES!" Each kid has sunglasses on in their pictures! (I stole this idea from a past Sunday School leader/teacher at our church!)

The kids sang at the 10:45am church service. I didn't get to watch because I was running around like a chicken...

Jessica, Ian, Samantha, & Kaia would not cooperate for a picture! I love Ian's face...I can hear him say "What are these girls doing to me?"

I needed some help hauling some tables/chairs, so I called my dad! Even at my age (which I will not say what exactly that is!), a girl still needs her daddy! :) He was a lot of help! He hauled me around to run errands in town and then stayed and ate with our group and played with the kids! Thanks Dad!

Soccer Sam

Another Soccer season is upon us!

Sam is a tiger once again and has two teammates back from last year.

Not sure why they teach kids to throw in with their feet crossed.

Will and Emily are back on her team and they added Jennie Gunter. They have been rolling over teams(not that we are keeping score) It is funny you can ask Samantha after the game how many goals she had and she will say "3" or "4" when she really had lots more. I guess if we were keeping score she might have a better idea. For now she is enjoying being the oldest in the age group and laughing a lot as she goes.

Clair Wants To Dance

While Sam was practicing for the harvest festival talent show Clair wanted to join in. She got a lot of moves down, but as soon as we got the camera out she was shy. Just 2 more years and she can go to dance all on her own.

Plattsmouth Harvest Festival - Tooth Fairy

On September 9th, the Plattsmouth Harvest Festival started with a bang! Samantha didn't have school (and she was disappointed), so we dressed up the kids to walk in the parade. They got a 1st Place Ribbon!

Clair was Dr. Doug's Tooth Fairy (Samantha wore this same outfit when she was almost 2 years old). Alden was a Cavity Creep (Doug was a Cavity Creep when he was little too!). Samantha was the Brilliant Brusher! Doug wore his McKnight Family Dental shirt and he pulled Clair down the parade route.

Clair didn't like being strapped into the wagon!

Grandma Nancy came to help us! We are very thankful that she did because the kids were a handful!

This is the best picture we got of all 3 kids looking at us! :)

The kids did a great job of waving to the crowd!

After the parade, Samantha performed her dance from last year on stage with her dance class.

She did so good! She hit every move on the right beat! :)

Check out that vertical!! It's already better than mine (Michelle's).

After she was done dancing, we went to the Riverhouse Cafe for ice cream and pie with our friends Christie, Jayger & Mikenna Haag; Katie, Kyle, Ian, & Megan Graves, Grandma Nancy, Grandma & Grandpa McKnight, and Auntie Debra showed up later.

Then, Grandma Nancy bought ride tickets so that the kids could go on one ride each. Samantha and Alden went on the trucks.

Clair chose to go on the Merry Go Round with Grandma Nancy!

Photo Time for Clair (2 year old pictures) and Alden (4 year old pictures)

On Labor Day, we met our favorite photographer - Samantha Lupo- for Clair & Alden's birthday pictures. She has been taking pictures for us since Alden was a newborn! We went to Elmwood Park near UNO's campus and it was beautiful! (Surprisingly we had never had pictures taken there before!) These are just a few of the ones of what we had taken! Clair was so sweet and wanted (NEEDED) to hold Samantha Lupo's hand, which was great because the last few photo sessions, Clair doesn't even smile for her!