Fall Fun

 Our Fall has been filled with sports, weekend trips, activities, co-op fun, and lots of memory making. 

Nathan is playing his last season of flag football. He usually plays defense but has subbed in on offense occasionally as center. He even caught a pass when he was playing offense. He's very proud of that!

Recently, Katherine asked Matt if he'd work with her on riding her bike again. She tried several months ago but gave up pretty easily. She hopped right up there this time though and figured it out very quickly. 

She's been asking to ride her bike almost daily since she learned. She's a persistent hard worker, that girl. 

We spent a perfect Fall evening with some of our all-time favorite people. We grilled burgers for dinner, played board games, and roasted marshmallows for s'mores for dessert. It was perfection. 

These girls got super silly at the end of the night and were playing silly restaurant. They always play so well together and come up with the most creative ideas. 

We visited Shepherd's Fold Ranch with our co-op group and spent a delightful Fall morning petting animals, playing games and learning about pumpkins and farms. 

The boys are taking a mock trial class this year, and one week they learned about questioning witnesses. They read fairy tales and brainstormed ideas for which witnesses to call and what questions to ask them. That sparked their imagination and that night they put on their own trial and were prosecuting the Big Bad Wolf from the Three Little Pigs. It was a big family affair, and everyone got into character. 

Our co-op day is everyone's favorite day of the week. The elementary history class learns geography through songs (middle school does too), and they were all swaying to the songs as they did their map practice in class. 

The songs are cheesy, but they are learning so much geography through the cheesiness. 

Samuel and Elisabeth made lion masks in science class. 

And I thought Elisabeth's fun fact for the week was so fitting of her bold personality. 

She's also using her creativity in her wild animal craft class. She painted a watercolor parrot one week. 

We're in a good school routine, and Katherine's reading continues to improve. She's learning so much this year through the short, daily lessons. 

We met the Newcombs at the Gathering Place one day over Fall Break. The weather was gorgeous, and the kids had the best time playing. We had to drag them away after three hours. 

Samuel has been working on his Rubik's cube skills lately and was able to solve it (with the help of YouTube).  

The Millers invited us over for a Fall watercolor class over Fall Break. The kids did great with it. 

We've nicknamed Hannah, Hannah Houdini, because she has been escaping from our backyard. We let her out of her pen to explore our backyard while we were outside for group time, and when we were finished and Samuel was going to put her back in her pen, she had disappeared. We looked for her and worried about her for several hours, and then I randomly looked outside later and saw her back in her pen just chilling. I'm just glad she always comes back home after her adventures. We still haven't figured out where she goes. The kids need to write a book about her adventures!

For Matt's birthday I surprised him with tickets to Nate Bargatze, and several months later he finally got to redeem them. We turned it into a fun double date with Matt and Erica and went to dinner together before the show. 

And out of the giant arena and thousands of people, we ended up sitting directly in front of the Newcombs. So crazy and fun! Nate was HILARIOUS. My cheeks were so sore from laughing so hard all night long. So, so good! 

The next day after the show, we drove to Edmond to celebrate Abby's fourth birthday and take family pictures. 

The girls were adorable for pictures. 

Samuel was so sweet to spend the evening playing drink restaurant with Abby. 

The next day we celebrated Abby at a gymnastics gym. My kids were in heaven. 

Katherine showed off all of her tricks. She's taking gymnastics and dance classes this year and is a born performer. I'm excited to see what she does when she's older. 

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating sweet Abby.