Popcorn Festival

On September 12th we went to the annual Beavercreek Popcorn Festival. (There are so many festivals every weekend, that you actually have to pick and choose which to go to!!) We left our house and got there around 10:30am. We successfully maneuvered our way around to every single booth there. We did buy some kettle corn and got some free popcorn balls. The kids favorite part was the kids area where they played games, got candy and toys, and jumped on the bouncy castle. We also got an ID kit for each kid. The kits are great in case they ever go missing. They have the kid's pictures, finger prints, dental records, DNA sample, and other information.

The kids got to go in some fire trucks, tumble around on mats, spin wheels, get loads of free stuff and just have fun. We stayed for 2.5 hours!! Dynomite won a gift certificate for a pet grooming shop...yeah still haven't cashed in...

We forgot our camera, so no great pictures. We had a picture taken at one of the booths, but they lost. I guess the kids and Travis were so cute that someone swiped it for themselves!

The kids were excellent and we had a great time. Plus Travis is a huge popcorn fan! (The topic of next weeks Kitchen Tips Tuesday...yes, I will get one up!)

All in all a poppin' good day!!

Backpack Descends

Backpack decided to descend the stairs last week. Usually he just sits at the top and cries until someone comes for him. I have been reluctant to teach him for obvious reasons. So here he is going down.....Enjoy!



Also he loves being outside, so sometimes he bangs on the door to go out...like a dog...weird. Anyway, I was trying to get him to wave and say hi. He has done this before to Cynthia and Brandi (and no one else except to himself in the mirror), so I have proof!

The Return of Freddy

Before we moved here we mailed Freddy the fish to Ohio. Freddy has had a long and exhausting journey! The post office was kind enough to remove Freddy from his traveling Ziploc bag into this nice clear container. They kept his container clean and gave him plenty of food. But alas, he missed us and has returned home! Trouble was very excited to have his friend back.Dynomite wasn't really sure what to think. She had questions, but could not formulate them properly so we ignored her.She thinks its all a little disgusting.

Backpack isn't even sure what is going on, so he points and makes gurgling noises.

Freddy has found a new area to live in that gets more sunshine. He is a people watcher so now he can see all that goes on during the day. Freddy is also a good eater. So maybe on this next move he won't have to be mailed!

Trouble's First Day of Pre-School

On August 31st Trouble and Travis started their first day of school. For Trouble, this is something new! For Travis, not so much...

For Trouble's first day I fixed him whatever he wanted for breakfast. He wanted pancakes, cereal and pears. This is a picture of him looking happy, not disgusted... I think he was a little nervous.
Here they are ready to leave! Travis was able to take him to school the first month because he had 9 o'clock classes. I was very thankful. Now Travis has 8 o'clock classes, which means I have the privilege of taking him with the other two in tow. I cannot complain, this is what I signed up for when I became a mommy!

Here he is outside of his school.The long walk of no return, once you start school there is no going back. Just ask Travis, AFIT will be his second Masters.Trouble has several things to do each morning before he can play. First, he has to move his 'person' from the front door to another door. This tells the teacher who's there. Then he has to hang up his book bag (which comes home with him at the end of the day). Finally, he washes his hands. (There are names on all the 'people', but I took them out.)His classroom. I believe there is 20 kids in his class and 2 teachers.On his first day he found cars and someone to play with him!! That is a great sign that he'll do just fine.

Trouble goes to school MWF 8:30am-12pm. Each day that he comes home we go through his book bag and he tells me what he did that day. Kelly sent each of the kids a large scrapbook. So I've been gluing or stapling in his papers and journaling. I tried to do the same with Travis, but his math and engineering homework isn't nearly as pretty!

A few weeks ago he went on a field trip to Krogers! I was able to go with the class. We showed up and apparently Krogers forgot about us. So the manager talks and meanders through the store with 20 4-5 year olds and 10 3 year olds. We met most of the workers, he showed us the loading dock, and we got to hang out in the meat fridge, freezing, while one of the workers ground meat (very hygienic *rolling eyes*). We can't forget the deli lady showing them how to fry chicken. We even got to go behind the bakery counter and meet the ladies who were wearing gloves and hair nets. I wonder how many little hands touched all the delicious pastries. However, at the end each kid got a sack full of goodies tied to a balloon. Yes, a balloon they had to walk back to preschool with and NOT be a distraction. It was fun :-)

Trouble also got to participate in his first Show and Tell. He was a little nervous, but his teacher said he did great! He brought Snot-nose the turtle. He sleeps with it every night. Papa had bought a collection of stuffed sea animals from The Dollar Tree. When Trouble was a baby Papa refereed to him as TurtleMonkey. After we had received the animals in the mail I gave Trouble the turtle to sleep with. A piece of thread with two knots on it was used to mark the nose on the turtle. The next day we discovered that he had pulled out the thread, thus the name Snot-nose the turtle. Since then the thread has been completely removed.

We have been very happy with Trouble's experience thus far in school. I don't feel like they are pushing him or that he is bored. They do a variety of activities such as water and sand (I think they use confetti) play, painting, cutting, gluing, etc... I asked him what his favorite thing to do was and he said outside time. Typical, only in preschool and he already loves recess the best!

There is a girl in his class from church. One day I asked him about her. And he said, "There are girls in my class!?!"

Yeah for Preschool!!

David Copperfield - It was like magic!

On Sunday, after conference we went to see David Copperfield. The theater was only 10mins from our house. It was entertaining, to say the least.

Travis and I found our seats in the lower balcony about 4 rows back from the front. One of the workers asked a man two rows in front of us to be apart of the show. They needed someone wearing a tie. Ironically, it was one time Travis was dressed up without tie! So that man went down to Orchestra seating with his wife. The man asked the couple sitting next to them to go down too, but they said no. Travis tried to get the man's attention so we could go down too. That didn't work, so we took their seats!
The show started out with a video about all the ways he is mentioned in the media - news, sitcoms, talk shows, etc... - so talk about a BIG head!!
We had a great time! The show was funny, entertaining, mesmerizing and simply unbelievable!!
Best Trick:
*A lock box is picked up by a crane before the show starts.
*Later the crane lowers the box down and David Copperfield picks out a bunch of people to hold the keys to the locked box.
*He then throws out three Frisbees-completely random.
*1st guy: picks out two numbers between 1 and 50 and has to tell us he is wearing blue boxers (he shows the camera)
*2nd guy: picks out two numbers and tells when the last time he got 'busy', he answers 35 mins ago.
*3rd lady: picks numbers and tells us her birthday: Oct. 3rd
*He calls them on stage and they test the box.
*The box is then unlocked. Inside is a package, a tape and paper. He had one volunteer hold the package and then plays the cassette tape which is his voice repeating all what the people said, and on the paper is written what the people said. Now in the package, which the volunteer never let go of, was license plates with the same numbers engraved upon it.
*So then 12 more volunteers come on stage and look around and he has the two guys from before squatting, holding onto some pillars. The 12 volunteers hold a rope forming a half circle around the guys holding pillars and a large sheet is thrown on top.
*The sheet is taken away and Viola! A car appears! A CAR!! Its MAGIC!!

We had a great time. We laughed the whole time!

Goals in Life

In Minot I shopped at the commissary. It was worth the 20min drive to base. I always bought the off brand of Cheerios...Ralston Tasteeos. And each morning that we'd sit down to breakfast we'd read the back of the cereal box...over and over. So here it is:

So then one day Travis comes home and announces that he is on the list for refractive eye surgery in Colorado Springs and I thought, "Um, Garden of the Gods." So when we got to Colorado we made a point of going to Garden of the Gods. When we got home we sat down to eat breakfast, looked at the back of the cereal box and thought those are great goals!

We've already been to the Redwoods with my Aunt Donna and Uncle Richard, we had just gotten back from Colorado Springs, and this year we went to Niagara Falls. We have plans to go to Mammoth Cave.

So these are our goals in life!

Happy Anniversary Pt. 2

So for our Anniversary we went to The Cheesecake Factory for cheesecake, of course! I had white chocolate raspberry and Travis had banana cream pie cheesecake. We walked around The Greene (a fancy outside mall) and listened to the music playing then went to the movie '9'. It was interesting. It had a lot of action, but needed more plot. It is based off a short film that did well. We agreed to no presents this year, since we spend our wad on various vacations. But we did get tickets for David Copperfield, which we are going to tomorrow night. And I got all of last years blogs printed in a hardcover book. I downloaded the posts into a free program from Blurb. I had to go through and fix the backgrounds and fonts. Obviously I had fix any spots that had video (where the text would've referenced a video). Travis was impressed. Now he is really on me to blog now that we can print it!