Notre Dame band alumni game

This past weekend, I went to the Notre Dame vs. Stanford game for the Band Alumni Reunion! Go band geeks!

We started with a morning practice in Loftus. It was so fun to see all my old friends again! And it was amazing how quickly my mouth/fingers/feet remembered how to play and march at the same time!



After practice, I had time to wander around campus. Here I am by Touchdown Jesus.



The sun peeked out for about 5 minutes the whole day - and I was lucky enough to be by the Dome when it happened! I got this good shot of the Dome, and...



...got a random guy to take this pic of me in front of the Dome!



Here's our row for the marchout. We took section pictures on the steps of the Dome, and then broke up into two alumni bands (over 600 alums!). It was such a blast to march through campus again!

We sat on the field, and got to watch the two Stanford touchdowns at the end of the game happen right in front of us. Despite the score and the much cooler-than-expected weather, we all had a great time playing, chatting, dancing, etc.

Here I am with Carol and Brian Murray.

And here's me and Colleen Halloran. We can't wait for the next reunion!

Random pics

Fun pics from the past two weeks:



Katie the soccer star! She plays in an indoor arena which is awesome! She plays 6v6, and is getting a little more comfortable and confident with the game.



Megan the soccer star! She plays at Rochester High School, on an artificial turf field (same as last year). They play 3v3, with no goalie. Chris promised her a quarter for every goal, and she earned 75 cents last Saturday!



Jessi with her ballet teacher, Miss Danielle. Jessi really loves being in ballet class. This kid twirls around in the aisles at church every Sunday, and so many people ask us how long she's been taking dance classes! She's good, so graceful and dramatic.



Megan with Miss Danielle. Megan's class is half tap and half ballet. She is the best one in her class at tap - really! She's so coordinated. Jess & Meg have dance back-to-back on Monday mornings. Another mom is doing the same thing, so the girls have someone to play with while their sister is in class. And Megan's best friend and kindergarten classmate, Abby, is in her dance class, so Jessi also gets to play with Abby's brother Danny, who is Jessica's friend and preschool classmate! It works out so well to have friends to hang out with.

Here we are at the Notre Dame at MSU game from two weekends ago. We had such a good time! We saw the MSU and ND bands, saw Johnny Spirit, got jello shots from some random girls - it was a traditional Michigan State good time! :) The game was awesome, so fun to watch. The trick play at the end...wow!

This was our view. The crowd was just electric!

Next, a few pics of our picky kids at dinner time. This is Jessica, NOT trying the scalloped potatoes.

This is Megan a few nights later, NOT trying the ziti.

And this is Katie, happily scarfing down anything on her plate! (This is tuna casserole, I think) Thank goodness one of our kids is a good eater!

Jessi's first day of preschool

On Sept. 14th, Jessica started preschool for the very first time!



Classic shot on the front porch.



Always have to get the pic in front of the school sign!



Here's a closeup of the drawing she did for her teacher. Can you find: Jessica? Mrs. Scott? Balloons? The bird's nest?




Cheesy kid playing with the play-doh. She walked right in with me, and did just great on her first day. The first class was only an hour long, with a parent there for 45 minutes. The director took us out for a short "meeting" (aka test run of separation anxiety), and Jessi did fine while I was gone.

She loved the water table!

This is what she always builds with Legos...a perfectly flat surface!

Not so confident when the teacher got up close! This is Mrs. Scott, who was also Megan's teacher when she was in 3-year-old preschool. Mrs. Scott is as close to Mary Poppins as they come - British accent and all!

On the next Thursday, Jessi went to preschool for an hour, all by herself. She did cry a little bit before going in, but she walked in all by herself. She had a blast! This past week (Sept. 21 & 23), the preschool held full sessions of 2.5hrs. Jessi didn't cry at all, she walked right in like she owned the place. She was a little worried that the class would be longer - thanks to Megan who pointed this out! But I told her it had to be longer to have time for painting, snack, and recess, and that was enough to get her excited!

Our baby is a preschooler, and loving it!

Megan's First Day of Kindergarten

Our little Megan started kindergarten this week!!



Thursday was her first day. Here she is on the front porch...



...Megan in front of school (I can't call it "Katie's school" anymore!)...



...in front of her coat hook...



...hard at work at her desk...



...learning the Pledge of Allegiance with her classmates (there are only 11 kids in her class!)...

...cutting out her self-portrait (notice she cuts lefty)...

...picture of our family on Megan's very first day of kindergarten! Thursday was only an hour of "school," learning the routine and parts of the room, with parents encouraged to stay.

Megan with her teacher, Mrs. King, whom Katie had in kindergarten). She's the best! Almost all of the kids have older siblings at Holy Family, I think at least 3 of them have siblings in Katie's grade. So they are starting off confident and comfortable. With just 11 kids in the class, and two teachers - plus an extra one who comes in for language arts - they will thrive!

Today (Friday) was Megan's first REAL day of kindergarten! She got to wear her uniform, spend the full three hours in class, and ride the bus home!

Showing off her backpack.

Megan walking into school.

Working on her door hanger project. I left as soon as she was settled at her desk. She was very quiet and nervous before I left, but there were no tears. She said she LOVED kindergarten! She even got to have recess today, at the same time as Katie's class!

While Megan was at school, Jessi got to play on the computer. This kiddo is amazing with the mouse, even though it's on the right side and she's a lefty. She does great at this paint program, clicking on colors and shapes and making cool creations!

Here are Megan and Katie getting off the bus this afternoon. Look at Megan's grin! She loved her first day and her first bus ride, and can't wait for Monday to get here!

But all of the excitement caught up with her...here she is passed out on the couch about 30 minutes after getting home. It's been a long week of anticipation and nervousness. Thank goodness we have the whole weekend to get caught up on sleep!

Katie's First Day of Third Grade

It's back to school week!



Here's Katie on Wednesday, her first day of third grade. Required pic on the front porch...



...and pic in front of her school...



...and in front of her coat hook, showing off her new backpack....

...and with her teacher, Mrs. Benham...

...and hard at work at a word search with the names of all of the kids in her class. Wednesday was a half day, and a dress-up day, and there were no buses.

Here is Katie on Thursday morning, in her uniform, ready to board the bus for her first full day of third grade!

Katie getting on the bus for the first time this year! She had a GREAT first week of school. She likes her teacher and all of the kids in her class. Can't wait for a great year!

Megan had her first soccer practice this week, and I snapped a few pics. Here they are warming up by doing jumping jacks.

Megan practicing dribbling around cones.

Megan did great in the scrimmage - she's so fast! She has games every Saturday in Sept & Oct, but we'll miss this weekend (wedding) and the 25th (ND game). I know she'll be a soccer star :)

End of summer fun

These last few weeks of summer vacation, we've crammed in LOTS of fun. After painting Megan's room, we drove down to Ohio to pick up the girls, and drove on to Wheaton. I forgot my camera's memory card that trip, so I don't have any pics, but we had a great time. We collected honey from the hives, played at the park, hung out with Uncle JoJo, Auntie Nancy, and Tashi, went to a children's garden, etc. It was such a fun weekend!

The past week and a half, I've taken the girls to the pool, a farm, a waterpark, a history museum, Ikea, the cider mill, the beach, and a nature center and park. And we managed to squeeze in a walk and/or a bike ride nearly every day. School starts tomorrow, so we had to squeeze in a lot of fun while we could!


Katie, Megan, and Jess as farm animals.



More animals.



We spent about an hour in the dairy barn, watching them milk the cows. They remembered watching it at the Ohio fair, and explained all the details to me. The farmer was super nice and answered all of our questions.



Girls and chickens.

Girls and friends feeding the donkey.

Jessi modeling her new dress and shades from Uncle Joe, Auntie Erica, and Carter.

Love this SASSY t-shirt!

Girls at the waterpark. We spent five hours there, and it was sunny and over 90 the whole time! We had such fun in the wave pool, the lazy river, and the splashy playground. We'll definitely go back next year!

Katie saved up her allowance for several weeks to buy this pioneer dress for her American Girl doll. There's a woman in downtown Rochester who sews pioneer garb for adults, children, and dolls, and Katie's had her eye on this outfit for a lonnggg time. It almost exactly matches her outfit! She is still obsessed with all things pioneer...she watches Little House on the Prairie whenever she can, she is thinking of what to buy next (metal lunch pail? slate and chalk? pioneer toys?), and she is ironing out the details of her Halloween costume (pioneer girl, of course). She says we are all going trick-or-treating as the Ingalls family, and we'll convert the wagon into a covered wagon for Jessi! I think it sounds like fun, but I don't know if Chris will play along or not...

School starts tomorrow, so our carefree days are over. It has been a fun summer, and we're looking forward to the new fun we'll have with school, field trips, soccer, ballet, etc etc. Look for first-day-of-school pics coming this week and next!