Finally

The Before

The During

Notice the general look of disdain

oh well, nothing a sucker couldn't fix apparently

this one was happy as a clam!

The After

Truth be told, I was happy to get Sophia's cut, but I did sort of tear up when she started cutting Leo's. He is much happier to have it out of his eyes and she was thrilled with a little shape-up and has been admiring both of their stylish looks since Saturday!

Soccer Comes to an End

Sophia with Coach Chris

Sophia had her last day of soccer :( She really loved it and was sad to see it end. Personally I wish the program would have continued another 2 weeks, that 6 weeks flew by. I can't say enough positive things about the Challenger Program and I hope they will have other options in the spring. I'm not sure what I'll sign her up for next but I suppose it'll probably need to be indoors since winter will be on it's way before long. We haven't been to our favorite Music with Mar class all summer and that's still an option for us, but I feel like I need to present Soph with some options like maybe a dance or drama class instead. I think I would like to try and get back to music classes with both kids, or at least Leo, because it is really fun, educational, and full of movement. Just yesterday Sophia was singing one of the color songs to herself and it made me realize how much they were learning and how much we miss it!

Loose Park Play Date

Let's get there, Mom!

one goes up, the other one goes up

one goes down, the other one goes down!

We had a last minute play date with Cari and Andres (Juan was in school) on Friday. We decided to meet at Loose Park since it's between us, which in theory was a great idea. In reality, it seems that it is the preferred choice of school children on field trips to eat their lunch! Our little people were overrun twice by huge groups of kids! Next time we'll have to go earlier in the morning I think!

Fall at the Arboretum

Princess Sophia got a crown on her forehead

Sophia really enjoyed watching the bees flit from flower to flower

Teamwork happening over loading the dump truck

relaxing in the log chair

enjoying the hay ride

hard at work on the snake craft

Hugs for Forrest the Fox

Big Sis taught me how to roll down the hill!

The Overland Park Arboretum has a great fall festival every year and we were excited to make our second appearance this year! Last year was a lot chillier so it was nice to have warm weather! Sadly Charlie had to work all day, so I was solo with the munchkins, but we had a good time! Leo was excited to do some painting but not that much interested in the other crafts, although he tried to keep up with Sophia. She enjoyed the various things and made a necklace, photo frame and they both made a bird feeder. We all enjoyed the hay ride and Leo made sure to steer very clear of the Forrest the Fox who was wandering around.

Deanna Rose

They all became superheroes...inspired by Isaac and his homemade costume!

I mean cute or what!?!

One of Sophia's favorite activities...rolling down a hill!

Leo was chasing the ducks and enjoying the geese

This picture is not only adorable but provided a language breakthrough...I always like to take their picture on this bench, well...because it's adorable! Anyway, Leo walked over to it, turned around and said...

I want to 'cheese'!

Yay!!! He "cheesed" away and I snapped as many photos as I could!!!

tee pee time! All the kids enjoyed these and spent quite a while running between the 3 of them

There are only a few more weeks to enjoy Deanna Rose for the season! It's the perfect time, when it's not too warm, the leaves are changing, and the scenes are set for harvest! Hopefully we'll make it back at least once more before Halloween!

More Celebrations

Leo's birthday was on Sunday and since we have been avoiding hosting coffee hour at church we decided what better day than his birthday. We got a cake, lots of flavored milk, sandwiches, shrimp and other various dips. It was well received and thankfully we got everything set up and cleaned up with the help of Mom and Stacy!

When will I learn with the family picture? I know with enough repetition, I will eventually get a good one!
Sophia, Me, Mom and Stacy



Sue's birthday was on Tuesday and we were lucky enough to get to see her on her special day! We headed out to eat and Sophia was very impressed that her party was at a restaurant. ;)

Anne, Sophia and Sue say 'birthday cake!'

Sophia and Grandma shared a dessert

while Leo and I shared another...I love the look of determination!

Doctor's Report

The kids had their annual check-up this week and here are the results...

Sophia
Height: 44" 100%
Weight: 41lbs 85%

Leo
Height: 37.75" 100%
Weight: 35.5lbs 100%

I really love that my doctor just uses the "100th %" comment as a platitude for "your kid is too big to even be listed on the chart", even though I know the drill, it still makes me feel better! Sophia is a bean pole, which is evident by her stats, but we're hoping to be able to still find pants this winter that stay up and are the right length! On the flip side, I'm trying to find pants for Leo that are big enough around the waist but not two feet too long...still working on that. I may have already posted this, but I think I may just start cutting them off and not caring. Part of me would like to hem them (which means someone else would have to do it b/c a seamstress I am not) but that seems like a whole lotta work for pants that he might be able to wear again next season.

Anyway, the doctor had quite a nice conversation with Sophia and was appropriately amused by her ;) and basically said that both kiddos are doing great and right on track. They got their flu mists and Leo had to have one shot, while Sophia had none and we were out of there relatively unscathed, nothing a Dum Dum couldn't fix! Planning two birthday parties within a week of each other is exhausting, but being able to take them both to the doctor on the same day is kind of awesome!