Rylee's Walking

Today is only the 22nd of November and Rylee is already walking without help. She is going to be sturdy on her feet by her 1st birthday!

Philly

Halloween morning I very grudgingly boarded a plane to Philadelphia for a school conference. As I boarded the plane all I could think about was that I would rather be at home going trick-or-treating with my kids instead of learning about implementing academies at school. The trip didn't start off real fantastically either as we were stuck in the Minneapolis airport for 3 extra hours. However, the trip really picked up once I stopped feeling sorry for myself.

The history in Philadelphia is amazing. I would love to go back and spend several days being able to see more than we did. We were also in Philly during the World Series when the Phillies were hosting the Yankees. The atmosphere was electric and we loved heading to the local pubs to take in the game with the locals (funny that the first night we were in town we ate at the Hard Rock and apparently found the only bar in Philadelphia filled with Yankee fans!!) Even the conference was informational and made me excited about coming back and starting a Medical Science Academy.

Town hall...beautiful historic building still used today

One of the free tours we took in the morning was to the art museum where Rocky was filmed running up the stairs.

The view from top of the stairs at the museum

This is as close as we got the World Series...the blimp headed to the fields. We were walking to a seafood restaurant when it passed over our heads as we were wishing we could afford a $700 standing room only ticket.

Halloween 2009

This year I think I may have outdone myself on my Halloween entertainment. There are at least a 1000 reasons why I love having children, but one of the reasons is that I LOVE to dress them up. It seems as though there is something wrong with that since it is more for my benefit than theirs.

Abbie and I were looking through a Halloween magazine sometime in August. She was leaning toward being a princess or fairy of some kind. At that point I didn't really mind if the two of them had a "theme".....and then I turned the page and saw the CUTEST Little Bo Beep and Sheep outfit ever! It took a little persuading and a few "I think you would make a very pretty Bo Peep" before Abbie decided she wanted to be Bo Peep and have Rylee be her lost sheep!

One of Jeremy's relatives asked if I made this costume. Let's go with that....

First of all I would like to point out that this is the first time in several years that we could trick or treat without winter coats, boats, and hats. Secondly, I had curled Abbie's hair in ringlets to look like Bo Peep because she said she didn't want to wear the hat. Notice the hat....my daughter will do anything to hide curls.

We stopped at lots of houses but snapped photos at Oma's

and Auntie Jacie's house too!

Holy Spirit Circus

Abbie's doing very well in Pre-K. She seems to be learning lots of new things even though the conversation about Pre-school goes like this. "How was school today?" "Good." "What did you do today?" "I don't remember." Each day it is the same conversation so I keep telling Abbie I am not sure why we keeping sending her. However, she seems to be picking up addition skills such as 2+2, 3+3 and so on, she can write all of her letters and numbers, and knows the sounds of almost all of the letters and can tell you a word that starts with the appropriate letter. She is also starting the basics of reading and she can recognize some sight words such as run, cat, hat, etc.

Mrs. Brown decided to keep the Holy Spirit tradition by doing a circus at the end of October. This allowed the students to dress up, but they had to dress up as a member of a circus. Abbie and I sat down and tried to decide would she be a clown? A lion? An acrobat? The conversation was short...she wanted to be an acrobat. I, however, wanted her to be a clown so I just knew if I took her to look at costumes she would fall in love with a clown costume. No such luck! And what was I complaining about...she could wear her dance clothes as an acrobat and I get off without spending money!! Am I an idiot or do I just think we have too much money that we need to spend some??

The circus performers

Waiting patiently for her turn in the spotlight

Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages...in the far ring we have Abbie jumping through a ring of fire while on the balance beam!!

In the center ring, Miss Virts is showing off her acrobatic skills while on the trampoline

2009 Pumpkin Carving

October 25, 2009 was the date of the Virts family tradition of pumpkin carving. This year we bought 2 pumpkins...one for Abbie and I to decorate and another for Jeremy and Rylee to manage. Jeremy turned it into a friendly competition of who could make a more creative carving. We don't even have to really mention how it all transpired. He logged on to the internet and found a Frankenstein pumpkin that he was able to copy exactly. Abbie and I were just happy with triangle eyes and nose.

Abbie is watching intently as Dad cuts her pumpkin. Jeremy doesn't trust me long with a knife so he always takes over my cutting after I scrape the inside.

The finished product...Abbie added some hair to our triangle eyes face to make it more like Dad's Frankenstein.

The finished product with candles inside. We won't mention that Rylee knocked the lit pumpkin backwards onto the floor. Luckily the fire was just contained to the kitchen! Alright, no fire but my husband, the fireman, mentions that the cause of most fires is candles as we rush around the counter as the pumpkin and candle hit the floor.

Last Fall Soccer on October 25th

I was not all that sad as the fall soccer season winded down. Today was another cold, brisk Sunday afternoon but Abbie had fun.



I like to see that she is starting to develop teamwork skills and that she was willing to take some criticism now and then from Coach Bill to help her get better.





Abbie's favorite part of the season was getting to spend more time with Norah. It is fun for us to watch their friendship and competitiveness develop....interesting to see what teen years have in store.

Twin Day Hits CMR

I've always said that I will stay at my job as long as I love getting up in the morning and going to work. Who could not love this? Dawn and I dressed up as twins on the Theme Thursday in October...Twin Day.

5th Soccer on October 18th, 2009

As the soccer season is winding down Abbie is doing very well. She scored 4 or 5 goals this game and did a great job cheering on her teammates as well. The whole season it has been hard to have her sit and watch the game when she wasn't in...now she is starting to. It seems more fun to play and jump around then watch the game.

Heading to the goal

Looking back to make sure we all saw her goal

Abbie's Fall Team of 2009

Coach Bill, Ruby, Cheyenne, Abbie, Norah(back row), Jordan, and Sydney (front row)

October Husband Day

So a few months back I posted that I was going to make a once a month commitment to "husband day" so that I spend some quality time with Jeremy who has my undivided attention rather than the back of my head. The back of my head is what Jeremy tells me he sees the most of during a conversation since I am busy cleaning or folding laundry when he is trying to talk and so I vowed that I would, at least once a month, give him an afternoon or evening of the front of my head rather than the back. We are going on more than one month since I vowed that commitment. I think we went to the grocery store one day in September by ourselves but I don't think that counts as a "date."

We headed to Hughesville for a 4-wheeler ride on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in October. It was nice to get away and enjoy the beautiful fall scenery. We are able to ride past the old Hughesville mine a few miles. Our last attempt for the same ride had too much snow and we weren't able to get much past the mine. Today there was snow, but not enough to slow down the 700!



Hughesville Mine



The only wildlife we saw on our ride other than some chipmunks