catching up

I am taking the week off work to catch up on, well, everything. Including the blog! I'm aiming for one post a day this week! Now back to where we left off: end of the summer.

Our annual street party was lots of fun this year. Unfortunately, Mae came down with strep the day of the party and wasn't able to attend! I left her inside with my cell phone, and she got a huge kick out of texting me throughout the event (her messages in blue).

Once she was back on her feet, we shipped her and Colin off to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the half week before school started. They got to do lots of fun things like going to the zoo and the Children's Museum! I'm so glad Mae's antibiotics worked quickly.

School started Thursday and Mae is officially a second-grader! She likes her teacher, has a few friends in her class, and has really enjoyed her extracurriculars: choir and Lego Club! She graduated from an iPad to a laptop this year and is already learning typing. (The flamingo backpack is still hanging in there.)

Mae's case of strep disrupted our plans to visit the Indiana State Fair before school started, but we still managed a day trip the weekend after. Both kids loved seeing all the farm equipment, "driving" the combine simulator, and walking through the interactive kids farm.

At the end of the kids farm, you "sell" the items from your farm and get play money that you can use to buy a package of chips, juice, etc. It was so hot, I was sure the kids would choose juice or a snack, but Colin chose milk. MILK. I couldn't stop quoting Anchor Man, "Milk was a bad choice." He also begged for corn, which seemed like a much more appropriate fair-food choice to me. (The corn pizza I got was the best thing I ate all day.)

To celebrate the beginning of the year, Mae's school district offered discount tickets to see our local MLS team's reserve squad. It was a great chance to see the stadium (our first visit) with discount food and a bunch of Mae's friends. We had a lot of fun!