Pick a card, any card - video!

One day Steve was showing Aubrey a magic trick 

and she wanted to do it too!

She would say, 

"Pick any card."

"Show Mommy"

"Put it back"

"Is this your card?"

(and then clap for herself)

But this wasn't her best ones in the video, but

you get the idea :)

Hot, hot, hot!

I think I mentioned this before in my back to school post

but it is HOT!

Since our school does not have air conditioning, our principal

has already arranged for early outs most of the week!

When the highs are in the upper 90s and heat indexes in the 100s,

it is just hard to teach at all!

Everyone is dripping by 9:00!

We have had hot weather before, but this is record-breaking

heat! Nice for the early outs, but even when we are here

the kids are just beat.

Hopefully we can get a break next week!

"Scratchies"

As many of you know, Aubrey has a little obsession with "scratchies" -

meaning the paint/texture that is sometimes of shirts or clothes.

She often likes to scratch it as a way of comfort, 

usually when she is drinking her sippy.

Today during church she had on a really cute dresss...but NO SCRATCHIES!

In the event that she does not have scratchies, she tries to find them

on others or anything she can find.

We tried to encourage her to use her Minnie Bag since there

was some sparklies on it, but that would not work.
And Mommy and Daddy did not have any on their clothes either!

UNFORTUNATELY, she quickly found scratchies...

ON HER PANY! 

So here she is, lifting up her skirt, scratching her panies

since the Dora pattern was textured.

Oh. My. Goodness!

How do you keep a stressed out 2 year old away from her scratchies?!

YOU CAN'T!

She threw a fit and insisted on using her panies as scratchies.

After trying to distract her, finally Steve just held her

(away from most in view)

and let her scratch her panies for a few minutes.

It looked SO inappropriate that all I could do was laugh!

Ugh, it looks like we need to make sure that future outfits

(when we go out in public)

have scratchies on the outside, else she goes on the inside!

LOL.

Sorry, but I had to document!

Back to School

Well, it's officially Back to School TODAY!

Steve had a shorter day until 2:15 and we got out at noon.

Of course since we are back to school, so the heat is back on too!

It is HOT in our non-air conditioned building and I have a feeling

there will be many more early outs in the next several days.

Here Lisa took a picture of Kate and Aubrey at this morning's chapel.

Iowa State Fair

This year, Steve went up to the Fair Friday night and stayed in the camper,

but Aubrey and I didn't make it there until Saturday morning 

and stayed overnight in the camper Saturday night and stayed through Sunday afternoon.

Even Uncle Curt joined us for the day! 

(but no pics to prove it, sorry Curt!)

Aubrey and I parked at SE Polk school and took

the "bus" over - Aubrey LOVED it!

The Grand Concourse 

Show day!

Three generations of Kaisands.

Even Aubrey wanted to help brush the cows. 

Each of the Kaisand cows had a name plate with their names.

This year Aubrey helped name them...Belle, Ariel and Aurora.

Princess names!

Aunt Andrea showing the calves.

Grandpa Craig bought us some tickets

so we could ALL go down the BIG SLIDE!

Uncle Curt was nice enough to capture the pics for us.

Weee...that was FAST!

She liked it and wanted more!

Checking out the baby chicks

nice and close. 

Getting brave to pet the cow.

Sunday was a more relaxed day.

The best part for Aubrey was 

"The Little Hands on the Farm" exhibit.

SO CUTE and FUN!

She got to wear an apron and carry around a basket.

Aubrey gets to be a little farmer and here

she is planting her peppers.

She walked around knowing just what to do.

Getting an apple from the tree.

Aubrey and Grandma Char being

little chickens :)

Going to feed the calves :)

Leaving her mark in chalk. 

Milking the cow.

Finally, at the end you get a $1 that you cash in for 

a snack!

Aubrey chose a bomb pop! Yummy!

(And, Aunt Jessica, they pass out free Pioneer visors :))

Grandpa Craig decided to spoil Aubrey extra

and take her for another ride on the Big Slide!

There they go!!!!!

A nap in the stroller to end a very busy two days!

(note all her tattoos and stickers

and she is even hold a mini-baby :))

And just for fun, the past THREE Fairs that Aubrey has been to:
2011

2012

2013

Circus

We have both been busy with getting ready for the school year with meetings and working in our rooms all week, but here is something we did LAST Saturday right in Oskaloosa,

the circus came to town!

There was a display of many of the animals before the show started.

Sitting in the tent...it was SO HOT!!!

The setup...not many people showed up.

Aubrey had a good time!

These guys were amazing!

They were the Montana Brothers from Cuba...very cool!

"Indian girls" climbing up the ladders to the ceiling...

all around the circus ring.

The best part...the ELEPHANTS!

Steve and Aubrey almost missed them due to going potty.

You can't see this very well,

but the show ended with the flying trapeze...very cool to watch!

And one just for fun...Aubrey had a day she wanted to

play in her "baby bed."

"Are You My Mother?" - Aubrey reading

We often go to the Library to pick out books and Aubrey quickly gets a new favorite.

This week it was the book, "Are You My Mother?"

She heard it a few times and soon knew the whole story by heart.

We changed it a bit to "Are you my MOMMY?" instead

but she does a great job reading along, if you are familiar with the book.

They are kind of long, but pretty cute :)

Part 1

Part 2

Vacation Part 4: Memphis, TN

Day 4: August 1, we left Gatlinburg and decided

to extend our TN vacation a bit to Memphis.

Leaving Gatlunburg was quite rainy

but really brought out the "Smokey" in the Mountains. 

Driving through Nashville,

but we didn't have time to stop and do anything there this time.

We made it to Memphis, TN!

There was about 20 from our reunion that made the 

6.5 hour trip down to watch our cousin, Matt.

He is part of the AAA baseball team for the Padres

and happened to be playing the Red Birds in Memphis, TN!

#22 - Matt Andriese

He started pitching and lasted 8 innings! 

He gave up one run with a no decision. 

His team ended up losing 2-1 in 10 innings. 

He ALMOST hit a home run, seriously!

There he is...just ignore his batting AVG since he is a pitcher :)

Making fishy faces with Grandma to pass the time.

We stayed after the game to say hi to Matt.

It had been a LONG day!

Aubrey stayed up til 11:00 (which was really 12:00 her body time!)

All the kids did really well!

Van Grouws who were there 

with Matt in the middle!

Beautiful home sweet home!

Iowa sunset!