Autumn Acres Field Trip

Today Aubrey's PreSchool took a field trip to Autumn Acres.

It was a cold and windy day, and it just stopped raining, 

but they still had a lot of fun!

Aubrey was very lucky to have Daddy go with her and bring her to school!

jumping off the Pirate plank

walking the plank

on the train with her friend

jumping off the rope swing into the hay

ropes course

Her class :)

going down the slide

the corn box is always a hit

and it was surprisingly dry even after all the rain

the tubes were her favorite part

:)

getting a lesson about corn

what a special day for these two :)

jumping on the alligator tires

her first time riding on a YELLOW bus

(she has ridden on a DART bus before to the State Fair)

there she goes! (somewhere in there?)

Avery Leigh -18 months

Our sweet and spunky Avery Leigh is 18 months already

(a couple weeks ago now)!

Pictures in a few weeks as well as well-child Dr. visit.

She officially is acting like a toddler. She does everything Aubrey does,

 and it is so fascinating to me how independent she is already! 

Avery talks a ton and always wants to be in the action. 

Popular words: blankie, sippy, Aubrey, Mommy, Daddy, (s)nack, t(h)ank (y)ou, there you go, bomb pop, peek-a-boo, err-body, shoe on/shoe off, don't know, yup, yah, gotcha...

(She seriously will repeat anything you say and 

adds that word to her vocabulary.

Recently: "(What) Are you doing?" ;)

From standing on the step stool to brush her teeth, 

to taking her own shoes off at the door, 

to throwing her diapers in the trash 

and telling us when she goes potty or poo-poo, 

if we or Aubrey does it, so does Avery. 

Aubrey just loves that she has a little shadow 

and giggles a lot at what Avery tries to do and say.

They miss each other a lot when Aubrey is in Preschool two days a week, they just sit and play and hug for about an hour to get almost reaquainted...so sweet!

Since going back to the babysitter, she is a little extra clingy to her blanket and thumb still.

We love you, sweetie!

Harvest Festival & more

Aubrey's updated art

apple tree, painted apple, coloring page and "mat man"

Aubrey before her haircut

Aubrey's haircut after

Aubrey's show and tell pics :)

her school pic - turned out pretty cute 

After a busy weekend last week,

Avery fell asleep on the couch downstairs next to Daddy while he was folding laundry -

this NEVER happens, poor girlie was so sleepy ;)

I took the girls to Target and some shopping on Mommy's day off Friday

then to Culver's in Ottumwa for lunch

Harvest Festival - Friday night at OSCI

Aubrey riding the horse

Avery was VERY relucatant, but once Daddy got on with her

she LOVED it 

The slide was a hit for BOTH girls!

Aubrey climbing up

Weeeee!

The bounce  castle 

Gotta love the braided balloon hat

Avery got ELSA - Aubrey was a tad jealous ;)

throwing the pumpkins...oops 

balancing the pumkin in her head...kinda

more bounce castle

Aubrey is the pink blob flying 

waiting in line selfie

Weee Avery - she loved it!

That's dangerous - both at the same time!

It was a beautiful night to run around outside for a few hours!

Blast from the Past

Clay County Fair

We made the SUPER FAST trip up to NWI

to head to the Clay County Fair in Spencer this weekend.

(52 hours gone, 12 hours driving, 16 hours sleeping, leaving 24 hours spent with the family)

Saturday morning we quick stopped at the Wynias

to play with cousins

Weston and Avery enjoying a "nack"

big kids eating a snack on the steps

meeting Boden 

We (me, Aubrey, Avery, Mom and Dad VG)

drove together to get to the 12:30 show at the Fair

Steve showing "Sweet Shot" -

she got Reserve Divison

Aubrey "taking her hand" at pics

That's better :)

Grandpa Craig and Daddy showing some more

with the girls looking onward and cheering!

All 5 getting ready to go in for "Best of Five" group class

Aahhhh, there I go!

I should have been way closer to Steve...oops :)

All lined up :)

SMILE, everyone!

family photo op - with "Cherry's Thunder"

Aubrey being brave, showing Uncle Josh and Weston

After the show, Aubrey GOT TO WASH THE CALVES!

and scrub them

"I gotta get underneath them, too!" :)

Of course, she needed to puddle jump

combing them

"Thanks for letting me help, Daddy!"

walking around the Fairgrounds with the little runaway-

she disappeared about 3 times where we didnt know where she was for a minute or two

Avery, Aubrey, Weston checking out the equipment

inside the HUGE TIRE

WOW! Big and new (and expensive, $540,000!)

Aubrey posing without prompting

and Grandpa VG joined right in :)

Mommy, Aubrey and Grandma VG

These horses were a HOOT!

They had roller blade wheels

and moved by just jumping up and down.

Even Avery figured it out within a minute :)

(and threw an expected royal fit when taken off)

down the slide with everyone (on the left)

silly girls!

checking out the mowers together

Avery and Weston

such a GORGEOUS night to be walking and running around!

Sunday - now SEVEN Van Grouw grandchildren on the couch

Camryn, Aubrey, Gavin, Avery, Jaelyn, Weston, Boden 

all the littles checking out the littlest with Grandma 

Officially meeting and holding Boden 

pitstop on the way home to play on the dino at Sinclair gas station

This sticker book (that we got from the fair)

entertained her, seriously, for 3 1/2 hours!

And Avery spent most of her 5 hours likes this :)