Every childs dream

M had a field trip yesterday to meet "community helpers" to go along with their communities unit they have been working on. In your town, community helpers are probably police officers, firemen, crossing guards... I can think of a ton of professions that could be labeled community helpers, and for them I am grateful. Imagine my surprise when upon reading the permission form, the community helpers they were to go meet were the trainers that work with the Virginia tech football team... don't get me wrong, i love football. In fact when John and I got married he didn't watch football at all, i am guilty for beginning that OBSESSION, but I still don't quite see how the trainers of those fine, well behaved grown men qualify as community helpers, but i digress.... So yesterday was the field trip. Our school usually has a hard time finding enough chaperone's and since it was my day off, I volunteered to go tour the football field, the tunnel, practice fields, etc. Upon arriving at the Merryman Center (home of trophies and hokie birds) and seeing the buses pull up, I realized I didn't need to worry abt. lack of volunteers. Every child but 2-4 depending on class, had a parent with them. 90% of the parents were dads. Ms eyes were wide the entire morning. I wish I had brought my camera... His cousins dads cousins (got that??) plays for the hokies and M was so excited to see marshman written everywhere.

They got to go through the tunnel and stand on the field and look all around at the 66,000 seats that are usually full and loud. They got to see trophies, the weight room where the players work out, practice squats. They were all excited the whole trip, and had a great time seeing all the things the football players get to do, but NOTHING brought excitement like when they got to walk through the players lounge. The lounge is not usually part of the tour, but one of the kids in ms class has a dad that works with the team so we got to see it. When the kids walked into the lounge, almost immediately they all started screaming that they were going to grow up and play football. Even the girls. The reason? the lounge had a big screen tv, a pool table, and abt 20 video game machines. (and Evans, asleep on the couch...) So thank you, K teachers, thank you for teaching my kids all abt community helpers. It was indeed a very productive field trip.

pictures

it is so hard to believe CL is already 3 weeks old... the time has flown. Life with 5 has been crazy. (why did nobody ever warn me???) We have been blessed with an amazing baby. She almost never cries, and is so patient with the schedule we keep. I wanted to post some pics of the growth we have seen in her the past 3 weeks, and I will post Halloween later (we had an interesting evening...) So I'll start with the most recent (since blogger has reversed the order of my photos.... whats up with that?) CL was a butterfly for Halloween. her costume was extremely ridiculous, but i thoroughly enjoyed dressing her up with tights and wings... i have been waiting a LONG time for that! (and yes, that is a pink stroller she is sitting in, just couldn't re use the blue stroller!)

I love bows! I love her hair! 1 week old

we enjoyed a visit from Stephanie and her adorable boys when she was 6 days old. her boys were slightly interested, its so hard to believe they were that size just over a year ago, they grow so fast!

3 weeks old

my mom came and visited for a few days while john had finals. she stayed with some family in Christiansburg but came over in the mornings to take the kids to school for me (we commute our kids to a school across town due to great teachers) and it was so nice having her here to visit. we went shopping, i took naps, she took van out on a date, it was great. I think she enjoyed her visit, and i def. missed her when she left.

3 days old... look at the difference already!

we have been battling all sorts of funk in this house. since having her, van has had 2 rounds of stomach flu. He is currently in what i hope is the end of this round. Hes been sick since Thurs. night and is still throwing up... John is finally kicking a horrible cold/cough that he picked up during finals (which he did AMAZINGLY well on! i had to take CL in to the doc. on Mon. due to a horrible cold and pink eye. she was so pitiful, i hate it when they get sick so young. my pediatrician helped me feel better though, he reminded me this was probably inevitable (the ped. at the hospital at discharge told me to be careful where i took her my first 2 months.... how in the world is that even possible????) she was already up to 7 pounds 10 ounces, so she is growing well! the boys love her and she even is sleeping pretty well. overall, we are very much enjoying the blessing of a new baby!