Fall Fun

We had a fun and busy fall.  The temperatures were above normal most of the fall, which allowed us to spend a lot of time outside.

L-R: Celebrating Eric's 38th birthday, Cody waiting for the school bus with Graecyn, family photo

Eagle Dash: Graecyn's school had a fundraiser, the Eagle Dash, where each student had to guess how many laps they could run in 30 minutes and get pledges for each lap they completed.  Her guess was 10 laps (actually, her first guess was 10,000 laps, but we talked her down to something a bit more reasonable)...she completed 14 laps and raised almost $30 for her school!  She ran the entire 30 minute time slot her class had...all in the rain!  I was there to cheer her on and she was so focused and determined to accomplish her goal, that I don't even know if she realized I was there.

Gymnastics: Graecyn is staying busy with gymnastics and had a "Gymnastics Showcase" where she and her teammates got to show off all the skills they have learned this year.  She also had a "mock" competition later in the fall where she and her teammates did their individual routines on the bars, beam, and floor.  She is very close to being able to do a bridge kickover and desperately wants to accomplish a back flip.  She gets nervous before performing, but loves it!  She did such a great job and I was so proud of her!

Renaissance Festival: We enjoyed the Michigan Renaissance Festival, which is always a fun day!  Graecyn dressed up and got new butterfly wings.  Cody was just happy to go on some of the rides and walk around with Graecyn's purse on! :-)

Halloween: We had a great month celebrating Halloween throughout October.  Graecyn and I painted pumpkins and Eric carved one too (Cody was too young to have any interest...maybe next year we can get him to do one).  We went to a local "trunk-or-treat" with Graecyn's BFF, Callie.  This year Graecyn decided to dress up as a 'punk rock cat' and Cody's costume was a carpenter/construction worker.  He refused to wear any part of his costume and cried the whole time I tried to get a picture of him.  On Halloween, I didn't even fight him and let him not dress up - he really didn't care anything about trick-or-treating and just rode around in his stroller watching the other kids.  We had a few friends over to trick-or-treat and Graecyn and her friends had a great time.  It was fun this year to see Graecyn so excited, especially when she would run into her friends from school in the neighborhood.

50th Day of School: Graecyn's class celebrated their 50th day of school by having the kids dress up in 50's style clothes and enjoyed root beer floats.  She had a lot of fun dressing up!  The yellow glasses have become a favorite accessory since then and she wears them all of the time now (they were old sunglasses that we removed the lenses from).

Graecyn's 1st Concert: I took Graecyn to her first concert with her friend Piper.  It was Koo Koo Kangaroo, a children's band that is described as "Beastie Boys meets Sesame Street".  They listen to this group all the time at school during free time, so it was so fun for her to see them in person.  There were 2 other artists who opened for Koo Koo Kangaroo that were more hip hop (fortunately, they were kid friendly). Unfortunately, we only got to stay for the first song of Koo Koo Kangaroo because Piper ended up getting sick (we rode with Piper and her mom).  Graecyn still thought it was pretty cool to see them in person.

It was a fun, fast, memory-filled fall!!