Delta Fair!

The Delta Fair came to Memphis so we loaded up the crew and went on down. I was shocked at how expensive it was! The whole night ended up costing us at least $65. Who knew?!

Madison Claire loved the little kid rides! Here she is on the boat ride. My parents have almost the exact same picture of me in a similar ride when I was her age. I'm going to try to scan it so I can put them side by side...but she was precious!

The buddy just hung out in his stroller chillin like usual. I *love* this picture!

Madison Claire loves her Annie!

Bonking Daddy with her balloon

On the ferris wheel with daddy (they are in the green bucket)
It was a fun night! It will be even more fun next year when Madison Claire can ride more rides! I'd also love to go ride the adult rides, but who wants to spend another $65 to get into the fair...NO THANK YOU!

Visit with Kate

Kate came into town to meet Baby Mac and we had such a great visit! We went to the zoo, had some great dinners, and just spent time catching up and playing with the kids. I don't know what I'd do without Kate!!!

By the display of stuffed pandas to commemorate our DDI behavioral interviewing training example of the penguin who got lost amongst the display at the zoo!


Madison Claire riding her bike from Aunt Kate...or rather, resting her feet and asking Aunt Kate to push her!

Kate fell in love with the buddy (who wouldn't!). She took the night feedings every night she was here...what a huge blessing to me!! Here she is on her way out, getting one last feeding in with him.

THANK YOU, Kate!

ECS vs. Harding

Our second football game of the season was against Harding. I took both kids to the game by myself and was so thankful to have some help from the coaches wives! The game was away, at Harding, and we started off the evening at an awesome tailgate. There were at least 75 ECS fans there and we were able to keep cool in a nice RV. There were some amazing home cooked ribs that officially have Ryan and I saying that we are fans of the Memphis Dry Rub Ribs! After the tailgate we headed over to the game. It was a good game but man, it was H-O-T! It was so hot that sweat was just running down every part of me the entire game. HORRIBLE!

I took Madison Claire to the bathroom at halftime and before I went in, ECS had the football. When I came out, I heard the announcer say "on the stop for the Lions" and I thought to myself "how did we get back on defense so quickly". I then looked out on the field and saw that we were still on offense. Right. Because we aren't the Lions anymore.

At halftime, I took the buddy down to a grassy area by the bleachers and laid him down to change his diaper. I realized that it was a lot cooler down there and he was tired, so I let him lay down and play on the blanket for the rest of the game. It was so much better!! Pretty soon, we had a little party going on with Reese, one of the other coaches little one. How cute are they?!?

Madison Claire also found a fast friend in Gina Walters, the head coaches wife. She is so great with kids and by the end of the game, Madison Claire was crying because she didn't want to leave "my Gina, my Gina". Gina was also first on her prayer list the night of this game!

I was spoiled for the last quarter. The buddy was out on the blanket and Madison Claire was fascinated with Gina so I got to watch the game! Lucky me!

First co-ed sleepover...
After the game...big smiles for a big win!

First day of School!

We have all been excited about Madison Claire starting school so we woke up on September 2nd to the tune of "First Day of School, First Day of School"! We gave her a good breakfast to start the day and then headed off to Germantown Baptist Weekday Preschool! Here she is before we left the house. I love this first picture - holding on to her "bear bear'.

Here she is with her "tote bag" all ready to go. You might remember a post a while ago where I showed the adorable toddler backpack I bought for her. Wouldn't you know the preschool has a crazy rule where no backpacks are allowed!! They have to have a tote bag. It's crazy because they don't make tote bags for toddlers so her tote bag is as big as she is! You can tell she loves it though...and was so excited for school!

Here is our big girl at school...L.O.V.E

We dropped her off and were the first ones there! Note to self - don't be the first one to drop off on the first day of school! She was a little timid walking in the classroom because there weren't any other kids there yet, but the teachers shoo'd us away and in she went!

Annie and I came home and started counting down the hours until we got to go pick up Madison Claire! She is at school from 9am - 2:30pm. Around 1:30, Annie came into my office and said "it's 1:30, which means it's almost time for you to feed the baby at 2, and then we get to leave to go get Madison Claire". When 2:30 rolled around, we were there to pick her up and the first thing we noticed is that she was in a different outfit. They had forgotten to put a diaper on her for naptime and she had peed on herself. Poor punkie!

We had been really curious about naptime and if she would sleep at all, because she has never had to nap in a group setting before and she has a hard time falling asleep even if she is just in the room with me & Ryan so I couldn't imagine her sleeping at school. We asked the teachers and they laughed and said she didn't sleep a wink but she sat on her mat and just waved at people for all of naptime! Wish I could have been a fly on the wall for that!

We had also been really curious about if she would eat her lunch. We sent a tuna sandwich, string cheese, corn and a fruit strip. We peeked in her lunchbox when we got in the car and saw that she had eaten all of the string cheese, all of the fruit strip, most of the corn and hadn't touched the tuna sandwich. Not surprising! She saw us looking at it and decided she wanted some. I told her no because I didn't want tuna falling out into her car seat...gross! The minute I told her no, she proceeded to totally, completely LOSE IT! The lack of nap was evident. As we were pulling out of the preschool, Annie and I were repeating to ourselves "we missed her today, we missed her today". As soon as we got home, we put her straight to bed for a nap and after a good 2 hours napping, she was back to her normal, sweet self!

Over the last 3 weeks, she has continued to be excited about school. She talks about it all of the time, talks about her teachers, talks about seeing Grayson at school (they are in the same class), talks about her lunchbox, and just wants to "go to schoool". She will nap for about 30 minutes at school but she still doesn't eat the main part of her lunch! Oh well! I know she is excited to spend time with friends, learn, and be in a structured environment outside of the home so even though we miss her, we are so excited for her to go! Here she is at the end of the first day of school:

ECS vs. St. George

Ryan's first official game of the season was against St. George's. ECS lost to St. George last year, so it was a big game!! Given my experience with both kids at the scrimmage, I decided to take this game solo so I could actually pay attention. It was a good game and we won 35-14!

First Braids

Meet the Teachers

I had to travel to Florida at the end of August for a work trip so I was out of town when Madison Claire had her "Meet the Teacher" day at preschool. Annie took her for me and took these pictures. She looks so grown up!!

Here she is with her teachers - Mrs. Shannon & Mrs. Melissa

Big Sissy

Madison Claire loves being a big sissy and the buddy is totally fascinated by everything that she does! Madison Claire wants to hug him, hold him, kiss him, pick him up, feed him, wake him up, pretty much anything you can think of, she wants to do. In the morning, the first thing she asks is "where is baby"? I'll take her with me to go get him and she will say "Goodmorning buddy". When I take him out of his swaddle, he will always stretch and she'll say "Big Stretch" and then she immediately goes to "Show Madison a big smile". It is *so* cute!

I love seeing her grow as a sister - as she learns to share her things and her time with us. She has such a sweet heart towards him!

The Buddy

Words cannot express how totally smitten I am with this little guy, whom I affectionately call "the buddy". He is the sweetest baby. He has such a pleasant demeanor about him. He only cries if he is hungry or really tired. Most of the time when he is awake, he is just a happy, chill little guy. Look at these pictures...wouldn't you be crazy about him too?!?

GO ECS!

ECS had their first football scrimmage against Collierville High School in late August. I braved the warm weather and took both kids to the game solo. Madison Claire had SO MUCH FUN at "Daddys foosball game". They played well and it was a good unofficial start to the season. I did learn a few lessons that game:

*Put MC in a diaper for the game unless I want to fight through the bleachers 20 times to take her to the potty
*Never take both kids myself without help if I really want to watch the game
*Seeing Madison Claire run out to Ryan after the game is quite possibly my favorite thing in the whole wide world

BFFs

I am so thankful to have our friends the Proctors in Memphis! Madison Claire and Grayson are BFFs. We got the whole crew together in mid-August for a play date. Here were our attempts to get a group photo:

I *love* Baby Mac's face in this one...like "what you doing?"

Look at Madison Claire just smiling at Grayson....too cute!

My sweeties...

We also went on a playdate to the zoo and I caught this precious photo: