Caida's 6th Birthday

The actual birthday was probably not too fun for Caida. She dressed up and went to school. She said she had a lot of fun at school. They sang happy birthday to her and gave her a book from the library as a present and then she went to the Birthday Box and she picked out a car (which I never got to see because a bully on the bus threw it out the window.)
When she got home, I played some games with her until dinner. Caida wanted to go to Pepe's and it was a small business with few staff, so they didn't sing or anything. But, our waitress decided to put a candle in some fried ice cream, so that was sweet. ;)
She opened up a few presents and then we went home and she played with some new stuff before she went to bed.
Maybe not the best day...but then came the birthday party on Saturday.
It was really cute. Celeste did a good job on the headbands that had little ears on them and she painted the kid's faces. She also did the cake, which was awesome. Pizza, games, kids dressed like animals and puppy chow in dog bowls. (obviously made with chex, not horse) haha.
The theme was Littlest Pet Shop. Everyone definitely did a great job with everything and I think Caida had a lot of fun.

Trick or Treat

I was getting pretty worried about what we were going to do this year to get in the Halloween mood. We decorated a few weeks ago, we watched a scary movie a few weeks ago, but since then, it just hasn't felt scary around here. We finally decided to carve pumpkins last night, and dress up and go out trick-or-treating. I was cold, we only got one trick-or-treater at our house, but Caida had so much fun. It was all worth it!
We didn't take a camera to the actual houses and neighbors we went to. (And I probably wouldn't be able to remove my hands from my jacket, anyway!) However, we did get some pictures of the house, and of her getting her last house (our house) and the huge amount of candy she collected. All in all, Halloween for Caida was a big success. Next year, I am definetely going to some haunted houses, and having scary movie marathons and doing things to make it awesome for the big kids, too. :) On a much unhealthier note, I have enough candy to last a normal person a month or two. Which means it will probably get eaten in 3 or 4 days. haha
Bring on the stomach ache!

Crisman Elementary Halloween Party

I completely understand that we don't want our kids to eat sugar all day, but schools seem to be getting a little rediculous. I wish I could give my daughter some cupcakes or cookies for her party but they aren't on the approved-foods list. In fact, the only things on that list are pre-packaged crackers, pre-packaged carrots and celery sticks, and I think pretzels. Caida has a halloween party today but she is not allowed to wear a costume unless it is during the hours of 2 and 3. Then she has to take her costume off before she can get on the bus. They are not allowed to wear any face paint (not even cute little freckles :( ) or have fake tatoos, nothing violent looking, no fake blood or zombies...I'm suprised they allow stickers. haha.
Anyway, Caida's witch costume has a lot of lace and is very hard to put on, even with help from me, but she still wanted to look pretty for her party. It was fun putting things together that fit the dress code, and I think she still ended up looking awesome! I know that school rules are becoming more strict everywhere, but I can't wait for her year at Crisman to be over with, so we can find her a better school! Even with that being said, she is going to rock her halloween party and have tons of fun. I am so happy she is in kindergarten this year, and she gets to experience all these awesome activities. :)

Caida's Tournament and Pumkpin Patch

Caida's tournament was really just the last game of the sseason and at the end they handed out participation trophies and, what seemed to be much more important, hotdogs! I was so proud of Caida. She actually kicked the ball once. It only went about 3 feet but everyone cheered like she was the best player out there. Partially because the other parents knew Caida never kicked the ball, and the other part of it was because she had just gotten hit in the face by the soccer ball and everyone was really excited when she stuck her thumbs up in the air to say she was okay and staying in the game! I can't wait to figure out what she is doing next...probably not soccer, though. LOL

Then we went out to Steak N' Shake and we all got very unhealthy, but awesome tasting shakes. After everyone got so full they thought they may explode, we went to the pumpkin patch around here. It was big, very commercial. Pretty pricey but pretty fun, too. I wish we could have stayed longer and done more, but the activities weren't very interactive anyway and everyone was so tired from the long day. Next year we will do our research a little better but we definitely had a good time just being outside and doing something different!






My pumpkin may look lumpy, but it actually resembles a skull quite a bit, so we will have to see how creative I can get when we carve pumpkins this weekend. Halloween is on a Sunday this year and Caida has Friday and Monday off for the fall break. Should make for an interesting weekend. So excited!!!

Labor Day Weekend

Saturday was a busy day for us. At 9 in the morning, Caida and Charissa went to go pick up my nephew, Tanner, and then we (My mom, my sister, my daughter, and my nephew) all went to IHOP for breakfast. It was extremely busy and the wait was about 25 minutes, but I was kept busy by Tanner and Caida. It was a lot of fun. Wouldn't sound like it if I told you what we did... that little man can eat a lot of food.
Then we were off to Colulmbian Park for our family reunion. We stayed about an hour while my mom slept in the car. haha. It was so funny watching Caida become best friends with the only other little girl there. They just introduced themselves and grabbed eachothers hands and started skipping away.
Then my camera broke. :( Then we went on to the Columbian Park Zoo. It's not a very big zoo. Monkeys, Huge turtles, a petting zoo, a peacock, otters, gophers, small animals like that. Then there was a section where the wallabies roam free and a butterfly garden. Tanner's head kept spinning as the butterflies would whip by.
Eventually, we had to drop Tanner off, and we took Caida to Toys 'R' Us and and got a few games and puzzles and things for her to do. Then we decided to be true Americans and go out to eat, (You guessed it, PEPE'S!) even though we were still full from breakfast. haha. Then we went home and Charissa and I watched Brian Regan which was a perfect end to a perfect day.

Sunday: My mom and I hung out and did lots of fun things until Caida and Charissa got home from church. Then, Charissa, Caida and I went to my dad's house for a few hours. When we got back to my mom's, we ate dinner and then James and I took off on our hour and a half drive back to our house, and Caida stayed with Grandma Linda for the night.

On Monday, my mom, Charissa and Caida came to Portage and I bought some disposable cameras (Do you remember how to use those things? I didn't for a minute. lol) and we went to the Dunes. At least we attempted to go to the dunes but the parking lot was full so we went and ate some tacos, came back, and then went to the dunes. The climb was a lot easier than I remember, but we still used the trail on the way back. It was cold and windy and there was no sun, but it was our last trip of the year out to the beach and we were determined to make the best of it. Which wasn't hard, once your body was numb, the water was awesome. Being outside is always fun, no matter what the conditions are and doing something to break free of the normal schedule is always nice. Overall, GREAT WEEKEND!

First Soccer Game

Caida's first soccer game was today! The weather was perfect, Caida had on her maroon shorts so she stood out. She was awesome as a team player, letting everyone else kick the ball while she just ran around the group of kids and laughed. We need to work on her skills a lot, but she has so much potential now that she is finally listening to her coach!
Aunt Charissa drove all the way up to Portage from West Lafayette just to see Caida play her first game. They won 5-0. The other team only had 6 players against the yellowjackets' 12 players! For 5 year olds, our team is pretty aggressive. lol
Then we all went to Pepe's (third time I mention this place. lol) and spent a good hour and a half there and then drove to Lafayette. Busy, busy, busy.
Go YELLOWJACKETS!!!!!

Caida's first day of KINDERGARTEN

Caida was so excited when she woke up this morning! She woke up really early but actually got out of her room when she knew she was allowed to,at 6:30. She kept asking over and over and over what time school started, and she is p.m. kindergarten so she had awhile to wait.
We kept ourselves busy until it was time to go head out for the bus. (She was realllly excited to use the bus after kindergarten orientation and even though I wanted to take her, I was going to get awesome pics of her getting on the bus.
However, at noon, her bus went right passed us and gave to me (what looked like) a shrug and just kept on going! I thought that, since she clearly saw us, she might come back around so we waited another 15 minutes.
I decided to drop her off myself and as we are driving out of our driveway, here comes the bus again and this time it stops but I knew there was no way to get there in time so I ended up driving her anyway.
Of course, I was glad that I got to, because it was nice seeing her off for her first day. When all the kids arrived in the front of the school, the teacher said, "Give your parents hugs and kisses!" And Caida, barely looking at me, blows me a kiss over her shoulder! At least she doesn't have seperation anxiety. haha