Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day seems so early this year!  We were excited to have Andrew and Mandi home for the weekend!  They flew home Friday night.  Katherine went to the airport with Nonna to pick them up while I was at football practice with Luke.  We all had supper at our house and had fun hanging out. I worked most of the day Saturday. We got together to watch football that night.  Sunday everyone from Tullahoma came to Mom's for a cookout.  It was a lot of fun seeing everyone.  We ended tonight, big surprise, watching football!  Andrew and Mandi leave tomorrow which is sad, but they plan to be home for Thanksgiving!

Double Duty Homework

The kids were so cute doing their homework this afternoon!  They both love school!  Luke is doing well in all subjects so far.  We have seen a great improvement in Katherine.  It almost seems as though she has changed overnight.  She loves all of her friends and she is learning so much!  So far we are very happy we made the move to Davidson for her this year.  Katherine usually has one homework assignment for the week.  Luke has homework on Mondays,Tuesdays and Thursdays.  It usually consists of one book to read or a chapter book, studying for his weekly spelling test and Bible verse as well as a language arts or math worksheet.  It usually takes 15-30 minutes.

Mommy's Little Shopper

Mom and I decided to do a little shopping this afternoon.  Katherine tagged along because she loves to shop!  She especially likes HomeGoods because they have a toy section!  She always find something that she "needs".  I did not give in to the bear!  She loves to help me pick out things and seems to have pretty good taste.  She thinks everything is "so pretty, Mommy".  It is so cute!

Wilson County Fair!

I had to work today.  Paul and the kids picked me up this afternoon and we headed to the Wilson County Fair.  It is one of the biggest fairs in the state and we had never been! It was so hot today. There was so much to see and do there.  We saw all the farm equipment, animals, quilts, canning entries before we headed to the Midway.  I must say I was looking forward to the food and was pretty disappointed. We decided to get bbq sandwiches and they pretty much tasted like bbq from a 5 gallon tub from Sam's.  We didn't try anything out of the ordinary like deep fried Oreos or bacon.  The closest we came was all four of us split a funnel cake!  Katherine is not much for rides but Luke is getting into them as he gets older.  He and I waited in line for over 30 minutes to ride a little roller coaster.  He loved it so that is all that matters.  He also rode the merry go round and played a couple of games.  Katherine doesn't seem to have an adventurous side to her at all!  All in all it was a good experience but I don't know that we will be rushing back next year!

Katherine's First Day!

So excited to be going to Bubby's school!

Love these two!

Today it was Katherine's turn for the 1st day of school!  We decided in the Spring that we would go ahead and send her to Davidson this year.  It just made sense to have them both in the same place, that way they would have the same holiday schedule, snow days, etc. After some deliberation we decided to put her in K3 instead of K4. Her birthday is at the end of July so she is close to the cutoff anyway.  We hope it will give her some additional time to mature and make her more self assured as she heads into Kindergarten in a couple of years.

I was really afraid we would have some tears when we dropped her off this morning.  She has been fighting daycare for the past couple of months.  She hasn't wanted to go and has cried every morning when I dropped her off.  I was pleasantly surprised when she walked right in, gave me a hug and a kiss and told me bye-bye! I couldn't believe it, but I was so proud of her!  Luke was super proud too!

First Grade!

Hard to believe this guy is starting 1st grade! The summer flew by and here school is starting already.We were excited to know that a couple of his friends from last year are in his class again.  We are also excited about his teacher. She has been there a long time and is an excellent teacher!  First grade is supposed to be a difficult year transitioning from Kindergarten into a more rigorous academic environment.  We think Luke is up for the challenge!

She's a Helper

Katherine absolutely loves anything to do with cleaning or housework.  She actually asked for an iron for her birthday!  Nonna got her one and she loves it!  Tonight she had to iron all her doll clothes.  It was so cute!  She still loves to dust, vacuum and clean the windows!  Kind of nice to have around!

Party, party!

Like most all 4 year old girls Katherine was set on having a Frozen birthday party.  We did our best to oblige her.  She also wanted to have it at the local bounce house.  When I booked her party for a random Thursday night I thought it would be perfect because her daycare closes at 5:00 and the kids could just come straight over since it is only a few minutes away.  Little did I realize it was registration night for Sumner county public schools.  Although the kids Katherine's age weren't affected most all of her friends have older siblings that had to be at their school.  So, it was a very poor turnout.  I felt so bad for her especially when the first guest didn't show up until 30 minutes after the party started.  I think we invited 16 and only 8 were there and it included our two.  Oh well, lesson learned.  She did end up having a good time and enjoyed her friends.  I told Paul I kind of feel like we might be done with parties for awhile.  There is so much work that goes into them even when you have them at a party place and the expense is crazy.  I also feel like parents are burned out on them.  I feel like we average 2-3 birthday parties a month and that is a lot.  So, we will see if I stick to it when Luke's birthday rolls around in January!

The Birthday Girl!

Opening her presents

She loved her Elsa and Ana Tervis cup!

Somehow Luke got a gift, too

There is a lotta love there!

Silly face!

Checking out a new necklace

Today Katherine is 4!!!  She was so excited for her birthday and to have a "free" day to do whatever she wants.  We started the morning by opening presents. She got a unicorn stuffy, necklace and some Frozen stuff.  She was happy!

She chose McDonald's for breakfast and then we went to the zoo.  The kids never get tired of going there which is great.  We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves because we got there so early! Katherine wanted to meet Paul for lunch so that is what we did. We came home to rest the rest of the afternoon.  Since it was Katherine's day she got to pick what she wanted or where she wanted to go for supper -- so back out we went.  We met Mom and Paul at Chik-fil-A.  I am tired of eating out! She had a great day and that's all that matters!

Pouty Kathy...

One of our many nicknames for Katherine is "pouty Kathy".  She can poke her lip out and pitch a fit faster than anyone I know!  And, we never know what is going to trigger it.  We are hoping this is something she will grow out of but only time will tell.  I have talked to several other moms of little girls her age and they all say their daughters do it, too.

Take Me Out to The Ballgame!

Luke and Paul had a great weekend in Chicago!  Luke got his caricature drawn at Wrigley Field by an artist that has been working there for years. It is the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field so it was a neat year to go.  Luke got kind of bored with the game so he and Paul walked around and got some souvenirs.  They went to a huge Lego store and the American Girl doll store and got Katherine something for her birthday.  They also ate at some very nice restaurants.  One of Bill's friends and his son were on the trip, too.  Larry is quite the "foodie" so he insists on fine dinging.  I was a little concerned about how Luke would do, but according to Paul he did great.  Larry said at the end of the trip "you can tell that boy has had good raising". We'll take that as a compliment!  I really hope this becomes an annual tradition for the Troutt boys -- visiting a different MLB ballpark every summer. What memories could be made!

First Plane Ride!

Luke got to go on his first plane ride today!  Bill took all of his boys and Luke to Chicago for the weekend. They plan to go to the Cubs/ Braves game tomorrow.  Paul said Luke was a little nervous about the plane ride, but he did great and loved watching everything!  I know they are going to have a great weekend!  Katherine is staying with Mom for the weekend while I enjoy a girls trip with Laura and Virginia!

Home Grown Fireworks

Luke was so excited to buy his own fireworks this year.  We let each of the kids pick out some at a local fireworks stand.  They decided to set them off tonight.  Katherine wasn't a big fan because they were so loud and she and I ended up watching from the porch!  Luke loved it though!