October 2016

              Everything has been pretty busy in our lives over the last month, and that is evident in the fact that I’m just now sitting down to do the October blog update and we are nearly halfway through November.  We had plenty of things that we did in October, but the thing we must start off with is our trip to Florida for fall break. 

For fall break this year, we flew down to Florida and went to Sanibel Island.  We left on a Wednesday afternoon and arrived at our condo at 7PM.  Considering it was the girl’s first flight, everything went well.  They loved the airport, the security, the boarding passes, the pretzels and everything else that goes with flying.  Allison just stared out the window the first 20 minutes after taking off and when landing with a huge smile on her face because she thought it was so cool.  We enjoyed some great weather and our condo was awesome.  We went out to eat on Thursday at the Island Cow and on Friday at Gramma Dots.  On Saturday we rented bikes and rode around the island and through the J.N. Ding Darling nature preserve.  Other than that, we stayed at the beach and pool and enjoyed our first vacation with just the 4 of us.  The girls loved to look for sea shells and we saw dolphins 30 yards off the beach on a daily basis.  I’d say our biggest headache was some sand in the girl’s eyes and salt water in their mouth.  We came back with some nice tans and a huge bag of shells and some great memories. 

We enjoyed a visit from the Rago family in early October.  They came on a Saturday and we went to the annual Light the Night fundraiser.  Afterwards, Jeremy came over and the 3 guys drank some bourbon, watched the Cubs and had some cigars.  The next day we had a sitter come over to watch the kids and the adults went to the Colts vs. Bears game.  We had lunch at Towyard and enjoyed some local bears.  Our seats were separated, so Joe and I sat together and probably had a few more beers than the ladies did.   We got home and after drinking on Saturday evening and day drinking at the Colts game, everyone crashed early on Sunday evening.

Randy and Anna came for the last weekend of the month to help celebrate Halloween.  Anna was able to help Deb at Christ the King for the Halloween party she was throwing for Allison’s class.  Anna and Randy also went to the Halloween parade at Sarah’s preschool.  They also helped get everything ready for the neighborhood party which we host in our cul-de-sac each year.  The weather was perfect and trick-or-treating was awesome as the girls were running around getting candy. 

Sarah’s Thing of the Month

            Sarah seems to be enjoying her preschool more and more and is no longer “Allison’s little sister.”  She still has more moments than we wish where we have to deal with 30 minute tantrums, but they are becoming less frequent. 

Allison’s Thing of the Month

            Deb volunteered for the first field trip in Allison’s class.  She went along with them to an apple orchard and it sounded like everything went well.  I volunteered in Allison’s class for an hour to help with learning centers.  Allison really seems to like her school and that makes things a lot easier for us when she is doing well.  We also had our parent / teacher conference at school and Allison was doing very well in most aspects and the biggest thing she needs to work on is conflict resolution with her classmates.

A few more items from this month:

• As mentioned last month, I was still coaching this month the 4^th grade girls and the time commitment behind that was much more than I expected.  I still enjoyed it, but it took up more time than I expected.
• We had our annual Light the Night walk to support LLS.  Thank you to everyone that donated. 
• Deb took part in a “Metal Walk” at Eagle Creek to support individuals who have joint replacements.  She took the girls and they “won” the Stroller division.
• I did make one trip this month to Minnesota for work and helped with the physical inventory count.  It went so well, that I was able to come home 2 days early.  I had some time to waste, so I went to the Mall of America and got the girls some Legos and some Paw Patrol items.