Preschool starts

As usual we've been keeping busy and at times the blog hasn't gotten as updated as I'd like. I'll catch up a bit here and tell some stories to go with the pictures. Kate has been an absolute delight to parent and we're excited by all the new words and phrases she's picking up. She's in that parrot stage where she repeats EVERYTHING we say. Also, she's finally getting a little bit of hair. It doesn't help though that it's so blonde or else it might show up better. Oh well, I think you can see her hair in this picture. Kate has been picking up new words every day and she's become quite the reader. She loves to cuddle her soft toddler weight onto your lap to read books. She especially loves animal books at this point and she'll point to all the animals and make animal noises. This September we had a big milestone in the Aupperlee family: Drew started preschool!!! I know the photo below is blurry, but it's literally the ONLY picture of a smiling Drew on his first day. I'm not sure if he was nervous or tired or what, but most of the morning he had a neutral expression on his face. We took several pictures out in our driveway before taking him to school and this is the best one.

Then we took more pictures in front of Drew's school. Drew is very excited about his backpack (as you can tell from his expression :) He wears his backpack all around and knows exactly where to put it in his classroom at school. He's got his own cubby with his name, "Drew," posted on it. We've also created a hook at home that is for his backpack and he keeps it there at home.

Upon arriving in his class Drew pulled out the puzzles and started playing by himself. We were worried at first about him just keeping to himself, but he's gotten more and more interactive each day. By the end of the first day he had sat next to and identified a girl in his class who is "pretty." We still don't know her name yet, but apparently she's caught Drew's attention!

There's not much better than sitting on the couch with Drew and Kate reading stories before bed. Drew remembers all the little kid books that we read Kate, so he likes to help out with reading Kate's stories.

Here's our big guy wearing one of his favorite shirts. Drew, not surprisingly, is the tallest boy in his class. You can tell we don't live in West Michigan (land of tall Dutch people). There is one girl in Drew's class who is the same height as he is.

Kate is always up to something and always smiling. You can probably just make out a golfer on the TV screen behind Kate. One of the my favorite things to do late on Sunday afternoon is to watch golf for a bit with Drew and Kate. Drew loves it and will ask throughout the week or even throughout the day on Sunday, "When is golf going to be on? I want to watch golf . . . because it's your favorite." He cuddles up next to me on the couch and he asks me for each golfer, "What's his name?" He likes the name Steve Stricker, but his favorite golfer to watch is Tiger Woods. Kate joins in watching the golf and climbs all over the two of us (she doesn't sit still too much).

A family game of "airplane." Kate saw Drew up in the air and decided she needed to join in the fun. We spend a lot of time on the floor of our living room romping with Drew and Kate.

Drew being silly. He wore a green shirt the other day for "Green Square" day at school and I wanted a picture of it. For the month of September, his class talks about a different color and shape each day. The kids are encouraged to wear the color of the day.

I realized we don't have many videos of Kate, who is doing the coolest things right now. I'm working on correcting that! In the video below, Kate had pulled a stool up to the wall and is discovering the joy of the light switch. The changing light in the video is due to her actions.

These last two videos are two of my favorite videos of Kate and they just show how interactive she is. She talks to us and parrots things back. Enjoy!!

Elk Rapids

A few weeks ago we spent the weekend up in Elk Rapids with some friends. We forgot our camera (highly unusual for us, I know), but our friends took some pictures for us. We were up in Elk Rapids for their Harbor Days Festival. On Saturday morning we set up our chairs for the running race and for the parade later in the day. Drew staked out a good spot for us. For a picture of me, Drew, and Kate, this one actually turned out pretty well. Weird smile from Drew and no smile from Kate . . . typical.

Jana ran in the 10k road race and finished third in her age group! Way to go Jana! Jana has been running a little bit more lately and is getting into some longer distances. Our friend Mike also ran in the race and completed it. Drew, Kate, and I played on playground during the race :)

Kate was pretty excited to see her mom after the race!

In the evening we went to a fair and these pictures below were taken by our friends who were up on a ferris wheel. If you've ever seen paparazzi shots of celebrities in a magazine or something, that's what these pictures make me think about! You can just see the caption "Mark and Jana Aupperlee stroll through the fair at Harbor Days in Elk Rapids, MI. Jana is carrying Kate (1 yr) while Mark pushes Drew (3 yrs) in the stroller."

These last two pictures are from us waiting for the fireworks to start. Drew and Kate were great throughout a long day, but just before the fireworks started they both fell asleep! Jana and I watched the fireworks with our friends and we all had sleeping kids in our arms. What a great way to watch fireworks!

at the lake

In July we spent some time at a cottage with my family. Drew and Kate were both fascinated by this ab roller. It was the favorite toy of our time there! Kate discovered the joys of sliding doors with their glass (we don't have any at home). I've got some great pictures of her with her face pressed against the glass. This is one of the pictures that she probably won't mind as much when she's sixteen. The rest I'm keeping to show her first boyfriend :) She also loved standing up on the convenient tackle box "step stool." She loved to stand up with her face against the glass.

On the scenic drive in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park there is a 450 foot sand dune. Here is the view from the top looking down to the water (you can see a boat for scale). I've wanted to climb the dune for years, so this time I convinced Todd to go down with me and make the climb back up. It would be an understatement to say it was pretty intense, but we made it!

Drew put on his life jacket and was all over the dock. He liked looking into the water for fish.

Kate also had her life jacket on and was always closely guarded by someone with a hand on the strap of her life jacket.

Here's Drew in action on the dock. After getting used to it, Drew was all over the dock.

Look at that little girl in her diaper! She's been shooting up lately and is starting to thin out. She's still a great size for holding though, and we have lots of fun cuddling with her.

Kate's especially cuddly after a bath. This is the best time to hold Drew or Kate!

Kate is like a little fish in the water. She loves the water and enjoyed the shallow water at the edge of the small lake the cottage was located on. What she didn't enjoy as much was the little leech that made it's way onto her foot. Yuck! Grandma Sue did a great job of removing it for her.

Kate went for a kayak ride with Grandma. Who enjoyed it more, Kate or Grandma??

Kate does a great job of keeping her hat on and protecting her little bald head from the sun. We continue to wait patiently for her hair to get a little longer . . . and we continue to dress her in pink so people know she's a girl! :)

Drew's still working on that smile!

Kate doesn't need to work on the smile yet, she busts it out whenever the camera comes out!

We tied the kayak up to the dock and then Drew enjoyed paddling it and sitting in it.

Kate climbs up just about anything on the playground and does most things independently. Jana does lots of hovering with her hands close as our little adventurer clambers all over the play structure.

Yes, this is our boy Drew. Jana and I have been chuckling at this picture because it so accurately captures Drew in his little boyness. He loves these diggers at playgrounds.

Hooray! A family picture with all four of us looking somewhere near the camera. We can't be picky about these photos at this point, so we're thrilled with this one.

We loved watching Drew climb on this structure and we enjoy the way it looks to see him climbing on it in the picture. Nice picture Jana!

I scooped Kate up to look out at Lake Michigan. I think in this picture we were looking at a freighter off in the distance.

Even though she's a State girl, Kate can still rock the U of M hat.

Kate's like a lemming around water. We always need to have a hand on her.

Drew was looking for more rocks to throw in the water. Drew and I had great fun throwing rocks into the water.

Back at home, Kate is still enjoying shoes. She loves to put her feet in them and walk around the house. Maybe she's going to be a runner like her mom? I have to give a plug for Jana here in that she recently completed her first 10k race. . . and medaled in her age division! Way to go Jana!

This empty box of diapers made for a great airplane. Both Drew and Kate scampered in and were entertained for a long time. Boxes are great!

lounging

We've been keeping busy at the Aupperlee house this summer, so I'm a little behind again on posts. Here is the first one that will help me get caught up. Drew and Kate are eating and drinking and growing like crazy. We put some of Drew's pants on the other day and were surprised to see how short they were . . . time to go shopping!

Kate's a big fan of anything messy to eat. In the picture below you can see Kate enjoying her spaghetti, both eating it and wearing it! Back at the end of June, Jana and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary. We enjoyed a night without the kids and went out for dinner at a fancy restaurant. It was fun! We can't believe it's already been nine years and that we've got two wonderful kids. We're excited about what the future has in store for us.

One of the highlights of the week is trash day, Thursday. Thursday morning Drew and Kate get up and spend the morning at the front door waiting for the garbage truck and the recycling truck to come by and collect our trash and recycling. Both trucks come down on our street, do a U-turn just past our house, and then go down the other side of the street. Drew and Kate both love it and wave away to the trucks and their drivers.

Drew and Kate are amazing on the playground. Jana has been taking them to the playground throughout the summer. They have both gotten more and more brave and adventurous on the playground. This picture is of Drew on a playground in Grand Rapids. He was all over the place!

Wherever Drew is, Kate is not far behind. Grandma Lynn got on the seesaw with Drew and he loved going up in the air. Kate's favorite thing at the playground was the merry-go-round, which she went on over and over. Drew's a climber, whereas Kate enjoys the spinning stuff more than he does.

Kate loves sunglasses. If she can get her hands on some sunglasses, she'll put them on and her face will light up like this. What fun!

One day Jana walked out of the living room and when she walked back in Kate was relaxing in her shopping cart. Apparently, Kate climbed up in the cart on her own and was lounging here pretty pleased with herself. This picture cracks Jana and me up!!

When she noticed Jana taking pictures, Kate started to do some posing. She's quite the show off!

We've been working with Drew on having his picture taken and we've had some signs of him getting better with pictures. Here he is in the picture below working on his smile. He's got a great smile that he loves to hide from the camera. Usually we have to surprise him with a picture, but now we're getting better at having Drew pose for a picture with a smile.