yoga

Kate loves to do "yoga." Here she is practicing one of her positions. Her legs are straight, her trunk is straight, and her head is resting on the floor. It makes my muscles tighten up just looking at that amazing flexibility!Yum! Kate loves to eat oranges. They're probably her favorite fruit.

Today I picked up Kate from daycare and she had her hair "up!" She's got enough hair now that it can be gathered into one of those hair holder band things . . . I guess I need to start learning the names of these girl hair products. Kate thought she looked quite pretty!

I happened to put on my slippers tonight, which immediately led to Drew yelling "Slipper Party!!" We got out Kate and Drew's slippers and had a dance party in the living room in our slippers. Good times.

Drew was really rocking it!

In the video below Kate is playing peekaboo with Jana and saying, "I see you!" She sneaks under the table and then can see Jana through the cutout pattern in the center of our table. It's fun to see her joy at spotting Jana.

The other night at dinner both Drew and Kate decided to take turns being there version of scary. It was making Jana and I laugh to watch them give a yell (that was supposed to be scary) and proceed to grin at us proud of their scary accomplishment. Yes, these are the weird things we do during dinner! :)

Student of the day

Last week Drew was the student of the day at preschool. As part of his special day, he got to take home Buddy Bear (seated next to Drew) and write about his time at home with Buddy Bear in a journal. Jana and I aren't the craftiest people in the world, and it's almost like a little scrapbook for each child in his class. The picture below is one that made it into Drew's section of the book. For show-and-share, which Drew also got to do as part of the day, he brought in his favorite construction vehicle blanket to show his class. Drew handled being the center of attention very well and when he got home he sang us the special song that his class sings for the student of the day. We didn't take very many pictures during Halloween evening because the kids were constantly on the go. We went to East Lansing for trick-or-treating and joined some friends. We had a dragon, a leopard, a fireman, and a bumblebee in our group.

Kate had to try out her bumblebee costume prior to the big evening, but she didn't like to keep on her hat!

Look at our little bumblebee! Kate loves making these silly faces for the camera.

School pictures

Drew got his first school picture back today! I'm frustrated that I can't make the picture below less blurry, but for some reason blogger isn't cooperating with me. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, then it's a lot clearer. Jana and I are thrilled with how Drew's picture turned out and we're looking forward to seeing his class picture. Drew looks like such a big guy in this picture, doesn't he? It's hard to believe he's only three!Earlier this week we had our first parent-teacher conference at Drew's school and he's doing very well. He knows everything he should know at this point and he's interacting well with his classmates. Way to go Drew!!

Another firefighter

A little while ago MSU celebrated homecoming and as part of the festivities we went to the homecoming parade. Kate and Drew were very excited about the parade, although it's hard to tell from Kate's expression in this picture! Just like Drew, she's quite the observer and loves to sit and take things in.Drew was very excited about the parade. His favorite part? The bands! Who would have thought that the son of two total non-musicians would find the bands fascinating? I will admit though, that the MSU marching band was quite impressive as they stomped past us doing their Spartan yells and playing the fight song. All attention was on the first fire engine that came by. It was quite cool outside, so both Drew and Kate had on their MSU knit hats. They were nice and warm!

Here is a group shot of the Aupperlees at the parade. Todd came up to join us for homecoming and on Saturday Todd and I went to the homecoming football game.

Kate loves to ham it up for the camera. Usually she does a silly smile and says, "Cheese! Cheese!"

We recently celebrated Grandpa Bill's birthday and my birthday. Drew was a big help in blowing out the candles on the cake.

Kate was a big help in eating the Kate. She loved it!

One night Kate was incredibly tired and cried through most of her nighttime routine. Eventually, I set her down on the couch and gave her a cup. After helping Drew, I turned around and found that Kate had pulled a blanket up on herself and was sitting there forlornly drinking her cup. She was such a tired, but sweet little girl!

Drew got a new firefighter outfit for halloween and Kate immediately claimed Drew's old outfit. As you can see in this picture, Kate looks up to Drew and loves doing whatever he does.

Our latest child to be enamored with the firefighting profession!

Kate's making good use of her toy cell phone in this picture below. Kate has a wonderful temperament and she is so much fun to parent! This picture captures some of the joy she seems to have quite often (and that she shares with us).

Here's another shot of our two firefighters in full outfits. They have lots of fun running around the house putting out pretend fires.

Lots of smiles

Both Drew and Kate have been shooting up lately, and I think the picture below shows you how Kate continues to thin out. She's been wearing the same size clothes for months, but they fit better and better in the waist and her legs have been getting longer and longer. Also, her hair is getting thicker!! It's so much fun to watch Kate grow up and move out of the baby/toddler stage into being a little girl. Kate still loves to play on the floor and here she is putting her feet up in the air during a game with Jana.

One morning before heading off to work and daycare, the kids gathered around mom. They both get really cuddly with us before we leave for the day . . . and we love it! :)

Kate is showing off her school spirit here in Drew's old Spartan jersey. Go Green! She's also wearing Drew's shoes.

Throughout the day Kate likes to grab a book, plop on the couch, and start reading. It's so cute!

Using the action setting on our camera, I got a good picture of Drew! He's smiling AND looking toward the camera!!

Kate, on the other hand, smiles and grins and says "cheese!" as soon as the camera comes out. As long as she's sittting still, she's fun and easy to have pose for pictures.

I haven't been home a lot lately, so Drew has been soaking up the attention whenever I'm around. I think this picture was taken on a weekend afternoon, when Drew loves to turn on sports on TV and watch with me. Male bonding!

Kate comes over too and vies for my attention with cute smiles and noises. She loves to peek her head around things and giggles away when I look at her.

Last week Drew had his first school field trip! He got to ride on a school bus as his class went to visit a farm. For the field trip, each child in Drew's class wore a yellow school shirt. It was so much fun to see his class of nineteen 3-year-olds all wearing yellow shirts and excited about the trip. Drew brought home a small pumpkin and was very excited about his ride on the bus (that's been one of his life goals :)