Fall!

It has been a while and we've done a lot, so this is going to be a long post. The girls are having so much fun at gymnastics. They get to go on the big beam and do pullovers on the bars. Catherine can climb the rope like a monkey and Sam loves trampoline and her cartwheels are getting great.

We took the girls to the state fair for the first time and they had a blast! We did the big slide (mommy's favorite with her daddy way back when) and the girls rode their first roller coaster. It was a long day, especially for poor Jake, who is too small to ride just about everything except the merry go round. I had to pry his little fingers off the pole, he had so much fun and didn't want to get off. 

We went to Duke Gardens and took pictures under our favorite tree. Samantha is still our ever sunny, ever questioning, ever singing little girl. Dave and I are still in awe of how happy she is when she first wakes up, it can't be normal ;-) She loves school and has learned the "Our Father" already and how to count to 3 in Spanish and the days of the week and months of the year (sung to the tune of "Calendar Girl" of course). I think she will be class president, or mayor, or something because she hugs everyone she meets and makes them smile. She can't walk through the gym in the morning without hugging all my "big kid" students. 

Catherine loves school too, but it is completely different. She has a few close friends, most of which seem to be in Sam's class, and she knows all the things that Sam does, but she is not as quick to show it.  She has the best teacher for her though, they both love Minions! Her favorite classes are art and PE, big surprise, right? They both went to Mass with their buddies this week for the first time and did so well sitting quietly and paying attention. And when we take pictures I will only get a nice one if I take silly ones first.

Jake is starting to sleep without his paci. It is rough going and he needs some rocking with a book before he goes down, but we are making progress. Speaking of progress, he is talking with real words all the time now! Most of them are centered around food, but not all, and he's getting good a please, which makes us happy. He's like Sam in the morning, so she's not the only odd one around here. He's getting great at doing the stairs by himself and he knows way more about the iPad than he should. He loves his sisters very much and giving raspberries is his new favorite thing. As soon as you lie down he pulls up your shirt or finds your arm and it is really slobbery.

Catherine loves to help me cook and clean. We've been working our way through the Disney Princess cookbook, I have the cleanest kitchen stools in town. And there is lots of  sibling love and silliness all the time around here.

For Halloween the girls were Elsa and Minnie Mouse. They wavered back and forth and were settled on other things for weeks and then changed their mind last minute and were really happy. They had a blast at the school carnival and we also trick or treated at a few houses on our street. I need to stop taking pictures with Sam closer to the camera, the effect makes Cat look smaller than she really is.

They loved their Minion pumpkin! The other was a cat. Jake was a monkey and he was so adorable! When he walked his long tail bobbed behind him. Thanks to Uncle Mike and Aunt Alyssa for buying this for him over a year ago and realizing how awesome it would be.

Jake is really strong, strong enough to move a kitchen chair with Catherine on it, but not quite strong enough to push her in the laundry basket. It must be something about the angle, but he keeps trying.

And it finally stopped raining long enough to rake the leaves in the font yard. They are such good helpers!!