Happy Halloween

Kelsey was a duck this year for Halloween. She couldn't quite say quack, quack, but a lot of other jibberish came out :) Matt had a playoff football game in Rochester, so we had to take pictures of Kelsey early so Daddy could see her dressed up. The costume was a smidge too big and the hood kept falling down over her face so she would get mad that she could not see. However, she didn very well with the costume otherwise. After Daddy left, we went to see Great-Grandpa Skala. Next, it was off to Grandma and Grandpa Skala's house. Nate and Diane were in town to see all the kiddos for Halloween. They even dressed up! Kelsey was spoiled with gifts from everyone. Thank you! The Ginskey clan joined us as well and we did our best to get all the kids to look for a picture. The others went door to door trick or treating, but we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa since Kelsey is still pretty little and I sure don't need to eat all that candy! She had just as much playing with Grandma and Grandpa. When everyone returned we went to see the next door neighbors and again were spoiled with a special gift. When we returned to Grandma and Grandpa's, Ed and Sharon came over too. We all ate a yummy lasagna dinner and listened to Matt's game. Everyone played cards and hung out for awhile before we decided that Kelsey needed to get home to bed since we left for Green Bay in the morning. Happy Halloween!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

1st grade humor

I am in my first year of teaching 1st grade. My day is busy from the minute I get to school until the time I go home. They keep me on my toes. However, they also keep me smiling. There are three days I consider the most chaotic days of the year: Halloween party day, the day before Christmas break and the last day of the school year. Today was the first of the three. As crazy as it was, it was also so cute. Here are some jokes I was told:

What's a mummy's favorite kind of music? Rap

What did the ghost tell his wife? You look booooootiful

What do you get when the Easter bunny comes at Halloween? A Hoppy Halloween

What's a ghost's favorite sandwich? Boo-loney

Kelsey Update

Kelsey is cutting her eye teeth. She currently has 12 teeth, but we can see the top two eye teeth poking through, and I am sure the bottom ones will be following. She has not been too crabby through all of it, although she has had some icky diapers and a runny nose.
Kelsey's vocabulary continues to grow daily. She still babbles a lot and we just say things like oh really, wow, how do you know to see if we can get her to continue. However, she can now say a lot more words now too. Her current list consists of mama, daddy, ball, wow, uh-oh, up, baby, shoes (which tends to come out sh$%)socks, book, grandpa (pa-pa), grandma (ma-ma), milk(mil), water (wa-wa), diaper (buy-per), Mary (me-me), hot (ot), hat(ot), stop (op), goodnight (ni-ni), all done (ah-du), banana (anana) bye-bye, hi, and Kelsey (es-ey).
When she gets her picture taken and we say cheese, she gives this big smile that shows all her teeth and crinkles up her nose.
She can now go down the stairs with help and up on her own, but we are always behind her. When she is at the top of the steps she always says stop because we tell her that everytime she gets close.
Once she gets full or wants to be done eating, she starts dropping her food over the side of her high chair. She will also push her plate away.
In the bath, I know it is time to be done because she stands up, reaches for me, and says all done (ah-du).
After she brushes her teeth in the morning she likes to kiss herself in the mirror, complete with the muah sound and all.
She is really into putting things into drawers and the garbage can, even if they don't belong there.
She loves standing on her stool in the bathroom and seeing herself in the mirror. She will also sit on the stool.
If we ask Kelsey to play us a song on the piano, she will head over and begin banging away. She prefers to sit on our laps so she can reach the keys easier, but she also stands by it and reaches up to press the keys.
When she says her words, she often begins by saying the a sound in front of it. For example, a-mama, a-ni-ni, a-dada.

There you have it! An update on what Kelsey can do and what she likes. She will be 15months on Sunday. Is that even possible? Where does the time go!

Pumpkin Carving

Tonight we carved pumpkins with Matt's family. We all met at Matt and Stacey's house for pizza and then got to work. To start the night, the Ginskey boys got Kelsey a very cute Halloween gift that consisted of Disney princess patterns to carve, princess car keys and a little mermaid phone. Jacob was very excited to give the gift to Kelsey and wanted to pull everything out, but Connor tried to keep him patient so Kelsey could open it herself. Thank you so much for the gifts!
I have to admit that I am not much of a pumpkin carver. I prefer to be the supervisor. However, I did try my own pumpkin this year. I figure I better get some practice before Kelsey is old enough to realize that I am not very good. My pumpkin was a very basic triangle eyes and nose face. Mattey was a lot more creative, and he carved a Minnie Mouse face. It turned out great! Thanks Daddy :)
I have to say, everyone else seems to be pros at this pumpkin carving thing. Some of the stuff they were working on was way out of my league. It was fun to watch them though! Some of the things they carved were Vampire Mickey Mouse, a mummy, and Lightning McQueen.
Vickie of course wore her pumpkin carving mask. Kelsey did not even cry when she saw it. She now understands when we say cheese for a picture and she took a cute picture with Grandma.
To end the night, we had some yummy apple pie and ice cream. We attempted to bake some pumpkin seeds but I forgot to put on a timer and ended up with an oven full of smoke. Oops!
The last step will be to get the pumpkins on the front step and get our candles ready so we can light them on Halloween.

MEA Break, Shopping, Pumpkin Patch

This past week was our annual fall break from school. We always get two days off every October and both Matt and I were very excited to see it arrive! The early part of the week was a little busy because Matt had football games and I had conferences. However, once Wednesday afternoon rolled around and I was able to pick up Kelsey, everything was very relaxed and laid back. It was so nice to be able to spend our days with Kelsey. She has become a very vocal little girl and tries to imitate many of the things we say. Just over the past few days she has learned to say socks, hat, all done, and water.

Kelsey likes pretending to talk on her cell phone :)
To start off break on Thursday, we all went to get our flu shots. None of us had ever had one before so I was a little nervous as to what kind of reaction we might have. So far, (knock on wood), we have all been doing fine. My arm is tender where I got the shot, but that is about it. Kelsey was only able to get a 1/2 dose to see how her body reacted, but since she has been doing ok, she will get the other 1/2 dose in 4 weeks.
Friday afternoon we went to Rochester for some shopping. It was a very leisurely afternoon and we actually got quite a few things checked off our list of things to get. Friday evening we went to Pizza Ranch to see Matt's cousin Johnny who is in the army and will be deployed soon. It was good to see family and catch up with the Ebeling side. Afterward, we watched the movie She's Just Not That Into You. It was just an ok movie. I actually fell asleep for a little bit of it.
Saturday morning Matt had football practice. When he got home we went to Oak View Nursery to the pumpkin patch. It was Kelsey's first time at a pumpkin patch. It is located just outside Owatonna and is really cute. We were able to go on a hayride, jump into leaves, see some animals, and take lots of pictures in the cut-outs. The weather was just perfect to be outside during a fall afternoon.













All the fresh air made Kelsey very sleepy and I was able to make a big supper when we got home. It seems that Kelsey and I usually eat earlier than Matt during the week due to games and practice, so it was really nice to all sit down together. To finish off the evening we watched the movie The Proposal. Very cute :)
Sunday is pretty routine at our house. Church, football, naps, master's work, lesson planning, correcting and lots of playing.

Kelsey in her church dressIt has been a great, relaxing break filled with lots of family time. Does it have to end?

Go Twins!

The Twins are playing the Yankees tonight and need to win to keep the series alive. Daddy and Kelsey dressed up in their Twins gear for the evening. I actually do cheer for the Twins as well. Go Twins!

Kelsey loves putting on Daddy's hats, especially his Twins hat. She was obviously yelling in this picture and looks kind of silly, but I had to share!

Pumpkin Party

Fall is here! The weather is turning colder, the leaves are changing colors, and we have pulled out our hats and mittens. It has been so cold in fact that it actually snowed yesterday morning! Thankfully it wasn't anything measurable, but just the thought of snow makes me cringe a little. However, this time of year is one of my favorites. To get in the fall spirit, we went to a Pumpkin Party last night. One of Matt's baseball player's family has an annual fall party at their farm. It was our first year attending and we had a blast! They had a pumpkin patch where Kelsey was able to pick her own pumpkin.
They also had a corn pit with a swing and slide. Kelsey was still too little to dive right in, but we took her in the shed to have a look.
By the time we got to the party, it was almost dark, so we were not able to try out the corn maze.
To warm up after being outside, we spent time in the shed drinking apple cider and munching on all the goodies they had. There was even a local high school girl singing who was really good! Grandma and Grandpa Skala joined us so Kelsey was able to spend time with them as well. We hope to make this a tradition!

Owatonna Homecoming

Friday was Owatonna's homecoming. Last year I was on maternity leave and went to the parade with Kelsey and Matt. This year, I took a 1/2 day so I could once again spend the afternoon with my family. We weren't sure the weather was going to allow us to go as it was a pretty rainy and cool day. However, it stopped raining long enough for the parade and we were able to attend. Kelsey enjoyed watching the floats go by and wasn't too phased by the candy yet. I am guessing it might be a different story next year. The Huskies won the football game later that evening to wrap up the homecoming festivities.

Apple Orchard Weekend

My dad and Chris made the trip to Minnesota this past weekend for the annual apple orchard weekend. For the past four years we have gone to a different orchard each fall to pick apples and enjoy the fall weather. To start the weekend, my dad and Chris came down to Owatonna on Friday night. They also picked up my cousin Katrina on their way. Katrina, my dad, and I braved the not so nice rainy, cold weather to attend Matt's football game while Grandma stayed home and watched Kelsey. Saturday morning we went to Old Town Bagels for coffee and pumpkin bagels. Next, we were off to the apple orchard. This year we went to an orchard in Montgomery. Brian, Molly and the girls joined us. It was still rainy and cold so we opted to spend our time in the lodge where we were able to try a few different kinds of apples, as well as drink fresh apple cider. We left the orchard and headed back to Owatonna for apple pie making. Jolene, Rolf, and kids, Dave and Vickie, and Stacey and the boys joined us as well. We spent the rest of the day shopping, making pies, grilling out and playing with all the kids. 9 kids ages 6-6 months makes for one crazy house! It was so fun and we loved hosting everyone.