We have continued to stay busy this summer/beginning of fall! We successfully ran the Race for the cure on Sunday, August 11th. As many of you know, it was my goal to be able to recover from my surgery and run the race. Brian, my dad, John, and Theresa all ran it as well. We also met up with a friend of mine who has been battling breast cancer for a little over a year now. It was a great day!
We went to St. Louis for a mini-vacation and to visit all of our family there on August 17th-18th. We went up in the arch, visited Grant's Farm, ate dinner at Aunt Pat's house, stayed in a hotel downtown, and then ate brunch at Grandpa and Marsha's house the next morning. We had so much fun visiting everyone! Here are some photos, but if you'd like to look at all of our St. Louis photos, click here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lauraquirk29/StLouisAndMore?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMX6kNiRttyukwE&feat=directlink
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| Touching the Arch! |
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| In the "egg" going up in the arch |
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| Joshua at Grant's Farm |
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| Evan, Abby, Elizabeth, and Noah having fun! |
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| With Great Grandma Kay |
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| Great Grandpa Mel and Joshua |
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| Great Grandpa Mel and Noah |
Noah, Evan, and Michael started soccer again on Sunday, August 25th. They are the "silver squirrels" this season! They have had several games (including some VERY hot ones) and have been having a ton of fun!
We celebrated Grandpa Mike's birthday on September 2nd, and Noah and Evan started their Pre-K year at their school again on September 3rd (Grandpa's actual birthday). They are going to school all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays and seem to love it! Their new teacher's name is Ms. Natalie, and she always tells Brian and me how well they are doing. The first week, she told me that she was really enjoying them and that they were a good influence on the rest of the class. They like that they get to eat lunch at school now and have "rest/nap" time now.
Brian took me to my first Sporting KC soccer game on Saturday, September 7th to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary (Sept. 15th). We had so much fun!
We welcomed our newest family addition, Baby Adrian John Sonderman, on Sunday, September 8th (just one week after they had moved in to their new home)! He is perfect.
The most exciting thing we did as a family this summer was that we went to Disney World!!! We left on Tuesday, September 17th and returned home on Sunday, September 22nd. It was the boys' first flight, and they all did great! The vacation was amazing and we had so much fun! We spent a lot of time at the Magic Kingdom, where we rode things like Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, the teacups, The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean, Aladdin's magic carpets, and The Haunted Mansion (Noah and Evan did NOT like this one; Joshua kept asking to ride it again). The boys all loved all of the rides (except the Haunted Mansion, of course). We also got to do the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, which was so much fun! We also went to Disney's MGM Studios, where we saw the live shows The Little Mermaid and Disney Jr Live on Stage, which they loved! We also ate at "the real Pizza Planet" there. At EPCOT, we visited The Seas with Nemo and Friends, where we rode a ride and also did "Turtle Talk with Crush." Evan and Joshua's favorite part of that was when Dory told Crush, "Hey, I know you; you're Flush!" They repeated that for a while :). At Disney's Animal Kingdom, we rode the Kilimanjaro Safari, where we saw all kinds of African animals. We also watched the 3D show "It's Tough to be a Bug" and rode a dinosaur ride. At each park, we got to take a lot of photos and also met several characters. The boys loved meeting Mickey and Chip and Dale the most. Here are some photos, but if you'd like to see the entire album of photos we took, click here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lauraquirk29/DisneyWorld2013?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPXlh7_zjaWwGQ&feat=directlink
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| Meeting Mickey!!! |
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| The Magic Kingdom |
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| Disney's MGM Hollywood Studios |
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| Disney's Animal Kingdom |
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| Meeting Chip and Dale |
Our resort was called "Disney's Art of Animation." We stayed in the "Radiator Springs" part of the resort where we had a Cars room. It was so much fun just to walk around and look at everything at the resort. We were sad to leave, but were also ready to get back home.
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| The Finding Nemo pool at our resort |
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| Lightning McQueen! |
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| Sally |
Development notes: Our Parents As Teachers educator came on September 24th, and did an evaluation on Evan (Noah will be next time). She did some things to test "reading readiness," asked him several questions, tested his scissor skills, and more. She sent me a text this past week and said that the evaluators looked over his forms, and everything looked great! Noah continues to color every chance he gets...it is his favorite thing to do by far! He also loves to write his name on his colored pages. When he is coloring, Evan is usually "pretend" playing by himself or with Joshua. Joshua likes to do a little bit of everything. He will color with Noah, play with Evan, do puzzles with Brian or me, look at books, or watch movies.
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| Just messing around :) |
Well, we had our first injury that needed stitches this past Monday. Noah fell on the stairs at Grandma and Grandpa's house and split his lip on a stair. We spent the evening at Children's Mercy, where he got 6 stitches (he will get them out tomorrow, Friday). He was so brave! He cried each time they put a stitch in, but would calm down very quickly after each one. The nurses and doctor were all great! Brian and I were with him the whole time. Joshua and Evan were being taken care of at Grandma Mary and Grandpa Mike's house, so that was great! It was a long night for everyone. I'm just so happy that Noah was okay. Grandma Cathy, Grandma Mary, and Grandpa Mike came over to visit the next night. Grandma Cathy brought Noah a brand new Wolverine toy and Grandma Mary and Grandpa Mike brought him a new Spiderman Big Coloring Book! He was very happy with his gifts :)
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| Noah right after his stitches were put in |
Yesterday, Noah, Evan, and I went on their yearly school field trip to Faulkner's Pumpkin Patch. We had lots of fun and even got to see Michael and Aunt Theresa - who were there on Michael's school field trip too!
Unfortunately, Brian and I are currently furloughed because of the government shutdown. We don't know how long it will last but are hoping it is over very soon. We have been using our time "off" to clean out the garage, basement, and do more things around the house that we just haven't had time for. So for now, we're keeping busy!
