A Future Cheerleader

Since there was no school today, the Mascoutah High School cheerleaders put on a day-long clinic for preschool-sixth grade girls.  Of course I had to sign Hannah up!  I remember going to all of the OTHS clinics as a child and always having so much fun!  I wasn't sure how she was going to do there all day by herself, but one of our babysitters is a cheerleader so I know that helped.  After a few minutes of being shy, she walked into the gym with the big girls and the rest is history!  Parent's got to come back later in the day and watch a "performance."  Oh it was so cute!  Hannah walked around the rest of the day cheering for the "Ma-scou-tah In-di-ANS!"  I will never pressure her if cheerleading isn't her thing as she grows up, but for the moment, it does this former cheerleader's heart good! 

WIU Homecoming 2012

One of our favorite annual events is to head to Macomb each fall for WIU's Homecoming weekend.  I know I've said it before, but we have some of the most amazing, life-long friends that we met at Western.  This is one of our yearly get-togethers without kids!  Although we were super excited for our friends, the Windham's, on the birth of their beautiful baby girl Everly, it meant they were not able to come this weekend.  It wasn't the same without them, but it was another fabulous weekend! 

Friday night, Lindsey's parents graciously let us stay at their house.  When we got there, the fire pit was ready to go and we enjoyed a couple of hours around the warm fire catching up.  Saturday morning, the boys headed out to golf and the girls headed into town.  After a hot chocolate run, we found our seats on the parade route and waited for it to start.  The guys joined us right before it began.  We then headed to Rocky's, a Macomb/WIU staple, and then to the bookstore to check out some new apparel.  We got to the game sometime in the first quarter and watched the first half from outside the fence.  Then the girls took off for a coffee shop and the guys headed into the game.

After the game, we met up with the boys at Aurelio's (you, or should I say we, can't make a trip to Macomb and NOT go to Aurelios!)  We ate, talked, laughed and had a great time!  We managed a quick picture before we left.

Although Macomb may be in the middle of nowhere and have no significant meaning to many people, it will always hold a special place in our hearts.  We love going back every year with these great people!

It's Apple Pickin' Time!

We try to make it to our local orchard every fall for apple picking.  We had so little rain this year that the apples were ready at the end of August!  We finally went one of the last weekends there were still apples to pick.  Hannah loved it and wanted to pick as many as she could!

Cam loved it as well, but loved the eating part way more than the picking part.  I think he had portions of at least three apples while we walked through the orchard.  (He also ate many more over the next several weeks!)

 Both of them liked reaching up to the tree and picking their own apples.  Such a fun family activity!

 The Casey Family -- Apple Picking, 2012

The Big Preschooler

It was a big day around here!  Hannah started her school journey by attending her first day of preschool!   She is going to Zion Lutheran Church's Preschool two days a week.  We have heard nothing but great things about their program and we are really excited to watch her learn and grow through this program.

Here she is in front of her school.  She was super excited to go to school!  I pray she loves school not only this year but in the years to come!  Good luck at school this year!  We love you, Hannah!

Baseball Heaven

We wanted to try and get to Busch Stadium to see our beloved Cardinals at least one more time before the season was over.  We started to talking to my parents and realized they had four tickets to a game and thought it would be a great time to go.  We started our evening at Joe Buck's resteraunt and it was really good!  We headed over to the stadium and had plenty of time to check things out before the game started.

Here is Daddy and Hannah hanging out before the game started.

 From the moment we sat down, Hannah only wanted to go find Fredbird (she is a little obssessd with characters right now!).  We found out he was at the Family Pavilion for the first three innings, so my mom, Hannah, Cameron and I headed down to find him.  She was so excited and wanted to hang out there forever!  I love how she is looking up at him - she loves Fredbird!

Since it was a night game, which we hadn't done with the kids yet, we only stayed until about the 6th inning.  Hannah and Cameron had done a great job, but they were both about spent. It was a fun night, even though the Cardinals lost, and I'm excited to go back soon.

Back to School

Well, it is that time again.  Today was my first day back to school.  We have had such an amazing summer and made a ton of memories.  Although I will miss summer and being home all the time with my babies, I'm excited to start a new school year.  I know teaching is a gift from God and I'm so thankful that I get the opportunity to hang out with my 6th graders every day.  I feel like I have the best of both worlds because I work at a great school and teach every day, and am home by 4:30 each weekday and have the weekends, holidays and summers off with my own kiddos.  In a couple of weeks, we will have another family member in school.  Hannah starts preschool after Labor Day.  She is so excited and I am so excited for her.  Here's to another summer in the books and the start of the new school year!

Girl's Day Out

On one of the last days of summer, my mom, Hannah and I had a girls day to Chesterfield Mall to the new American Girl store.  Hannah got Bitty, her bitty baby, a couple of years ago.  This store opened in the spring and my mom and I had talked about taking Hannah so she could pick out a new outfit for Bitty.  We were also planning on eating at the Bistro in the store.  When we got there, Hannah had so much fun looking around the store.  She immediately picked out the outfit she wanted to get Bitty.  My mom also told her she could get the matching outfit.  As we were shopping, I went to go ask about about lunch.  I found out that they don't take online reservations and the next available time was 3:40 (it was 11ish!).  So, we opted not to wait and do that another time.  Once we were all set, we headed next door to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch instead.  We did a little shopping and then headed home so Hannah could take a nap.  It was such a fun morning and so glad we had this girls day before school started!