Our little bully...

After reading the posts on our blog, you may have the perception that Gracie is a cute, sweet, gentle little princess! Well do I have news for you...it turns out that our little toe-head is somewhat of a bully at school!

While it's been a long time since she has picked on her friends at school, today Gracie received not one, but two, incident reports! It seems she and another friend were fighting over a toy so Grace decided to bite her...then bite her again five minutes later!

The first time Grace bit I was devastated. As a parent, you feel just awful that your child is inflicting pain on others! After a lot of research and discussions with her teachers, I've realized that it's a very normal thing for toddlers and a way that they show frustration prior to speaking. Grace's teachers assure me that the majority of toddlers go through this, and I should not worry. That still doesn't make it feel any better when it happens.

So, our sweet little princess isn't always so sweet. Hopefully we won't receive any incident reports tomorrow...we will just take it one day at a time!

Fun Weekend in Tell City!

We had a great time in Tell City this weekend! Upon our arrival Friday evening, we visited with Great Grandma Mary and Great Grandpa Bob. Gracie just loved visiting with them and was amazed by the river. She definitely learned to love water this summer! That evening we had a wonderful dinner with the LeClere family. It's always so nice to catch up with such wonderful friends.

Saturday was the big wedding for Ross and Lita Oberhausen! It was a beautiful ceremony and amazing reception. Lita was beautiful and the happy couple was glowing all day and evening! Scott and I had a great time visiting with old friends and family and dancing the night away! Gracie also enjoyed the day, as Great Grandma Ginny and Great Grandpa Dude watched her while we were at the wedding and reception. She had so much fun showing them all of her toys and reading books. It was so nice for her to be able to spend this time with them.

Sunday we all ventured to the Louisville zoo. It was a beautiful fall day and perfect to be outside! It resulted in a long drive home that evening, but was well worth it to spend the day with Pop, Grandma, Uncle Matthew, Vanessa (aka Dr. V!) and Great Grandma and Grandpa. Gracie certainly had her favorite animals, including the gorillas and baby elephant!

It was a wonderful weekend spent with family. We wish we were closer but really enjoyed the time we were able to spend together. Click here for more pictures of the weekend!

Over the river and through the woods...

to Grandma's house we go! Scott, Gracie and I are headed to Tell City this weekend. We will have an opportunity to visit with family and old friends. Ross Oberhausen gets married on Saturday. The wedding will be held at St. Paul Catholic Church (same as Scott and I!) with the reception to follow at The Brown Hotel in Louisville, KY. I'm looking forward to sharing in this celebration and dancing the night away! Gracie's great-grandparents will be joining us at the hotel and watching her while mommy and daddy enjoy the reception. She is really looking forward to spending time with everyone! We'll definitely post photos upon our return!

Apple Day 2007

Ever since I can remember my family has had an annual tradition with the LeClere family...Apple Day!!! I have many fond memories of Apple Day over the years, including apple orchards, pumpkin patches, hay rides, picnics, tailgating, and lots of laughter! The scenery has changed over the years, from small apple orchards in Evansville to Huber Winery to tailgating at IU and Notre Dame. Unfortunately, because of travel schedules and campaigning, we are not able to have the Ewing/LeClere Apple Day this year. However, Scott, Gracie and I did not want to skip a year altogether. Therefore, we had our own little Apple Day on Saturday!

We began with apple picking at an orchard in Southern Michigan. We were able to pick some delicious varieties, including Red/Yellow Delicious and Empire. Scott was thrilled that they also had Honey Crisp apples. These are the best apples we have ever eaten! We got hooked on them last year and now it's difficult to convince Scott to eat another variety. If you have never tasted one I would highly recommend it. Just beware - they are addicting!

After lots of apple picking and tasting, we continued on to St. Joe, Michigan (yes, we were there last weekend too). We had a wonderful dinner and then ventured out to the beach and pier on Lake Michigan. Gracie had so much fun playing on the beach playground, and just loved going out to the pier!

We had Tivod the Notre Dame / Penn State game. Little did we know it was a waste of our time to stay up until 12:30 and watch the game. We certainly enjoyed last year's Apple Day game much better, when the Irish trounced the Nittany Lions at Notre Dame Stadium!

Mom, Dad, Matthew, Vanessa and the entire LeClere clan - we definitely missed you this year but we look forward to many more years of Apple Day in the future! We also got a new game that we can play...Shout About TV. Just wait...it's barrels of fun!

Click here for lots of Apple Day 2007 pictures!

What's your favorite season?

This week has seemed a little odd...in my mind I've already put summer behind me and moved onto fall. However, the 90 degree days have not made this transition entirely easy. It's made me think a lot though about my favorite season. Hands down, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE (shout out to Gayle King there) the Fall (or Autumn for you sophisticated blog readers)! Below are just a few of my favorite things about the upcoming season:

1) Crisp (but sunny!) days where you can wear shorts and a sweatshirt. Takes me back to college days walking on North Jordan!

2) Apple Day!

3) Pumpkin Patches

4) My little girl dressed in adorable Halloween costumes!

5) Fruit crisps

6) Organizing after a summer of letting everything get a little messy!

7) Back-to-school shopping (we still get to call it that, don't we?)

8) Freshmen arriving on campus

9) The beautiful colors of leaves

10) FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL!!!

Gracie has already began her love for Fall. Papa Tuff let her carve her name into a pumpkin in his garden. The pumpkin has grown to be VERY large...and Gracie's name keeps growing with it. I can't wait to see the size of this thing on Halloween!

Fun new office tools!

I am a big fan of the "solutions" pages within Parents magazine. They always highlight fun and interesting products to assist busy moms and dads. One of my favorite products was highlighted in the September issue of Parents...

The mouse pad notepad is perfect for jotting down reminders while on the phone or surfing your favorite website. I love the fun designs as well as great organizing idea! This is offered on seejanework.com, which is actually a wonderful site for working women. I love their products and it helps keep the office somewhat trendy!

Enjoy the products...more to come next month!

Farewell Summer

Wow - what a weekend we had to close out the summer season. Saturday, Gracie had a fun day with Nanny and Papa while we went to the Notre Dame game (more about that later - we still aren't over it enough to actually write anything). After playing with Nanny and Papa all day Gracie came home to greet her boyfriend, Keegan! Gracie and Keegan played for a while Saturday night and then more Sunday morning. We had a fun time visiting with Heather and Bob - we are always happy when football season arrives because that means we get to see them a lot more :> After a quick (I mean, not so quick) breakfast Sunday morning, the Glynns departed for their return drive to Naperville and Scott, Gracie and I packed up for a day in southwestern Michigan.

We began the afternoon at Deer Forest, a large petting zoo and kiddie amusement park. Scott used to go as a child (tells you how long it's been there), and had fond memories of afternoons there with his Gram and Grandpa. Gracie had a great time feeding the deer, pigs, lamas; riding the ponies; and riding the various amusement park rides. Her favorite was the ferris wheel. I think Scott was a little scared but Gracie had a great time!!!

After a few hours at Deer Forest, we ventured to St. Joseph, Michigan for dinner and a view at the sunset. St. Joseph is a cute little town on both Lake Michigan and the St. Joe River. After dinner we went to Silver Beach to watch the sunset and let Gracie play a little before bedtime. She made a new little friend and had a great time on all the slides!

Monday was spent with Papa Tuff, Grandma Alys, Vic, Perry, Great Gram and Great Grandpa. We played in the kiddie pool, celebrated Gram's birthday, and ate LOTS of great food. Summer picnics at Papa Tuff's are always wonderful because he has tons of fresh fruits and veggies from his garden. Gracie had almost a bushel of corn and baby tomatoes herself (which have already made their way out!).

Aside from the ND game, we had a wonderful weekend. With lots of time at the beach, time spent with wonderful friends and family (click here to see photos of the weekend), it was a wonderful way to bid goodbye to the summer season.

Update: Grandma Barbara for Mayor!

Well, mom's campaign is going strong. She even has a new website for those interested in learning more about her platform. Visit http://barbformayor.com/ to learn all kinds of fun facts! There is the CUTEST picture of Gracie post on the "Photo Gallery". She is saying, "Vote for my grandma!".