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Kathryn Elizabeth Owen - 4 Years, 7 Months
Fall has definitely arrived, and we have really enjoyed the cooler weather this month!
Gramma and Grampa came down to visit during the first weekend in October.
Kate had lots of fun with them - playing outside, decorating Halloween cookies, going out for pizza and ice cream, and going to the Madison Street Festival on Saturday.
What fun the Street Festival was this year!
The weather was perfect...cool in the morning but warm and sunny by the afternoon.
We made hot chocolate and arrived in time to watch the parade at 8:45.
Kate got lots of candy from the parade this year!
A super-fun thing that Kate was able to do this year was get her hair styled by one of the vendors.
She chose pink hair spray with sparkles, and she even had purple sparkle nail polish put on.
Wow, she was something else!
She was also able to play on a few of the inflatables that they had there.
She ate pizza for lunch, and then she got a yummy treat of blue raspberry Italian ice.
What a fun day we had together!
That evening, we took Uncle Tim to Tokyo (Japanese steakhouse) for his birthday dinner.
Kate has always been very nervous about going to this type of restaurant because she's afraid the fire is going to be loud.
Well this time, she was such a big girl and didn't worry at all; she simply put her hands over her ears when the chef made the fire.
On Monday, October 5, Kate went on her second field trip for school.
This time her class went to the Huntsville Botanical Garden.
It sure was cold that morning!
Kate wore a long sleeve shirt, her school t-shirt, and her coat with her hood.
Mommy wasn't able to go on the field trip, but I heard she had a great time seeing the scarecrows and various other features of the garden.
It was a busy week for us because, on Thursday, we flew to Wichita to visit Mama and Papa for fall break.
As always, Kate was an excellent traveler!
We left 80 degree weather at home, and we arrived to 40 degree weather in Wichita (and it only got colder).
Brr!
Since it was so cold, we weren't able to do too much outside, but we still had fun.
Kate loved to pet the cats, and they were even more receptive to her this time (gentleness goes a long way).
She and Anna also had lots of fun playing with the special doll house that Mama has at her house.
On Friday afternoon, after the sun came out and warmed everything up, we decided to go to the zoo.
Kate had been very excited to go to the zoo, and it did not disappoint!
It was cold, so Kate wore her long sleeve shirt, her jacket, and one of Mama's heavy sweatshirts.
The animals were very active that afternoon; we saw the rhinos running, the hippos were up out of the water, and we saw several lions (that's a first!).
We took our usual picture in front of the giraffes, which is something that we've done since I was 26 weeks pregnant with Kate.
The highlight for this zoo trip was the tigers.
Sedgwick County Zoo opened their new tiger exhibit since the last time we were there, and Kate was very excited about seeing them.
She got very lucky because one tiger was right up next to the glass, and there were hardly any other people there.
Kate was able to get up close and personal with the tiger, and she loved it!
On Saturday, Kate and Papa were supposed to go see a movie together, but Kate was not acting like herself.
I took her temperature and found out that she was running a fever.
This fever lasted the rest of our trip in Wichita.
It got up over 103 degrees at times, but we were able to treat it with Tylenol.
She also had other symptoms like runny nose/congestion and coughing.
We had to fly home on Tuesday with both girls still running a fever.
On Thursday, I took Kate and Anna to the doctor.
It turns out that Kate tested positive for swine flu!
After running a fever for six days, her fever finally broke on Friday.
Kate missed two days of school after fall break because of the swine flu.
On Sunday, we were ready to get out of the house and do something fun, so we went to Sci-Quest, a science museum here in Huntsville.
We had never been before, and we had a great time!
Kate enjoyed experimenting with some of the science exhibits and playing in the large tree house.
The following weekend was also busy!
It started on Friday night with Halloween Movie Night at Daddy's work.
Kate decided to dress as a rainbow fairy this year for Halloween, so she got all dressed up to go to Daddy's work.
She even had rainbow spray paint in her hair!
We went to Daddy's work and ate pizza, popcorn, and watched a Charlie Brown Halloween movie.
We even got to take home a treat bag filled with candy.
The next morning we got up early and went to visit Tate Farms to pick out our pumpkin.
We got there just before they opened, and we had a fun morning!
A cold front had come through the day before so the temperatures were only around 50 degrees Saturday morning.
We first went to the corn crib, where we were able to play in it all by ourselves.
Kate had fun jumping in the corn and being buried under the corn.
After that, we went to do one of Kate's favorite things, which was to pet the bunnies.
Kate got to hold a couple of different bunnies, pet some puppies, and see goats, a llama, and pigs.
After playing on some other things, we went for our hayride and to pick out our own pumpkin.
The hayride was very cool and breezy, but we had fun picking out a pumpkin.
We found the perfect pumpkin to put outside for Halloween!
Kate also picked out two small pumpkins that she could have for in the house.
We had so much fun on our annual trip to Tate Farms!
On Sunday, Kate and Daddy made a birthday cake for Mommy.
They baked the cake together, and later that afternoon they put the frosting on.
Kate decided to decorate it with a sun and blue and pink flowers.
The cake was beautiful, and they did a great job with it!
It has been such a fun month spent together with family!
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Click here to read Kate's previous updates.
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Anna Caroline Owen - 21 Months
Why?
That is the question that Anna has been asking all month.
My favorite is when she asks "why" when I tell her not to do something; such as, "Anna, don't touch the oven door"..."Why?"
We're trying to use it as a chance to teach her, but it gets so frustrating sometimes! :)
As usual, though, we've had such a busy month!
Fall has finally arrived, and we are loving the cooler weather.
Anna had to wear sneakers for the first time since last spring (she wore sandals all summer), and that was quite an adjustment.
The first day she wore her sneakers, she took them off as soon as we put them on, and she continued to do this for several days.
It's a little bit better now, but she will still take them off when we're in the car most of the time.
Anna had a fun time at Jack's birthday party at JumpZone at the end of September.
She was very intimidated by the big inflatables at first, but Mommy and Daddy found a little slide that she could go down.
Daddy sat at the top, Mommy was at the bottom, and Anna slid down between us.
Once she realized that she was safe, she had so much fun!
And she loved eating the birthday cupcake!
The next week brought some beautiful weather and cooler temperatures, so Mommy took Anna to a new playground in the area.
We had some time to kill before picking Kate up from school, so it was just the two of us.
Mommy and Anna had fun on the swings, slides, bouncy animals, etc.
The nice weather continued for Saturday of that week, which was the annual Madison Street Festival.
It was cold that morning, but we got up early and went to see the parade in downtown Madison.
Gramma, Grampa, and Uncle Tim were all able to go with us this year.
We saw the parade, walked around to all of the different booths, and ate yummy fair food for lunch.
Anna even had her first lollipop after the parade this year, and she really loved her "pop!"
That evening we took Uncle Tim out for his birthday dinner, and we celebrated with cake and ice cream at home afterwards.
Uncle Tim left our house on Sunday morning, and then on Thursday, we flew out to Wichita to see Mama, Papa, and Uncle Tim (again).
Anna was excellent on the plane trip all the way to Wichita!
I was worried about traveling by myself with her since Daddy stayed home and she has always hated flying in the past, but she was so good this time.
She wanted to do everything big sister did, so she colored, ate snacks, etc.
We had a such a fun time in Wichita!
Anna loved to pet the kitties while we were there.
I wasn't sure how she would do with them, but she was very gentle and loved to pet them (as long as they were sitting still).
The weather was very cold the weekend we were there, but we decided to try to go to the zoo Friday afternoon after the sun came out.
Anna's favorite animals at the zoo were the giraffes, the meerkats, and the penguins.
When we tried to leave the giraffes, she held on to the fence so she could stay and look at them longer.
She kept calling the meerkats "dogs," and she liked that they were at her level and she could see them right on the other side of the glass.
She wasn't too sure about the great big tiger who was right on the other side of the glass, though.
She clung on to Mama for dear life when they were near the tiger.
But then we got to the penguins, and Anna had the best time.
She sat in her stroller and tried to get them as they swam along, and she would just laugh as they passed her.
It was lots of fun!
I'm glad we went to the zoo on Friday, because on Saturday evening, Anna started running a fever.
This fever lasted the rest of the time that we were in Wichita, but we still had fun.
We treated her fever with Tylenol and Motrin, and she still played hard.
We didn't do too much else besides play around the house because of the cold weather and the sickness.
Oh yeah, and we did get Mama and Papa sick too.
Fortunately, their sicknesses held off until we left on Tuesday.
We flew home on Tuesday and Anna did relatively well (especially since she was very congested).
On Thursday morning, I took the girls to the doctor because they were still running a fever.
We found out that Anna most likely had swine flu.
She basically had a fever, runny nose/congestion, and a cough.
Fortunately, her fever broke on Friday and she's been doing well since, so she thankfully had a pretty mild case.
The runny nose has lingered, but she seems to be back to herself, otherwise.
We also went to a local science museum this month and went back to the park (at Kate's request).
It has been a very fun and busy month.
We hope and pray that everybody stays well as the weather gets cooler and the holidays get closer!
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Click here to read Anna's previous updates.
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