Fall Festivals

I love this time of year! Yes, I wish it still weren't 90 degrees here in Houston, but I love this time of year: pumpkins, costumes, festivals, and fun! This weekend we went to our first two fall festivals. On Saturday I took the kids to the Wildflower Festival at Creekside Park and on Sunday we had a family picnic after church with the Babb's at Burroughs Park. We rode ponies, petted animals, played games, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. How fun is fall?!?

Jake and his balloon hat the clown made him.

The Princess and her Pony

The wildflowers I came home with--maybe this will be my year to actually grow some flowers :)

With their dear friends Jackson and Lillie Beth

Gracie attempting the sack race

Best Buddies

Riding the train with JoJo

Grace on the train

Gracie and Jackson

The Best Date Night Ever

Friday night Ty took me on my favorite date of all time. We went to a painting class at Vino Artino. It was so much fun! We both loved it and came home with some fun souvenirs we now have to figure out where to put. We might not be professionals, but we can follow directions :)

An artist at work :)

I thought it was fun that they had written our names on our spots!

The yummy wine we brought

Our class with the finished paintings

My painting

Ty's painting

Our masterpieces :)

My Pinterest Obsession

I have a confession to make: I am addicted to Pinterest. It has transformed the way I cook and has encouraged me to make an endless supply of crafts this fall. Its incredibly helpful in my classroom at school as well. Here are some of my fall projects:

One of my fall wreaths. This was super easy-its just required a ton of hot glue! I found this one here.

My Texas pumpkins--I found this idea to use puff paint to decorate them.  Fun :)

I painted the kids' footprints on a canvas for this idea.

This is another wreath I made with my Friday girl's Bible Study. It just required a good deal of patience. It was found here.

School Days

September has come and gone and we are off to a great start with our school year. Gracie started three year old pre-school the first week of September and is really enjoying her class and her teacher, Ms. Renee. She is as spirited as ever and constantly making us laugh or shake our heads. Here are some pictures of her first month of school:

Her first day of pre-school

This is an outfit she put together to go with me to the grocery store: a blue church dress, her "high heels," her "Derby" hat, and of course, her pearls. She has worn these pearls everyday since the end of July. 

Grace on "Dress Myself" day at school. She dressed as Super Girl and told everyone she was "Super Grace."

Meanwhile, Jake is loving Kindergarten. He loves his teacher, his class, learning new things. He's really thriving. I'm so happy with how he's assimilated virtually seamlessly. He still gets tired easily and sweats profusely at times. I'm constantly changing my mind about calling his cardiologist or not. I think everything is fine though and he is just so happy which is worth more than I can say.

Jake's first homework assignment: he has homework four nights a week and thinks its so fun. I'm going to treasure these days :)

Jake and Ty having a jam session. He loves playing the guitar with his Daddy.

Jake and Addison one afternoon at the park. We're still trying to plan after school playdates with the kids' friends they aren't in school with. I love this :)

Just a sweet picture of Jake and Grace on the way to church one Sunday morning. They love each other so much--except when they don't :)

And, finally, I've taught my girl well! Here's her cheer before OU/Texas. It must have worked because OU stomped them! Hooray for football season!

The Tooth Fairy

The older my kids get, the crazier the stories get that I tell them…Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, our beloved Elf on the shelf, and now The Tooth Fairy. I wasn't quite prepared for this one.

The last week in September, Jake got in the car after school and started to cry. I immediately thought he had to change his color at school or something of that nature. Instead, he opened his mouth and I saw a big gaping hole where one of his bottom teeth used to be. I immediately screamed with joy that he had lost a tooth--that made him really cry. We live just blocks from the school so we got home and I tried to calm him down. 

Apparently, it had come out while he was waiting in the car line after school, he panicked, threw the tooth on the ground, and tried not to cry. Bless his heart. I tried to explain how exciting this was…what a momentous occasion…that the tooth fairy would visit that night. That was the wrong thing to say. He cried even harder and said he did NOT want any fairy coming in his room in the middle of the night. He didn't care if she was bringing money. 

He was the first in his class at school to lose a tooth and our oldest child so he didn't know this was coming. I had no idea he had a loose tooth. I quickly tried to patch together my story and comfort him. I reminded him his big cousin Hendrix had lost several teeth as had our friend Caden when we were at the pool with him this summer. This began to help. I explained that it meant he was a big kid now…that it really was a big deal. 

The tears stopped and a smile started.

He then began to ask about the tooth fairy. I have no recollection of anything my mom ever said about the tooth fairy. I remember at six, finding my teeth in my mom's drawer and realizing it was all a sham. That's all I can recall. So, I used starting spinning a story. I explained she was a tiny little sparkly fairy who visited children in the night and left money under their pillows. He still wasn't having that so my mom had a great idea. Why not ask her to leave the money on the porch? So Jake had me write her a letter which we taped to the front door  asking her to leave the money outside.

After Jake went to bed, I got on pinterest and looked at the ideas I had been collecting about the tooth fairy. I wrote a tiny letter from her and spray painted a dollar bill with glitter paint and left those plus some quarters in a container on the porch. The next morning Jake hurried outside and found his treasure. He was confused though…he wanted to know if the tooth fairy was so little, how could she carry quarters since they're so heavy? Good question. Answer: her magic backpack, of course.

He now is so very proud of the gaping whole and starts many sentences with "Since I'm 5 and have lost a tooth, I'm big enough to…." 

Crisis adverted. Also, he says she is never welcome in his room so she can always leave money on the porch. Grace thinks this is a grand idea as well. I happen to like it as well :)

His initial reaction

Our letter to the tooth fairy

Two hours later after he realized how cool he now is!

The mini-letter from the tooth fairy

His treasure

The next morning

++

Labor Day in Marshall

The weekend after school started, we took a trip to Marshall to visit Ty's dad and stepmom and his brother Jason and his family. It is always wonderful to be outside on their land--just fishing and playing and feeding the cows! 

Jake went hunting for the first time. Ty and Pops took him with them to hunt doves, and he thought it was awesome. Mommy is getting over her hunting fears. I was definitely raised a city girl and hunting was all new to me when I married Ty. I love the bonding aspect of it--it's a family tradition for sure.

Grace had her first sleepover with her cousin, Elsie Jane. She had a wonderful time at their house dancing and being entertained by Uncle Jason and spoiled by Aunt Jolie.

Grace also caught her first fish although she might be a little more like her "city girl" Mom than her "country" Dad :) When Ty helped her reel it in, she promptly began screaming and jumping. We managed to get a picture which is a bit misleading. Other than the picture, she had nothing to do with that "yucky fish." We'll have to work on her a bit! To her credit, she does love feeding the cows…she just doesn't want to touch a fish :) 

It's always great to spend the weekend with family :)

Nonnie and Grace

Elsie Jane and Jake

Jake, EJ, and our goofy Grace

Playing outside

By the pond

Starting School

The McCathran family is officially back to school after a nice, relaxing summer. Jake started Kindergarten (sniff, sniff!) the last week of August. A month later, I can officially say that he loves it! I couldn't be more thankful for his wonderful school and the caring teachers and staff. Jake is quite the prayed over kid (thanks to the many, many people who are constantly praying for his heart), and I know it is no coincidence that school is going so well. I wrote a blog post for It's My Heart last week--you can view it here and see my thoughts on the first day of school. 

At the beginning of the summer I was nervous about him starting school for two reasons: his heart and his speech delay. He had a glowing check-up from his cardiologist in July (although he still of course has limitations and will be watched carefully). We went to a few specialists, a different speech therapist and an audiologist this summer to determine if his speech delay had a "label." We had been told several times he might have auditory processing disorder. I do believe he has a mild version of this but the audiologist won't diagnose this until he's seven and thinks he may outgrow some of the symptoms of this before then. He's also been doing a headphone therapy program through his speech pathologist to help with listening skills. Between lots of therapy, the headphones, and prayer, he's come a long way the past few months! So far in Kindergarten he is doing great with listening and with being attentive to his teacher. His vocabulary has exploded as well and he now asks question after question after question! A year ago, Jake wasn't really conversational and was still really struggling to communicate, especially with his peers and teacher--he didn't use many sentences and wasn't able to tell stories or ask questions. We are incredibly grateful for the strides he has made. It made him entering Kindergarten this fall so much easier. With Jake, it is so physically evident how God continues to take care of him. 

Here are his back to school pictures:

Meanwhile, Gracie Girl and I also started back to school. I'm teaching Pre-K again, and she started the three year old class at Pre-School. She loves school, too, and quickly catches on to what she's learning at school. So far, she's most excited about learning all about frogs--she even knows they're amphibians which she proudly tells us :) She also loves chapel, and I'm so thankful she learns about God's word everyday at school--she loves to retell the stories she learns and say her Bible verses. 

Here is her back to school picture:

A new blessing

                                                     

We have a sweet addition to our family--a new nephew! Mark and Destin had a beautiful baby boy, Tucker Beau. He is so precious--just yummy! The kids and I had the privilege of staying with them the week he was born so we could help with big brother Nash. J & G had so much fun playing with Nash all week and were quite excited to meet their new cousin. Now, if we could just figure out a way to make Ft. Worth a little closer to Houston...we miss them already and need more Tucker time!

Nash meeting his baby brother

Gracie was smitten right away--a real doll :)

Jake thought he was pretty cool, too!

Playing at the park in their matching shirts

The Three Amigos--time to make room for cousin #4!