Happy 30th Birthday, Nate!

Nate's 30th birthday was yesterday, September 28th. Today we had a party/BBQ at our house to celebrate. Nate's parents, sister, and nieces all came to Rockford for the party. We also shared the day with many other close friends. About 40 people came to the party. It was nice to see so many of our friends. The weather was beautiful, fall weather is finally here! It was a perfect day for grilling and hanging out in the backyard. Zoe loved being outside with us. She made many new friends and loved being the center of attention. Zoe's birthday is next week, so we considered it her birthday party too. Also, my dad's birthday was today so we were really celebrating all three birthdays. Happy Birthday Nate, Dad, and Zoe!

Another school year...

Another school year officially started today! Today was the first day of student attendance at Dennis Early Learning Center. I have been preparing the classroom for the last three weeks (yes, it takes that long) and going on home visits. It was great seeing the students again today, many of them are returning from last year. Though I would love to post pictures of my students, I don't think I can leagally do that. So instead, here are some pictures of my clasroom. Each classroom at our school has a different habitat theme (frog pond, bat cave, woodpecker nest, etc.). My room is the ladybug house, hence all the ladybug pictures. I changed the set-up of the classroom a little bit from last year. Nate helped me put up a rainbow canopy over my reading center. How cute! Now the kids have a cozy place to look at books. I found a cute ladybug bean bag on ebay and had to buy it for the class. The walls are still bare, I am waiting until next week to start doing art projects. Soon the children's artwork will be up and the room will look much more colorful. I am looking forward to another fun school year!

Labor Day weekend- Cubs game

Nate and I spent Labor Day weekend this year with our friends Dave, Janet, Jon, and Rachael. We went into Chicago for the Cubs game on Saturday afternoon. The cubs won, it was a really exciting game! The weather was gorgeous, though we did get a little sunburned. Of course Nate and I forgot our camera, so the pictures above are thanks to our friend Janet. After the game, we spent the evening downtown. We walked around for awhile and visited a few bars. During our walk downtown, we saw Cubs player Derek Lee. He was standing outside of a bar we were passing. Our friend Jon was the only person brave enough to go and say something to him. Jon shook Derek's hand and said something about how great the game was earlier that day. That was probably the highlight of our trip. We spent Saturday night at a hotel on Michigan Avenue and drove back home Sunday afternoon. It really was a great weekend. It's always nice to hang out with our Iowa friends.