Reading Night

Last week, Gavin's school had its annual family reading night. The theme was "Under the Stars," and it took place from 6:30 - 8:00 pm. Gavin was excited to stay up late! 

We went to this event last year and it was a lot of un. They had community helpers, like a police officer, read. Each reader was set up in a different classroom and the families would move from room to room.

Gavin and his friend Claire were excited to see Officer Fletcher read. He helps out at the crosswalk in front of the school and lives in the neighborhood. He read "Creepy Carrots" and "Shark Vs. Train" - neither of which he had read before that night. He was pretty entertaining.

(Gavin is on the couch, as close as he can get!)

Next we went to hear Mr. Tabisz, the PE teacher, read. He usually doesn't get to read to the kids, and he was hilarious. The kids were doubled over in giggles. He read "The Day The Crayons Quit" and "The Book With No Pictures."

(Gavin is on the left side of this picture.)

We heard one other teacher read. There was also a professional storyteller who started things off. It was lots of fun and we plan to attend every year!

Cantigny

Gavin loves climbing on the tanks at Cantigny. He always has!! This weekend he was catching up on some World War two history, specifically General Patton's accomplishments, and he just had to go see the tanks!

He LOVES the Snoopy tank:

And he loves the tiger tank:

Preschool Garden

We stopped by the twins' old preschool to add some fall decorations to Evie's garden. We were happy to see it's still so green, and the wave petunias are still going strong despite the rain and chill!

Danada Fall Festival

Every year Danada Farm has a Fall Festival. We went last year and Gavin had a great time! He loved a horse there named Shadow and really, really hoped to see him again.

We started out in the main barn, where we met a very friendly quarter horse mare named Sweet Cheeks. We almost didn't leave her stall.

But we did leave, and went in search of the guest barns to track down Shadow.

We were in luck! We found him, and his owner remembered us from last year, AND we got to see him perform. He is part of the Midwest Renegades Riding team.

His owner let us into his stall and happily answered all our questions. We learned that Shadow used to work at Medieval Times as a jousting horse, but is now "retired" to the drill team. We also learned that horses need to see the dentist every year or two, because their teeth never stop growing and need to be filed down.

 She even let Gavin feed Shadow a peppermint candy - just like the ones people eat after dinner!

Shadow and his owner in the ring. Yes, that's green and purple glitter on his rump:

Gavin is completely interested in horses now. Not just because of this event, but he also has a book about a real-life mini miniature horse named Einstein. So he loved this "chart:"

We're already looking ahead to next year's Fall Festival!

Fun Run

Gavin's school had its second annual Fun Run last week, and it happened to be on his birthday! It's an obstacle course that the gym teacher and volunteers set up on the school grounds. Each hour of the day, a different grade runs through it, as many times as they can. Gavin's grade ran through the whole thing four times and those first graders were all huffing and puffing by the end!

He was in constant motion, so some of the photos are a little blurry. But every kid had a great time!

Gavin's Birthday Party

Gavin wanted to have his birthday party this year at Chuck E Cheese....it's loud and flashy and kind of crazy, but the kids all love it. And the pizza is not bad!!

He played with all his friends and was in constant motion: 

He loved his birthday crown...

...and his birthday balloon guitar!

Grandma Cordes liked the crown, too!

He loved the ticket blaster booth and he liked meeting Chuck E in person. He was a happy kid all day!

Sonny Acres

Yesterday I took Gavin to Sonny Acres. We go every year and he's been anxious to get over there. It doesn't matter that they have the same rides and attractions each time - he still loves it!

The weather started out sunny and 55 but quickly turned cloudy and windy. So in my first set of pictures he's wearing a hoodie and by the end he was in his winter coat (I brought both. Who can tell around here?).

He rode the ponies three times. This one is named Spice. We also went down the huge slide twice and through the kiddie haunted house twice, and we still didn't get to everything. We will return before the end of the month!