We went to Leaman's Apple Farm with Mommy and Daddy's church group today. It was a lot of fun. I spent a lot of time riding piggy back on Daddy or riding on his shoulders, since I'm supposed to be staying off my ankle as much as possible.

We had a lot of fun. First, we got to go on a tour of the orchard. We went through an display that tells about how apple seeds become apple trees and how apples grow on the trees.

After that, we all got to pick an apple of our own.

Then we got to go and see how they sort apples. The really small ones they save to feed to the animals on the farm. The medium sized apples they use to make apple cider. They keep the biggest, juiciest ones to sell in their gift shop.

After we sorted a bunch of apples, we all got to take one and go outside. Then we got to see how they used to make apple cider. We all got to throw our apple into a thing that chewed them all up

Once all the apples were chewed up, we could see how you could take a handful of the chunks and squeeze the juice right out them with your hands.

Then we got to see how a cider press worked. Mr. Chris cranked and cranked and soon we saw juice come out into the bowl.

After that, it was time for cider and donuts. The cider was really good. I wasn't very impressed with the dounuts, but everyone else thought they were really good. When everyone was finished with their snack, we got to go in and decorate pumpkins. That was a lot of fun.

Once we were all done with that, we headed out to the play area. We got to ride in a barrel train,

and go on a hayride.

Then we just played for a little bit. I didn't do a very good job of taking it easy on my ankle. I didn't go down the slide, but I forgot that I wasn't supposed to be running.

Before we left, we went and looked through the gift shop. There was a lot of neat stuff in there. We ended up buying some donuts and some apple cider. I had a really good time today.

I sprained my ankle yesterday. I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but I think it was when a bigger kid fell on me on the playground. That's why I came home from school all covered in dirt (Mommy said I looked like Pigpen). Mommy and Daddy's anniversary was on Wednesday and we were going out to eat last night to celebrate so I had to change into clean clothes. There was still time for me to go out and play before bedtime when we got home, so Daddy was helping me get back into my dirty clothes when he noticed that my ankle was really, really swollen. I got back into my clean clothes and we headed to the Emergency Room to find out if my ankle was just sprained of if it was broken.

It was a busy night in the Emergency Room, so we had to wait in the waiting room for a long time. That was hard for me to do, even with the tv on the Disney Channel. I was getting pretty tired, and that made me really fidgety. When I finally got put into a room, it didn't even have a bed. But that didn't matter. I curled up in the chair with the blanket and pillow we keep in the car and the stuffed kitten they gave me at the hospital and was asleep in about 10 minutes. A doctor finally came in to see me about an hour later and I slept right through him looking at my ankle. Mommy had to wake me up so they could take me to get x-rayed. I wasn't real happy about that. I kept wanting to roll over and go back to sleep when they layed me down on the x-ray table, but I had to stay on my back. After my x-rays, I came back and curled up in my chair again, but I didn't go back to sleep. The doctor came in a little while later and took Mommy to look at my x-rays. He said he thought everything looked ok, but that if the radiologist thought otherwise when he looked at it today, they'd call and let us know. He said that I should keep it wrapped in an ace wrap for a few days and try to stay off it as much as possible for the rest of the weekend. I have a bunch of doctors' appointments coming up, so he got us copies of my x-rays to take with us so my doctors can look at them. Once I was wrapped up, we were ready to go. That was at about midnight.

I slept in late today (and late for me is 9:30) and spent most of the day laying on the couch watching tv or movies. Daddy carried me around when we went out for pizza tonight. He and Mommy thought it was better that way because I jumped out of bed this morning and stomped into the bathroom as usual without even thinking about taking it easy on my ankle. I can't feel it, so I forget that it's hurt. I can't wait until I'm allowed to run around again, because this is the pits.

We finally got the butterfly out of my bug house this afternoon. It stayed in the backyard, flying around, for a long time and then it finally flew away. I was kind of sad to have to let it go, but I know it's happier being free.

I caught this butterfly last night. Mommy was very surprised to see me running around with it on my finger because I freaked out any time a butterfly touched me at the Butterfly House this past spring.

This butterfly is injured. It only has 4 legs instead of 6. I put it in my bug house and Mommy made some sugar water and put it in the lid of a milk jug so it would have something to eat. Mommy grabbed the camera and took some pictures when she saw it on the lid, so that I would know that it was still alive and eating at some point during the day. We took the bug house back outside and tried to let the butterfly go tonight, but we couldn't get it out and it wouldn't come out by itself. We brought it back in and will try, again, to let it go tomorrow.

Today my class went on our very first field trip. We went to the library. When we got there, we went downstairs to the kids area and went in to the Story Time room. The librarian had the Investigator help us figure out how to take care of our books. We saw a book that had gotten wet, one that had gotten food all over the pages, one that had gotten its pages dog eared and the corners ripped off, and one that had pages ripped out or colored on. We learned that we want to keep our library books dry, not eat while we're reading, use a bookmark when we have to stop in the middle of a book, and to keep our library books out of the reach of little kids that might color in them or rip the pages.

After that, we learned about the different areas of the kids section of the library. The librarian told us how we would know where the picture books were, the easy readers, the chapter books and the non-fiction books. Then we got to go on a tour and see where all these things were. We also saw where they keep the magazines and the computer games, books on tape/cd, and leap frog books that we can check out.

After the tour, we went on a scavenger hunt. I was in Mommy's group, and we had to find a non-fiction book about whales, an easy reader book by an author whose last name started with R, and a picture book whose last name started with S. And after we found all our books, we got to go back into the Story Time room and pick out a book that we could take home and keep. I chose a book about the Incredibles.

Once everyone was done picking out books, we lined up and got to go up the back staircase and walk through part of the grown-ups part of the library. We had to be very quiet while we were walking there, because we didn't want to disturb and grown-ups who were there looking at books or reading. We waited in the cafe, called the Cup and Chaucer, for our bus to come. It was a little bit late, but we did a very good job of waiting patiently. We stayed in our line and were pretty quiet. Most of us were looking at our new books. The bus finally came, bringing the other first grade class for their library tour, and we went back to school.

Mommy is going to do a better job the next time she goes on a field trip with me. She was great at getting us through our scavenger hunt, but she brought her camera with her and forgot to take pictures!

Tonight we went to Daddy's company picnic. It was a lot of fun. There were lots of things for kids to do. The first thing I did was go and get my face painted. I looked at all the example pictures and decided that I wanted to have my whole face painted like a tiger.

After I was all done, I went to check out all the inflatables that they had. There were four different ones. There was one that was like a maze and I went through that a few times. After that, I spent most of my time in the one that was for littler kids

and going down the big inflatable slide

We had a good dinner. Then I went to play some more while Daddy was in charge of the slide. After that, there was a raffle. Daddy entered for a few nice prizes, but he didn't win anything. He missed winning the the grand prize by one number. After all the raffle prizes were given away, it was starting to get dark, so everyone moved out into the parking lot and got ready for the fireworks. I was a little scared before they started, but Mommy brought my earmuffs and let me sit on her lap. She asked me what color I was going to be looking for, and I was so busy watching for red and purple fireworks that I forgot to be scared. It was a short show, but it was pretty. When it was over, I was ready to go home, take a bath and go to bed. It's been a long week and I was really tired. But I still had a lot of fun at the picnic and can't wait to go again next year.

It's finally here. Today was the first day of school! I've been waiting and waiting to be in first grade and now I finally am.

It was hard getting up this morning. We were gone all weekend and were very busy, so I was pretty tired last night. I had to get up earlier than I've been getting up during the summer. I finally got going and after breakfast I got my new backpack and my new lunch box and I was ready to go.

Mommy promised me that I could ride the bus to and from school this year. Last year I only rode the bus home. We got to the bus stop plenty early. I was the first one there. While we were waiting, Mommy took some pictures of my new brace. I just got my DAFO on Friday. I really like the butterflies on it. Lucky for me, knee socks are in style this year, so I'll have plenty to choose from since my DAFO is taller than my SMO and I can't wear short socks anymore.

Mommy is so silly sometimes. She was so busy watching me get on the bus that she forgot to take a picture. I sat on the far side of the bus, so all you can see is the top of my head in the middle window.

And there I go.....off on my first day of first grade.

Things got off to a little bit of a rocky start, but once they settled down, I had a great day. About half the kids from my kindergarten class are in my class again this year. I really like my teacher and our parapro. They are very nice and very helpful when I have a problem. It was different being in school all day and eating lunch at school instead of at home. I'm going to have to start eating faster because we don't have a whole lot of time to eat and I wasn't able finish my lunch today. I was really, really tired when I got home today, but I think I'm going to really like first grade.

No pictures of me getting off the bus, like we had last year, because Mommy was so worried about getting to the bus stop on time she forgot the camera. As it turned out, she was there in plenty of time, but was worried that if she went back for the camera, she would end up being late, so no pictures. Oh well, there's always next year.

Tonight, after supper, we went to school for an ice cream social. I saw some of my friends from my class and a friend that used to be in my swimming class when I was younger and who is in kindergarten at my school now. After we ate ice cream, I took Mommy and Daddy inside to see my classroom and meet my teacher. We also walked around and saw where I will have art class and music class, and I took a peek in my kindergarten classroom.

By the time we got home, I was ready for a bath and bed. It's been a very long day. I'm not going to have any trouble going to sleep tonight, that's for sure!