It's Homecoming Week

Watch out my faithful readers! You're in for a treat today. This is my third post, aren't you lucky? Today is the start of homecoming week at MSU. I love this week because it means homecoming parade on Friday followed by the game on Saturday. It's great when you live in East Lansing and can really enjoy the Spartan spirit that is all around, especially during homecoming week. The UAB (University Activities Board) and Student Alumni Foundation is putting on events this week for homecoming. Tonight they kicked it off with a hayride called "Hayrides and History." This is an annual event during homecoming week where you can tour around campus on a hayride and learn about 150 years of Michigan State History. I've heard about the hayride in past years and have never gone on it. I happened to be on MSU's website today and stumbled across it and thought it might be something the kids would enjoy. Not necessarily the history part of it, but going on the hayride. When I asked them if they would be interested in going, sure enough they both said yes.

We all bundled up, got our blankets, and headed over to campus after dinner. When we got there the kids were surprised to see that the hayride was with a tractor pulling the wagon rather than horses. They were still excited nonetheless. We were welcomed by the Student Alumni Foundation right away and there was cider, punch, and hot chocolate, as well as donuts and popcorn. The kids of course were all over the popcorn and punch. Greg and I had hot chocolate and on the hayride we both commented on how good the hot chocolate was. It really hit the spot! The kids enjoyed the hayride and both were excited when we passed by daddy's work. They kept saying, "there's daddy work." The weather actually wasn't too bad and it ended up not being too cold. I thought we were going to freeze so I grabbed a few blankets before we left. We didn't do too bad with the history trivia, but I have to say Greg did the best. He knows a lot about MSU. Did you know there are 553 buildings on campus? And that when MSU changed it's name from MAC (Michigan Agricultural College) to MSU, students voted on a name and wanted to call the school Michigan State Staters. Isn't that horrible? Instead someone from the Lansing State Journal had seen how well some players played during a game and said they played like Spartans so it ended up being Spartans instead of Staters because many thought that was dumb. Uh yeah! I'm so glad it didn't end up being Staters. How awful would that be? Here's some pictures of our evening on campus.

The kids all bundled up and ready for the hayride!

Evan and Em got their spots on the hay bales and are
ready to eat their popcorn and enjoy the hayride.

My cutie pie Evan having a good time riding through campus.
Little Miss Emmaline wanted her closeup shot like brother.
By the time we finished (shortly after 7pm) it was already getting dark.

After the ride we had some cider before we took off, and it had to be the best cider I've ever had! We had a nice family evening and I'm glad we decided to take the kids and head over to campus.

In other news, Greg volunteered in Evan's class today and Evan was ecstatic that daddy was going to school with him. He really enjoyed daddy helping out in the classroom! Tomorrow I'm back on library cart duty so Evan gets to have both of us in his classroom this week. Today marks a milestone for Emmaline. We've been trying to break the binki and it hasn't been going to well. We try to just let her have it at nap and bedtime, but every once in awhile we'd forget to take it up to bed when she goes and she always remembers and we always give in and let her have. Well this morning I told her it was time for it to go and that she's a big girl now and doesn't need it. So I told her to throw it away. She did and said, "all gone." Then I took the bag of trash out to the garage. (Of course I was sneaky and took the binki out just incase.) So at nap time she started to cry when I told her it was all gone and then went to the back door saying "binki, binki." I carried her up to her room and finally after trying a few things such as rubbing her back, telling her to snuggle with her blankie, or we could turn her music player on, the only thing that got her to stop was telling her if she stopped crying and went to sleep like a big girl she could have some M&M's when she woke up. She immediately stopped, I covered her up, and walked out. (However she looked a little lost laying there without the binki. She had this look like, "uh I think something is missing here.") I didn't hear a peep from her until three hours later. Awesome! We did the same thing again at bedtime, and she didn't cry as much. I told her she could have M&M's in the morning if she did a good job. And off to sleep she went! Seriously, what kid doesn't want M&M's with their breakfast! She'll probably forget anyway because she did after nap time. However, I gave her a couple after dinner to keep my word. It looks like I might have to stock up on some M&M's!