Birthday Getaway

Arlin had a big milestone birthday (the half-century mark!) this past week, so he and I went to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee for a couple days to celebrate. Arlin's sister and parents stayed at our house and took care of Katie for us. We were all kind of nervous about it because Katie had never stayed by herself with them for that long, but she did great! Twila took her to school each day, and her interpreter and aide said she did great at school too.

We enjoyed our trip. The weather was beautiful both days, and although a lot of the leaves had already fallen, the trees were still gorgeous! We rode the tram up into the mountains, went shopping, and had some great Southern cooking (my favorite!). They were having a chili cook-off in downtown Gatlinburg on Wednesday night, so we had fun sampling all the different chilis--and then getting some Ben & Jerry's ice cream to cool our mouths off!

Katie was glad to see us when she got off the bus on Thursday. And we were just a tad bit happy to see her too! :-)

Thanks again, Aunt Twila and Grandma and Grandpa Kauffman, for taking such good care of our girl while we were gone and for giving us the opportunity to get away for a couple days!

Fall School Pic

Katie's getting the hang of this school picture thing--another great school pic! Can you tell my girlie is liking her French fries lately? Look at those chubby cheeks! :-)

Camp Success!

Katie had a good time at Stepping Stones camp yesterday! Her group leader said she did well and had a smile on her face the whole time she was there! She liked swimming and walking around outdoors the best--which we figured!

It was so funny to see the look on her face when we picked her up, though. We walked in, and she spotted us, her face lit up like a Christmas tree, she rushed over and grabbed my hand, and out the door we went! I think she was just relieved to see that someone finally came back and got her! :-)

Here are a couple pictures they took of her yesterday. These were the only two they got. I'm guessing they probably have their hands pretty full keeping track of all those kids and don't have a lot of time for photography!

Enjoying a walk outside--it was a beautiful fall day!

We're not sure what she was doing in this picture, but we think it was the pumpkin rolling race!

Katie is going back on Saturday, November 7th. That will be the true test, to see how she reacts when we take her back there. Let's hope she's excited!

Big "Step"

Guess where my girl is today? Day camp!!

We have a great special needs camp here in Cincinnati called Stepping Stones. We've heard nothing but good things about it and have been wanting to try it out for Katie. They have Saturday day camps two times a month in fall, winter, and spring, so we thought we'd try it out. If Katie enjoys it, it will be something for her to do a few days a week next summer. (In the summer, they have camp every day--you can go as many days as you want.)

They have really fun programs set up for the kids to keep them busy and on a structured routine while they're there. Today's program is Halloween-themed:

9:30-10:00 - Free play in the gym (They have mats, scooters, balls, etc.)
10:00-10:30 - Swim (They have an Olympic-size indoor pool, with zero entry and 89-degree water!)
10:30-11:00 - Arts & crafts (Make Halloween costumes.)
11:00-11:30 - Picnic lunch (Katie packed a peanut butter sandwich, tortilla chips, cookie, and milk. Not sure if she'll eat in a strange place or not, though!)
11:30-12:00 - Pumpkin rolling race
12:00-12:30 - Bones bingo
12:30-1:00 - Arts & crafts (Make ghosts.)
1:00-1:30 - Spooky kickball
1:30-2:00 - Trick or treating (They're going to go around to see the workers in the offices, barn, nurse's station, etc. at the camp.)
2:00-2:45 - Playground

Katie will be in a group with six other 5- to 7-year-olds. She'll have a group leader, and each child will be matched up with a one-on-one aide. The aides today are a group of volunteers from Xavier University's special ed program. They don't have anyone fluent in sign language to be with Katie, but they do know some minimal signing, so hopefully it will be enough to get her through the day. We sent her PECS pictures from school so she'd have some familiarity with those, and also sent a sign dictionary.

I'm excited for her--it's such a huge move to more independence! But, of course, my mamaheart is a little nervous too, seeing my girl go off to a strange place for the day, with all new people, and not being able to explain it all to her or for her to be able to tell us what she did there or how it went. I sent our camera along, so hopefully they'll take some pictures of her so we can see how her day went.

I'll post an update later this weekend, with hopefully some pictures!

Random Happenings

Not much excitement going on in the Kauffman household lately--which I guess is always a good thing!

Katie and I have both had our annual "Welcome to Fall in the Midwest" sinus infections this week. The cough has been the worst part. Katie's hasn't been too bad--she's slept well at night, despite coughing a lot, and has been able to go to school. I, on the other hand, haven't been so lucky! My cough has been so bad, I've hardly been able to sleep at all. Thursday night, I never even went to sleep! Ugh. The antibiotics finally feel like they're starting to kick in, and I slept pretty decently last night, so maybe things will be all cleared up in a few more days. Gotta love the fall in Cincinnati!

Katie started the fall session of hippotherapy this morning. CTRH has their new indoor riding facility open now, so the kids were able to ride indoors since the outdoor ring was muddy from all the rain we've had. The indoor ring is heated now, which makes it really nice for the kids and the volunteers--and the horses! Katie enjoyed riding and, as usual, signed "more, more" when they stopped! I think she would ride all day if they'd let her!

We may go to the Sauerkraut Festival tomorrow in Waynesville and walk around a little while if Katie and I are feeling up to it. It's finally supposed to be a nice, sunny fall day here tomorrow. We'll be glad to see the sun again!