Labor day weekend

So we usually don't do anything too terribly exciting for Labor day weekend.  Trav was supposed to go camping with the scouts but it got cancelled last minute so we decided to live it up.  We went to a movie, Josh had his first soccer game of the season, and we went to the zoo.

 

 

Trav said,"Rach, I'm going to take a picture of you, look like you're having fun!"  This is the pose of "fun" apparently.

 This was Will's first trip to the zoo and this is pretty much how he spent the whole time.  What a cutie.

 They also put in a splash pad area that I had never seen before.  The kids LOVED that (and got nice and wet).

 And it was the last day of the Lego animals.  The polar bear was definitely my favorite.  Josh thinks they should get rid of all the animals and just have Lego animals.  Much easier to take care of.

 It's kind of hard to read William's shirt but it says "bananas for mommy."  I thought he needed to wear that one to the zoo, and had to get a picture with mommy too.

 Also on Labor day weekend every year we get hot air balloons at the park across the street.  They do it every year and just launch from there and it's so cool to see that happen.  Well, this year they launched on Friday and Saturday like always, but they were also there on Sunday.  So Trav and Kate walked over to see and they were giving rides!  They've never done that before!  So they went on a little hot air balloon ride.  Our neighbor was nice enough to take a picture for us.

 They ran home and woke the rest of us up and me, Josh and Rach ran over and got a ride too!  It only lasted a couple minutes but there was hardly anyone there and it was so fun!  And we were only 3 minutes late to our 9:00 church, which is actually a miracle.

 There's been some bad ducks riding around the neighborhood.  This one is "Hollywood Duck." Neighbors, lock your doors...

 I guess you don't need to worry too much, cowboy Josh will take care of it. 

 And then last night out of nowhere we had a crazy downpour.  We got a ton of rain in a short time and of course someone had to be out there playing in it.  Our road was almost completely flooded over.  So crazy, but so needed. 

So that was our Labor day weekend.  How was yours?

School!

Well kids, it's time to be back in school!  Hey, what grade are you in now?

 Josh is a first grader?  Seriously, how the heck did that happen?

 And don't forget my little 3rd grader/teenager.  Oy this one's going to give me grey hairs!

 And to add a little excitement to the beginning of the school year, look what we have.....

 Josh lost his very first tooth last night!  If you can't tell by that smile he's SOOOO excited.  He's been eating corn on the cob like it's going out of style to get that thing out.  Way to go Josh!

Summer Wrap-up

Really?  Is summer really over? I honestly can't believe school starts in just a few days.  It's been a good summer though.  I know you're supposed to keep your kids brains active all summer long....keep giving them homework and doing "brain stimulating things" but I just wanted to have a very kick back, fun and fancy free summer and honestly we did.  No, they didn't sit in front of the t.v. all summer but I didn't park them in front of worksheets either.  They just played and played and used those amazing imaginations of theirs until they collapsed...(which never happens so really it was until we threatened them with their lives to get into bed, it's 11:00 pm and you're 6 years old for crying out loud)  I just wanted them to have good memories and not  over-packed day/ slave driver mom memories.  I can say we were successful.

Well, we had to sneak in one camping trip this year.  That's what I agree to...one camping trip per year and then Trav gets to camp all he wants with the scouts and father/daughter and father/son camp-outs.  So he is constantly camping.  I like my one.  I'm not even sure the name of the canyon or campgound we ended up in but we sure had fun.  There was a river so of course they had to go wading....

 Oh, just to prove William and I were there, here ya go.

 We brought up the kids bikes to ride around the campground.  They would go around and around and had a great time. 

 Unfortunately on the way up there we had all the bikes tied down but we didn't think to tie the seat down of Kate's trike.  So somewhere between here and "who knows where campsite" there is a little orange seat that would fit nicely on this bike.  If you happen to see it...give us a call. Needless to say Kate didn't do much bike riding.

 We were having s'mores and I was just taking pictures and happen to get this face of Josh.  I was laughing so hard at it that everyone started getting a little punchy and we had a crazy picture shoot. 

 Then for breakfast we almost almost pounded a dozen eggs, a pound of bacon and a pack of hash browns.  Our little family is getting big!

 It was a fun camping trip but then a few days later I packed the kids up and spent a few days at my parents cabin with my mom and sister.  Here's Tyler and Kate ready for a meal.

 And this little green table belonged to my grandparents and I remember when we'd go to their house we'd sit on it and spin around and we thought that was the coolest thing.  Well, traditions don't die young.  Now my kids sit on it and spin around.  They are more clever than I was and they call it the "cousin train."  I guess I didn't have any cousins my age so that's why I never thought of a name like that.  But they love that table just as much as I did.

 Rach was quite the photographer and took pictures of all kinds of things, including squirrels.

 Movie night with cabin famous popcorn.

 And for some reason a trampoline in the woods is so much more fun.  You'd think they have never jumped on one before....oh wait...we have one in our backyard in the woods....

 One of the legs to this little "gym" was missing so can you tell which one I jimmied up to work?  William didn't seem to mind.

 And give some kids some scrubbers and a bucket of water and you've got yourself some free child labor to scrub the chairs and benches on the deck.

 This sweet boy is ALWAYS sucking on those 2 fingers.  I wonder why they taste so good?  He prefers them over a binky.

 Fun times at the cabin.  Then we made it home and something happened to Rach.  What happened to her legs?

 Here's my 2 boys.  Will looks just like Josh did as a baby, but with darker hair.  Two peas in a pod.

 Gotta love it when they pull out the dress ups.

 You never know what combination you're going to get....

 Sometimes it's just too hard to keep your eyes open.  It really is hard work being a baby.

 Notice the 2 fingers?

 And again.  At least he's cute if you don't mind 2 slimy fingers.  I'm still so in love with this boy.