Explora Camp
It's not even cool outside yet, and I can't resist a summer flashback... The kids spent a week of afternoons in late July/early August taking classes at our children's science museum, and had too much fun not to share.
Liam's class, "Geology Rocks!", was - no surprise - a study of the earth. A highlight was the eruption of his volcano, Mt. Destruction, on the last day. Be sure to watch the video for the full action!
Soccer Season
Practice started Tuesday night, so it's already fall soccer time again!
Although they are pretty worn out when it's over, I love that the kids have these days to run around and play with their friends after school during the week :).
Same School
Yesterday was the first day of school for our elementary, and the first time ever the kids have been at the same school.
Greta, the enthusiastic kindergartener.
And Liam, the cool second grader.
They were so excited to get going.
At school we reunited with all kinds of friends and it was generally chaos.
Shawn surprised us by heading into work late so he could join in the first-day festivities.
The teachers come and lead their classes in, but parents get to tag along for the first day of kindergarten :). We stuck around for a few minutes while Greta got settled, then bolted while things seemed to be going well!
The kids were talking a mile a minute when I picked them up in the afternoon, and had all kinds of great stuff to report about school. Minus Greta's (self-reported) timeout for coloring on a desk, the first day was a giant success. What better way to celebrate than with a giant donut after school? (This seems to be turning into an annual tradition as it's always the special snack of choice!!)
Here's to a wonderful start to what we hope will be a wonderful year!
The End of Summer
We'll probably have summery weather for another month, but school for Liam and Greta starts tomorrow and so the real season is coming to an end for us. Maybe it's because our summer vacation was only two months long or maybe the kids are just at great ages, but summertime really seemed to fly by this year and I'm so sad to see it go.
I feel like there were so many things I wanted to do together this summer and we ran out of time before getting to all of them. We swam, rode bikes, played with friends, spent time with family, traveled, hiked, went on picnics, listened to music, played games, read stories, watched movies, and dined on the patio... but not enough. So it's with much reluctance that I'm writing this post, but here's the season's recap:
Playing out back.
Swim lessons.
Baseball game.
Star Wars camp.
Miniature golf with cousin Joseph.
Family vacation in the Wisconsin Dells.
Flying back from Chicago. (Not a great picture, but the kids have carried these backpacks with their "loveys" sticking out whenever we travel since Greta could walk, and I wanted to catch it on film!)
Not ready to head back-to-school yet, Amelia
Violin Concert
My phone didn't exactly catch the best pictures, but Liam (and his entire class) had his first violin performance on Friday. Another awesome perk of his school!
Friday Night Fencing
Our long weekend is already a bit of a blur; luckily, I grabbed a few pictures on my phone to remember the action that kicked it off... Liam got to participate in his first fencing tournament.
Despite looking a bit nervous in the beginning, he did great and had a blast!
All of the kids at Liam's school participate in fencing once a week (along with aikido, lacrosse, and regular PE), and there were a mix of ages (kindergarten through fourth grade) in attendance Friday night.
This was my first time to see these little guys and gals in action, and I was pretty impressed. (That's Liam dueling with an older student. She rocked the entire tournament, but Liam was happy to score a point against her in this bout!)
Rubber Bracelets Everywhere
The first graders are a bit late to the Rainbow Loom bracelet making craze, but that hasn't stopped Liam from making up for lost time!
Liam's 7th Birthday
A building party with friends at the LEGO store.
Opening gifts.
Celebrating with dinner (and dessert!) out.
And just like that, we have a 7-year old in the house!! Sure doesn't seem possible, but another year has past and our little Liam is not so little anymore!
Lately
In the last couple of weeks...
Greta and I did some serious after-Christmas sale shopping. Finally, another willing shopper in the house!
We celebrated Shawn's birthday.
We've taken advantage of warm winter days to catch up on some outdoor maintenance.
Liam dressed up for "favorite book character" day at his school. Greta has pajama day at preschool tomorrow, but had to settle for a matching scar this morning... Both kids are wild for all things Harry Potter right now!)
Holi-daze
December is so full of so many fun things that I've given up on trying to do it all, much less take pictures of everything we do manage to fit in!! Here are a few shots of some activities that made the cut...
Getting out the big bins of Christmas books, movies, and toys.
Bundling up for the Twinkle Light Parade.
Decorating the tree (note that both Liam and Greta still prefer the cluster approach and Greta picked a Rudolph ornament for the third year in a row!).
Making and decorating Christmas cookies for the church at Greta's preschool.
Winter Wasteland
Like most of the country, we've been hit with a streak of cold and snowy weather. (These pictures are actually from the morning we left for Florida, but things pretty much look this way again now.)
Although Mishka is a happy husky and the kids never seem to get enough snow, I'm already thinking we're in for a looooong winter!
Soccer Tournament
Liam's soccer team ended the fall season by playing in the local Turkey Shoot this past weekend. They ran hard, had a blast, and ended up placing 2nd in their age division... Maybe the blue hair was their lucky charm :0)
We're pretty proud of how the boys worked together, and of course we're especially proud of this toothless guy!
Halloween Happenings
Halloween somehow snuck up on us this year, and came and went with only one pumpkin patch, a couple of parties, a few spooky movies, and a giant pile of candy to keep us sugared up until the next holiday. Here's some of the action last week:
Scary, glowing goodies, and lots of zombie play.
Beautiful fall days, and the beginning of falling leaves.
Donuts all done up in Halloween-style.
Pumpkin carving, and pumpkin painting.
Trick-or-treating with a certain zebra and storm trooper we know and love.
I do believe October went entirely too quickly and I'd like a repeat, but our Halloween was most happy while it lasted! -Amelia