Grandma's Hat!

Summer is over . . .

I miss you guys. I miss telling you guys about our insane life.

So . . . I think I am going to ignore the fact that I have a house guest coming in 10 hours and that I will have a whole house full of people tomorrow (to come hang out with the house guest). Instead I am going to sit and talk to you for a while.

Of course, I am going to do what no gracious hostess should do . . . and go on and on about my life and my kids . . . but I'll never know if you click that exit button up in the corner . . . so feel free . . .

Summer. It finally arrived in Wisconsin - now that it is September and it's time to get back to school. Not that I'm complaining . . . I loved the cool nights and comfortable days. My garden complained quite a bit . . . but that might have been the gardeners fault . . . but she's blaming it on the weather.

It was a good summer to be busy . . .

Owen played t-ball . . .



and had the time of his life . . .



his energy level was amazing . . .

he had an absolute blast . . .

Yes, I believe she is doing what you think she is doing. He didn't even know her name.

Like I said . . . he had an absolute blast.


Carra got to play soccer . . .

And she was the star of the team . . .

Here she is keeping the grass warm . . .


Guarding the goal . . .


And holding up the goal post . . .

I don't know what they would have done without her.


In case you were wondering, this is what she would look like if her head were a ball . . .


And this is the only proof I have that she touched a ball . . .


Mikayla was in a play during summer school . . .

She LOVES the drama . . .

She is supposed to look scared here, but saw me lift my camera and is actually saying to the girl behind her, "Oh, great, my mom is taking a picture of me . . ."

I think she missed the class on staying in character.


And then there was Brice . . .

He did summer school too.

He built rockets. Something he was NOT at all excited about.


Rocket 1 . . . had to be built exactly as instructed. They could paint it and name it whatever they wanted.


The Black Knight . . .

Blastoff in 3, 2, 1 . . .

Guess what he is doing while waiting for launch . . . yep, he was jumping - and the countdown started at 3.


Blastoff!Success!

Rocket 2 . . .

This one they could build anyway they could imagine . . .


The before rocket . . . The Silver Dollar . . .

The after rocket . . . all the kids in the class thought Brice's was the best and he was soooo lucky . . . because his caught on fire!

I fear for our future flight programs if these kids are left in charge.



And so now summer is over . . . and we move on. Thanks for sitting and listening to me ramble on about my kids. I'll be back eventually . . .

August Revisited

August was a busy month, but, looking back, was full of some exciting things:

Like paint projects

Sweet Corn

Happy siblings

Happy Dancers

Home Projects

Back To School

Big Smiles

Happy Brothers

Annoyed Brothers

Rainbows

Self Entertainment

Tree Climbing

Power Naps

Pretend Roller Coasters

Barefoot Bike Riding gone bad ....

What was your August like?

Chicago . . .

We LOVE Chicago.

Our friends are nice too.

But we LOVE Chicago.

Recently we went down to visit our nice friends . . . and being the nice friends that they are . . . they help us to enjoy Chicago without the extra hassles of parking and getting lost.

Okay. We LOVE our friends too.

The first place they took us was the"Bean."

Here is our family photo under the "Bean." I think I'm going to use it for this year's Christmas card. It was a good hair day and everyone was smiling.


Apparently . . .they glued the thing down because Brice and Owen just couldn't budge the thing.


In case you were wondering . . .

I was there too . . .

And there were lots of kiddos. I have no idea who those other kids are, but they were so happy to get their picture taken with my kids that I just couldn't say no.

Actually, they belong to the nice people who made this day possible. Don't you love the Chicago skyline in the "Bean"?

Brice pulled the usual Powers stunt . . . .

and landed safely . . .

Sometimes I wonder who is the bigger idiot. The one jumping or the one snapping pictures of it . . . must be genetic . . .

We then found a fun area for the kids to splash around . . .




and we were exposed to true Chicago culture . . .

Just so you know . . .
This . . .
is . . .
art . . .

We waited around and watched a guy's face twitch and smirk at us . . . and then act like he was spitting on us.

You just can't dream up memories like this . . .

And that's why we LOVE Chicago . . .