Tuesday, September 20, 2016

August In a Nutshell

 August seemed to fly by (why does it feel like I'm always saying that?) and we made the most out of our last few weeks of summer.
I love Grant's expression in this picture. Porter and Grant have started playing together more and it's fun to see them have a shared interest in cars and trucks (which sometimes leads to fighting).
 Porter wanted me to take a picture of him one Sunday.
 We went to Blake's annual work picnic and we did all the traditional fun things: the kids got their faces painted, playing on the bounce houses, ate lots of yummy food, and climbed on the equipment.













Porter and Brooke also play really well together (most of the time). I peeked out the window to see them working on some sort of concoction in the bucket.
 A couple days before school started, we had one last hurrah on the lake.
 Brooke loves to knee-board.


 Porter is always a little unsure when it's his turn to waterski, but once he gets up, he's all smiles!







 We tubed as a family for about 2 minutes before we realized we were too off balance and got dumped over.
 We love homemade salsa and eat our stockpile each year, so it's always exciting when we get to make more. The tomatoes, onions, zucchini, and peppers all came from our garden.
 Brooke had successful first day of school!



 Porter decided his tummy was a treasure map.
 Wrestling with daddy
 Wrestling with Dad
 Picking tomatoes from the garden
 Grant helped by eating sticks he found
 Porter broke his clavicle when he was wrestling with Blake one Sunday evening. He cried for a little bit right after it happened, but then seemed fine so we thought he was ok. Then a week later he tried to do a somersault on the floor and started crying again saying his shoulder hurt. So we took him in to get it x-rayed and sure enough his collarbone was broken.

Grant turned 22 months in August. He sure is changing and turning into a big kid! He's talking more and more and wants to do everything the older kids are doing. I can't get him to sit in his highchair anymore, he wants to sit at the table and only feed himself with a spoon (or his hands). We got rid of his binky and after a couple sad nights, he's binky free! I tried to get a picture of his new big boy haircut.


These were taken earlier in August, before we got rid of his binky. He loves to stand and look out the window. He get so excited when he sees a bird or someone walking their dog.

Monday, September 5, 2016

Brooke's Drill Clinic

 The first week of August, Brooke participated in a dance clinic put on by the high school drill team. The girls learned an individual dance and also a big group dance. Brooke had a lot of fun and it was a nice way to pass the time as we waited (not so patiently) for school to start!


 Brooke's team was The Golden Foxes and they danced to the song NO by Megan Trainer so this was one of their moves:







 Brooke did a great job learning both dances in just a short period of time! She was pretty in awe of the high school drill team and their sparkly costumes too!

Passport to Summer

 The kids participated in our community's "Passport to Summer" program. Each kid got a passport book that had over 70 activities to do throughout the summer--the challenge was to do as many as you could (or wanted), take a picture of it, bring the pic to the sponsoring business and get your passport stamped. We did 40 of the activities and here are some of our pictures:
 Wearing our seatbelts

 Picture with the dinosaurs
 Visiting historical markers
 Finding pretty flowers

Having a picnic outside
 Playing catch
 Playing Soccer
 Vacuuming (funnily enough my kids LOVED this one)

 Cleaning their rooms

 We had to visit this dino at a hotel lobby
 Playing basketball
 Visiting the "Excitement In the Park" that our town does on Thursday nights during the summer. There's bounce houses, live singing groups, and concessions. I only got a picture of Grant being cute.

 Having a family day at the lake
 We got a stamp for eating ice cream and Cold Stone

 Doing a science experiment...which failed miserably!
Other activities we did:
going on a bicycle adventure
driving over 60 miles on a road trip
trying 3 new foods
playing a musical instrument
going to the splash park
having a lemonade stand
going to the rec center
playing at the park
fly a paper airplane at the airport
blow bubbles
have a rootbeer float
write about your favorite summer activity
count the teeth on the big green dinosaur


On Aug. 11 the parks and rec department threw a huge party for all the kids who got stamps in their book. There were free concessions, a photo booth (the sun came out right as the second picture was snapped), and tons of prizes given away via a raffle drawing. Brooke had her name called and she picked a Barbie for her prize. Porter's name wasn't picked and that caused some tears, but a good lesson for him that not everyone can win.
 
This was a fun way for our family to keep busy this summer and we had a blast! Can't wait to do it again next year!