Sam and Nick

Hillbilly day during Homecoming Week

I love seeing Samuel and Nicholas's relationship, it's interesting to me.  Anyway, they've had a couple of humorous exchanges lately.

N: Running into kitchen at full speed and grabbing a plastic grocery bag My going parachuting! Heads to steps.
S:  It won't work, Nick.  I thought of that too when I was little and I thought I was a child genius but it didn't work.
N:  Undeterred, still jumps off steps with plastic bag above his head and declares, It works!

Daddy fixed the Hummer and Nicholas happily drove for a good hour before the battery ran out.  On one pass near the house Samuel yelled to him, "I'll eat you up I love you so!"  But instead of Nicholas's normal Where the Wild Things Are response ("but Nicholas said 'NO!'") he yelled back, "but Nicholas drove away!"  and promptly turned and sped off.  It gave Samuel and I a good laugh, we thought it was a pretty good joke for a three year old!

Junior High football uniform.  He wore it for Spirit day.

Did He Make This Up Himself?

"Mama, my a peanut!"

Not sure if a big brother thought this up or if it came from the Nicholas brain.....

We Remembered!

We haven't gone to ride the little trains since Nicholas was one, so we missed two years.  They changed the weekend and we didn't find out the first year and then we just forgot last year so the kids were very excited.  It was fun but a lot more people have found out about it and the lines were really long.  We only rode three trains in the same amount of time we've ridden five or six in the past.  But it was still fun and we took the hay rack out to their little museum too so that was some extra excitement.

On the way home we stopped for pizza at a little place that's just far enough away from home that we don't go there much even though it's delicious.  It made for a great family adventure!

Busy Saturdays

Thomas is playing and enjoying flag football this year.

 Julia is doing volleyball for the first time and likes it pretty well.

And Samuel has Junior High football on occasional Saturday mornings too (plus some other times).  His first scrimmage is this weekend so pictures to come.

Thanks Grandma!

Grandma Margie invited us to a fish fry at the retirement home that manages her cottage.  It was tasty and they had professional face painters!  The big boys didn't want to and Nicholas decided a little too late he'd like to be painted too, they'd already closed the booth.  :(  Philip and Julia were thrilled!

Green Spiderman

 Pink butterfly with a special jewel.

Too.Much.Cuteness

First days:
Samuel and Thomas were before the blog
Julia
Philip
Nicholas below

The Last First Day

Nicholas started preschool yesterday!  When we signed him up last spring he was not at all excited and informed us he would NOT be going to school.  So we didn't talk about it until last month.  Last week we stopped by to see the room and meet his teacher.  By Monday night he was very excited and looking forward to going...all the way up until we walked into the building and started through the classroom door.  Then he got nervous and wouldn't go in.  We talked a bit and he agreed to let me carry him in.  After about 10 minutes he was playing and happy and didn't bat an eye when I left.  Score.  I went home and got most of my classwork done for the week.  Nothing like having an online grad class to fill up my time once I FINALLY get a few regular kid-less hours!  Oh well, I'd be bored otherwise, right?  :P

Celebrating Our Teenager

Samuel had a couple friends to spend the night over the weekend.  The timing was due to his birthday but we didn't actually tell his friends that.  :)
His friend Thomas came in and asked, "Mrs Vrana can we go down the window wells and get the frogs out?"  Why yes, yes you can!  (*read, this then does not have to be an assigned chore for someone!)  There were a lot, this is only a portion.

They played the inaugural game of Sam's new Catan game too.

Then the whole family came over for lunch on Labor Day to celebrate Samuel's birthday too.

Lewis and Nicholas enjoyed the Hummer together until something broke.  Nuts.

So then we got out the go cart.  Not sure Augustine trusts Sam's driving!

 Aunt Beth tried it too but she's a little tall.  Please zoom in and see the look on her face!

Happy Birthday Samuel!  We love you!

4 Hours Every Week

All my babies are at school for the first time in 13 years.  And I have a coffee, muffin and online grad class to get to.

Strong Gene

It's official.  Nicholas got the very strong need for self time that runs on my side of the family.
He enjoyed his first big boy play date.  We dropped him off at a little birthday party and he came home three hours later.  He had a wonderful time but upon returning home he built himself this house and announced to the other kids, "Leave me alone!  My have had a very hard day!"  And proceeded to play happily by himself for half an hour.

Nope

Nicholas and I were having a rough week.  We're adjusting to the big kids being back in school and some of our activities haven't started yet (*read Lisa's adult interaction time) so we have been home just us quite a bit.  We tried to shake things up by taking my bike and the Hummer to the lake.  Sounded great.

 Nervous Nelly hated driving on the rocks, "My Hummer will break!" But he also hated the tall grass that lined the one-mower-width swath of grass that they mow on either side of the path so he kept driving one side of the Hummer onto the rock and freaking out.  Also the wheels would spin every once in awhile on the rocks which he also cried about.  We spend most of our time like this (pretty sure he's crying):

We made it around a small circle and gave up.  Needless to say this won't become part of our weekly routine.