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.