August

Kate had a nail-painting party with some friends in July, so Mason had a pool-party with some friends in August.  I didn't get any pictures, but he had a great time with his friends from preschool!  We had a back-to-school pool party with our neighborhood and the kids LOVED getting their faces painted, swimming with friends, and getting balloons.

Mason started Kindergarten on August 18th. We mostly drive, sometimes walk him to school.  I love having the elementary school so close.  There were a few days at the beginning where he was teary-eyed going to school; Kindergarten is all day, every day and it took some getting used to.  It is always nice to go in and eat lunch with him, and once I had to pull the "Mason has a dentist appointment" trick once to get him out of school early and we went to visit David at his office.  We all got check-ups and M and K enjoyed using the dental tools.

IOWA STATE FAIR

 

 

We to Iowa and stayed with our friends, the Voss'.  It was so much fun to see them and their boy Ezra!  We went to the fair on the very first day, which was fun because it wasn't too crowded, but a there weren't any new baby animals to see and we missed the presidential candidate stumping.  David was REALLY bummed about that.  But we loved the fair: the food, the animals, the shows, were all great.  We decided to make it an annual tradition.

One afternoon I was tired during Annie's nap so I laid down on the couch.  Before I fell asleep, I thought, "Maybe I better turn on a movie for Mason and Kate so they don't get into trouble.  Nah--they are just playing downstairs, having a good time, and they don't need more screen time."  I woke up to find that they had pulled a Rapunzel-and-Flynn-hack-job on Kate's hair.  

Before and After the salon

  

 David has found a nice way to do daddy-daughter time with Kate.  She loves putting money in the donation bins at Wal-Mart, and so he got $5 worth of pennies from the bank and he will take her over there and deposit a whole roll in.

D went to a Chiefs game.  

  Random pictures

 

  

  

  

 Mason is getting into Legos!   

 

A visit to Story-time land at Crown Center

Chick-a-chick-a-boom-boom tree

July

Fun times in UT

At the end of June, my brother Greg came home from his LDS mission to Baltimore.  We went to UT/ID for two and a half weeks to visit family and part-ay!

AJ had a really fun birthday party!

We had a fun bowling day; Annie could not get enough of swings

lots of bubble baths; playing video games at Aunt Stephanie's and Uncle Jared's

 

We did the BEST fireworks show with the Yates for the fourth of July.  It was the perfect night (except that time that one rogue firework shot off into the mothers and children and burned Brooke and traumatized everyone!!!)

 Bear Lake with Harpers and Idaho

The kids were in awe the whole drive through the canyon to Bear Lake.

When we were in Idaho, we took a drive up to a lookout point and picked wildflowers with Uncle Garrett.

Don't you just love that smile???!!!!

 

Declo Days!  This weekend was actually my 10-year high school reunion.  I helped plan it, so it was really fun to go and see a lot of old friends and be in the parade.  I love my hometown!  Greg's homecoming talk was also that Sunday, so we had a lot of family in town.  It made for a great weekend!  We had some family run in the Hammer Run with us this morning, too.

 Other summer adventures

Lego land, bowling, aquarium

Ann now sitting with big kids; swimming

Kate is VERY excited for preschool with her princess Sophia backpack

Biking; David took M & K to a Royals game

Building forts in the basement; nature hike with Dad 

science projects (fails)

sidewalk chalk; Who says July is too early to get ready for Halloween?? 

 Kate's Nail Painting Party

I decided that instead of birthday parties for the kids, we will just do a party with family, and instead, the kids can do summer parties with friends.  I don't have to worry about presents and entertaining a lot of people while worrying about neglecting my non-birthday offspring.  So we had a young woman from our ward come and paint nails for Kate and a few friends, we had pink cupcakes and balloons, and the most important thing was, Kate (and Ann) had a fabulous time.