Micah turns 3!

Micah turned 3 in September.  We had a fun family party.  I had a hard time figuring out what to do for Micah's birthday dinner.  Usually I make the person's favorite dinner but Micah is kind of a picky eater.  Finally I settled on hot dogs, fresh veggies and dip and apple racers.  He seemed to enjoy it:

Micah really likes cars so I made a race car cake.  Micah wanted it to look like one of his favorite cars - blue with orange flames.  I added a 3 out of M and M's:

Make a wish!  He had a hard time blowing out his candles but he eventually got all of them:

Delicious!

Then we opened presents - thank you hug for Alan:

Micah loves this game:

After we were done opening presents we went to a local interpretive center and made comets that we could race.  We also learned more about meteors and comets.  It was a great, fun-filled evening!  Happy Birthday Micah!

1st Day of School

School started at the end of August.  Conner started kindergarten this year.  He had mixed feelings - I think he was kind of curious (especially after we said all the nice things about it) but he just wasn't super excited about it.  We got there the first morning and he looked pretty nervous.  Luckily there was a girl in his class that he knows from church and that helped a lot.  He went and sat by her and let us leave:

Alan started second grade and he was excited to be back at school:

I ordered the boys' backpacks and I happened to order Micah a pair of pants from the same place.  He was so thrilled to get his picture taken with his pants, just like his older brothers got their pictures taken with their backpacks:

I forgot to take a picture of Alan and Conner together on the first day so I did the following week:

Alan has enjoyed second grade.  Conner has...come to enjoy it most of the time.  For the first while he wasn't very positive about school.  After the first day he came home super tired (he goes to all day kindergarten) and said that is was okay.  That night as I tucked him into bed I said something like he needed to get a good sleep so he would be ready for school the next day and he got a shocked/horrified look on his face and burst out "I have to go tomorrow too?!?"  Whoops, I guess we didn't warn him that school is every day.  He was not happy about that.

Over the summer I tried to wean him off of afternoon naps but he was still napping twice a week.  If I didn't give him a nap and he need it this is what would happen - he would just fall asleep where ever he was:

So, for the first month he was really tired.  His teacher said that he would ask if he could nap in class.  A few times he would fall asleep at his table and then the teacher moved him to the carpet and let him nap - he would come home so happy and perky and tell me about how he woke up on the carpet (that was really funny to him).  But he hasn't napped at school for a while now and he is generally pretty happy to go to school - Hooray!  Life has been pretty quiet for Micah, Brooklyn and I at home.

Summer Fun

Here are a bunch of random pictures that capture some of the slow, regular days of summer:

Brooklyn enjoying a slice of watermelon.  It was hard to stop her from eating the rind:

Micah enjoying some watermelon:

Alan wanted a big slice:

So did Conner:

The boys love to get dirty:

I told them that was okay, as long as they cleaned it up (including scrubbing their clothes in the bath tub)

They only did this once (thank goodness!)

There was mud everywhere - inside ears, in hair and on eyelids:

"Am I clean yet?" - Nope, try again:

Alan loves to give notes:

Conner is a very talented builder:

This little boy hated to wear his sandals.  I would constantly find him like this and have to ask "Where are your sandals?!?" to which he would respond with one of his cute, mischievous smiles and then point back the way he had come.  This happened a lot - on the walk home from school, at the grocery store, at the park...

crazy picture of Alan playing in a box:

The boys built a wall out of bricks and mud across our back steps.  They were very proud of it:

I found a package of brownie pops for sale so we had to try them:

Everyone enjoyed them:

It is too hard for me to take all the kids to the pool so we cool off in the backyard:

Grandma and Grandpa Bassett came to visit.  We got some painting time in:

Micah painting with Grandma (we were potty training - thus no pants):

Conner's painting:

One day the kids decided to do a lemonade stand.  They were pretty cute.  We have some very generous people around here and they made a lot of money.

I love summer time!

Holter Lake

Towards the end of summer we decided to go to Holter Lake.  Reed had gone earlier in the summer with the scouts and he said they had a sandy beach that our family would enjoy.  He was right!  My kids love sand. 

We set up our towels and blankets under a tree.  We had the boys wear their life jackets so that we didn't have to worry so much.

The boys got together with some other kids there and built a big sand castle with a moat:

Conner sent a lot of time looking for snail - here he is showing me one:

Micah loved the water.  It was kind of chilly but he didn't seem to notice:

Brooklyn liked the water too but when she fell on her bottom she started to cry:

It was a fun end-of-summer trip!

Vacation Time Again!

In August the kids and I headed up to Canada to visit with my parents.  Here is a quick recap:

 

The first couple of days we hung out around the house.  I took the kids to the park one morning:

One night my mom and I met up with some of my aunts and cousins and we had a girl's night out.  We went to see the play Les Miserables.  It was fantastic.  Then we went out for ice cream and headed home.  My dad was kind enough to watch the kids and put them to bed.

reading stories with Grandpa:

Brooklyn looking at her own book:

One of the days I was able to get together with my friend Deanna.  It was nice to get together and let our kids play while we visited.  I got to see her cute little baby boy, which was awesome.  I wish I would have taken my camera!
I also visited with my friend Heather.  We met at the park and let our boys play while we caught up:

Then we all went back to my parents' house and played for a bit.

My dad giving Micah and Cosmo a ride in the wheelbarrow:

We also went swimming while we were there.  Or I should say the boys went swimming with Grandma and Grandpa:

I sat on the side holding this very sick girl:

She just laid there for the entire time.  She ran a high fever for 2 or 3 days and then it suddenly broke the day after we got home.  Then she immediately broke out with a rash - baby measles!!  Not my idea of fun.

Anyway, the kids had a lot of fun playing on the floating toys...

and swinging on the ball.  Both Alan and Conner tried it, but I only got a picture of Alan

A note about our scary experience.  Micah was playing in the baby pool right in front of me while my dad and I talked for a minute about Brooklyn.  Then suddenly we looked over and he wasn't there.  My dad jumped up and looked around and saw the top of a head in the hot tub.  He started to run over there but the life guard beat him to Micah.  The lifeguard jumped in and pulled Micah up.  Luckily Micah had been holding his breath so when he came up he just took a big breath and looked around as if to say "What?"  He didn't seem upset at all.  It was kind of scary, and I felt bad afterwards, but he was fine and hopefully he will stay closer to an adult from now on. 

We headed back home on Sunday.  It was a great trip and I'm glad we went!