It's the End of the Summer as We Know It (and we feel fine)

We snuck in a few fun times at the tail end of summer.  I guess it helped that school starting 3 days late gave us an even longer tail end than anticipated.

Backyard Camping:

Matt was out of town so my attempt at a campfire was the side burner on the grill.  Still made good s'mores and hot dogs!

Give these kids a can of soda and hot dog on a stick and it's a happy day.

A successful campout too.  Last time we tried, Mary had to come inside in the middle of the night b/c of itchy, itchy skin (thank you grass allergy).  She slept soundly this time.   We're hopeful to get to real camping one of these days but don't want to get ourselves in a jam if her skin has trouble.  This was a major step in the right direction.

Rocket Shooting:

Andrew's bucket list has a big item checked off (thank you Elwoods!).  For as long as we've lived here and as long as the kids have gone to the Elwoods to play, Andrew has seen the rockets in their garage and asked when we could go shoot them.  We've attempted in the past but the weather has always messed things up.  Well Happy Labor Day.  Tautkus and Elwood fams were rocket shooting and we got invited.  Andrew LOVED it (and the girls loved playing at the playground with friends).  A good day.

Family Carnival:

At the end of the first week of school we were wanting to do something family fun but not wanting to spend $$.  The kids planned carnival games and we had a fun carnival night.

Here's Whit playing Mary's blindfold game of scoop the dolphins.

Mary is playing drop the clothespin in the bottle.

Matt is playing Andrew's game of bobbing for grapes.  It was a hit!!!

Soapstone Mountain:

We have only driven by Soapstone Mountain State Park about a billion times.  Just before school started we hiked it.  Nothing difficult but we had fun and it helped give sanity our 'snow day'.  

 Whit and Mary made it to the top! (well....we all did)

 With some friends we went with.  Friends always have a way of making adventures more fun. :)

Check out that beautiful view.  We will be doing it again during leaf peeping season which is coming up all too quickly.

New Skirts:

The young women at church had a sewing night and I volunteered to help.  Ends up they were making super cute and easy skirts so I went home and made some for the girls.  Fun!

It looks like this is the only picture Annie is actually in.  She did hike with us, she did camp with us and she even rocket shot with us.  She did not get to be in the carnival.  Annie doesn't really nap anymore and at least 3 days a week, she tells us during dinner that she wants to go to bed.  It happened carnival night and she was in bed at 6:15 clueless to all the awesome fun she was missing.

And actually, it's 7:10 and guess who's been in bed for 50 minutes?  Yup, Annie.  She cracks me up.

School Bells are Ringing...

School began...not the way I wanted, but we have begun.

Thanks to Hurricane Irene and massive power outages here in town, the first AND second AND third days of school were cancelled.  We started after Labor Day.  I do believe I was on the verge of losing my mind but we made it though those days and were happy to begin.

A happy 3rd and 1st grader. 

And with no kindergartner with a mid-day bus, it's a new world for the rest of us too.

A good kid shot--happy day!

The bus stop gang.  We enjoy having our driveway being the bus stop!

And they're off!

So far so good.  2 weeks in and everyone is happy and enjoying school.  Yea!!!

I Whip My Hair Back and Forth

That's what Whitney can do now. She whips it and it is still out of her face. This is our first set of bangs in the family in a long time. Curly hair just doesn't work for bangs, though I did try in 10th grade and my dad will be happy to remind you of how bad it looked. :) She keeps touching her head and looking in the mirror.

After Mary saw Whit's cute bangs, she started debating on if she should get them or not but voted against it. We just went with a trim for the start of school. My awesome neighbor, Jen, is a hairstylist and she did both girls, giving me tips along the way for doing it myself (since that's what I usually do).

Stormy Weather

Irene has come and gone. We lost power for just under 2 days. Some friends just got power back yesterday and some towns in CT still have 90% of people without power. School was supposed to start Wednesday but has been bumped back to starting after Labor Day. Life could be much worse, I just need to look to the coast or up to Vermont for reminders.

I need to write down my favorite storm memory so I won't forget it. The power went out on Sunday around 10am. We were talking 'power' a lot at our house. Well, Annie went to play in the basement and ended up finding all of the Music Maker instruments. She came upstairs ringing a cowbell and shouting for us. In Annie's words: "Mommy, Daddy, look!! The power didn't go out on the cowbell. The cowbell still has its power." She wouldn't stop ringing it.

So cute, well...until the loud cowbell ringing wasn't so cute and we had to send it back to the basement.