First Day of School 2012

 

Can you believe they are getting so big??  I have a 1st grader, a 3rd grader and a 5th grader!!  It seems like just yesterday I was pregnant and putting Calla on the bus (well maybe that was yesterday and Calla's Kindergarten year...and Noah's Kindergarten year...and Bella's Kindergarten year!).

 

Cookies waiting for the little students to come home.

 

Here they are!

 

Little brothers were a captive audience to the first day experience retold:)

Bumper Crop!

 

Ahh, the sweet traditions of fall, well sort of fall.  This year we were afraid that with the baby coming so close to apple picking season, we would not get to make our annual pilgrimage.  But we were pleasantly surprised to find that because of the mild winter and early spring, the  apples were in three weeks early this year.  

 

Of course we were thrilled at the prospect of apple picking even earlier than usual and we certainly were not disappointed.  It seemed like the whole orchard belonged to us, with only about a dozen other people in the field at the same time.  It helps that we went on a Friday!

 

The trees were LOADED with all kinds of apples.  This is the first year we were able to get five different varieties!  For those of you that are curious they were: honey crisp, gala, early Macintosh, ginger gold and Asian pears.

Everybody needs a little help sometime:)

 

With such easy picking, we quickly got to two bushels of apples

 

and headed out

 

after admiring the view.  

 

 

The kids ran through the bamboo forest...

 

and fed some ducks

and goofed around.

 

It involved a group effort to bag them up.

But that just helped work up an appetite for apple cider slushies and cider donuts...and lunch!

 

YUM!!!

Summer Wrap-Up

With summer winding down and school fast approaching, I thought I would revisit some of our favorite memories over the last few weeks.  Whether that is endless trips to the park with siblings...

My future Tony Hawk:)

or with friends.

Sharing a snack...

or just having fun, I think this summer we did it all!

Noah and Micah LOVED fishing in the lake, while Nehemiah and friends swam waded.

The boys even caught a couple of fish each!

One sunny afternoon, Micah came in to tell me that Lily (our 6-year-old neighbor) just taught him to ride a bike without training wheels.  Since it had only been about 10 minutes that they were outside playing, I was a bit skeptical.  But I should know by now, when this kid has his mind set to something, it gets done!  Seeing is believing.

We also had a summer garage sale to make room for baby, or rather to get rid of a bunch of unused toys and furniture so that baby has a room:)

While the sale was a total bust (we made less than the girls lemonade stand) we did get a bit of satisfaction giving everything to charity.

Although the girls made more money than us, really who could resist those smiles?  Toward the end of the sale, the lemonade seemed to be running out, but I think we found the culprit.

The boys also got a MUCH needed haircut for school and really just for me!

The kids also had a ball at Carowinds.  With my mom's season pass she was able to take each child by themselves for a whole day of swimming and thrill rides.  Noah and Calla each closed the park down, while Bella and the little boys spent tons of time in the waterpark.  It was a great day for each of them both at the park and to spend it with grandma.  I wish I had a picture of just one of their experiences, however, my mom is not quite as attached to her camera as Jeff and I:)

We enjoyed long days at the pool with great friends as well.

The three amigos.

And summer cookouts.

Yep, definitely a good day!

Then on to swimming lessons...

more park days (that is daredevil Micah at the top of the monkey bars)...

and Popsicles on the front porch with grandma.

And to wrap up our crazy, maybe-not-so-lazy summer days, a little taste of fall...

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SEASON!