Headed to the lake.

We got to celebrate great grandmas birthday with her today. The kids remembered last minute that they needed to get her a cake to take to the lake with us. This was the best that we could do.

We went to Long Lake today by Albion, our aunt and uncle have a summer house there and the kids had a blast. It was so hot I even got in with them. It was a nice day of eating good grilled food, swimming and I even got to do some sun bathing. We had a nice time and got to spend some time with my parents.

Mommy Time

My friend from school, Cory was up at Hamilton Lake this weekend. My parents kept the kids and we had an adult only party all afternoon on Saturday and into the evening. It was so nice to hang out with friends. I feel like my only identity is as a mommy sometimes so it was a much needed break.

Dylan Is A Baldy.

Dylan has never had to go to the barber before, I have always cut his hair myself. My clippers have been broken all summer so he was starting to look like the singer Sting, Mike has been calling him that all summer. Well now we call him Buzz, oh I messed up, it is SO short. I know it grows fast but it will be a long couple of weeks. His beautiful white hair is all gone. He did like getting it cut it was only after I had a bad look on my face that he decided he was even going to wear a hat to church.

Family Fun

Friday night I was feeling a bit sorry for myself because we did not have any exciting plans for the weekend. So to make everyone smile I let the kids build thier own pizzas. They had all of their topping in bowls and they got to made their pizza just for themselves. After that we played games and had icecream cones. I actually was really fun, and a great start to a long weekend.

Maddie had to call grandpa and grandma and have them come over and enjoy the fun. Michael had to work all weekend so that was a little sad, esp. for mommy. I really feel like since school and our fall activities have started that we have been going in different directions.

Swim Lessons

Today the kids started swimming lessons. We are going to do these throughout the winter. They are so excited and they did a terrific job. Macy is in the Pike class, she can swim by herself, but she was really nervous and cried tonight. It just struck me that she had never did anything like this before. She has even did pre-school yet or any type of daycare. Dylan and Maddie both started in a class called Eel. This class requires them to swim without floatation by themselves. Maddie got moved up after tonights class and I am not sure what that class is. They all did great and it was really fun watching them. They are growing way too fast. Maddie decided that she may be ready for the olympics by next summer, she said it completely serious, I tried expaining she better aim for the Angola Highschool team first, her response was would you

really let me do that mom. Dylan was not faster than Maddie but he thinks he is the thastest (the is fastest in Dylan language) boy ever. Macy just said she would go back next week so she could get candy.

My little peaches.

Macy was helping wash the outside of the house, we scrubed all the bird mess and cobwebs off.
Maddie and Dylan were in charge of picking up all of the hickory nuts out of the yard.
Macy had to take her baby everywhere that she went. She is such a good mommy.
Dylan spotted the perfect peach but he had to climb to get it.
Macy shows off her perfect finds.

Mike and I have had all of this motivation lately. We have been doing projects around the house like crazy. He is working on finishing his barn so he can heat it this winter, which has lead to lots of cleaning out and sorting. We have added shelving in the garage, yeah for me, we are painting all of our exterior doors, and I took out all of our screens and scrubbed them and washed the inside and outside of all of the windows. Maddie and Dylan used an entire bottle of window cleaner and only did three windows. They have actually really enjoyed all of the projects this week, they had a blast carrying things out of the barn and making the trip to Menards for supplies. Here are a few pictures of the kids hard at work. Towards evening we went to Nana's to pick peaches, I think they are really yucky but the kids love them. I think this is only because they pickws them by themselves. Anyway, here we all are hard at work.

Going To The Park

Macy, Maddie and Avery were all starving, for once they wanted to eat instead of play.
Dylan and Joel are too cute.

Well it was so awesome out yesterday that Kylie and I took advantage of the weather and went to the park after Kindgarten. We stopped and got a pizza and let the kids play. It was super nice out. Then last night Maddie had gymnastics in Angola. This is only our second week there and I think it was a good move. She misses CCC but they seem to make them do a little bit more here. She will like it more as she gets to know more people there. I am back into training for my mini marathon again. FINALLY. I went on a 9 mile bike ride yesterday and then ran with Mindi and Jaime last night. I have one month from today and a lot of work to do.

Nana Oberlin's Olympics

Most Sundays you can find us at Nana's hanging out. I have said before how everyday at her house is like a special occasion. Today when we arrived she had set up her own little Olympic games. They played badmitten, did crafts, went swimming and had water games. They even had a section called America's Next Top Modle The kids had a blast.

Dylan was struggling a little with the hitting the birdy so Nana had to be on his team.
Maddie was pretending to take a shower in the sprinkler.
Macy was going for the category of "Fashion Disaster," I think she won with the fur.

Swimming

Macy loved spraying everyone with the water gun.
Dylan was taking a rest on the side of the pool, he also loves to swim.
Grandma kept trying to help Macy but she would not let her, she thinks she is a big girl.
Macy has become a terrific swimmer. She won contest in the swimming contest, she learned to swim a whole year before any of her siblings.

Yesterday, we took advantage of the HOT weather and went swimming at Grandma's house. Grandpa usually only swims one time a year, he is not a water lover like the reast of us. The kids had so much fun. It was a really fun day. The kids took corn to the farmers market to sell in the morning, then thier great grandparents came up for lunch, then they went swimming the rest of the day.

Kindergarten Is Hard Work

Maddie is having a hard tome adjusting to waking up so early, on Friday she fell asleep on the couch while we were out in the yard watering flowers. I love them going to bed really early. I am getting so much done, I feel more organized, I have time for the treadmill, and my house stays so much cleaner.

Pool Pals

Aunt Tina took the kids to the pool at great grandma's a couple of weeks ago. She shared the pictures with me yesterday. Dawson and Kenzie are my kids two favorite people in the entire world, so I thought I would show you these cute pictures. They are all such great kids, it is really special getting to raise my children with such an awesome family. I have pretty amazing in-laws.

"Bus"voyage

Today Maddie rode the bus to school for the first time today. She was so excited and I was so nervous. Since, she is going to Ryan Park she has to switch buses two seperate times, once at the Middle School and once at the High School. There are adults there to help but I was, and still am very nervous about this. I gave her the stranger lecture and told her only to talk to school employees and told her they would all have on a school id etc. I am sure you parents can understand my fears, anytime someone else is in charge of you kids it is a scary thought. Anyway here she is walking down the driveway, getting on the bus and then the bus leaving with my baby on board. She was so excited to wear the sweatshirt she had on today, she picked it out by herself.

Elk

Daddy is getting ready to go out west and leave us for a long time. We are all really bummed but we will do lots of fun stuff while he is gone to keep us busy. Anyway, today at Aunt Tina's we got to get up close to the Elk. We think maybe daddy and Papa should save their money and just go to see Uncle Jason's Elk, their chances of getting one would be much better. They are starting to bugle right now, we would like to get over there to check it out. They are such neat animals.

It was a little hectic this morning so when I went back to pick Maddie up at school I got a oicture with her, Joel, and Miss Buchs. This is Miss Buchs first year teaching and I can already tell she is going to be excellent. Maddie was also really excited to take a picture with the Rhino out in front of the school, it is her mascot. Anyway, day one went great and everyone was in bed a t 8:30, for those of you who know us well know that is amazing. The kids were tired though. Tomorrow, she gets to ride the bus for the first time. I am really nervous about this, she has to change buses twice and this scares me, she's smart so I am sure it will not be a big deal.

Kindergarten

I told Maddie I would make anything she wanted for breakfast today. Of course, she wanted Monkey bread. The moring went so quickly I did not even feel like I could savor it at all. She did wake-up really happy though and that was a nice change. She is not really a morning person, she gets that honest.
Here she is in the front yard before we left. She is so pretty in pink.
Here she is right before we said good-bye. They sit on these bleechers to hear there news for the day and to read stories.
Joel was really happy to start school, he woke Thane and Kylie up at 2am to see if it was time for school yet. Too cute. Hopefully they can both keep up the enthusiasm all year long.
CONGRATS TO OUR BIG KIDS!!!!

Maddie is a big girl now, she started school today. It does not feel that wierd, it just seems like pre-school. I had to drop her off today so maybe when she actually gets onto the bus tomorrow that will make it seem more official. She looked too cute. As you can see Joel is in her class this year. They were both really excited. Her teacher seems very nice and I look forward to a great year. It is hard to believe she is so old already, but she is definetly ready for the next stage of learning.

Almost school time.

I have been trying to kind of lay low these last couple of days until school starts. Tonight we are practicing our routine. We ate dinner promptly at 6, the kids are taking a bath and then they are off to bed. Mike wanted to spend some special time with Maddie so they are headed out to hunt something. I always say that she is a diva, but she is also a closet tom boy. She likes to hunt with her dad more than anyone. Right now they have a specail liscence to help control the deer population, so they were going to go look for a deer. Anyway it is finally quite at the Oberlin house so it is a great time to read, plus after running that whole distance I am ready for bed.

I know this is supposed to be about the kids, but what the heck. I FINALLY RAN AGAIN TODAY. I have been such a slob. I was up to 11 miles before the 4th of July and then after that 5K I quit. There really wasn't a reason. I just was tired. Anyway, I am signed up for a mini marathon the last Saturday in Septembe so it is make or break time. I ran to my parents it was 8.2 miles and I did it. I was tired and it was not pretty but maybe I can still pull this off. I am in desperate need of inspiration so if there are any runners out there that can help me I will take it.

Bike Riders

The kids have been riding thier bikes everyday all summer long, Dylan and Maddie have gotten really great without training wheels. They were bored last night and Mike and his friends were having guys night at our house so I to give them some breathing room I took the kids to my moms to play, they took their bikes and played aroung the barns. They were pretending that it was a race track. Their is a huge whole in the concrete and Dylan would hit as fast as he could so his bike would pop up. They ended up spending the night so that was an extra bonus. Two days until back to school, it sure does not seem real that summer is almost over.

Toad Time

A couple of days ago the kids came home from their great-grandma's house with a wonderful find....a toad. They had made it a little home in a cool-whip container and were so excited to show daddy. Well, I had forgotten about the toad for a day or so. Maddie came in my room yesterday morning and said that she thought someone had let the toad go, but it definetly was NOT HER. These are almost her most common two words that she says, so I did not believe her. Once again I got busy and forgot about the missing toad. Last night while watching TV at 12:30am, I see something out of the corner of my eye, and "what do you know" the toad has hopped out from under the couch. I was laughing so hard, it struck me as so funny that we have had a toad wondering through our house for 48 hours. I caught the toad, and was telling the kids about it the next day and Dylan covers his little mouth and is laughing. "I was actually the kid that let the toad out of the box, sorry mommy."

Today I promised we could have a Mexican Party. It is not as exciting as it sounds, we had Mexican food, played games, and did puzzles. We have been working with Dylan on letter regonition, we have a great floor puzzle that is the alphabet and this has been working well. Anything you call a party my kids are very into, I think I am going to start having letter parties. I have learned that with Dylan I have to be creative so he does not know he is learning. Here are a couple of photos from the day. We were doing puzzles, grandma came over for the Mexican party too. The photo of the shoes is pretty funny, these are the shoes Maddie found at Peebles yesterday. She was so excited, she loved the leopard print and the fur. Look out Megan we may be gifting these to you in a few months, I think Olivia would love them also. LOL.