30 days

It's been a full 30 days since I blogged a thing, mostly because it's been just slightly nutty around here.  Somewhere in that blur of a month, Jacob had a birthday.  He celebrated with pizza and games at Pietros with his good buddy Connor, followed up by a few 10 pound bowls of frozen yogurt at Limeberry.

We also spent a family day at the fair, and thanks to Brian's generous employer, we all got in for free!  The kids were each given a certain number of tickets they could use for rides, and for Austin and Leah it was an easy choice... anything with a small vehicle to ride around on in circles.  

Jake had a harder time deciding where to best use his tickets.  He finally decided on the pirate boat of death.  This is 3/5 of my beloved family, way too far up in the air for my personal pleasure:

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 The boys were amazed by the entries in the Lego building contest - they were incredible!

 I fell in love with this amazing quilt:

 The first week of September Leah started her new pre-school/daycare.  Despite my emotional instability that morning, she sailed through the doors ready to meet new friends and "do crafts", which she still tells me every day is her favorite part of school.  Alas, even the first day of pre-school wasn't occasion enough for her to look at the stinkin' camera.

 The next day, the boys started school.  Austin is an "all-dayer" now, and couldn't be more thrilled about it.  From packing his lunch to walking home with the big boys, this kid was made for school!  After a bumpy first week with some recess time/who-to-play-with-issues (these are big deals in 4th grade) Jake has settled happily into one of his last years in elementary school (gulp!).  If the boys look a little red faced in this photo, it is because their scatter brained mother forgot to take a picture in the morning, and made them re-enact that afternoon after we all walked home from school in 90+ degree weather.  Mother of the year folks, right here.

 The following week, Austin started twice-a-week swim lessons.  He has always loved the water, and can swim well enough for his age, so long as he knows he can touch the ground when he wants to.  In hopes of bolstering his water-confidence, he was the first to get signed up for lessons as part of our newly minted membership at the YMCA.  He is making strides each week and I couldn't be more proud of him. 

 To wrap our 30 days, we spent the weekend in Medford with Gma and Gpa, under the guise of taking care of Mom after her recent surgery.  I'm not sure that my 3 crazies and their crazier mother were truly much help, but we had a good time.

The kids with their favorite kind of book - any variation on the I-Spy concept.  This one is 1001 things to Spot in the Sea.

 Jake became an Indiana Jones fan, and watched all 3 movies over the weekend.  

Best line - "We named the dog Indiana!"  Sean Connery, how do I love thee.....

 Much to Gpa's delight, Austin and Leah turned the house upside down 2-3 times a day, and picked it up half that many times.  I love seeing them play with my favorite Fisher Price set, the Sesame Street village.

 While I canned tomatoes and made some freezer meals, Gma found each of the kids a "spy hat" and sent them off on missions - finding bugs, walking Mike's property looking for deer, etc. 

I would like to think with the cooler weather and shorter days upon us, things will slow down just a bit, but I'm not holding my breath.