Camping

This past weekend one of my friends was running in a Women's Half Marathon.  She asked me to go with her so we could go shopping and stuff before hand.  We were going to be leaving around lunch on Friday and wouldn't be back until Saturday afternoon. 

So, Aaron decided it would be the perfect weekend to go camping with the boys.  Blake was not very excited about the idea at all.  But, as the week went on and Aaron and Connor continued to build up the camping experience to Blake, he decided that he'd go.  Of course, Aaron was going to take him regardless and just hope that he enjoyed himself.  Another friend and his daughter went with them.  They all had such a great time.  Eva even asked if she could come back Saturday night to camp again!  Blake has asked me several times this week when Daddy was taking him camping again.

Getting the fire started

Jordan and Eva

 Best buddies on their first camping trip together

Three amigos going to play in tent

Roasting hotdogs

 The gang.  Aren't those kids so cute!

This makes me laugh so hard.  Aaron bought the gigantic camping marshmallows.

 Deep conversation between Blake and Eva

Guess Which Hand

As I was sitting at the computer a few days ago, Blake came up to me with a ball in his hand and said "Guess which hand."  Harmless game.  I turned around and got so tickled.  Look at his sweet hands!

I laughed so hard.  Bet you can't guess which hand it is in?  HAHA!!!  Of course, I had to pick the obviously incorrect hand.  Oh, this boy makes me laugh so hard all the time.

Fall Fun Fest

Our town has an annual Fall Fun Fest every year in September.  This year it was the most perfect weekend I can ever remember for Fall Fun Fest.  It is usually still very hot, but we had a cool spell that week, and it made for a perfect weekend.  We usually go down town and eat barbecue on Friday night, but this year we decided to avoid the crowd and go eat barbecue at a local restaurant that we just love.  Then we headed downtown to let the kids play and get some sweets to eat.  The boys got balloon swords made and then Aaron, the boys and Aaron's mom at kettle corn (which I am not a fan of at all) and I ate fried oreos!!!  Can you say heavenly???  Oh, my.  I'm sure we'll have those in Heaven and not have to worry about the calories we've just eaten.  As we walked back to the car, I was listening to Connor and Nana talk.  They were eating Kettle Corn as they walked and Connor informed Nana that "I'm a big fan" of the kettle corn.  Not sure where he has heard that expression, but I got so tickled.

Saturday we went back downtown for kids day at Fall Fun Fest.  The kids, once again, got balloon swords (this time made a little better), went through a maze made out of hay, and Blake's most exciting part...pictures with Elmo!!!

Balloon swords

Finding his way through the maze

Waiting in line for Elmo

The time finally came!!!!  

 

Blake was definitely more excited to see Elmo than Connor was when Connor was around Blake's age.  Remember this???

Connor was NOT interested in getting in his lap.

Oh, my Word!

Seriously?  Has it been over a month since I posted?  I really don't know how this happened except that I've apparently been very busy.  But, I've sat down to get several blogs typed and scheduled to post.  These will probably be in no particular order because, quite frankly, I have no idea what order they should be placed in!  :)

So, I'll first start off with Connor's very first R.A. Race Car race.  Now that Connor is in 1st grade, he has graduated up from Mission Friends to R.A.'s at church on Wednesday nights.  He has been looking forward to this for some time.  Who am I kidding?  AARON has been looking forward to this for, as Aaron told our Sunday School class, "My entire life!"  Since our school system starts at the end of July, our new church "year" starts in August.  Well, most class curriculum for church starts in September, so our RA leaders had to change up things a bit.  So, they started this year off with RA Racers. 

Basically, the first time that RA's met this year, they decided what kind of car they wanted to build.  They sketched it out and someone from the church took it home and cut them out.  The next week the kids came back and sanded the cars and painted them.  The following week it was decorating time.  So, Aaron and Connor went to Hobby Lobby to pick out what decorations Aaron, humm, humm, I mean Connor wanted his car to be decorated with.   Connor picked out spiders!  Of all things???  But, it ended up looking very cute.  The following week the kids raced their cars.  It was very cute.  First, the cars were judged on looks.  Aaron and I were able to see the judges looking over the cars and were fairly sure they had picked Connor's as one of the winners.  But first, the races had to take place.

The group of RAs

Connor sitting on the side, waiting his turn to race



Sorry so dark, but this is Connor's car racing

Unforunately, Connor didn't place in the race, but he did get 2nd place in car design ...

The group of winning RAs

Connor had a great time.  Aaron and I were afraid that he'd be upset that he didn't win (he is in a serious phase of having to always be the winner), but he wasn't upset at all.  I asked what Grandaddy always tells Alex is the most important thing when doing a competition and he said "Have fun."  I asked him if he did have fun and he said "Yes!".

A New First

I so enjoy all of the "firsts" that my children have.  Yesterday was one of those days with a "First".  Connor brought home his very first 100 on a paper.  Obviously, in kindergarten they don't give grades.  You get smiley faces with sweet words next to them.  Last Thursday, Connor came home with his very first text book...a reading book.  So, he read the story to me and then read it to Aaron.  There were questions at the end of it which I asked Aaron to go over with him to check his comprehension.  Apparently he did pretty good.  Here is the front part of a front and back worksheet based on the story.  How exciting!!  Connor's first 100 on an assignment.  Aaron said we should frame it!!

1st Grade

Well, school has started again.  Not sure where the summer went, but Connor is back in school once again.  It was a rocky first few days, though.  Connor got put in a great class.  He LOVED it.  He was in class with one of his great friends from last year.  He LOVED his teacher.  Then, while we were out for supper last Friday (after 3 full days of school), we were left a message on our answering machine that attendance was down and they had to dissolve Connor's class.  He was so upset.  I was upset.  What made it even worse was that when I checked my email I had a message from Connor's friends's mom saying that Evan had gotten a different teacher than Connor did in this change.  So, Connor was crushed AGAIN.  But, this past Monday, Connor went back to school and found out another friend from his old class was in this class too!  He has adjusted well and loves his new class.  I've only heard great things about this teacher.  She was Teacher of the Year last year.  So, that makes me feel good too.

Connor and myself before heading to school the first day

Fishing Trip

I am so far behind I don't even know where to start.  So, we'll start with a fishing trip.  4th of July weekend we promised the boys we would go fishing.  It turned into an eventful trip there.  There is a local pay pond with lots of catfish that Aaron, Connor and I went to while I was pregnant with Blake.  We had such a great time.  So, we decided since it is fairly easy to catch fish there, that would be the best place to go fishing with two small boys.

Well, on our way there, about 10 minutes from our house, our car goes CRAZY!  I mean, acting like its going to die, bucking like a bull, weird stuff!  I freak out, of course!!!  That's me.  Go nuts.  Aaron is total opposite.  He was so calm, cool and collected.  So, at that point I said "Well, there goes our fishing trip.  We'll just have to go home."  I was in panic mode with dollar signs flying through my mind.  But, Aaron said there was no way we were skipping this fishing trip.  So, we just headed home to switch cars.  Thankfully, the car did fine, we moved everything to the other car and headed on our way.

Boy was it hot!  But, we had a great time!  The fish were biting and the kids had a great time.  We stayed out there for an hour and a half.  The kids ran out of water, and we were dripping with sweat.  So, we finally decided to just call it a day.  We had all caught several fish each, had some fish steal the worms without us even realizing it and even had a couple of fish fight so hard that they broke our line!  So, the boys thought it was great.  That's what counts.  Aaron and I really want our kids to look back on their childhood and have the best memories.  So, we've been striving to find fun things to do with the kids so that they really enjoy their childhood.

Here are some shots from the day.