And He's off

 My Cohen started school!  He has the same teachers Savvy did, and we are so happy.  He will go 5 days a week for 3 hours in the morning.  I let him pick out breakfast this morning

 I'm sure this is the most bizarre snack ever.  He wanted a long carrot, but they don't fit in ziplock bags. Makes me laugh

                                  And here he is!  So proud of him

            He did amazing and was ready for me to leave and stop hugging and kissing him

 sister wanted some love too

And on a completely different note, I've been getting on craigslist again.  I found this entertainment center for $20

 and now it's a dress-up station/toy center.  I think it would look really nice with matching baskets, but I used things we had around the house

Labor Day

We packed a lunch and headed to Jubilee Lake for the morning.  Michael has an obsession with taking pictures of the landcrusier on mountains.  So yes the kids and I are in car making fun of him running around taking pictures:)  I love these times

                I'm pretty sure the ducks ate more of the kids lunch than they did

 Caleb is talking so much now.  I love this stage.  We know exactly what he is saying but most others don't.  He started yelling at Michael "astfar, astfar!"  And Michael started running, because baby boy wanted him to go faster, faster.

Ramblings

 Last Saturday Michael took the kids for a picnic to this place pretty close to our house.  He said that they were about to pull over to eat and they saw a black bear!  He forgot to pull out his phone until it was running away so he got this pic of it blending in with the trees.  I can only see it if I make the picture really big.  Exciting and scary

 Michael left Monday morning to go to Mississippi for the week.  He was supposed to fly home Thursday but the airport was shutdown because of hurricane Isaac.  He was able to get a flight out of Memphis Friday.  He was able to see Family and the Butlers and I might have teared up in jealousy:)

 Sweet Savvy bug had her 6 year old check up.  I loved watching her take the eye exam, and upsetting to her she has 20/20 vision.  She likes to accessorize with glasses:)

 When we came home she found this little guy outside.  She loves bugs and will pick up anything.  Her and Cohen were outside trying to put him in a ziplock bag.  When the praying mantis scratched her, she dropped it and screamed and oh my, Cohen came in the house running and screaming at the top of his lungs like his arm was cut off.  We researched to make sure there was nothing poisonous about them and she was fine but Cohen is scarred.  We were riding in the car several days later when he said "poor savvy, I still see that bug in my head"

                                                  Pure love

 The fair came to town and we went on Friday.  I really do love the fair, the kids loved the animals and rides.

 I absolutely love her adventurous spirit.  She had been asking all week if she could go on a real roller coaster.  So I picked the least threatening one and she loved it.  My stomach was dropping during the ride and I was holding on to her as tight as I could when she pushed my hand away and said "I'm ok mom" and put her sweet little hands up in the air.  When I look at this picture long enough I start tearing up

 Saturday morning there was a parade for the fair.  It was 2 hours of horses and cars and candy, oh toothbrushes too:)  Needless to say it was a hit

Party Time

I love how the kids can turn any and everything into a party.  We were going to have some friends come over to watch the Lorax and Savvy went into full on party planning.  

She made cards for everyone.  Inside she drew a picture of her and wrote her name.  She does the same thing for our neighbors and puts it in their mailboxes.

They then made tickets with "L"'s on them and taped it on the wall.  Look at how the excitement in Cohen is being expressed through his hair.  He has fallen in love with hair gel

 We had a bee try to attack but the kids won the battle.  They then made a memorial... it says "ded bug"

                              Hands down the Lorax party was a success!

Like a Champ

I have been in such a "crafty" mood over the past 2 weeks.  It all started with a can of spray paint and then getting addicted to craigslist :)  I let the kids pick out the colors to paint our outside chairs.  These were my great-grandmothers!  I'm sure she would have never thought her patio furniture would be these colors, let alone in Washington.  Hope it makes her smile.

 Our dinning room table was my grandmothers (different one).  My SIL and I recovered the seats before Savvy was born.  The picture doesn't show but every chair had some kind of food stain on it.  I love red but wanted to do something different.  So yellow and blue it is

 I found this china hutch ( the kids sound so southern when they say "china hutch", I LOVE it) on craigslist for $40.  I loved painting it, the kids were in bed, I had pandora on in the backyard, the sun was setting.  It was wonderful, so much so I'm trying to find other things to paint

Then we set this up in the laundry room, school's about to start!!!  We found out Savannah's teacher last week and will meet her next week.

                                                          Happy Friday!

Weekend

We had such a fun weekend but were so glad to get Michael back home.  Friday night the older kids and I didn't go to sleep until after 10, they got to sleep in our bed and talked and talked and talked.  At 10 I told them that they had to start talking in their head...lol. My heart and bed was full :)

Cohen lost his mind and woke up at 6:30 Saturday morning, so we decided to make monkey bread

We then went to the Y and I got a good hour of alone time :)  I was feeling so good we decided to WALK downtown and go to the farmers market.  We discovered yellow watermelon (tasted just like red watermelon) but was pretty

Then that night a sweet friend had us over for dinner.  I think the world could be changed with dinner invites.  And I think Caleb enjoyed dessert...notice we put him outside to eat

These are pictures from Michael's trip, he loved it and said it was beautiful.  They went to Ice Lake at Eagle Cap Wilderness