out of town visitors

 My niece and her family came into town for the weekend on Friday and the kids had a great time. Lots of lazy fun. I think of the seven kids, six stayed in pajamas all day on Saturday. My sister, husband, another niece, great nephew and mom also came in on Saturday and spent the day with us. A good time was had by all. We had lots of visiting and catching up that was done. It was nice to have everyone here and it was raining so we were all quite happy and content! Thanks for visiting everyone, I really enjoyed the company as did the kids.

Jill and I have kids that parallel each other. So I tried to capture a shot of each of them back to back to compare the sizes. Kayla wins for the 8 year olds, Nate wins for the 6 year olds(even though he was on tip toes here, he is still a bit taller, and I think PJ may have one hair above Gabe is all. This picture proved challenging and it was not but 30 seconds and all chaos broke loose, the giggles were not to be stopped and thus the picture taken ceased.
Thanks for coming and hanging out for the weekend. We all had a good time, but I am pooped and headed to bed and it is only 8:30. Good night and sweet dreams.......

deck

Thanks to some great friends of ours we finally have a patio set! They are moving and the new pad comes with everything they need to we were happy to take their hand me downs. It is a large set but we were able to make it work. I have been waiting a long time for something like this. Thanks guys you are the best!! We really do like it and appreciate it!

soccer begins

 Soccer practice has begun! We are letting Maggie play and see how this session goes for her. She has had one practice and LOVED it! Makayla is on a larger team this season and seems to be loving it as well. She is practicing twice a week. Games for both begin in about 2 weeks. One more proof that fall is getting closer.

tired out

 Monday was an exhausting day for these kiddos! They were all ready for their beds tonight by 7:30. The bottom three were all lounged out on the chairs and couches at 5:35 already. I hope they have sweet dreams!

PJ's First day of school

 PJ had his first day of 4 year old school today.  How did he get so old looking? seriously, each week he looks much older to me lately.  He said after the first pictures that we had to get one of his spidey backpack.

He was soo excited to go back to school. He trotted right to his cubby and put his backpack away. I wanted a photo next to his cubby, had my camera but I did not have the flashcard in it! darn it! oh well I think I got good pictures here at home.

Snuggle size

Looking at their picture it makes me want to go get them and just give them a squeeze and snuggle with them in the big bed!

The little ones did just fine without the big ones home today. They often were found dancing, giggling, and hugging throughout the day! Uninterrupted good old fun! It was neat to see their personalities come out once again as individuals.

 Who does not love a silly three year old and all to goofy two year old. As I look at this picture of PJ I see the twinkle in his eye and overall zest for life. Goofy, oh yea that is Brie, look at this ham. She made me laugh all day. Her latest famous quote when asked to do a chore(pick up toys, throw away trash, etc..) "oh, my can't, my tummy hurts!" rubs her tummy, giggles and is off. Of course not completely requested task, ugg!
At any rate we missed our big girls but also enjoyed our day as the three of us!

First Day of School for Makayla and Maggie

 Makayla on her first day of 3rd grade! She was excited to be reunited with her friends. She is allowed to wear skirts this year and she is thrilled! My almost 9 year old looks crazy grown up all of a sudden.

Maggie is officially in kindergarten. She was a bit quiet this morning as she headed out but I think inside she is pretty excited. No tears were shed by mother or child, it definitely helps having Makayla in the same school.

A picture of the SJS kids, it will be another 3 years before we add another to this group picture. On the drive in Makayla said, "oh Maggie I am so excited you are coming to my school!" Maggie responded " I feel like I am in a dream, a good dream though".  So proud of my girls, here is to a good year ahead! CHEERS!

THANK YOU Ms. Lauren!

 So today was Ms. Lauren's last day with us! It was a VERY sad day for me. Lauren has given us such a wonderful summer that it is tough to think of the stress that will return in a short time! Not having to get kids up, out the door, or lunches to worry about has been fantastic. I realize we found the diamond in the sand with Lauren as she has been way more than we every expected! I hope she never felt taken advantage of or taken for granted. We treasured her everyday she was with us! Ms. Lauren made our kids summer the most fun and memorable to date!  So many times this summer Lauren has warmed our hearts with the care she provided, words she spoke or the simple things she did that we had to get the right thank you gift. We have a fuzzy blanket that she liked so Kayla came up with the idea of giving her a blanket. We went and got the fuzziest, softest, warmest blanket we could find to hopefully in turn give Ms. Lauren the warm fuzzies she provided to our family.

A close of group shot, can I also say this girl did an AWESOME job of capturing the summer on camera! Thank you for your photography skills as this was not in the original agreement, you did great!

One final group shot of the four pack from the summer. As Ms. Lauren enters her senior year of college we wish her only the best and know she will do awesome in anything she does! Lauren you are a fantastic person and our family is VERY fortunate to have had you all summer long! Thank you for giving us so much of your time! You will be missed dearly by each of us! Best wishes and love you! Pete, Karla, Makayla, Maggie, PJ and Brie

Crayon melting

 So this crayon art has gotten a lot of print time lately. The kids were desperate to do tie dying and I thought that may be a bit messy for an 8, 6, and 3 year old. Instead I bought everything they needed to do the crayon thing. Thank goodness Ms. Lauren is such a good sport about anything I throw her way. She tackled the project with the kids on Monday and said it was quite fun. Lauren did one herself of a heart(in the side background of the PJ picture) and it turned out very neat! Anywho the kids had a blast and it did not seem to make a mess. They are each holding their special creation, job well done kids! Way to go Ms. Lauren! Thanks!

zoo time

Thursday was our last day together as the 5 of us alone. We hit up the zoo and had a very nice time. We packed up a lunch and headed out. This is a group picture as we entered the zoo.

We made it to the birds. Kayla was fortunate to be able to have a couple birds land on her seed stick.

If you look closely at PJ he has a bird on his head! Twice he had a "John Deere" green bird land on his head. I think they liked his buzz cut, they nibbled on his hair. The bird landing on his head gave him the giggles!! The crowd were quite jealous of his luck!

Do you think they will take group pictures forever for their mom. I do not think so, I am going to take as many as I can while they will agree. Right now they still think it is fun.

We  used our free train tickets and took our annual train ride. PJ was thrilled! his every dream came true in that ride!

 Individual shots of each of the kiddos.

 Is Kayla not looking older or what!

 Note the peacock in the back of Brie's picture. When she saw it she let out a big squeal. :~)

 The zoo carousel is always a big hit. Brie decided to pass on this adventure, she helped me take pictures.

PJ obviously had no fear in going on his horse by himself.

so sweet

Aww cute right, Brie is putting money in a little piggy bank. The story goes like this. We had a babysitter and she let the kids play with their money in their piggy banks. Something we let them do around here. The sitter did not realize Brie had disappeared until she heard a loud crash at the bottom of the steps, yep Brie went and got her bank to play as well. She made it all the way down the steps, till the last one, lost her grip and the bank broke beyond repair! The kids and Lauren stopped by Target the other day and Kayla found a dollar bill and they could not decide what to do with it. Then they came up with the plan: Brie misses out on a lot of their fun times with Miss Lauren and she was not with them that day so they bought her a piggy bank to replace her broken one.  When we got home that night the kids greeted us very excitedly with a "present" for Brie. The kids had wrapped the piggy bank and waited with sweet anticipation watching her carefully. Brie rose to the occasion and was VERY happy with her present. Kayla quickly retrieved her bag of money and Brie happily put her money in her new piggy bank. She now carries the bank everywhere very proudly!

Ms. Jess

 What can get better than hanging out all day with Ms. Lauren? Well when Ms. Lauren has her sister with her for the whole day!!! Ms. Jess proved to be just as fun as her sister! I am afraid they wore her out and hopefully she caught a good nap on her flight home!
Everyone had to have individual pictures with the sisters.

 PJ looks to be in heaven with the ladies!

Can I just say I am not responsible for Maggie's outfit. I swear I picked out the dress for her for this day! love my Maggie!

 They did so much on Monday! bubbles, chalk, bikes, nails, out to lunch, and lots of singing and dancing! Ms. Jess had no idea what she was saying yes to by coming with Lauren. Thanks so much Jessica for coming and playing for the day, the kids had a blast and are ready for your return anytime!

Raspberries

 I heard on the radio a local farm had raspberry picking going. Only $3.00 a pound! a price that could not be beat, so we had to check it out. Sure enough, pick your own raspberries and enjoy!

PJ and Pete finding the best berries ever.

Makayla was a pro from the start, she knew just which ones to pick.

 Brie thought she was interested in picking berries until the thorns got her and then she was done. She also does not care for their taste so she lost interest pretty quickly.

 My little blue eyed man, love this boy!

 Makayla is becoming the next photographer, posing and positioning us just so she can get the right picture!

 The results of our labor! a large bowl of very yummy berries. Cute story of the day once again includes PJ. PJ was picking just the right berries and suddenly shouts, he found a $10.00 bill!! His berry picking experience changed right then. He was soo excited! We decided he could pay for our haul of raspberries and then he got the change for his piggy bank. He thought that was a perfect plan!

It was hard to not play photographer mom, I have not does this recently so they had to put up with me! I kept throwing them into foursomes for photo opps! It was a beautiful day and definitely photo worthy!