Fun day at Grandma and Grandpas!

We spent the day at Grandma and Grandpa's yesterday before Ali and Bob's wedding reception.  We celebrated Ella's 4th Birthday and gave the kids some motorcycle lessons on the bikes Grandpa got them.

 Grace, Lauren and Maggie waiting for Ella to open presents.  (I'm willing to bet that Uncle Dan is playing Candy Crush on his phone on the left side of this picture, if Dave had been there they would have been both playing!).

 So, this is what you get when you have 8 kids that all want to ride on the gator at the same time and of course Charlie the dog as well =).

 Lucy and Grandpa on his big motorcycle.

 Lucy on the little bike on her own.

 Lance and Tina giving Grace her pre-riding lessons.

Grace did it about three times which was great because before we went up to the field she wasn't going to do it at all.  She was probably the most consistent with the throttle of all the kids which makes sense as she is the oldest, but none of us adults can remember that getting the hang of pulling the throttle back and letting it go being so hard!  It is a little nerve racking every time one of them got on one.  A HUGE thank you to Lance and Tina for helping with the kids.  You guys did great!

Visit to Nebraska

This past weekend Dave and I had to go to Nebraska for work, the opening of Pinnacle Bank Arena, which looks great.  We went to the Michael Buble concert there and it was really good, I wasn't very familiar with most of his music prior to the concert but have since downloaded a few songs =). We also stayed with Dave's sister Amy.  We had a great time as usual and Ryan was a great big cousin for the weekend with the girls.

 Grace cooking lunch for us all.

 Grace found this old phone downstairs, so we plugged it in and let the girls try dialing it.  I will admit it is harder than I remember - you have to dial really fast!

 Saturday night we went to an arcade in Omaha with everyone.  The girls had fun getting tickets from the games.  Ryan is helping Lucy gather all hers up in this photo.

 They also had a few indoor rides that the kids went on.

 On Sunday when we went to see Grandma Mansell we brought some balloons and even Dad learned how to make balloon animals that the girls gave out to the residents.

We had very nice visits with Grandma on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning.  Amy and Ryan were great hosts and they have to come see us!

1st Day of School

The girls started school on Tuesday and had a great first week back in their school after the fire last April.  There was a lot of work done on the school over the summer and not all of it is done but the teachers and kids are making the best of what is ready to go now.  They were excited to go back and see their friends, we will see how long this lasts =)

 Showing a little first day of school attitude.  Grace is in 4th grade so she is the oldest in the elementary school and pretty proud of it.  Lucy is in 2nd grade and has the same teacher Grace had in 2nd grade, this is the first time this has happen and we are very happy about it.

The girls each wrote down what they were going to be when they grow up.  Grace's was no surprise - she is always the teacher when all the cousins are around.  Lucy's was pretty cute, I think it is a nod to all the time she got to spend at the farm with Grandma and Grandpa this summer!