1st Day of School

Last Tuesday was meet your teacher day at school for the girls and Wednesday was their first day of school.  As you can see from the photo below Grace was dressed up and Lucy was dressed for recess!  No surprise there.  Lucy wanted a 'sport' ponytail and tennis shoes to make sure she could do the monkey bars.

Lucy's new backpack.

 Grace's new backpack.

 The girls hugging it out before the first day!

Time really does fly by, it is crazy that they are 6 and 8!

Countdown to Disney

We have a family vacation coming up to Disney in oh 19 days!!!!  So, about a week ago when the girls woke up we made countdown chains and have been anxiously ripping one off each morning.  Yeah, I know you would have thought we would have made them for their birthdays or the first day of school but nope, a Disney trip with their cousins and Grandma and Grandpa definitely trumps all of that!  And since the girls made theirs we know Leyton has made one too, we have had facetime discussions showing each other where we keep them and what colors everybody made their chains.  Disney was such a great trip the last time we took the girls I know this time will be even better and more memorable for us all (except maybe Dad having to leave early for a Vikings Stadium interview but we will probably get over it since we have our cousins with and a good interview means a another stadium at home and no travel for Dad =) !!!).

August is Birthday month!

With both of the girls birthdays in August most of our weekends in August are filled with birthday parties and with the addition of the pool this year we started our first of many birthday pool parties.   It started with Lucy's 6th Birthday on August 11 where her friends Sophie and Ava came and celebrated with her.

 Sophie, Lucy and Ava having lunch.

 The girls enjoying pool time.

 Grace's birthday was next on August 25th and she got the American Girl bitty twins that she has been asking for.  She has a few American Girl dolls and a bitty baby but has been pretty insistent that she needed bitty twins that looked like her.

She picked out a pretty cool two tier cake for her friend party.

 Grace and her friends in the pool.

 On Sunday we had the family over to celebrate both of the girls birthdays.  Here are all of cousins, minus a sleeping Cal outside by the pool where the girls opened presents.

 Luca and Cal admiring Mya out on the deck.

All of the cousins lined up for candles and cake.  Hard to believe that after all the birthday parties are done it means summer is almost over and that school is going to start soon.

Willow River State Park

With the weather a bit cooler the past week or so we found a new place to check out in evening.  We went for a hike at Willow River State Park one night this week while Dad was out of town and decided it was pretty cool so we took him back tonight.

Here they are getting closer to the falls.

 Here they are on a 'trail' that Dad found.  (It really isn't a trail and we probably should have went back the way we came....)

 Standing with Mom on the bridge in front of the waterfalls.

 Grace took this picture of the waterfalls.........it is pretty good.

 We had to stop for a bunch of turkeys crossing the trail on our way back out.

Lake Superior Summer Fun

We headed up to Lake Superior for the weekend with our family.  We had a great time with all of our cousins!  The weather was beautiful and the water the warmest it has been.

Grace testing out the water when we got there on Friday.

 Lauren, Grace and Lucy gathering driftwood.

 Most of the cousins getting ready for their first water balloon fight of many over the weekend!  Thanks to all the adults for filling up and tying all those balloons, oh and picking up the remnants of our fun!

 We spent the morning in Bayfield on Saturday as usual and here is picture from the end of the pier with the ferry in the background.

 Lucy showing off her surfing skills.  That kid lives with goggles on her head!  Since we have gotten the pool I can't tell you the number of times she has been in her pajamas and still had goggles on her head at the end of a hard day of swimming and this weekend was no different.

St. Croix County Fair Started

Grace turned in her Cloverbud projects today at the fair.  She made a skirt, raspberry jam and a wallet out of duct tape.

Talking to the judge about her skirt. Grace did great answering the questions from the judge on her projects. She was able to tell the judge about the hem and why it is important to have it even all the way around.

 She talked about boiling the jam in water to get a good seal on the jam so it is safe to eat.

 Standing with her projects on display in the Cloverbud/Explorer building.

If anyone is down at the fair stop and check out her projects.  She did a great job and is excited to bring even more things next year!

Our First Kiddie Parade

We decided to get all the cousins together for the Fun Fest Kiddie Parade today.  We didn't decide this until Thursday night/Friday morning so all in all the Olympic theme turned out pretty well.  We had a gymnast, soccer player, swimmer, tennis player, baseball player, and a runner.  The kids did great walking in the parade even in the heat.  The discussions have already begun for next years theme......

Lucy was a gymnast and Grace was a soccer player.

 The whole group walking in the parade, Joey even came with!

 After the parade we went out to Grandma and Grandpa's and Grace, Lucy and Lauren got to ride in the empty hay wagon.  I know Grandpa is looking forward to a few years from now when all these kids can actually help unload the hay!