Wrapping Up Summer Fun - Aqua Park, Pool Time and Watermelon Day

Aqua Park
We wanted to end summer with some extra fun so Brittany and I decided to try the local aqua park. We all had a great time but boy was this old lady sore a few days after from all that climbing!

Sometimes you just gotta take a mom's selfie. :)

So this picture above has a story. This is a "seesaw" that was very challenging to climb up onto. I tried multiple times to help Lorelei climb up by trying to push her up from in the water where I couldn't touch while she tried to pull herself up...this stuff is bigger than it looks so this was quite the challenge. She and I had gotten beyond frustrated after two separate attempts and I just said she was not going to be able to do it. I went to get some requested water from the nearby building and when I got back out this is what I saw - Brittany on the seesaw with Savannah, Makin and Lorelei, all with big smiles. What in the world? "We just climbed up before her and then helped pull her up from up here." So many emotions for me with this, especially these two... how thankful I am for a friend who cares enough to help her as well as the fact that sometimes we need to reevaluate and think of taking on a challenge a different way.

Pool Time

Between camps and travel we haven't gotten as much pool time this summer which has me a bit disappointed but I'm just trying to remember its okay for it to be different from the last several summers. Who knows what next summer will bring. :) Just a couple more pics from the pool I had to add. :)

Dolphin Training

Watermelon Day

Still keeping the tradition but getting fewer photo moments with these older kiddos!

Kicking Off The School Year - 3rd and 5th

Meet The Teacher
We rolled into town from our trip late Monday night and headed to Meet The Teacher the next morning. Me feeling very not-ready for my part of the school year (books and uniforms were set but my school space at home, nope!) but thankfully these teachers looked more-than ready to go!

Mrs. Rowell

This year Lorelei has Mrs. Rowell as her homeroom teacher and Mrs. Buman teaching her math. Both are energetic and we are really excited to have them! Lorelei was busy chatting with Mrs. Rowell one of the first few weeks of school and was excited to discover that she has taken her daughter to the same horseback riding location we go to.

Mrs. Buman

Makin has Mrs. Rhine this year and we are so excited to have her again! (Lorelei had her for 3rd as well.) Mrs. Rhine the kind of teacher you love your child to have because she instills strong habits in them you want to last a lifetime but she also cares about you and your child. It is an added bonus that she has taught this grade level several years and has the routine down so well! When I asked Makin what he thought the first day he said, "She is funnier than I expected." :)

Loved this from some papework sent home.

The First Day
They sure are looking too old in these pictures! You may be able to tell but Lorelei requested to have her hair curled on her first day.

After school we headed out for our traditional ice cream and loved having Jaedynn and Ryker join us.

Jaedynn is one of the classmates who came to school in 1st as well so girls are on their fifth year together!
So thankful for these sweet friendships!

Summer Nebraska Visit

We headed up to Nebraska for our Stahl family visit.

On the way there we missed stopping at one museum in Kansas due to navigating errors on our part, but came up with a new plan to stop at the Worlds Largest Railyard the following day in Nebraska. It was an interesting stop and a chance to learn some railroad history as well.

Then we headed to Grandma and Grandpas!

Makin and Grandma played quite a few card games this year.

Lorelei, Makin and Brooklynn loved taking the cat into the sunroom.

Aunt Sarah's farm is a quick gater trip away and the girls loved to spend time with the kittens and sheep.

Cousins at the park! (Karter was at work.)

An afternoon movie - Wonderpark!

The game of Life.

Makin, especially, likes some time on the wii.

Playing in the rocks and making bridges to walk on.

This girl and her animals. :)

A golf outing with Brad, myself and the kiddos.

Brooklynn started out keeping score and then started playing towards the end of the round.

Me: Stand on your tiptoes!
Makin and Brooklynn: We are!
But how cute is this sign!?

Duckpin bowling fun.

We played many rounds of Crossfire.

We checked out Jupiter positioned very close to the moon!

We took this trip a bit later than usual because Brad and Tim decided they should play in the annual Bag's Bar tournament in Potter. This is one of Brad's favorite hometown tournaments. They made two teams, a cousins team that played in the morning, and then an afternoon team made up of Brad, Tim, Karter and Makin. Makin made some long putts and loved a chance to play competitively with family. Lots of golf and fun and glad they made some memories!

One day Lorelei and I went and got pedicures while the boys played golf. 

The second day we fit in some chalk time with Brooklynn.

We fit in the fastest family shoot on record one evening. We asked Brad's cousin to take some pictures and the timing coincided with a big storm coming in. 

We fit them in so quickly you almost couldn't tell!

Just had to include the evidence of what it was really like. ;) 

Thank you for a great visit Grandma and Grandpa!

Summer Fun - Sleepover, Polynesian Camp, Swim Time and Game Time

Sleepover
As a rule, we steer clear of sleepovers. The kids really wish we had them, so we did come up with an idea that worked for us. Brittany stayed over with her kiddos! What a fun family willing to have a group sleepover. :) The kiddos had a great time getting all those hours of playtime together.

The girls having some art time.

No sleepover is complete without a movie! They watched How To Train Your Dragon The Hidden World.

Lego building.

Cinnamon rolls and fruit for breakfast!

Polynesian Dance Camp
Fitting in three camps this summer has made it a bit crazy, but all three we felt were pretty important for Lorelei. This year they are calling Hula Polynesian Dance (her teacher has her reasons...something about the different methods of dancing and they aren't all hula) and Lorelei is technically in "Junior Company Polynesian Dance" which sounds fancy but really just means she will be at the class for 1 hr rather than 30 minutes and that she will have more performances throughout the year. (Their goal is seven.) She is excited about having more time but is a bit nervous as this group is now 10+ and she has lots of new older girls she does not know. Overall she can't wait to perform more though and we are looking forward to her getting more time with this. All that being said, she had to go to this four day camp over the summer to be able to be in Junior Company Polynesian. (Got NO pictures of her for this.)

This camp was 1 1/2 hours each day, so Makin and I hung out playing games at the nearby Starbucks. (With the exception of the day we had car trouble, then we just stayed at the building and played games...) So thankful this guy still enjoys his Mom time!

Swim Time and Game time

Two simple ways we have kept busy this summer...swim time and game time. This also wrapped up a last crazy couple weeks of summer before our Nebraska trip which involved a lot of preparing for the upcoming school year and an unplanned new-car purchase...so it did put a bit of a kink in some of our summer fun. We still fit in what fun we could of course. :)

We swam at Natalie's house.

The floats have brought plenty of fun and plenty of arguments to pool time.

The soon-to-be 5th graders had a blast playing at Mallory's house for our summer class get-together.

These two played hours of Monopoly spanning a couple of days.
They get that ability from their dad for sure. ;)