Thoughts for today, August 18, 2010

Today is the first day of school. It is such a bittersweet day for me. The kids are always excited, which is a good thing, but they are getting so big and learning so much, they aren't my babies anymore...Well, they'll always be that, but you know what I mean.

Emily is starting Middle School this year...Carter is going into 3rd grade with only one recess and Casey is starting Preschool!! Whew!

This morning Carter was up and dressed and in his backpack by 7:15 a.m. He laid on the couch yawning and saying...I don't want to wait for school to start!! Amazing. He also told me he had "Belly Beans" a mixture of excitement, happiness, worry, and unsureness all together.

Emily wanted to set her own alarm and get up in time to "get ready" for school , doing her hair, putting on her pretty outfit, etc. girl stuff! When she got home, she said, "Oh Mom it is sooo Cool!!"" Love to hear those words out of my girl's mouth!!

If you ask Casey about school he will tell you that he is a "New schooler." We had a meeting today with his new teacher and he will actually start Preschool Monday. My littlest one is getting big right in front of my very eyes....Sniff.. sniff..

Here's our traditional 1st day of school pic where we show off how big and heavy the backpacks are..Don't you love the look on Carter's face?

We got Casey in there too, because we always have. Monday, it'll be his 1st day of school and pictures again....

Bye Bye Summer!! Hello New School Year and all the adventure and changes that await!!

Wall Drug, SD

Wall, South Dakota: home of Wall Drug, one of our favorite stops heading out west! The ice water is free and coffee is 5cents! You can get everything from taffy to sudafed to black hills gold jewelry to clothing to cowboy boots  here! There are tons of statues and places to rest yourself. There's a roaring dinosaur that transfixes and terrifies at the same time. A statue of a jackalope sits out back that I sat on as a child and a new water area is a huge draw for our children!! Our trip just wouldn't be complete without a visit to Wall Drug...

Mountains in Iowa

We went camping with my parents and their new camper in Northeast Iowa this last weekend. We got up and started making breakfast Saturday morning and Emily says, "Look Mom. Mountains in Iowa" (Bless that girl! She knows how mountains are one of my favorite views!)

And it does kinda look like mountains....Mountains in Iowa.

Summer Days

Do you remember lazy summer days growing up? Playing in the sprinkler and hanging out? Our kids don't seem to get much of that kind of stuff. We always seem to be pulled in so many directions and have so many plans, etc. So I had Tuesday off and decided to try and have f lazy summer day.

I thought we should ride our bikes up to the grocery store since we haven't done much of that lately. Casey wanted to ride his bike too, so I walked Max!! He was trying to "drag" me the entire way after Emily and Carter and Casey for whatever reason Casey decided to fall down a lot. The walk was quite the experience!! It was also hot hot hot!!! On the way home I also had grocery bags in my hands and there were dogs loose that wanted to come and get me, Casey and Max! Wow, when I told Al about our walk, he said, "That's why people like to watch you walk down the street..." I wonder what that is supposed to mean??

Casey wanted to make cookies...Pumpkin cookies of all kinds! So there we go!

We started out playing in the sprinkler cuz Casey never gets to do that kind of thing. Then we moved on to the pool and took the sprinkler with us!! Fun in the sun! We also made homemade pizza for lunch with everyone helping.

Since I had my camera, I walked around taking pics! That's my thing, I guess...

The day didn't go without frustrations. Three kids can't always get along I suppose. Those moments tend to stick out more for me than the kids...I hope it gets glossed over in their memories as they grow and that they only remember all the fun we had on a hot summer day in July.

Ragbrai

Ragbrai came through our town this a.m. And can I just say Wow!! Our town normally has about 1400 people in it and today it had thousands more all on bicycles!! Wow! Very nice friendly people. One gentleman saw Emily and told her she should be riding. Next year he said. He had a nephew that was her age from Texas that she could hook up with!!

Al and his dad pulled tractors up town and strung a huge cable between them for a bike rack for the ragbraiers. I don't believe I've ever seen so many bicycles and people in one place at one time before.

This is the view the bikers had coming in to town....

This is hard to see but it was a "bike accident" kind of like the witches that "fly" into houses and trees at Halloween....

Just a cool bike and some relaxin...

Fun tatoo.. Don't know if he realized that I took his pic, but oh well,

It was hard to capture the largeness of it all, the wow!! but I tried. The last time Ragbrai was in our town was 10 years ago and I don't remember it being like this so I must have been there at the end of it all instead of the beginning.

The kids were amazed, walking around with their mouths hanging open. About got run over several times...

A day in the life of little ol me.

Mowing

So, you know that feeling of having to do something all the time? Like, if I sit too long at home I start to look around and see laundry, dishes, dust, etc....That's why I love vacation so much. I can relax without worrying about everything I'm not doing...Anyway, I decided today, that I'd do something outside and it might not feel so much like work and besides, the lawn needed mowing anyway and Max needed walking. So Emily and Carter walked Max for a 1/2 an hour while I mowed the lawn. He's afraid of the mower and I needed his cable out of the way so I could mow. Casey played on the porch with our neighbor girl.

Back to my story...As I went around the back of the house I noticed  a hummingbird moth on my flox. I thought "Cool, I should try and take a picture." Since he didn't seem to be bothered by the mower I went around to the front of the house and grabbed my camera while helping Casey get into his swim trunks. Lo and behold, he was still there when I mowed around the back again. So I stopped to take some pictures. He stayed so long I was able to play with  ISO settings and WB settings. Fun!! I like this first pic where his wings look like ghosts they are moving so fast and I like the others where I caught the wings at a stand still and you can see the colors. Check out his long tongue too!!! I took close to 100 pics of one little moth!! And it was in town by my own house! Cool!

The last picture is Casey and our neighbor girl waiting patiently for me to be done and help them get into the pool in our yard.

Ahh Summer!!

Boy Scout Intermission

Saturday, we went to a Boy Scout day camp about a 1/2 hour away. Siblings were invited so all of us went along. We got to ride pedal go carts, shoot bb guns, do crafts, play kickball, try our hands at bows and arrows and swim!! It was a very busy fun day!! The staff there was exceptional! We will definitely go again!! Carter's fav was archery, Ems was bb guns and Casey I think just liked it all!!!

One of the boys in Carter's scout troop has a sister just a little older than Casey and they both go to the same day care and have lots of fun playing together. Their family was at the day camp with us. While the big kids played kick ball I sat with Casey and his friend while they played at the little park there. The favorite thing was collecting rocks!
It was a beautiful day and a good time was had by all. Hope your Saturday was as nice as ours was.