We are just about to start school again for the year so here’s a little wrap up post for our summer. 

Rock took me on another great date last month.  Ice Blocking!  Believe it or not, I made it out of college without ever having gone ice blocking.  It was a lot of fun!

The kids entered their artwork in the fair again this year and some of them even won money.  This is surprising because everyone but Cade created theirs the day before.  “Quick, the deadline is tomorrow!  Let’s draw some pictures and take some photographs to enter in the fair!”  Maybe next year they will learn from Cade’s example.  He won 7.00$!

His Origami bird feeder won 1st place:

This is two hummingbirds and a squirrel on top.

Levi and Liberty entered this year as well.

Whale above his head.

Piggy above hers.

Liberty found this photo at the fair and got super excited.

I can’t wait to take her to the Statue of Liberty again someday when she’ll actually remember it.  She remembers nothing from her first trip there.

While at the fair we “ran into” Cade’s hero, Jeremy Schaffer.  He’s a guy on U-tube who makes/teaches origami and balloon animals and all kinds of crazy crafty things.  Cade adores this guy and some days all we hear out of his mouth is, “Jeremy Schaffer, this and Jeremy Schaffer that.”  So when Rock found out that he was going to be at the fair we knew we had to go that day.  We didn’t tell Cade, though, and the surprise was perfect.  I only wish I could have gotten his face on film.  But we did get this picture and a high five and Cade was thrilled to meet his idol.

Libby was also thrilled to see her favorite animal up close and personal.

Reagan picked up his new cello at the rental place a few weeks ago in anticipation of his new adventure at the middle school.  He will be taking a few classes there every afternoon, one of which is orchestra.  Thank you Piano Guys for your inspiration!  He’s so excited to start!

He will also be doing Cross Country as an after school sport and has thoroughly enjoyed his practices so far.  He comes home every day telling me how much faster his time was that day than the day before. 

And there went summer.  This was the first summer in a while without a move or big travel plans and I thought it would go by a little slower, but I was wrong. 

Goodbye Summer!  Time to hit the books!

Cade reached double digits exactly a month ago! 

He spent his birthday money from us and G & G Wesel at the craft store, his favorite place on earth.  And then just last week when G & G Hymas were here they brought him their birthday gift.  He spent all week designing cars with the design kit they got him.

Designing cars…
 

Designing Cars again….
You see Harry Potter 7 on the floor beside him because in the month since his birthday he has blown right through Harry Potter 4, 5 and 6.  And he just finished 7 today, exactly one month later.

We love you, Caderade, and all your wonderful talents.  Thanks for coming to live at our house!

Liberty has been dancing since she was old enough to sit up, let alone walk.  Here is the first time I caught her movin to the music in her head.

Since then she has danced her way to everything, breakfast, bedtime and everything in between.  She has been waiting anxiously for the day she could take ballet when she turned four years old.  That milestone just passed, so we signed her up for ballet.  Here are some pics and video from her Ballet Camp.  This was just to give her a taste to see if we should really sign her up for lessons.  Most of these were taken through a window, so I apologize for the low quality.

She LOVED every minute. But then, that’s not a surprise.

I’ve had some funnies I’ve been saving up from the kids and I now have enough to share these gems with you!

Levi was thrilled this week to to read his first Dr. Seuss book all by himself.  So the other night when I went in to check on the boys after they’d been put to bed, I found him reading this book, in the dark, with these night glasses.

He was reading it out loud to Cade!  I couldn’t really be mad because he’s so excited about reading and in fact, I laughed quite hard.

On Wednesday Liberty, who is very aware of the boy/girl differences at our house because she’s the only girl besides mom, went over to the bookshelf and pulled out the church hymn book.  She sat down on the floor, opened it up and said, “Mom, is this a ‘she’ book?”  I had no idea what she was asking so I said, “What?” And she asked again, “Is this a ‘she’ book?”  In exasperation I said, “No, it’s a HYMN book!”  And the second I said it out loud, I realized what she meant and busted up laughing.  A HIM book!!! 

A few weeks ago, the kids came home from a birthday party with live goldfish in a jar.  I was a bit bugged that I now had to try and keep these fish alive.  The next day, when Cade found his fish belly up in the jar he said perplexedly, “I don’t know why my fish died.  It didn’t eat anything!”  He meant of course, it hadn’t eaten anything bad, but it was still pretty funny.

I can’t remember if I shared this one or not, so forgive me if I have.  Levi has been losing his first teeth lately and the other day I overheard him telling his brothers about the $14.00 pack of Pokémon cards he was planning on buying.  I asked him how he planned to pay for something so expensive.  Looking at me like I was a little slow he said, “Mom, I have teeth!”

This last week Alli and I took the kids to Denny’s where kids eat free on Tuesdays.  After helping all the kids figure out what they were going to order, I finally took a look at the menu to decide what I wanted.  The waitress came up right then and asked if we were ready to order so I told her we needed a little more time.  As she walked away Liberty, who was hungry and impatient for her food, called after her, “But I don’t need any more time!”

And one last one I just heard last night from our neighbor.  Liberty was wandering the cul-de-sac talking to all our neighbors as she always does.  She was dressed in her princess dress this particular day.  When our neighbor Tom asked her if she was going to be Miss Idaho someday she said, “No.  I do not want to be a state.”

I realize these might not be as funny second hand, but we sure love remembering them after the fact.