August recap

I think I have 500 pictures from August! 😜

 
We signed a lease on the rental house on my birthday and then enjoyed a last minute dinner date at Lucky's.  Then, family vacation week at the lake!  Highlights off the top of my head -- Emily learned to water ski, Adara joined Papa & me on a bike ride, Alden tried tubing, all the kids practiced driving the gator, played with 2nd cousins on the Palace Rocks, and spent a lot of time identifying birds and trees. Alasdair and I had an awesome overnight to Burlington while the kids stayed with mom & dad -- great hotel, miles and miles of bike rides along the lake, some beach time, and an amazing dinner out at the same restaurant where we went for our first anniversary, when we ran a summer program in Burlington 14 years ago.

 

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Emily

Took the wrong trail aiming for Kronks and explored the Indian Trail at Stoneyides, and then had a full tour from Nellie. :). Alasdair found a book written about relative of his! 

 

 

24 hour visit from Mary Beth Miller and her 4 youngest kids -- our kids immediately bonded and had the best time together.  We pledged not to let 8 years go by between visits next time!

 

Emily did piano camp, and the aces & I day tripped to visit Jackie J and her kids -- again, immediate friendships between our kids.  

 

 

 Watching big sister at piano camp, hanging out on the green afterwards.

 Farm carrots + pool time = 💛

Spontaneous all-day project of cleaning out & trading rooms (everyone has their own room for the first time) -- celebrated with ice cream!

Aldens hat collection makes me smile - gifts from Mr. Eshbaugh, Mr. Crane & Mr. Audino 

 Then back to the lake for the "Papa's birthday" fair, this year complete with tigers!

 

 
After last year's heartbreak of being a hair shy of the 48" required to ride the rides with the rest of the big kids, this year Emily was too tall for some rides and Alden too short for others, but Adara was just right to ride every ride at the fair!

 

Hinman cabin overnight...

 

the mussels moved out of the pile the kids made and left cool patterns in the sand.

Pizza dinner by the river & daddy's frisbee game

 


Rainy walk to a neighbor's birthday party.

 

 

...Last day at the pool, and then back to the lake for Big House weekend!

Another magical weekend with some of our favorite people.  Hard to believe it was our 6th year -- the first year we did this the oldest kids were 10, Alden was an infant, and Emily was headed into K.  This year - we sent the oldests to drive into town alone for groceries, Emily is 10, and Alden is headed into K!   

laughing on the piazza with these people is one of my favorite things.

this year we were reliving the year one person wandered off and we imagined him being abducted by someone out of the woods... when suddenly cousin David appeared out of the darkness 😂

being on kid duty was a real sacrifice...

It was a packed 3.5 weeks and we all came home and crashed for the last couple of days before school.  I'm still getting my mind around summer being over.  I'm not ready, but here we go!

First Day of School (part 1)

After an August jam packed with so much fun that we were all nearly comatose at the start of this week... the kids rested up for a couple days and the girls headed back to school today.  Last year at this time we had such an easy start with all the kids returning to the same school and routine.  This year brings more change with Emily moving up to the middle school and Alden starting kindergarten.

Poor Emily also came into this week with a raging case of poison ivy, complete with one eye swollen shut.  Not the extra challenge we were looking for going into a new school.  She was looking enough better today not to miss the first day, and we were thankful for a 6th grade neighbor who came by the house so they could walk to the bus together. Emily barely even seemed nervous heading out the door.  I had to resist the temptation to stalk them to the bus stop!
  

A few minutes after she headed out, we woke Adara up.  She hasn't been excited about school, and lay in bed groggily until she suddenly remembered and groaned. This is her first solo "back to school" picture!  (Alden doesn't start Kindergarten until next week.).
  

We walked Adara to school and Alden & I stayed to help host a welcome back coffee for parents, and then met some friends to pray for all our kiddos (lots of big transitions this year).  Wehad a Starbucks date and then went back to school to meet his teacher.


At 3pm Alden and I were waiting on the porch for Emily... when the other middle school kids walked by and Emily wasn't with them.  I thought at first maybe she was dawdling, but eventually we heard she hadn't gotten on the bus, so while we waited at Adara's bus stop, I called the school and the office was in touch with the bus drivers tracking down various kids who had taken the wrong bus. It also sounded fairly par for the course until an hour went by.... Emily's friend (who was also put on a different wrong bus) was found and returned, and the secretary started telling me things like "we know she got on a bus, because she's not here" and "all the busses are empty now and we can't confirm which bus she was put on, so maybe she got off somewhere and is walking home."  I was edging into panic for a few minutes until we got another call that she was indeed on a bus and headed back our way.  The poor kid was dropped off almost 2 hours after school ended... I thought she might be in tears... but she climbed casually off the bus, gave me a hug and said, "well that was a long ride."

She was calm and positive about middle school, and after a 20 minute break was happy to head back to Mt. Leb for Alden's kindergarten family night.  Adara helped serve dinner and Alden was a little overwhelmed but did a good job saying hi to many new friends.


A long first day but overall a good one and everyone is heading to bed surprisingly happy!