And this makes the update complete!
(until I get the other camera uploaded!)
Labor day weekend we went into Madison to celebrate Mom/Nana's Birthday which had been the week before and Dad/Papa 63rd and Amelia's 1st birthday that would be the following Tuesday. It was a "Roaring" Good time at the party, we had beautiful weather for the park party and the kids had so much fun running around.

The kids are always so excited to give their gift

Amelia checking out her new Packer outfit, I think it will be a while before it fits!

And since it is the season of back to school projects (that involve a family picture) we took another family picture in front of the Peace Pole at Nana and Papa's house.
Thanks for having the patience to wait for these posts and then read through all of them, we have had a great summer and are looking forward to a fun filled school year!

First Day of School!
I now have two children in school all day, and I have to be honest I do miss them by the end of the day. The first day went well, everyone was up early and ready to go-Eileen could not wait to get there and see everyone and experience second grade. Olivia on the other hand was not so sure she still wanted to go, she told me she wanted three more weeks of summer! She did fine but you could tell that in her heart this was not where she really wanted to be, which broke my heart-one of those difficult parent things. She cried every day the first week, but is doing better now.
Olivia ready for school

Eileen couldn't wait to get there!

Eileen showing off her first day outfit

Olivia with her friends from K4

The walk from the playground to the classroom



And she is off to Kindergarten.

August
The End of Summer!
When we came home from the cabin the girls spent the week at cheer camp, ending with a performance. They are still doing their jumps!

Olivia ready to perform

Eileen ready to go

Post performance in the gym

The next weekend (August 8th) Eileen ran the Friends of Hank Aaron 5K with Bryan

Eileen was much less nervous this time

Eileen and Daddy with their banana, Starbucks protein smoothie and race face.
This race ended up being delayed 3 times due to severe weather and they still ended up running in a down pour! Eileen ended up taking 3rd for her age group at this race so in her mind it was all worth it!
Here is the link to the results page http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php#racetop

We went the the farmers market almost every week, I love that we can walk from our house! We got tomatoes (among other things) to make sauce, Olivia loved squishing them with her hands!
The look on her face is perfect!

She is a girl who doesn't mind a little mess

The sauce turned out delicious!

On the last day of summer Bryan and I put on a "Backyard Olympics" for the kids, using all the things they had done over the summer. The kids spent the morning making metals for the award ceremony and Bryan and I came up with all of the events and planned out the final event-the obstacle course.

Brian had the kids check in for each event

Nice form!

Joseph at the Frisbee toss

Eileen running in the sprint

Olivia's broad jump


As promised I took us to the end of summer, I will post first day of school and on as soon as I can.

Our Trip to the Cabin

July 30th-August 2nd 2009
Well it had been a while but we decided to make a trip to the cabin this summer. We tried to get everyone there, and came close but we were missing a few key players (we missed you Mike, Jen, Liam, Benjamin and Rachel). The kids and I went up with Mom/Nana on Thursday morning and arrived in the early afternoon- the kids did really well in the car. When we got there it was down pouring rain, beautiful but not exactly what the kids were looking for after spending the morning in car seats! I let them watch a movie while I unpacked and Nana went to the store to buy all the food for the long weekend.

The rain coming down on the first day

He was a little tired

After that first day the sun came and stayed, although it was still cool-better than hot! The kids had fund playing with the play dough on the porch.

A trip to the beach was in order, Joseph stayed close to shore

Eileen went in for bit but the water was pretty cold

So she spent some time exploring other parts of the beach

Olivia went in but is no fool and decided she would rather sit in the sun and be warm!

Back at the cabin, Amelia enjoyed the little chairs-but was really hoping someone would play a little stick ball with her.

Olivia going in the kayak with Nana

Joseph was a bit uneasy about getting in the kayak, but he did it and was all smiles-but he didn't want to go in it again.

Jonathan "frogging"

While we were at the cabin it was Flamborama for the town, one of the events during this celebration is the Evergreen 5K. This year Eileen joined the ranks of runners in the family and entered, completed, and did very well in her first 5K!
Eileen with her number waiting for the start of the race

The kids before the run

The 5K runners, Eileen, Uncle Jonathan and Uncle Brian

Waiting for the runners to come in, I love the look on Amelia's face!

Uncle Jonathan coming in

Here come Uncle Brian and Eileen, Brian was so good about encouraging Eileen to keep going and push herself. Thanks for staying with her Brian!

She almost had him!

They had a fun run for the little kids (10 and under), Olivia and Joseph ran it and had so much fun! Olivia felt so big with her own number, and Joseph ran like a politician-talking to the crowd, waving, giving hi-fives!

Post race love!

Amelia and Papa enjoying a quiet view from the porch. Jonathan and Sigan had taken the girls for a canoe ride, Brian and Kelly were fishing, and Joseph and I were going for a walk.

Showing me some frogs and tadpoles

Brian fishing

Joseph watching the water looking for boats

We found one!

And it was full of people we knew!

Time to go

Joseph found a tree stump he had to play on, he was pretending it was a horse.

We had a great time and the kids did so well-we can't wait to get back up there again!