End of August

Our favorite place to camp Detroit Lake.  We actually left on a Sunday after church and stayed until Wednesday.  It was a nice and relaxing 4 days.  

August 18th

This is what Maggie and Lydia do on the 2 hour car ride there--take silly pictures of themselves.  I just had to post it!  :)

 Hanging out in camp after we get everything set up.  

 cooking hot dogs for dinner

 after dinner we went on a walk and the kids wanted to "play" on the monkey bars

 my kids are not very adventurous or daring, so they all they tried to do was cross it. 

 I was getting a little nostalgic for my youth and the fun I used to have doing flips on the monkey bars.  So, I wanted to try it again.  I'll admit it--I am not as young as I used to be and it wasn't as easy to climb up on top of those bars, but I got on top and flipped down--twice.  My kids got such a kick out of it.  They even got it on video, but I won't be showing that.  It was fun and I remember doing it all the time at recess.  

 cute Lydia enjoying the fire

 Noah munching on a s'more

August 19th

 We brought lots of trucks and dump trucks and Bella and Noah had a great time with these.  

 Notice Noah trying to move a huge rock.  Muscles!

 I love this kid.  He is so fun!

We also love to watch the little chipmunks--they are everywhere!  

 After lunch, we headed to the lake to play in the water.  Noah and Bella got in the boat for a few minutes, but then decided that they didn't like it.  

 Bella was happy to wade in the water with Garrett, but Noah would rather be on the shore.

 And so he started throwing rocks in the water.  What else would a little boy do?  

 Paige's turn in the boat

 Garrett taking the plunge in the COLD water.

 Trying to stay out of the sun and holding onto the umbrella so the wind didn't carry it away.  

 Maggie's our hair stylist.  She likes to fix the girls' hair.  It turned out cute!

Our campsite

August 20

 Bella's hairdo, courtesty of Maggie

 Whittling wood.  (Is that the right term?  It sounds weird.)

Lydia whittling wood (or a small tree branch)

 The chipmunks liked our peach skins.

 Maggie goofing off.

 Playing Uno and Apples to Apples

 Back to the lake again, although only Paige and Lydia wanted to swim.

 boys throwing rocks again

 Shivering in the wind

Fishing with their fishing poles.  

It was such a nice camping trip--so relaxing and so nice having fun together!

August 21

 Just a few last pictures before heading home

checking for any stray items.  

Bye bye Detroit Lake

August 24

We had two birthday parties this Saturday, one for a friend of Paige's and Bella's and then Maggie's good friend Hailey.  I took Maggie and Lydia school clothes shopping at the mall in the morning while Garrett took Paige and Bella to their party.  Then he took off to his parent's house with Noah.  Speaking of their house, they got to the point in their "fixing up the house" projects that they could paint the outside of the house.  Garrett has been really liking a house in our neighborhood that was recently painted this beautiful barn red color and has been wanting to do it to our house, but lack of money keeps us from getting it done.  He mentioned it to his parents and they loved the idea, so that's what they painted their house.  It's really pretty.  

 So, here's the before

and the after.  It looks so much better!!

Anyways, me and the girls had to be back around 3 to drop Maggie off at her party and then pick up the other 2 girls at the same time.  

On August 27th and 28th, Maggie had to be at school all day because she's in leadership and they were learning games and organizing activities to welcome the incoming 7th graders to school on their first day in about a week.  She has really enjoyed being in leadership.  I'm so proud of her for getting involved!

August 28

The girls had their back to school/meet the teacher night, so we went to that.  Paige is in Mrs. Rooke's 3rd grade class and Lydia is in Mrs. Anderson's 5th grade class.  Maggie had Mrs. Anderson, back when she was Miss Harvey and really loved her--had a great experience with her.  So far Lydia is loving her too.  I think Lydia had Mrs. Rooke for reading one year and really liked her too.  So, both girls were happy with their teachers.  Miss Bella didn't find out her kindergarten teacher that night because they still had to do some testing with the kinders to know where to place them.  

 That night for mutual, we had wanted to do a fun end of summer activity and one of my mia maids had always wanted to go ice blocking, so that's what we did.  The girls had such a fun time!  I wish I had tried it, but I think we'll do it again next year, so I'll give it a try then.

 most of our YW

 Maggie and her friend Emma

Towards the end, they were getting really creative!

On the 29th, I took Paige and Bella out on their date for school shopping and lunch.  In the past, I've ended up taking all 5 kids shopping at once and I dread it.  So I thought that I would split it up this year and it worked fabulously.  It was a lot of fun!

On the 31st, Bella had a birthday party and then we took all the kids shoe shopping--which wasn't too painful.  We had gone through all the shoes and checked on any hand me downs I had been saving and realized we only needed a couple pairs of shoes.  Sweet! 

Paige has been begging and begging to get her ears pierced when she turned 8, but I kind of think that is still too young.  So, I've been dragging my feet.  Garrett though, thought it would be fun to take her to get it done before school started.  So, after shoe shopping, we went to get ears pierced.  He tried to convince Lydia that she wanted it done, but she declined.  :)

 Paige before

 marking her ears

 Getting both ears done at the same time.  I could tell as soon as they did it that it hurt, but she was brave and didn't cry.  

 after--and happy

 A close up of her earrings.  They were cute daisies.  

Unfortunately, a few weeks down the road, we discovered that she hadn't been turning the backs and the skin had started to grow over the back of her earring.  I guess we should have been more diligent in checking her backs.  So, Garrett had to tear the skin (I know it sounds awful) and get the back off so that they could start healing.  Well, during all that, one of her daisies broke and so I had to find her a small pair of mine that she could put in.  Luckily since then we haven't had any problems and she loves having them.  

And we're finally to the end of August!  :)