Grocery Store

The best things about grocery shopping for him are the cookie at the bakery and the horsie ride on the way out. He's learning to be a good errand buddy...at least he's cute.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We celebrated what would have been Grandpa Eldredge's birthday on August 11th by telling stories about him, sharing what the kids remember about him, and of course going out for ice cream! Gone from us for a time, but never forgotten.

Eli's Swim Lessons

Eli worked hard in swim lessons this summer and made a lot of progress (and looked cute doing it!)

Chicago

I don't go to Chicago very often, but I do love to go. So one of the last days of summer the kids and I drove down. 

We saw the bean:

Walked around Millennium Park (and found an entrance into a wall of evergreens):

Saw Daddy's building (the white one, the Aon Center, is the third tallest downtown):

Enjoyed Maggie Dailey Park (a huge playground with many different areas):

Tried not to loose Jake who doesn't feel any need to stick by his mommy and thinks he can do anything the big kids can (thank goodness for big siblings who help)

And saw this great guy:

It's a lot of work to go downtown, but I'm glad we did!

Choo Choo Trains

Nursery has taught Jake the joy of trains. Luckily for him, we have a huge collection thanks to older brothers and cousins. Trains are one of the few things that will distract him when he wants to watch tv and I say no (he's addicted to tv). He loves to hand me the pieces and say, "Broke it," which is his way of asking me to build him a track. I really enjoy making intricate tracks so it is something fun for us to do together, at least until he remembers that it is just as much fun to break the tracks as to play with them.

First Days!

Happy first day of school! Alison and Logan are going into fourth grade and Eli into first. Because Eli went to a Kindergarten Center last year, this is the first year all three of them are in the same school, which I am looking forward to! Alison is pleased to have her teacher from last year again, and Logan has the teacher Ali had in first grade (they did a big teacher switch up as far as who taught what grade for this year). Eli's teacher is new to us, but she seems nice!

Here they all are on their first day!

Eli's friend Noah is going to hang out with us every morning before school for an hour and ride the bus with them. He's a nice kid and so far it's been very easy having him here.

Logan saw a picture of the converse style shoe and wanted them for his own! When he was trying these on he said, "Oh mom, you don't know how much this means to me!"

Ali wanted her hair curled for the first day. So pretty!

The rest of us didn't have first days of school today, but we did have:
Jake on his 862nd day of life:

Daddy on his 3,220ith day of work (approximately!!)

And me on my 3,434th day of Motherhood!

We all had great days!

Last Days of Summer

We had a great summer! Here is a list of some of the things we did:

-Vacation to Colorado and Utah and EVERYTHING we did there

-Overnight trip to Galena, IL to see a Rodeo

-Many trips to the pool

-A couple movies

-Blackberry Farm

-Splash Country water park

-Many trips to the Library

-A couple activities the library put on (one computer related and one eclipse related)

-Downtown Naperville river, picnic, and bookstore

-Downtown Chicago to see the Bean, the park, Daddy and the city

-Logan did flag football, scout day camp for a week, and piano

-Alison had a sewing class, piano and gymnastics

-Eli had swimming lessons and gymnastics

-Logan played with Brandon and Kenan

-Ali played with Addi, Ava and Rena

-Eli played with Noah and Adam

-The boys went camping with Daddy and Ali, Jake and I went to dinner

-We went out for ice cream to celebrate Grandpa Eldredge's birthday

-Logan had a couple cub scout activities, and Ali had a couple Activity Day activities

-We went to a 4th of July ward party

No wonder my summer calendar pages looked like this!

Anyway, we had a full, fun summer! So when we had a Monday and Tuesday before school started and I asked them what they still wanted to do, they didn't have anything special in mind. They decided what they really wanted to do was to stay home and watch lots of movies. So we did! I enjoyed having them home this summer, but we're looking forward to the change and growth of a new school year!

Riverwalk

We enjoyed a morning at the Riverwalk. Jake thought the bridge was too cool and had to peek his head through every opening the whole way across to say, "Hi water!" 

The kids showed Jake the joy of throwing rocks into the water:

Which he then did for the next 20 minutes or so and had to be pulled away screaming when it was time to go (Jake is good at being two).

We were surprised to find tons of shells mixed in with the rocks. Where do they come from I wonder?

The older three waded in the water in different ways: Ali walking from rock to rock near the shore:

Logan wading right out into the middle:

Eli going out a couple of feet to stand on the big rocks in the middle:

We then went to the bookstore (one of our favorite places downtown Naperville), had a picnic, and then ducked into the library to use the bathroom. They had tons to cool Harry Potter posters in all sorts of different languages up all along one long hallway to celebrate Haarry Potter's birthday (July 29!) from a few days before.

(Jake has learned how to stick out his tongue!)

iPad Photo

Our iPad has a fun photobooth app that distorts pictures in funny ways. I loved this one of my Jake (Jakes?)

Sunrise

One morning Logan thought the sunrise was particularly beautiful, so he grabbed my camera and took a picture so he could share it with me later (bless him for finding a way to share it with me while still letting me sleep!). I love that he sees and enjoys the beauty of this world!

Boat

Look, Mom, I made a boat!

Long Live Legos

I have been grateful again this summer for legos and for the books that give the kids ideas of things to build with them; they spend hours some days building. Ali and Logan spent days building this Ewok Tree House Village:

(And a close up so you can see all the amazing details!)

 Eli's creations tend to be more simple, but he's just as proud!

Morning routine

While I'm getting ready in the mornings, Jake brings in his cars or his play food and lines them up along my counter or windowsill. Funny boy.