end of summer...

Some pictures from the end of summer. 

Lauren started her 3s preschool class the other week and is enjoying being around some other kiddos her age. 

End of summer means spider webs everywhere. As long as they aren't in my walking path, they are kind of fun to watch (we also have seen Charlotte's Web about 100 times lately. Maybe I'm developing a soft spot).

We spent part of Labor Day weekend at Camp with Josh's family. Both boys tubed and were hard to get off of their boats (John's was the big boat, Miles claimed the paddle boat as his own). Then we came home and spent all day Monday at the pool. So sad that it has closed!

We decided to venture up to Lake MI for one last beach trip of the year. We took the kids to a new (to them) beach, Saugatuck. The water was not much warmer than ice and there was a fall breeze but that didn't stop the kids from stripping down to their swimsuits and us from spending all day at the beach Saturday.

We had two amazing sunsets. The first night the sun lit up the little clouds like someone had outlined each of them with pink highlighter. It was spectacular!

And a few randoms. Lauren "fishing", slumber parties, trying to outrun the big storm on the way to Berne, and one tuckered out little girl. 

lately and back to school...

Some lately pictures of the second half of the summer...

We've been able to spend a lot of time with my parents the last few weekends. The boys spent a couple of days in Fort T and we've all been down together too. We saw Lucie's show, visited a couple of great riverfront parks, relived a favorite childhood memory (Graeter's in Hyde Park square :), and got together with the whole Rice family.

Around here we've been swimming a lot. Those little fishes of ours have improved dramatically this summer. It's so fun to watch! We've also been to Conner Prairie a couple of times, hit the State Fair, picnicked and had ice cream at Trader's Point. We tried to get as many summertime activities in before that big yellow bus came on Tuesday.

Miles started second grade and John began kindergarten. I tried to think about it as little as possible in the weeks leading up to sending another one off to all day school so on the day, I was a mess. After some initial nerves at the orientation Monday night (why do they do it the night before?), John hopped up and was ready to get on that bus. He's been super excited to ride Mr. Rick's bus. Two days in and things seem to be off to a good start for both boys. Pictures from that morning aren't great - some user error with the camera so the ones below are the least blurry ones I have.

lately...

we've been spending our days with lots of water activities (our old at home pool that the kids couldn't wait to put up wound up unusable so this little one had to do). John can't get enough of squirt guns. And we've been spending more time at the big pool too.

And more of our summer days... water balloons, painting sticks that turned into painting each other, sparklers, demonstrating that the little car IS in fact too small for Miss L, Minions at Flix, watching daddy play softball, and Touch-A-Truck and lunch after with Lolly.