Story Time!

Our little ones LOVE books.  The love of books is something that we were adamant to instill in our children.  We understand the importance of reading, and have made it a point to read to our children every day.

And it makes my heart very happy to walk into a room and discover them reading stories to themselves, and I get even more excited when we discover them reading to each other!

I have to laugh at little Bean.  She is a wild, crazy, daring, bouncing-off-the-walls little girl....But, she can also sit for MANY quite minutes reading stories.  She LOVES books!

Eliott is at the age now where he is very good at re-telling stories.  He loves to sit and 'read' to Adi.  And, you know what- a lot of the time he does a great job telling her what really is happening on each page.  This must come from years of experience- 4 years to be exact!

Bubbie

Bubbie wants to wrestle this year.  I believe practice starts in December.  I think he's going to look pretty cute in his giant head-gear! 

What do you think?!  :)

From the mind (and mouth) of a babe...

I have been working hard to try and convince Adi to leave all her toys behind and jump in the stroller so I can go for a quick run.  This is what has happened in the past 5 minutes:
Me: Adi- let's go get some pants on you so we can go.
Bean: I'm busy with shapes. (playing with shape cards)
Me: Ok, Adi, I'm going to go...Are you coming with me?
Bean: I go potty. (she goes on the potty chair- yay!)
Me: Ok, now let's get your pants on.
Bean: I go poop. (she goes on the potty chair- yay!)
Me:  Mommy's leaving are you coming?
Bean: (spotting Bubbie's new coloring book) I color!
Me:  Adi, Mommy really wants to go now...let's get pants on you.
Bean: I need oatmilk!!!!! (oatmeal)

Whatever....just forget it.  I guess I didn't really want to go that bad anyways!....

Happy 2nd Birthday, Jack!

Eli and Adi's little friend, Jack celebrated his birthday at the end of September, just before Adi celebrated hers.  Hi had a wonderful 'scooper bowl' party in his back yard...His Mommy did a wonderful job of organizing, planning, and preparing this beautiful little 2 year old celebration.

Adi was being her silly little self!

Lots of topping choices for the ice cream was laid out.

Cones and bowls were displayed.

And a cute little family was happy to celebrate their little guy turning 2!

Mommy and Jack.

There was so much for the kids to do, and so many friends for the kids to play with.

Eliott and his friend, Reagan stopped running for a minute so I could snap a cute little picture.

Then it was time for the kids to load up their bowls and cones!

Eliott loves candy and sprinkles, so I wasn't surprised to see him sneak a whole spoon-full of sprinkles:)

Yummy!

 

 

Adi was loving her little pink cone.  How are little girls automatically drawn to the colors pink and purple??  I know I didn't teach her this!!

Eliott found himself a cozy little spot on the lawn to sit and enjoy his snack!

MmMmmmmmm!

Adi's friend, Belle, did a "cheers" with their cones!

Little bit of chocolate, little bit of ice cream, little bit of sprinkles....

Big sister, Kendall, enjoying her snack!

Eliott and his friend, Ray.

Steph is such a creative Mommy....She set out paints and little ice cream cone magnets for each of the kids.  They had a lot of fun, and it kept them entertained for quite some time!

Hard at work...

Belle and Adi are such busy little girls....but this kept them busy for a while.   They were still sitting at the table working long after the others were done.

Jack handed out his little gift bags to each friend.

Then the kids were each able to load up a little bag of treats for the ride home.  Pretty sure our finished their treats off before we even left!

Nice Big Brother gave Little Sister a ride before we had to leave.

Thanks for all the fun, Rykkeli family!  We sure love spending time with you and your family!  We are very fortunate to have such wonderful friends.  We had a great time at Jack's party, and hope to see you all soon:)

 

1st Haircut!

Little Sister received her first haircut yesterday....Compliments of Big Brother- Ooops!

Loving the Leaves!

I already talked about how much I love this time of year....I think my kids would also agree that there are lots and lots of fun things to do.  We spent one evening raking up big leaf piles, jumping, throwing, and hiding in them.  Lots of laughter, lots of smiles, and lots of fun....This is what being a kid is all about:)

Closing down Summer

I love the warm summer days.  The hot weekends at the cabin that we run around in swimsuits the whole time.  The days we all take our boats out to the middle of the lake to anchor down and jump in.  We made the most of our summer....spent every weekend- but one (congratulations, Jerrid and Michele!) at the cabin.  We lived it up the best we could, and had a blast!!!!  But, there's also something to be said about the cooler days of fall.  Things happen into more of a routine, life seems to slow down a bit, and who doesn't love the beautiful colors painted all over the trees?!

Our summer-time home:)

Daddy's new toy!!!

We loaded the pontoon up real well.  Toys, coolers, snacks, fishing rods, and friends.

We cruised around the lake enjoying the view.  Dropped a few rods in the water, and enjoyed our company.

What a relaxing way to say good-bye to the last of the summer.

There is an island in the middle of our lake... we call it 'big island'.  We've all been wanting to walk around and check it out.  Daddy's new pontoon is equipped with 'sea legs', so we were finally able to pull it up to park where we wanted, and we all jumped off to 'explore'.

Eliott was a true explorer in his army gear and all.  He was picking up sticks and branches all along the way.  He was a curious little man and stuck with the big boys!

Of course Bean was in all her glory checking out the island.  She tripped, fell, and brushed it off a few times along the way.  Just like her little girly-self does:)

We found this cute little teepee that the kids just had to check out.

The sun starting setting, so we had to make our way back to the boat and back to shore.  We weren't ready to be done with our exploration, so we will make sure to return at our next opportunity!

Ready to cruise on back to the cabin.  The sun was setting quickly, and the campfire was calling.

Chad and I both agree that this has been the best summer at the cabin thus far.  It was hard to close up, be done for the season, and drive away.  The little ones don't quite understand yet that we won't be back on Friday night.  It's going to be a long winter away, but will make it all the more exciting when we return again next spring!