'Mallows

Oh how the days keep flying by! School is going well for the kids - at least I haven't heard otherwise. It's hard to get 3 year olds to tell you exactly what happened or what they did. Thankfully the teacher sends a short note home telling me so at least I can ask them leading questions. I've heard from the sitter that most school mornings, Drew tells her he doesn't want to go but has no problem when they actually get there. I hate to tell him how many more years of school he has:(

I recently took the kids in for UTI suspicion.  Kelsey had 3 morning accidents and struggled to make it to the potty on time a couple days this week. And Drew's morning "accident" smelled so foul, I wasn't sure if it was just concentrated urine. As I thought, there was no infection but while we were there (and already paying the copay) the kids were able to get their flu shot! This was also the first time they were examined where they didn't completely freak out so even though there was no cause for alarm, we won:)

Lately we've been starting little fires a couple times a week to get rid of some brush Craig is clearing out. And the kids are totally enthralled with roasting marshmallows since watching "The Sandlot" (there's a tree house scene where Ham says...'you put the chocolate on the graham, then you roast the 'mallow, when the mallow's flaming...' Kelsey repeats it to us all the time). Well trying to get 3 year olds to keep the marshmallow on the stick, not let it start on fire, or have the patience to let it "roast" is like trying to herd cats. I usually limit the sticky fun to 2 mallows each and anyway, who needs all that sugar so close to bed? Sometimes we just roast marshmallows but last night I decided to use Oreo's, then there wouldn't be any chocolate/graham cracker fuss. They were good! It was fun all around and as you can see by the pictures, it ended in bath time:)

Our Week In Pictures

Out Labor Day bike ride to the park

This is our first picture inside of school. Kelsey was very excited to hang her back pack up and get her papers ready to give to her teacher.

This is the first picture before we went into school. Kelsey cried because she wanted to go IN! I think there was so much hype about starting school that my pause to take the obligatory "first day of school" picture caused her anxiety. They had a great first week.

More kitty tackles...I mean snuggles! These cats sure put up with a lot.

We took this cute little guy with us to Indian Summer

And then we fought over who gets to push Benson in the stroller 

Drew petting a Native Indian breed horse

Lemonade and Indian taco break

Cousins!

The boys were all tuckered out after our nice day outside

Kelsey showing Benson her toys

And Drew giving rides

Best Friends and Sailing

Here we are September, which brings about some change for our family. Today is the first day of preschool. Tomorrow we are going to try gymnastics (Tiny Tumblers). Craig starts his 3rd year of school at ICS and another semester of grad school.

As of last night Kelsey told me she doesn't "have" to go to school and Drew just wants me to come along. The kids had a homework assignment to decorate the number 3 and bring it the first day, so at this point I have them excited to show their teacher their masterpiece!

And these two below...Kelsey is obsessed with the cats lately. It was like a switch flipped in her. She would start each morning laying on/hugging our biggest cat, Wriggs. He's pretty cool about it until he wants to go, so we are teaching Kelsey that if the cats wants to leave you have to let him.

 This went on for about a week and then finally the cats started to come to her! Below Kelsey is just waking from a nap, probably because this heavy cat was laying on her. But Wriggs just HAD to snuggle in close to her. This cat is already 11 years old so she might get another 8 years of snuggles out of him.

Saturday night we went to Discovery World on the lakefront for a sunset sail on the Denis Sullivan. It's a replica of a 19th century tall boat that would have hauled supplies up and down the Great Lakes. I thought it would be a fun family activity especially since the kids are so into boats and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Although the crew kinda looks down on anyone that compares their boat to a pirate ship:) We watched them raise and lower the sails, helped the captain steer, looked at the living quarters down below (most of the crew lives ON the boat for free), and enjoyed the amazing weather. The boat holds about 50 people with crew and it really is for all ages.

The S/V Denis Sullivan Tall Boat

This storm delayed our boarding by 20 min but at least we didn't get wet.

Hoping to see a fish jump 

"Someone" rang that bell...

Of course the boat has it's own dog. Here, Brody's owner, the first mate
is showing the kids how many tricks he will do for a treat!

The storm rolling out over the lake in Bayview