La Carrera Loca de Colores (Crazy Color Run)

We just looked so goofy in some of these pictures that I couldn't help documenting this fun event at the kids' school.  

 Notice Joey laughing at that bubble that's like eight feet away.  He sure loves life!

 Joey's favorite (my least favorite) photo smile

 Go, Joey, go!

 Me and Sam looking stupid, but showing off our posters

 Go second-graders!

 Joey was tickled to cheer for his big brother!

The three amigos

Sweet Little Lamb

The Monkey Backpack's Many Uses

So we have this handy monkey backpack that's supposed to prevent our kids from wandering away and getting lost in public places like the State Fair or the zoo. As it turns out, we've never used it successfully in any of those places, and as a result, we have lost Joey on numerous occasions.  But would we say the monkey backpack is useless?  No way!  Joey uses it all the time for a plethora of interesting tasks.  In fact its tail is currently tied up to a hard, jingly baby ball that Joey swings around as a "dangerous machine."  (The monkey backpack, in this condition, is way up high on a tall shelf to prevent injury...)  My favorite task, though, was when Joey recently tied the tail around a scrubber brush in an attempt to be an automatic deck scrubber (which we desperately need).  Too bad it didn't work as smoothly as he hoped...

It fell off during the swinging action. (Too bad!!!)

Back to School

Tommy started second grade and Joey began kindergarten.  Yay, school!

 On our way, first day

 Second-grade Tommy

 Kindergarten Joey (notice the "yellow blankey" that came with us in the van)

 Survived the first day!

Homework ALREADY!  Tommy spent a long time coming up with this math story problem, which says, "I can count up to 1130.  But Seth can only count up to 1000.  How much can the two of us count to together? 2130."  Clever, Tommy!  

And Sam finally gets some much-needed Mommy time!!  As we were taking this little walk to the park, I couldn't help but wonder how sweet Sam might be if he was the oldest child?  It made me want to be a little more patient towards him and really work with him to teach him how much he is loved.

Summer Ends...Too Soon :(

We had an AMAZING summer, which it why I've been very sad for it to come to a close.  It ended with a great hurrah, though...we spent several days swimming and on the very last day, we went to the Minnesota State Fair!  Here are some fun pictures from our last couple of weeks:

 Getting dirty (and then clean) was these boys' favorite summer activity!  Nothing cheers them up like a bath!

 The boys did lots of climbing and jumping...even Sam...and it was a summer of growth for everyone, but most noticeably for the little ones...  

Sam is talking up a storm, using complete sentences like "Mommy, I don't like my covers;" "Mommy, should I jump off the stairs?  Should I?"  and even, "What the heck?"  (I don't like that one, but what can I do?)

Nathan now crawls (which is SO cute), and pulls himself up to standing at the furniture or our legs (the first time he stood up beside the couch, Tommy and Joey were in hysterics of laughter, wondering how in the world he'd done it.  It reminded me of when Nathan was two days old, and Joey went into his room "just to see if he could walk or crawl yet."  Finally.  :)  

 And unlike these cute piglets at the fair, Nathan is now weaned and sleeping through the night!!! Way to go, little 10-month-old!  (Well, he just turned 11 months a couple of days ago, but his weaning happened soon before school started.)  

And now, the Fair...

 Sam was just big enough to enjoy this tractor at Little Farm Hands...

 And Tommy was almost TOO big. But he still enjoyed it!

 Almost big enough, Sam!

Sam looks a little nervous here on his first-ever fair ride, but he was smiling gleefully by the end.  And his next ride was the kiddie roller coaster...a HUGE hit for Tommy, Joey, Sam, and even me.  The fair itself was a roller coaster--nice weather, but totally crowded, and the added stress of losing track of Sam repeated times (though he was never more than a few steps away).  Other fair highlights included the giant slide, the traveling reptile show, and of course, the food.  

Thanks to Heavenly Father for beautiful weather, the joy of spending time as a family, and a wonderful summer.