The Park

After the boys go to school in the morning, I like to take the girls in the bike carriage for a ride. We live near so many awesome fountains, playgrounds, parks and ponds. I keep meaning to take pictures of all the gorgeous fountains. Anyway, we found this way cool amphitheatre near our home. We took Ike and Luke on a Saturday morning to show them.

Ariel's first day of school

riel started preschool a couple of weeks ago. Here she is before school on her first day. She loves to pose. Whenever she is describing someone to me such as a teacher, schoolmate, neighbor or someone in passing, it is all about what their hair and jewelry looked like. She loves getting dressed and looking feminine.

Harvesting Apples (& eating a few)

We had a fun time.

Elsie and the Monarchs

Our neighbor planted milkweeds in her yard which attract Monarch catepillars.
She lets us know when it is time to watch them form a crysalis and emerge as butterflies.
They are on a tight time schedule and we have learned what signs to watch for.
It is such a miracle and so much fun to see.

GEOCACHING

We have a pretty killer new family hobby called geocaching. You can go to http://www.geocaching.com/ to learn more about it. We have been doing it for a few weeks and are all totally into it. We are always looking to recruit new friends & neighbors to play along.

neighborhood

We live in a great neighborhood with wonderful kids and parents. Last week our neighbor, Anna, turned six. A couple of moms got together and threw a little party for her outside as the kids got off the bus. It was darling. It was a surprise for all the kids and they had a blast.

Now we have 2 wimpy kids

Isaac won his election and brought his poster home to hang on his bedroom wall. We decided Lucas needed one too to hang over his bed.

Made on Maple

My favorite cousin Annee and her friend Liz have a sewing blog:

www.madeonmaple.blogspot.com

Check it out. It is very inspiring.

Indiana

I wrote this post a month and it has been sitting in my drafts.

We have been here in Indiana for almost two months already. Since we have been here:
1) Isaac turned 9 and I had a birthday the next day.
2)Isaac has read about 15 books this summer. He got his head shaved because the chlorine from the pool really did a number on his hair. He said his hair made him look like Beethoven.
3)Lucas lost a tooth and anticipates losing another any day now. He started first grade and is less afraid of the water and pretty adventurous in the pool.
4)Ariel has perfected her scooter-riding and rides her big wheel to and from the pool insanely fast.
5)Elsie has mastered walking and grown two more teeth.
6)We have visited Costco at least 25 times since moving here and all the nearby malls. It has been so long since we have lived near real stores that even the kids found it fun to go browsing for bargains before we unpacked our boxes.
7)Mike works a lot.
8)We have met most of our neighbors and they are all great.
9)I drove the kids through 4 states to attend the funeral for Mike's great aunt, Virgie.
10)We then drove for two more hours to visit Annee in Chapel Hill. It was a long drive but a great trip.


11)School started two weeks ago so life is calming down, a little.

End of Summer

You know summer is over when . . .
. . . the boys go back to school. . .
. . .Elsie has a birthday (yep, she's one year old!). . .
. . .leisure time turns into homework time (Lisa turned the coat closet into this homework center). . .. . .the girls stay home and play while the men are off at work (tongue in cheek). . .
. . .we start to feel settled in and more "at home". . .