Happy September! Wait, summer's over?! How the heck did that happen? Man I love summer, but I also love me some fall. Cool nights, cozy sweaters, yummy soups, Grey's Anatomy. Yeah fall's good stuff.
I thought I'd take a minute to catch up here on the blog so, here's a bit of our August in pictures. It was a fun filled month!
Boys finished their library reading logs so, they got to pick out a free book...yay!
Glow sticks and smores...perfect.
I fell in love with freezer cooking a few weeks ago. I cannot believe I've never done it before. Best idea ever!
Oh my gosh, so remember those boys Vann and Chayce met while camping? Well the older one, Bode, and Vann became pen pals! I love this so much. They've written each other 3 letters each so far. Vann gets so excited to check the mail when he thinks a new one is on its way. What I love about this the most is that it happened so organically...there was no planning on my part involved. They made it happen and I hope they continue to be pen pals for a long time.
A walk to the park so this little cutie can swing.
Chayce and Mia are best buds :)
Just a boy and his sticks. Love him!
My Chaycers and I. He's such a goof!
My Sweets
Trampoline fun!
This little monkey could swing all day long! He learned how to pump his legs so he literally swings for hours.
And this one fell in love with sewing! Out of the blue he asked me to teach him. Well I don't sew so, I bought him a book and we hit up Hobby Lobby. I plan to do another post about all the amazing things he's created so far!
Monkey in the middle at the pool.
So the other night Ash got a mosquito bite above his eye on his forehead. Well the next morning the poor thing couldn't even open his eye because it had swelled up so much. Dumb mosquitos. The left pic is right after he woke up...the right is a few hours later. After some googling I decided to use fresh aloe to heal it up. It took a few hours, but it worked and he could see again! And it took the whole day for the swelling to completely go away, but I was so happy to find a natural way to help my Sweets.
Hope you have a wonderful first day of September! I'll be back soon with some of our schooling adventures this week :)
I took the kids on a field trip last Friday to Cantigny Park. Holy cow is that place gorgeous! Plus there are two cool museums that I could spend forever in. And you can't forget the life-sized tanks...the kids all looooved them!
Watching an 8 minute video about the park.
They climbed on as many as they could!
Ash is checking out a mini waterfall.
He's like hmmm what's over there?
Lemme get a better look...
More tanks...there were like 12, maybe 15 of them...I didn't count, but there were a lot!
My Sweets :)
The First Division Museum was my fav. It had a little bit about each war...WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Desert Storm. There were life-sized people and short videos and all kinds of cool stuff. I could've spent all day reading every piece of info in that museum. And I plan to go back and do just that very soon! It's like candy for my history loving self.
And the flowers...wow!
Every where you turned there were more beautiful colors.
My pics do not do them justice.
So so very pretty!
My Vannipants and I :)
Chaycers joined in the selfie fun!
Silliness :)
It was the perfect day. We explored the gardens, learned a little about our history, picnicked under a tree, soaked in all the beauty around us...it was wonderful! When we got home I was looking at all the programs and things Cantigny has to offer and there are a lot! I hope to get the kids involved in a few fun things. Or maybe that's just my good excuse to get myself back there and into that museum lol. Oh and we didn't get to check out the other museum because there was a wedding right in front of it. So next time we'll do that for sure!
Fall is right around the corner...yay! I'm usually very sad for summer to be over, but for some reason am uber excited for fall this year. I'm loving the cooler temps...I'm a total hoodie girl :) I spent this past weekend getting the boys signed up for a few fall activities. It's fun to see them start to venture off into their own things. In the past they've pretty much signed up to do all the same things. But this year we're shaking things up a bit which is a-ok with me!
Vann's going to start swim lessons in about a week. He loves to swim and is really looking forward to getting more water action. My hope is that his strokes get a little better as I know that will help him become an even better swimmer.
Chacyers started soccer this week. He has practice two nights a week and games on Saturdays. I really like his coach...we had him last year as well. His main focus is for the kids to have fun and I love that. Yes, I want him to learn new skills, but mostly I want him to try his best and have fun doing it. I'm excited to watch Chayce do something he enjoys and hopefully score a few goals!
And my little Ash is going to do soccer as well. He is soooo super excited about it! I really cannot wait to see him play...it's going to be great! His soccer is only 4 classes...kinda bummed about that, but if it goes well I'll sign him up for more.
And now for some random pics from the past week or so...
Playing at the playground before soccer practice last night.
Notice anything different?! He lost his tooth yesterday afternoon!!
Vann is really into learning how to play the piano right now. I love watching/hearing him play! I heart the piano a lot and loved playing when I was younger. Who am I kidding...I still love playing!
Here's a video of him practicing his C Major Arpeggios. We are loving the free lessons from Hoffman Academy.
I took the kids to a new to us park for play and a picnic about a week ago. It had the tallest play structure I've even seen before! They loved sliding down the tube slides over and over and over again. Even little Ash was digging them!
So tall!
Peek a boo! Can you tell who's who?!
The older boys went swimming with our neighbor, Victoria, for a few hours one day. They loved it!
I love how Vann is lounging :)
A neighboring park district was hosting a Messy Play in the Park one evening so we met a friend there. They didn't get into the messy crafts, I think because we do so many of them at home, but they did enjoy playing in the splash park. It was actually a little chilly out and Ash was shivering. He didn't mind though and kept on splashing! After drying off and changing their clothes they played at the regular playground for another hour. It was a fun night :)
Ash, Ethan (their friend), Chaycers and Vann
They liked to step on the water shooting straight up in the air.
So I just learned about this cute little used book store in downtown Bartlett. I can't believe I didn't know it was there! I love books...a lot. I look forward to bringing the boys here to pick out new books often :)
After the book store we headed over to Bartlett's Candy House for some Kids Fest fun. They love when we go there because they get to spend time with their friend Kenny.
We headed back to Kids Fest the next day so this little dude could ride the train. He was looking forward to it for a week!
And he loved it!!
Ash's yummy candy finds! I gave them each $1 to spend at the candy store. I love giving them an amount to spend because it makes them use their math skills...I'm a sneaky teacher lol.
