Apple Picking

After Sienna's gymnastics class this morning, we zipped over to go apple picking with our friends from the MOMS Club. Sienna wasted no time filling up her bag! Elijah enjoyed his bird's eye view!

You have to sample at least one apple when you're apple picking.

Elijah, Sienna and Lily enjoyed their homemade apple fritters and cider. Yum...

Isabella was sad to learn that she missed apple picking with us today. The apple fritter that we brought home for her softened the blow a little bit, and she'll most likely get a chance to go apple picking with Mike this weekend. We've had a lot of fun apple picking in the past. I can't say that I blame Isabella for being disappointed that she missed it!

Gymnastics

Both girls started gymnastics this past week. Isabella's friend, Jocelyn, from her Kindergarten class is in gymnastics, too, along with her friend, Sarah!
Sienna and Lauren enjoyed their first gymnastics class!

Sienna's First Day of School

Sienna was glad to head back to school today!
Sisters ready for school!

We forgot to get a picture of Sienna and Luke together like we did last year! We'll need to do this on the second day of school to keep up the tradition!

Lauren and Sienna at their cubbies.

Sienna enjoyed her first day back at school!Lily, Callie, Sienna, Lauren & Luke

Soccer

Isabella's soccer season started today. Luckily, her game was late enough in the day that we avoided the rain. Isabella was surprisingly aggressive compared to the last two years (see here and here). This will be a fun season to watch! I'm totally the crazy fan/mother who cheers too much. I'll try to tone it down!

Hope and Isabella are ready for action.
The all important water break!

Free for all!

The enforcers: Sarah, Hope and Isabella! Isabella even played goalie!

Hope, Isabella, Sarah, Anna, Zoe, Cara and Corinne (standing)

Lauren and Sienna met a new friend, Kate, who is Cara's little sister.

Good game!

Elijah wanted to play, too!

Isabella had a few break aways! She needs to work on shooting and I need to work on cheering less! Check out this video clip.

I started playing soccer when I was in second grade. Here I am (on the left) with my friend, Kirsten, the only year that we were rivals. After that we were always on the same team all the way through high school.

Preschool Open House

Sienna was anxious to get back to school today even if it was only for an hour for her open house. She starts officially on Monday. Click here to see pictures of Sienna's open house last year. She has grown quite a bit since then!

Ready to go!
Decorating her sticker book

The block area is all cleaned up now! This is Sienna's favorite place to play at school.

Sienna was glad to see her old friends, Lily, Molly and Lauren.

Fun With Julian

This morning Sienna, Elijah and I met up with my friend, Corinna, and her son, Julian, at a playground. Sienna enjoyed being the "big" kid with Julian while Elijah did his own thing.

Our little dare devil prefers to go head first down slides!

First Grade!

Isabella is ready for first grade!!! Last night Mike and I both put Isabella to bed, and we looked back at pictures of our little preemie who was born 8 weeks early. How is it possible that she started first grade today?!?

Elijah wants to go to school, too!

Too bad he can't quite carry Isabella's big backpack!

Some day we'll get a nice picture of all three kiddos looking at the camera!

Our fourth annual picture of John and Isabella on the first day of school.

I couldn't get my three kids to look at the camera earlier, but we managed to get all six of these guys to look at the same time. What a crew!

Last year's half-day kindergartners are ready for a full day of school.

Sarah, Lyvia, John, Hope and Isabella

Seven of the ten first graders from our neighborhood.

Almost the entire busstop crowd.

John and Isabella got front row seats on the bus. See you at 4:00!

One happy girl at the end of a long day.

Celebratory first day of school ice cream!

Our Little Bostonian

Last night I took the kiddos to our local hot dog stand for dinner since Mike is out of town. We saw a kitten across the street that was running through someone's yard. Isabella said, "Whoa, that kitten was totally wicked fast!" Seriously?!?!?! She didn't hear that from me or Mike! Although Isabella and Sienna don't have Boston accents, they are picking up the local jargon!!!

"Bob-mm"

As I wrote about here, my dad has several names that my kids call him. In addition to Bobu and Baldbu, now Elijah calls him "Bob-mm". He is the first person that Elijah identifies by name consistently. My parents were just here for a two week visit and after a week, Elijah started calling him "Bob-mm." He'd say it when we'd see my dad's car, too. The other day we were at a local beach (after my parents left) and Elijah approached an older man who was wearing glasses and a hat and he said, "Bob-mm!" My dad should feel very honored to be the first person that Elijah names. He doesn't even call me "Mama" yet!!!

Final Vacation Posts

Now that we've been home for a month, I finally finished up the last of our Wisconsin vacation posts. Here they are:

Back to Nana and Bobu's and a Trip to Kopp's

Another Visit to the Zoo

Visit With Carrie and Jackson

Heading Home

Now let's see if I can get caught up with birthday posts and other fun we've been having this summer! Stay tuned...