Starting School

We started school last week, everyone was really excited and they even all came downstairs in church clothes! It is fun to do Luke's curriculum because it is what we did with Jack for Kindergarten and he keeps saying "that's my book!" and wants to listen to all of Luke's school. Of course this makes Luke even more excited about his stuff.

2nd Grade, I really cannot believe how old he is!

Kindergarten and he couldn't be more excited...... so far!

Who doesn't love preschool? Teddy even got to sit in!

Cyclone Fan Fair

I know these are terrible pictures but Jack had so much fun at the Cyclone fan fair I had to post them for him. On Sunday it was Grandpa Ken's birthday and we went with him and Grandma Lois down to Ames and then to their house for dinner with all the cousins. Jack got to run drills with some of the football players.

This is the ISU basketball coach, I felt bad Jack had on his football jersey for the picture but it IS football season! He had his jersey autographed by the football coach, basketball coach, and another big player (I need to ask Jack who it is) AND his poster signed by all the starting players on the football team. This is a big deal to Jack!

He could also shoot hoops with the basketball team!

Selah, Luke, my Mom and I spent most of our time in line for a blow up bouncer and slide. I couldn't help but think the whole time we just got a trampoline in our backyard! Luke did play some tennis with the tennis team and got a few autographs.

Football season starts on Thursday and has already started at our house. Brad had Monday off and he and the boys were out right away in the morning to play football with the boys in full uniform! I do need to get some pictures of that.

Ainsley's Birthday

Jack and Ainsley were born only 9 days apart so around this time we are doing a lot of celebrating! Ains had a Husky cheerleeding party on Friday.

The cheerleaders actually came to her house!

Nice Ains!

Juders even got in on the action!

Selah was very shy about doing cheers and jumps but we did convince her to do a lift, is that what you call them? I clearly was not a cheerleader.

Look at her toe touch, you are a natural Ainsley!

The cheerleaders even put ribbons in the girls' hair and they made locker signs for craft.

Notice you do not see my boys at all, yes they were there just no where near the girl stuff going on! There was a coed game of kickball later that got pretty heated, mostly boys against girls. It was really fun to watch, lots of drama, some dancing (by the girls while the boys tried to get the ball away), and fierce competition.

Happy Birthday Ainsley!

The Boysen's Visit

Last weekend we also had our friends from Minnesota the Boysen's over on Sunday. How lucky is Jack that so many of his friends got to be here to celebrate his birthday! Jack got a marshmallow shooter from Brady and Sam, clearly he loves it.

They tricked him by first having him open up a package of marshmallows, actually he was pretty excited about that too!

All of these crazy boys (and Selah) on the trampoline!

Jack was so happy to be able to spend the day with Brady and Sam playing wiffleball, basketball, and football and me and Selah got to catch up with Miss Tami, perfect for everyone. I hope they slept well on the way home, thanks for coming you guys we miss you!

Jack's Army Party

For Jack's 8th birthday party he wanted to have an army party like his friend Calvin did since we now have woods too! It was really a fun party, I was a little worried at first when it rained all morning but by party time it was nice enough to be outside most of the time. Here is the crew, Jack was lucky enough to have his friend Matthew from Minnesota come all the way for the party and even stay a few days. I was lucky enough to have Monica there who took awesome pictures of the party! Thanks for coming down you guys.

Matthew, Levi, and Jack

Can you see him?

We launched water balloons too, I found this slingshot at HyVee while picking up some last minute things and it worked pretty good, they shot at a dumptruck in the distance and pop cans.

Grandpa Rex waiting to spray the kids after they get ambushed during their scavenger hunt.

Grandpa Ken was hiding in the trees as they found their treasure and got them with a squirtgun, poor Selah is trying to defend herself!

But they did get the treasure, brave Layken went back to get it!

Here is trouble!

Jude following the kids around during the scavenger hunt, he didn't want to miss a minute.

I think they went this way Gramps!

All the kids and Grandpas were great sports about painting their faces in camo.

Selah was more than happy to help me out with the painting.

Luke wanted his face painted but we had to convince him to leave it for the party and not wash it off right away.

Sweet Ainsley let Selah help me paint her face too!

All ready for battle!

Jack and his tank cake

I love how his gun is actually math manipulatives for his school, nice job improvising Jack!

This cake was really pretty easy, Jack wanted to set up the guys.

This is only a fraction of the pictures but I thought it documented the day pretty well. Thank you again Monica for taking pictures for me! Jack had a great day and is already talking about next years party.

Jackson's Birthday

Jackson's birthday was on the 14th but we've had a lot of visitors and things going on so I am going to finally post pictures from that day! Jack really wanted to go to the zoo for his birthday, Luke lucked out because he loves seeing the penguins and got to go visit them again!

My kids love the zoo and normally I do to, this time though the heat and the smells by the farm animals were too much for me! We ended up inside in the discovery area (and air conditioning). I am getting to be a wus with this pregnancy!

Jack has been waiting to go back to the zoo since we first went about a month ago to pan for gems. I didn't have any cash the last time so he knew just what he wanted to do with some of his birthday money. They give you a guide to find out which gems you have found.

It took awhile, he had plenty of gems to identify.

Grandma O also happened to be in town on Jack's birthday and came to our house for a visit. She had not been over yet and had a lot of great advice for me about our flowers and trees, now I just need the time to carry it all out! It was really great to have her over and show her around.

On Jack's birthdays I have been trying to get a picture with him and Brad next to each other so we can watch as he grows. We were trying to guess what birthday it would be before he was taller than Daddy.

Tomorrow I will post pictures from Jack's army party, it was fun!

Our Fishing Trip to Rathburn

Last week we went to Lake Rathburn with my family for a few days to hang out, swim, and do lots of fishing! The kids have never caught so many fish! Every time they went out they each caught at least four or five, off the dock too!

Another one!

Luke decided he loved to fish after going with Grandpa to get worms and he got a new fishing pole of his own, a shiny red one!

I love this picture, when I took it I only ment to get Jack but after looking later saw Selah leaning down to talk to this puppy who came to watch us for a little bit.

Nice catch Jack! He did start to take the fish off the hook by himself but after getting pricked still mostly let us do it.

Lukey and another one.

They have a waterpark at this new resort too, Luke loved the lazy river, only he kept swimming the wrong way upstream.

Leah and her kids met us there the second day and Selah had a ball swimming with the girls!

Ainsley is a natural fisherwoman! She is NOT scared to take her catch off on her own! Levi and Layken caught fish too, but at the time I was holding the back of Jude's lifejacket and only got blurry pictures!

Jude loved fishing too, when he caught his first fish he threw up both of his hands he was so excited! Lucky Grandpa was still holding the fishing pole!

His big catch!

This was the sunset on our walk back from fishing one night. It was really cool and I still can't figure out why the sky looked like this, any ideas?