Slumber Party and Skyzone

At the end of September the boys wore us down enough to host another slumber party for their friends. They are such a great group of boys so it's not really a hardship, just a matter of saving up the energy for 6 rambunctious kids!






Playing and/or watching Fortnite. Dave got a victory while they were all there so he was pretty pumped.

Burning off some energy at the pool!
Here's a video of them jumping in. Only took like four takes!









The next morning we headed to Indy to celebrate Sophie's 9th birthday at Skyzone. The kids love going there and this one was huge with so much stuff to do.

Boy cousins ready to jump.

They had a course kind of like Ninja Warrior.

Ike going through the paces.

Zac doing some flips onto the giant pad thing.

No clue what this was about.

Ike made it up the wall!

Sophie was so good at the wall part! She made it up the 8 foot and probably could've gotten the 10 if she had more time.

All the kids minus Brooklyn. She's always hiding from me!

Intense game of dodgeball.

Finally an elusive picture of Brooklyn!













Definitely a fun-filled, very busy weekend! Josh, Chad and Britt all jumped (I politely declined!) and they were all very sore the next day. Even Ike was complaining about his arms being sore, probably from all the rope climbing. The favorite activity was probably dodgeball, they all pretty much got into that at one point or another. And Chad and Josh got some pretty sweet dunks going on the basketball hoop part!

Harry Potter Love

Reading has always been an important part of our nightly routine, but it has gotten so much more exciting recently because of starting Harry Potter earlier this year. The kids are so into it, which makes me super happy because it's one of my favorites! So far we have read three of the books and are almost done with the 4th. I have loved experiencing them through the kids!  Recently our library hosted a Harry Potter night so of course we had to go.

We went with the Getz family-love that the boys and moms bond over books!

Criminal.





















Love his face so much!

Ready for the Hogwarts Express.

Getting sorted. We all thought Slytherin but the sorting hat said Gryffindor :)

We finished Prisoner of Azkaban in August and are cruising through Goblet of Fire right now. Only 200 pages to go!

Gotta watch the movie after the book to see the differences.

Expecto Patronum!














I love sharing this with the boys so much! I cannot wait to take them to Universal to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Don't tell the kids but we are planning on going next fall break. Trying to keep it a secret until Christmas...

August Wrap-Up

I am falling more and more behind on my blog posts so I'm working on catching up as quick as possible! This whole job thing is really killing my free time :)

Josh took me to see one of my favorite bands, Hanson at the state fair! He's a real trooper and I so appreciated getting to see them again.







Started off back at the tables, but that didn't last long.

Josh got me up pretty close!
















This security guard seemed like he'd rather be anywhere else, ha!










It was an excellent concert and even cooler because we were there for soundcheck so I got to hear a bunch of extra stuff beforehand!

Hanging with the cousins at Aunt Veronica and Uncle Mike's. So glad to have the Smiths back in Indiana!












One day after school we had a lengthy rainstorm so Ike and I went on a campus-wide adventure to find the best puddles. He's got a lot of energy still after school!

Dave joined us in the best puddle.

Re-enacting one of my favorite photos of him when he was little!

Ike had to join in the fun.

Wooly worm at the farm and hanging with Uncle Scott for Aunt Gayle's birthday.

Demolition derby!

Ike's super excited face and photo bombs from Dave and Josh.












As you can see, we had a fun-filled August! Adjusting to school was pretty rough for Ike (lots of reluctance to get going in the mornings) but he's doing great now.  Dave is his usual great self in school, well if you don't count frequently shouting out answers :)  He'll stop that one of these days hopefully!

First Day of School 2018

The first day of school was especially awesome this year because the boys were going to be in the same building for the first time!







Open house night, he was hesitantly excited.

Posing in front of their school.

Dave and his buddy Alec both have Mrs. Deeter this year! So glad they are in the same class again.












Both kids were up and completely ready for school by 6:30. I am sure that is not everyone's experience but this is one time I am glad they are early risers!

They are so tired of holding my homemade signs.

Love Dave's glasses so much.

A much more honest picture.

I can't handle the adorableness of them walking to the bus stop together. I also would rather not know what kind of shenanigans they get up to while waiting on the bus!

The bus stop crew heading out. Pretty sure this is the last year Dave will tolerate me coming to the bus stop for a picture.












Dave of course absolutely loves school. He always has! He's doing great so far and has even passed his x9 multiplication tables. I was impressed! Ike is still iffy some days about going to school but he always has a good time once he gets there.  I have been impressed with how much Ike has learned already, he's doing short words and knows all of his letter sounds (which is fantastic because he had no interest at all before starting this year!). He's also gotten to where he sleeps in later than normal, I'm sure he's just tired from a full day of learning!

Also as an update, I got a real job! After a couple of weeks being home by myself all day I decided I better find something to keep me busier before I went crazy. I am now the guidance secretary at the high school here at White's. I really like it so far. I go in after the kids go to the bus stop and I am off before they get home. It's a lot of things to remember but that's perfect and I stay very busy which makes the day go fast!