September Fun!

 September has come and gone! Here are a few snapshots from the month :) 

Levi moved up to the next older class in jiu jitsu -- Jr. Grapplers! He was ready!

I earned my first stripe in the Women Empowered program! When I have received 4 stripes, I can prepare to test for my pink belt! 

We had a lot of fun with our Artist study on Whistler! We studies a new picture each week and each child drew their interpretation of the portrait. Then we hung them on the wall by our dining room table to observe and discuss throughout the week. 

We lots of nice weather and spent lots of time outside! Our basil (in the background) grew very well this year! 

Levi works nearly every morning to persuade Dora to love him :) 

We finally made it back to the KC Zoo! 

We had missed our trips to the Zoo! We're very glad it's open and running. 

On Labor Day, we went to visit our family in KS! We had fun playing outside, roasting hot dogs on the bonfire, riding the ATV, and catching up. 

Our troop led the first W+F hike of the season at Line Creek Trail. It was rainy and chilly, but we still had a great time! 

Rain gear was necessary! 

Exploring the creek!

We gave Zeke a Calvin and Hobbes book to read and he took off! Enjoying the story as much as sharing it with his brother and sister! 

We've been exploring the trail over at Amity Woods! 

Nature journaling -- her favorite. 

Her curls are beautiful! 

The boys had fun adventuring at a new trail! 

Zeke made the raspberry puree for another new ice cream recipe we tried. His perseverance has really grown and he stuck with this project for 20 minutes. We had fun trying new recipes and making ice cream nearly every Friday in September. 

Sweet Naomi fell down our stairs on the Frozen truck and fractured her wrist in both bones. We took her to Children's Mercy urgent care. 

We waited for the x-rays. She had a great attitude and was very patient. 

She came home with a splint and I think she was happy to have the support. She had been holding her arm all day 

Zoë finally had her first dance class! She LOVED it! 

Our dancing girl <3 

We did another fun history project! 

We used lots of paint and cardboard. 

Painting is fun! 

Very proud of their Richard the Lionheart shields! 

Naomi even got in on the action :) 

We took a trip to the zoo with Miriam and Aunt Teresa 

Poor Zoë girl got some oak mite bites and developed a terrible allergic reaction/rash. She was up for nearly a week of nights itching her hands and neck, arms and legs, her face became very swollen. We had a tea party with great-Grandma Lila's tea set on this afternoon and she was in good spirits even with all the itching. 

A week after her fall, Daddy took Naomi to get her cast put on. 

For a preschool activity, we read "My Many Colored Days" by Dr. Seuss and practiced demonstrating our different emotions. This one was 'sad'. 

September 28- October 2, we had our first week long school break! We went hiking at Maple Woods Nature Trail. Our family is leading the trail for our Wild+Free group on Oct. 8 and we had never been there before. So we explored and had fun! Afterwards we went to Target and each child was able to pick a prize of their choosing (from the dollar section!) for doing so well in our reading challenge for the first 8 weeks of school. Then we got monster cookies from Eileen's Colossal Cookies (my first visit there) to celebrate a great start to the school year and our awesome kids! 

Levi loved picking up seeds and nuts along the trail. 

Zeke loves to be out in nature, exploring on and off the trail! 

We had a great September! Lots of learning and exploring. Zeke started a kids' CrossFit class for 6 weeks on Monday evenings. Daddy has been busy working. And on it goes! 

To life... full of fall trails!  

August Adventures!

 We had a fun August -- quite a few road trips, the start of a new school year, Zoë's 5th birthday, and more. Here are some pictures! 

Zoë turned 5 years old! We had a fun unicorn party! 

The next day, August 3, we started our new school year! Now I am teaching three kids and I think it's actually better this way, I have more of a plan and they can stay focused for longer periods of time. It's more work for me on the planning part, but the result is better and smoother days! 

Our first grader <3 

Awesome 3rd Grader! 

Naomi wanted in on a picture too -- starting some preschool activities with her. 

First day -- filling in their SuperKid sheets! 

Zeke was so happy to finally get to crack into the U.S. geography puzzle. It is really neat and shows the shape of each state. Levi and Zoë like putting it together too! 

Showing off her new dance gear from her birthday! Her first class is 9/16. She is very excited to begin!

Zoë finally has her own room :) 

A fun preschool activity -- reading Caps for Sale. Zoë hid caps around the house for Naomi to find. Then we stacked them up on her head to see how high we could stack them. 

Zeke got in on the action too because he remembered doing this activity as a preschooler. 

Dress-Up fun! 

SpiderGIRL 

A little frightening... 

We went up to Mimi's a few times. Naomi helped snap a bunch of green beans! 

She loves this new spot to sit at Mimi's house! 

We came home from Mimi's with lots of zucchinis. We made an assembly line to shred it all up and ended up with about 40, 2 cup bags. Looks like we'll be making lots of bread and brownies this winter! 

We explored a new trail -- Amity Woods. It was a nice, easy trail. The kids had fun riding their bikes out and back. 

Exploring! 

We made some refrigerator dill pickles. The kids were not big fans, but I thought they turned out ok!

Pickle making -- Levi had fun chopping the cucumbers. 

Proud of all of his hard work! 

One Friday I made finger paints for the girls. They started out very daintily with just one finger dipping into the paints. 

The colors were bright and the paints were a fun texture! 

After their first papers, I gave them cookies sheets to paint on so they could be washed and reused! 

The boys joined in the action!

Zeke mixed up all the colors and came up with some fun creations. 

By the end, she really got into it! 

Later that morning, we did another hands-on project! We were reading about Norman castles in our history, so we constructed a castle out of reese's pb cup cereal! It was fun and delicious :D 

They worked hard to make the walls, towers, the tall "Keep" in the middle, and a drawbridge. 

Naomi's contribution to the project :) 

Zoë helped build a moat. 

We took Zoë out for her birthday lunch to Jason's Deli 

After her birthday lunch, we went to Target so she could use her birthday money. She picked out some rings (that actually fit her instead of wearing mine!) and this cute Ariel nightgown. 

One evening Levi helped me make this delicious Cobb salad for supper. This was actually just the boys' bowl of salad and there was another bigger bowl for the rest of the family. He loves chopping veggies and helping in the kitchen! 

They enjoyed this giant watermelon very much!

Summer fruit is the best kind!

Near the beginning of August, my cousins and I went to Grandma's house to pick out some of the items we wished to keep before Cody moves in. One of the items I'd always wanted to have was this grandfather clock. It hadn't been working for several years, so after I brought it home I called the Clock Shop here in KC and they sent someone to come bring it back to life. I am so excited that he was able to get it up and running with relative ease. The kids and I are enjoying hearing it all through our day! 

Zoë is creating her own Kindergarten textbook. She has made pages of letters and numbers and she is also working on different flowers as well. This one is a Wood Rose and I thought she did an excellent job!

Jeremiah and I attended the wedding of a friend from high school, up in Lincoln, NE. We had a nice time and I was able to visit with several classmates that I hadn't seen in quite a while. 

The last Sunday of August, Levi, Zeke, and Zoë were all able to attend the Gracie Game night up at Kick MA. Naomi was feeling a bit left out, so we decided to get her a special treat from Sheridan's -- the Razzle Dazzle! It was quite delicious and a special little time for Naomi with both of us, which rarely happens! 

Well, that was August in a nutshell! It was quite a fun month! 

To life... full of road trips to NE!