the beginning of the school year.

I missed Dennis's first day of school. Obviously, I didn't take these pics... LOL. 

 ... at the bus stop.

 Instead of sending Dennis of to school, I was up at the cabin with a bunch of ladies from church. It was so fun. Our second annual girls trip. Here is the only picture I got.

 This cute girl was so excited for school to start! Ms. Liz and Ms. Lorie are her teachers. She insists on wearing a single braid every time to be like Elsa. I think she went with two braids once and someone said she was like Anna. She came home so offended.

 Dennis isn't used to being the one that has to wait around for Zola. Here he is with his friend Jaxon getting their reading done while Zola is at her ballet class.

 Zola's favorite outfit that she wore probably half of the days this summer, is for sure going to be too small next summer. This is the last day that she wore it.

 Andrew makes it hard for Dennis to get his piano lessons done. He LOVES reaching up on his tip toes. I love hearing his little notes.

 We worked HARD out in the raspberries. We thinned out the bunch so that there are actual rows! Now we have a couple of hundred plants instead of a couple of thousand.

 I love this sweet little face in the morning... He is so happy to wake up next to his mom. By the looks of his grin you would never have known he was coughing all night.

 My girl is a puzzler! She will work on a puzzle for hours. This 100 piece puzzle is coming along and all I did was sort the pieces. This is her new face, on the right, the she loves to give people. The "I'm so not impressed" look.

 Hello Target shoppers! Andrew will not sit down in the cart. So, Dennis makes sure that he doesn't fall out.

 And that right there, my friends, is why I never buy school pictures. The lady positioned his head said, "smile" in a monotone voice and hid behind the camera. I bet she never even smiled herself. No thanks, jostens, I will go to target and get a genuine smile, pick out which picture I like and spend less than $20 with a coupon for more than enough pics. He still is super cute tho. Man, he's got good genes. :)

 Dennis is learning to play the piano. He is cruising way fast through these beginner books. His teacher is very impressed with him and looks forward to having him as a student because he has the work ethic and coordination to become really good.

 ... and what do you do when your baby falls asleep early?

 This boy LOVES his daddy. When Ryan came home after not seeing us for a week or so, Andrew gave him the biggest hug on his shoulder and didn't move for a couple of minutes. It was the cutest thing... and really melted Ryan's heart.

 ... whoever said that you have to have kids 2 years apart to be friends!? My kids play soooo good together. Just look at those smiles! The LOVE is obvious. They play all day. Even with Dennis too. He is 3.5 years older than Zola. They play ALL. THE. TIME.

 Dennis made the cutest little man... and Zola was making her name. It is super fun to see that she is learning in preschool!

 ... she is learning more than her name... one day, after school, she wouldn't stop sucking her thumb. I asked her if someone at school did that and she said yes.

Last of summer

Andrew learned to go down the stairs. He first would just sit at the top looking down... studying it out. Then he brought a long stick over and reached it down, tapping. Seeing how far he could reach, laying down and reaching as far as he could. Then he dropped it. Next thing I knew he was bringing other things over to the stairs to drop down- usually only a step or two. And he would reach down to get them, head first. After a little training, he learned to go backwards to get them. It only took falling down once and now he is a master of the stairs. 

 I love that our windows are low enough for him to check things out.

 We went to a water ski show that was sooo awesome! They were talented and it was entertaining as well. We are interested in joining next year. Can't you see Ryan as a barefoot water skier or going off of those huge jumps. I can.

On Dennis's actual birthday we went to the Minnesota State Fair. I have a lot of memories going as a child. We would park a half a mile away and walk to avoid paying for parking. We would see all of the animals, look at the 4H buildings, get some really cold milk, and watch a free concert. My parents would intentionally avoid the areas that had carnival rides and games. I felt so deprived. All my friends would rave about the rides that they went on and I didn't even see them. Well, I wanted to make things different for my kids. So, We paid for parking, paid to get in, looked at a few animals, saw the beauty queen being sculpted out of butter, and then we hit up the food and the rides! I spent a lot of money. How did my kids feel afterwards, you may ask? They felt deprived... They didn't eat everything they wanted... they didn't get to ride on all the rides... Let's be honest. Even if I spent $500, they would still feel deprived in some way. 

So, maybe my parents did it right! Next year, if we go, we are going to avoid the carnival. Since we feel deprived either way- we may as well not waste our money. 

 Andrew is so fascinated with animals.

 My jolly boy. Yes, that is drool on his belly. He is so proud of himself for mastering the stairs!

 We love our legos.

Never a dull moment.

D: can I go play at my friend's house?
(As he is running out the door)
M: sure! I love you! 
D: I love your cute little butt!

Dennis is 7. What!?

Dennis always wants to play the games at fairs and carnivals... you know, the rip off games that you pay $5 a pop to loose. But if you are lucky and win you get a dollar store quality toy. 

Yep. I always say NO WAY THATS A RIP OFF. 

So, we decided to make our own carnival for the birthday. 

Here are some photo opps. I drew them and Dennis painted them. 

 The Pinata was cotton candy!

 Something that I am learning as a mom: some times it is more important for my kids to have fun experiences than for me to throw a beautiful party. I had a cake all planned out in my head... But so did Dennis. He wanted to frost the cake so bad. After all, it is HIS birthday.

 It turned out perfect. Just like a carnival, don't you think?

 Dennis and Charlie, a good friend from church.

 Soren was so nice to pose for me in all of the photo opps. Everyone else didn't want to.

 This game you had to shoot down the ping pong balls off the golf tee with a water gun. It was legit.

 We had a girl from church come and do some face painting... though most kids wanted to paint their own faces... This is Dennis's friend from school Kai.

 Christian is watching.

 James and Soren taking a try at the water guns.

 We even had a visit from pinkie the clown. She gave out necklaces and other prizes like swirly straws and animal bug eye pens.

 This game you throw bouncy balls in the glass jars. It was legit as well.

 My friend Andrea got her face painted as a tiger and was sooo nice to watch Andrew while we controlled the chaos.

 Owen came. We ate Corn Dogs and Popcorn and cotton candy.

 The balloon pop game. Charlie won.

 Dennis, Soren, Pinkie, James, Kai, Christian, James, Owen, Micheal and Charlie

 My favorite girls.

 The pinata didn't last as long this year.

James gave it 3 solid wacks in the center and it all came down. Luckily, nobody really cared. They all got to give the dead pinata a few wacks.. and they all got a few pieces of candy.

 Dennis was soooo happy. He got Legos from almost all of his friends... the other two gifts were a robot and a neon sign thing... both of which he loved. After he opened all his gifts, he turned to me and said, "mom! Everything I got, I wanted!"

 He did a good job with the face paint. LOL. He topped his cake with cotton candy. It looked awesome.