Atwood Lake

We were invited out to Atwood lake for a friends 30th birthday party.  There is a beach and they had rented a pavilion for a BBQ.  Blaiden had been wanting to go fishing for a while so when we told him we were going to a lake he was dead set of doing some fishing.  We weren't sure what the rules were for this lake but Fred went out and got him his own fishing rod and a licence so they could try and catch some fish. 

Once we got there we found out that we were on the wrong side of the lake to do fishing.  Blaiden was a little upset at first and just kept saying lets get a boat.  He got over it once we said we were going to go swimming.  I have a swimming bag that I keep all of our stuff together in hopes that I would forget less.  Well this trip after I had helped get everyone else ready I found that my swimming suit had not been packed.  I was a little disappointed to say the least.  I love the water about as much as the kids do and I was sad I couldn't go out and play with them. 

After playing for a while we went up and ate some great food.  The kids ran around and had a great time.  It didn't last long however, everyone wanted to go back and play in the water some more.  Blaiden has no fear anymore when it comes to water and so he would run out into the water until it was at his neck without his floaties on and not even think twice about it.  I think the swimming lessons have given him a little to much confidence.  Fred thought that it would be funny to squirt me with a water gun.  Then of course I had to get him back.  This turned into a water fight and he chased me out into the lake and pulled me down in the water.  I was wet the entire way home.  It's a good thing I love that guy!

On a side note I would like to say I am so excited because now I am finished with August! The goal is to at least be caught up through September by the end of the month, but it would be amazing if I was caught up all the way!

Blaiden Starts Preschool!!

Blaiden had his first day of preschool on August 17th.  I was a little late registering and so when I was looking for one I discovered most were full.  We finally found one that we liked and that had an opening.  He was so excited to start and talked about it for days leading up to the first day.

I knew that this day would be hard on me and so I had to try really hard to make sure that Blaiden didn't see me having a hard time letting him go.  First thing he said when he woke up was "is it time for school yet?"  That right there lets me know he is defiantly ready to go.  We got ready, ate a good breakfast, Fred stopped in to tell Blaiden to have a good day, packed his lunch, and headed out.  Our favorite song came on the radio and so we had a party on the way!  When I got him out of the car he said "don't be sad mom, goodbye," and started to walk across the parking lot!  I told him to wait and I was going to go in with him.  Once we were in his classroom he picked his cubby and started playing.  I talked with his teacher for a few minutes then went to go tell him goodbye.  I told him how much I loved him and to have so much fun, He was so busy already that I didn't even get a response!

I walked out the door and put Adilene back in the car, I thought I was going to make it without crying.  Once I started driving away the tears started rolling.  I never use to cry about anything and was so in control of my emotions, then I had kids and now I cry all the time!  When we got home Adilene and I got to play one on one which was fun for us but the house was so quite it was very different.  She ended up taking an early nap and so I had most of the morning alone.  I wanted the day to by so fast so I just tried to work away the time.  I ended up getting a ton of things done and then it was time to go get him.

He was happy to see me and he was a little quiet about his day.  I just kept asking him questions and so I got a good idea of how things went.  He found 2 boys with Batman shirts on and so he played with them a lot.  He got to pick the book they read and he choose ABC's.  He liked his lunch and wanted to take a nap with all the other kids there.  He is very excited to go back.

I get a picture of him every day at school and so here are a few that I have.

Our Yearly Safari Trip

Every year since we have moved to Ohio we make a special trip up to Port Clinton and visit the drive through Safari park they have up there.  I always get our tickets from Groupon and so it is a pretty cheap family day. With the summer coming to a close and with Blaiden starting preschool we wanted to do this before things got busy (and by busy I mean football season starting and it consuming our, cough Fred's, weekends).  It takes a couple hours to get up there so Adilene slept and Blaiden sang songs the entire way.  It was a very hot day and so it wasn't that crowded but they were only letting about 15 cars in at a time and then we would have to wait 15-20 minutes before the next 15 cars could go through.  It wasn't the best time that we have had but Blaiden didn't seem to notice.  Adilene was getting a little board and just wanted to crawl around so it got a little wild in our car.

Once it was our turn to go through the kids loved it.  Adilene loves animals and so anytime one got close to us she would wave her arms and say "ooooo," it was the cutest thing.  Blaiden loved feeding everything and only got a little scared of the buffalo when it stuck its head in the car, this happens every year.  It was a lot of waiting compared to the time we were with the animals but it ended with Blaiden feeding the giraffe and zebras so he was happy.  We got out of the car to walk around and see a few of the smaller animals but it was just to hot to stay very long so we all got back in the car and the kids slept on the way home.

Outside Time

All of us are very sad that summer is coming to a close.  We had so much fun playing in the backyard and going to parks this year.  I can only imagine that next summer will be even better with Adilene walking!  I have so many pictures of the kids playing I just had to share a few.

 These two love the swings so much, they are always one of the first things that they want to do when we get to the park.

Buried treasure!

Paint Nite

I had seen a ton of people doing these paint nite's and I wanted to see what it was all about.  So I decided to buy myself a birthday present in the middle of July off Groupon.  I invited a friend and we went in the middle of August.  It was so much fun and I cannot wait to do it again!

I know that this is definitely not a masterpiece but this was my first time painting and I am shocked at how well it turned out, I could be a little biased though...