Family pictures

On September 15, we had the amazing Amanda Joy Photography shoot pictures of the extended and immediate families. She did such a great job!

Como Zoo

 On Monday, Sept. 16th we went to Como Zoo with a bunch of family from Tim's side. 

Here is our group of "monkeys!" 

 Micah and Ben with a gorilla...a rather LARGE one!

 Family picture by the Carousel. It was FREE that day! Bonus.

 Our 3 year old!

 Micah - tough dude

 Tim with Caleb

 Ben Boy & Me with Hannah

 This is our group!

 Hannah with her daddy and (below) a partial group of kids

 Caleb posed for this shot. What a cutie!

 nearly 10 years of marriage!

Our 4 blessings! Ben was a little "under the weather" that day.

First day of School!

The Students:

Micah

 Ben

 Caleb

 Hannah

The scholars at work:

 Hannah working on the letter "A"

 Caleb really wanted to play "Skipo" with dad last night, but he needed more work on his numbers. 

Playing "Skipo" with dad next month....here we come!
The way to remember the #2, "Around and back on a railroad track - Two, two, two!"

Micah working on "Word Roots" and Ben boy working on "Handwriting without Tears." His favorite was the 'Pencil pick-ups' exercise

Porch BEFORE and AFTER

 A couple weeks ago my dad offered to help "dress up" the front porch columns. He is a gifted wood craftsman and I agreed to his help with no hesitation! Let's just say, I was his assistant and gopher.

We began by making a trip to Menards to buy the pine wood to wrap the 6 posts you see in the before photo. It took 3 full days to complete and then I painted 2 coats of exterior white paint about a week ago before we hosted our July 4th week of festivities. See here and here for pictures.


BEFORE:

AFTER:

What a difference some pine wood, screws, and exterior white paint make in transforming a porch! 

Next project: painting the porch and back deck with Restore

More tubing down the river....

This is how our 'Burb looks as we travel down the road to get to the river launch

 The kids excited to go a 4th time this week!

 This time Caleb is looking at the camera

 The kids getting use to the water as dad unloads the vehicle

 Dad unloading the vehicle

The older boys having fun once we reached the end of our 50" journey down the river.

MORE fun!

 Getting ready to tube down the river with the Kochendorfer family....this will be our 2nd time this year (we did go with the Haislets, but I didn't have my camera handy)

 Caleb dreaming of his river raft ride....or just plain tired!

 Tractor tire swing time that evening

 The hostess and the host the evening of July 4th

 Jeremy brought sparklers for the kids

 Hannah's first time holding FIRE!

 Slip 'N Sliding the morning of the 5th...now it is 3 lengths long! Way too much fun!

 The kids are lined up for their turn!

 Lunch on the deck with the cousins!

 Tim cutting into the Ice Cream Cake

 Another round of kids to go tubing down the river

The oldest Bailey cousin with the youngest cousin (Baby Silas)

July 4th FUN WEEK!

We had a blast this past week with the Haislet family (Tim's sister's family) coming July 2nd to "jumpstart" our week of FUN!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

 Lydia and Hannah getting ready for the Slip 'N Slide

 Caleb going down it

The onlookers

 Pool time

Rub a dub, dub....5 kids in a tub!

 Bike Riding time with Caleb

 Adam

 Lydia and Hannah....BFF and cousins

 Bean bag game with the Pre-schoolers

 On a walk down our driveway

 Hannah is trailing behind....but oh so cute!

 Watching Uncle Perry fly his plane out on Cty Rd W

 Picnic at Felland Park before the kids went to swim

Swimming at the river

 After swimming, it was time to get a little treat at "Farmhouse Cafe" in town

 Adam enjoying his treat

 Sweet girls....Lydia and her mommy LeAnn

Delicious!

 The next day, my older boys went with Perry and Tim to shoot guns in our pit

 More trampolining

Gun cleaning time