School for All!

It feels like August and September passed in a blur because of everything that has happened since our trip to the Midwest. Most of August was spent getting ready for the start of the school year (and preparations for our being gone the second week of school for the wedding) and wrapping up things at church.  After seven years of being home with the boys as full-time mom and working part-time at church as the middle school youth leader and worship coordinator, I am now back in the classroom full-time teaching sixth grade math and eighth and ninth grade grammar, literature and composition.

Miss M. gave each of the boys a special school cookie before school started. And here they are anticipating all the sugary goodness.

The boys got a practice run at school the week before school started when both boys went to the preschool for the day when Paul and I had our faculty retreat. Here is a picture of them before we took them to school. 

Showing off their new lunch boxes

...and their backpacks

Isaac is now in first grade and loves being in school every day all day. His teacher is Miss M.

With Miss M 

His desk

Caleb is in preschool and likes all the activities during each day. He seems to be adjusting to the long rest time that he has to do each day though he still is not a fan of it.

The customary first day of school pose

In front of the preschool

With Aunt Sandy in her office

Paul is still in fifth grade and has all the fifth graders this year since there is only one section of fifth grade with no combination class.

I miss youth group and still have my moments during worship when I think of something that somebody should have done or that we should do differently, but I am absolutely LOVING being back in the classroom with the students each day. It is a gift getting to do something that I enjoy each day, and being with the students and helping them learn about this gift of language from our Creator has been a joy for me during this first month of school.

Our family is blessed to have a great school where all of us can be each day. We ride to and from school together and are finally settling into our routine.  And we celebrated our first day of school with lunch at Red Robin.

Fargo

After spending the night at Beaver and Denise's house, we left the next morning after breakfast for Fargo. We spent the next few days at Mom's apartment and also at Brian's house and had such a fantastic time. It always amazes me at how many things we manage to squeeze into our time together.

Mom's new place gave us the opportunity to do some exploring which we all thought was great. We enjoyed the library and finding different rooms throughout the place to use for playing games and also for eating. We fried our freshly caught walleye in the gazebo outside of her apartment, savored our Pizza Ranch (yes, Pizza Ranch!) pizza in the game room, and had a giant floor picnic in one of the community rooms that is near the library. 

We played lots of games of ping pong and foosball, a variety of board games checked out from the library and checkers (a first for our boys).  We also managed to make our annual trips to Chuck E. Cheese to play games and to Scheels to ride the ferris wheel and shoot at the shooting range.  Oh, and we did make it to Pizza Ranch for the buffet once and also picked it up for lunch another time.

We also spent an overnight at Brian's house. It happened to be one of the hottest times of the summer while we were in Fargo. Brian decided to make sure there was something for us all to do while we were at his place (as if that is ever a problem since the boys love running around in the open space outside) and came home with a blow-up pool, some water guns, and a variety of pool toys. Once we got the pool inflated and mostly filled with water, we spent most of the day outside by the pool and had a blast.

We also spent time around the fire pit. Caleb even got the honors of helping Uncle Brian start the fire. He gathered and crumpled up newspapers and then got to light the first part of the fire by igniting the fire with his lit newspaper and holding it there while Brian blew on the fire.

Brian showed the kids how his fancy bed works by raising and lowering the feet and head and running the different massage options. The younger kids went to sleep while we older "kids" watched a movie. Towards the end of the night we couldn't find Leo (Gina's little dog) and found him snuggled up with the kids on Isaac's sleeping bag.

The next morning Brian and Gina made everyone breakfast--pancakes, bacon and eggs. Isaac got the giant pancake that was larger than his plate (as shown in the picture above).

We ended up staying one extra day so that Vonda and I could help Mom shop for her dress for Brad and Kara's wedding. After a full afternoon that stretched into the evening and a quick stop at Taco John's for Potato Oles, we found a dress for her and a few other things for each of us as well. (A picture of it will be coming in upcoming post about the wedding!) Because of her move, Mom pulled out some things she has been storing for us including my wedding dress, Jill's bridesmaid dress (as modeled by Camille below) and the flower girl dress I wore when I was in kindergarten (as modeled by Carlie below).

My wedding dress still fits!

Part of the family

Our time with family each summer is always a gift to us. This year did not leave us disappointed since this summer's travels and visits were full of relaxation and catching up with everyone.

And it would not be a summer vacation travels series without at least one picture from our drive:

Snack time in the midst of the back seat mess

TRF

Life has been busy here, but I want to take the time to finish out the snapshots of our wonderful summer vacation visiting with family.

After spending time with Dad and Vicki, we made a very quick (overnight) trip to TRF to visit with Beaver and Denise and the girls. It happened to be the opening day for the county fair so we also got to take in the town parade. 

If you have never gotten a chance to enjoy a small-town USA parade, you are missing out. Lots of candy and prizes were thrown out. It happened to be one of the longest-lasting parades I have ever experienced with all types of tractors and farm machinery as part of the parade.  We happened to be sitting next to the high school principal (who happened to be a student in the grade ahead of me) so we were on the receiving end of water balloons and silly string sprays a couple of times. We had a great time, and the kids loved running for the candy. (The middle picture below is especially in there for my father-in-law!)

It was wonderful getting to spend even the short time we had catching up with them and getting to spend time with them at the parade and at home.  Although it has been years since we were in TRF, it is always good to go "home" and step back in time since so many memories exist for me in my hometown.