Sophia got a hair cut!

A very excited Sophia before,

during and,

after her hair cut.

Here's one Henry asked me to take the other day.  I'll have to look at it again, on a day everyone isn't all smiles together.

First Day of School

School started for everyone Sept. 4.  Max is in 4th grade, Sophia is in 1st grade and Alex is in 7th grade and  at a new school, Bishop Grimes .

Alex

Max

Sophia

No explanation needed.

Here's what Henry built while the school kids were away for the day.

Birthday Party for September Kids

Here are the two birthday boys.  Timmy turns 3 on Sept. 15 and Lucas turns 1 on Sept. 27.  Their cousin Julia was suppose to be celebrating with them, her birthday is Sept. 16 and she'll be 1.  Unfortunately, she was in the hospital all weekend with a mystery fever of 104, that it was later decided was pneumonia.  We missed having her and Sara and Eric celebrating with us. But it was so nice to have Aunt Coco and (cousins) Amy and Kelli come, and  pick up Oliver and Parker (Julia's brothers) to be with us.

Lucas opening a gift in his #1 onesie  made by Aunt Sara.

What could it be?

Amy, on the couch in blue, pregnant (due in Feb.) and still made the trip out to be with us!  Sitting next to her is Kelli, Oliver standing, and  all of our little monkeys.

Checking out his Jake and the Neverland Pirate telescope with gold deblooms 

in hand.

Luke chewing on packaging, not playing with the toys he's just been given.

Timmy and his new Lightening McQueen scooter he'd been talking about for weeks, maybe months before his birthday.

So we had to take it outside for a spin.

Here he goes with Sophia on her Princess scooter.  Yes, he is barefoot, seems painful to me, but he didn't mind one bit.

Luke watching the scootering with godmother, Aunt Coco,

and Uncle Dale,

and Aunt Kathy.

Time for cake!  Timmy did the honors of blowing out the candles.

Lukey with his cake.  Quite a bit of that cake was gone in no time.

Here's  the jungle birthday cake, with little cakes for the birthday kids.

Lucas turned 11 months old!

August 27, Lucas turned 11 months old!  He is crawling like a champ, and pulling up to everything.

Here he is with one of his favorite toys, a singing bus, that Aunt Joni and Uncle Nick gave one of our kids many Christmases ago.

Entertained by the  big kids and whatever else is going on outside.

Kevin and Jeanette Visit

In late August we were excited to have Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jeanette visit.  I didn't get out the camera enough, but here they are with Timmy, Sophia (giving bunny ears) and Henry (behind Jeanette) at Kathy and Dale's cabin in the paddle boat.  We had a great visit.  Henry and especially Timmy became best friends with Kevin right away.  Timmy was glued to him most of Saturday (the first day they were here).  Sunday Timmy woke up, went straight downstairs, came back up with the saddest little face and said, "Where's Uncle Kevin?" (They had stayed at Kathy's).  We had a fun day at the cabin Sunday, paddle boating, golf cart riding and grilling.  Monday came too soon when it was time to say good-bye, and  they were off to Niagara Falls.

Camping

In early August the kids did some camping at our house.  Tim and Henry camped in a small tent in our front room.  They helped Randy set it up.

 

Before they fell asleep, they looked at books in the tent.  They actually made it and slept all night in the tent.

The same night Alex, Max and their friend Donovan camped out in our backyard.

Boy Scout Camp

Alex went to Boy Scout  Camp  from July28 - Aug. 3.  This year he went to Sabattis, which is in the foothills of the Adirondacks.  He was worried about meeting a bear while there, but thankfully that didn't happen (though some other campers did!).  He had a very busy and fun week.  He earned 6 merit badges, which is a lot of badges for such a short amount of time.  He brought home a key chain he made, learning how to do leather work.  He also brought home a small basket, he made learning how to do weaving.

Here is his tent, his bed is on the right.

Spruces is the name of his troops' camp site.

Alex earned the wilderness survival badge while at camp.  This is a picture of the survival shelter he built that he also spent the night in.  He was very glad it didn't rain.  I thought it looked great for a first attempt.

In his shelter.

Another view of his shelter.

Here's the beach where they spent quite a bit of time.

A view from the beach.

All the boys from Alex's troop that camped with him.

The beginning of a bonfire.