Family photo

 

Grins turns 7

In August (let's pretend I'm not so far behind in my posts, OK?) Grins celebrated 7 years on earth!  He is my all time favorite little guy on the planet - I love this little man!!!

We started with the traditional favorite cereal for breakfast!  (Lucky Charms were my favorite as a child, too!)

For dinner, he requested Pancakes with nutella.  So we had some friends over for a fun pancake dinner (complete with all sorts of toppings - and some fruits and veggies on the side!)

Someone's excited!

Summer was SO crazy busy that we couldn't find a day to have a birthday party - so we finally just invited a couple of friends over for cupcakes and a football game.  (Luckily the Mr. was around to help with the football game, since I don't know the first thing about football!)

7 years has FLOWN by since this guy joined our family!  He is our peacemaker and troublemaker, lover and teaser, hard worker and energetic player.  We love you GRINS!!!

Moving...

Apparently, we have maxed out the space on this blog.  (Impeccable timing - we just sent the Christmas cards out today!)  But despair not - we will keep the updates coming!  Our new blog is buchananmaine-ia.blogspot.com.  See you there! :)

Family Pictures

Grandma and Grandpa,  I can't find the camera with Halloween Pictures at the moment, so take a look at our most recent family photo shoot here: http://www.imageexpeditions.com/imageviewer/buchanon/

Summer Fun

Some random things we enjoyed this summer:


Getting COVERED in sand:

Rolling up our pants and shirts and swinging around the trees:

Sharing secrets with best friends:

Free slurpees on 7-11

Dog sitting:

Oh, how I wish Summer would never end!!!

Slip and Slide

Many of our summer play dates were spent on the 'slip 'n slide'!  Hours of fun in the comfort of our own yard!  I don't think the children would EVER tire of it - I can only ever convince them to stop when we've been going at least an hour, and I promise popsicles! :)  (Grins accidentally blew the hose the first time we set it up, after he turned it on when it was kinked, but fortunately it was nothing a little duct tape and rubber band could repair.  Thank heaven!  Summer would not have been the same without it!) 

Of note: it's a miracle I was able to get any photos of this, and that the camera survived!  Grins loves to make the largest splash he can in the pool at the end, resulting in me and the camera getting SOAKED!

Independence Day 2012

Independence Day this year was a sad day, as Hannah left. :(  We all miss her terribly.  Fortunately, the Mr. and the children had fun at a friend's party while I had the lovely pleasure of working.  Then, we had planned to go to a local fair for the fireworks and festivities.  But Mother Nature provided us with an INCREDIBLE show of her own!  (All fireworks were postponed due to a spectacular thunder/lightning storm!)  We had fun anyway with our own little sparklers!  Our children are so adaptable!

Explorer Camp

This past summer, some dear friends invited Angel to attend their church's "Explorer Camp", where the children got to do all sorts of crafts and outdoor activities.  Angel had a LOT of fun!  The last day of camp, all of the families were invited to come and see what the campers had been up to.

Angel showed us how she learned to make rope:

A sweet little old woman (you can just see her face on the right) showed us all sorts of different animal artifacts out of her "feely box" (you feel something with your eyes closed and try to guess what it is)!  She was a wealth of information!

Angel showed us some different snakes and other animals they had 'researched' while at camp:

But the favorite activity of the evening was, of course, archery and rifle shooting!  The wonderful camp leader was so patient with Wiggles - and she was SO proud to be able to shoot 'all by myself'! :)

Boston

While Hannah was still here, we decided to take a day trip down to Boston to show her around one of our favorite cities!  

Of course, our first stop was the beautiful LDS Boston Temple!  She was kind enough to entertain the children while we served in the temple together for a couple of hours! :)

Then, we took the T into the city!

Wiggles was terrified when the train started moving, and hung on for dear life!

It was such a hot and muggy day, that cooling off in Frog Pond (in the middle of the Boston Common) was a must!

Walking around the park, the children found a snake to enjoy!

And it looked like so much fun, Hannah had to give it a try as well!

Of course, Hannah had to kiss the frog to see if he was her prince....

Not sure what I'm doing here...but I love that the whole family is in one shot! :)

Then we took a walk around the Public Garden where we enjoyed the beautiful pond and flowers, and fed some swans.

And what would a visit to the Public Garden be without a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and their ducklings?

While the children and I enjoyed the park, Hannah and The Mr. took a stroll down the Freedom Trail. (The children and I have seen it before and were so overheated that cooling off in Frog Pond again sounded much more inviting!)

Afterwards, we got some cannolis at Mike's Pastry and enjoyed a few more sights.  There is SO much to see and do in Boston, and it was so much fun having Hannah with us!