will they sleep tonight?

well, at least manning was exhausted from our day of hiking.

 and then they all got a second wind with some "first day" excitement!

it's always a little sad to think about breaking up this quarto of fun, but we are still super excited about getting back to school. love.

the last day of "summer"

we have been trying to make it through a few of the kids 'must-dos' for summer and on this last day of summer vacation, we chose a hike on a trail the littles and i did last year but that the bigs (and dad) have never been to yet.

so relaxing! well, once we got past the first ten minutes when no one wanted to be there. then we all had a great time.

what do you see where you look at the wood in these pictures?

the kids saw a giraffe head - an all grandparent favorite animal - so we snapped some pictures.

this tree was so cool because the trunk was completely hollow - and the tree was still alive and baring fruit!

mason collected some acorns and arranged them in order to make it easier for squirrels to find them. he was disappointed to see that the acorns were untouched when we walked back on our way back to the car.

how cool is this close cluster of 4 different looking trees?

the boys and i were the only ones brave enough to step off of the trail for this tee-pee/lean-to structure.

we stopped by new (to us) location of one of the kids favorite donuts shops - peace, love and little donuts. this location makes the donuts to order! it was pretty cool to have each donut made right to our specifications - the kids really enjoyed watching - and they were ooey-gooey delicious!

we had some friends who we invited to join us for our hike and couldn't join us, text about a park meet up in the afternoon. the kids had so much fun running around and "hunting squirrels." the park was hopping today! i think everyone was out for one last trip before school starts tomorrow.

such a perfect way to end our laid back summer. love.

we made it to the beach!

i have been feeling sort of bummed to not make it to a beach (any beach) this year. but then a friend of manning's invited us to join us at her grandparents' lake house about an hour away. yay!

it was such a relaxing way to spend the day. the kids all had a blast and the moms were able to chat and sun.

maddux and his best pre-school buddy who will go to a different school this year.

it's not anything close to the ocean but the wake from the boats made little 'waves' and i got to burry my toes in the sand. love.

back to the museum

while we have had a fun summer, we haven't done many of the things we normally do while the kids are out of school - and time is running out! today we went back to the mckinley presidential museum for the first time in at least a year. and had a blast!

maddux was very excited to finally be tall enough to turn the crank fast enough to light up the bulb.

it's dark, but look at the fun these two are having with aerodynamics! 

mason was able to pick up a ball with the robotic arm.

and i am always amazed how they flock to train tables when they never touch ours at home!

such a gorgeous day.

 going up is not half as fun as coming down. love.

let's go to the movies

last weekend we had big pop and grandma visit and this weekend we have papa and nana! they love movies so we took them to see "the secret life of pets" with us. the kids were 50/50 on it (read: two cried and wanted to leave during the movie), but all were happy to be at the theater and said that they liked the movie as we were leaving. we took a few pictures with the "trolls" sign on our way out. love.

date week (aka vbs as a guest)

tonight the kids have their last night of vbs at the church where they have attended preschool. matt and i have enjoyed a dinner date every night this week as a result! heaven. but my "date" tonight is nana! she and papa got here this afternoon for a visit and, of course, papa and daddy are golfing.

we snapped a few pictures of the kids in their shirts they made during vbs before heading off for their last night. they were feeling a little silly...

manning spent the week with his buddy graham so we had to get some pictures. they are both quite the little hams.

we are so fortunate to have so many opportunities to have God's word reinforced with our kids. the time with matt was such a blessing too. love.

puzzles are addictive

one thing i got from my mom is a love for puzzles. she started this one but couldn't stop. matt came to join her (even though he makes fun of me for the hours i allow myself on one every christmas). serious bonding.

manning and i took the snuggling observation option.

the kids were feeling bad about grandma and daddy's inability to complete the puzzle and jumped in to help. love.

special sundaes

mason was given a special sundae glass/bowl at a birthday party a while ago now and he wanted to make sure that we used them during grandma and big pop's visit. we planned for ice cream and picked up some special toppings at the smucker's store yesterday. we had four of the ice cream dishes for the kids and they could not have been happier.

matt and i were going to have a date night, but the kids have vbs at another church all next week and we are going to have dinner out every night on our own so we stayed home tonight. love.

golden ticket magic show

after completing the reading program at this local library the kids were given a "golden ticket" to their celebration. little did we know that we were going to be treated to a magic show!

and they loved it! i was so impressed too. mason and manning both were selected to be part of the show. i didn't get any pictures of mason because i was asked to come up with him and then my friend there was asked to come up and help us too. i was able to get pictures and video of manning.

when the show was over all of the kids were given popsicles (and it was super hot in that room). madelyn went up to show the magician her card trick. he was very kind to play along with her.

madelyn and her friend katherine had fun with the library's computer.

i was feeling sort of cute today and thought i would snap a quick picture to update my profile picture (i very rarely get a picture of just me). it was only later that i realized i did not wear any make-up that day! oops. love.