Rodeo, Kim's birthday, and other fall fun!

 Back in September, we went to the annual TriState Rodeo in Fort Madison, Iowa.  We all look forward to it so much and have a great time with the Krogmeiers, the Richmonds, the Schwantzs and all our friends there!

 Sam was able to have his beloved cotton candy!

 Noah was excited to try out a new treat, funnel cake!

 Obligatory opening day Bears garb, even if we aren't super confident in our team this season!

 Our rodeo group just gets bigger and bigger each year!

 The older boys enjoyed hat day the following week at school!

 I celebrated my *gasp* 20th high school reunion with the usual group of fools!

 The group got together with some of the kiddos the next day!

 Me and my best friend!

 Can't believe I've known these lovelies for over 20 years!  I don't know how I would have turned into a moderately successful adult without them!

 Meanwhile, Mike celebrated his sister, Kim's 50th birthday with a boat ride downtown!

 Matching uncle/nephew shirts on happenstance, score!

 We had yet another fun weekend when the Benhart kids came to town.  CJ, Meredith, and Kate are just heroes to our kids.  We all had a great time!

 Isaac has been insisting on reading textbooks lately, wonder where he gets that from...

 We took advantage of the beautiful weather last weekend to go apple picking!

 The ultra golds were everyone's favorite this time around.

 Sam gnawed on his despite having some loose teeth.

 And wouldn't you know it, Sam lost his first tooth on the car ride home!

We hosted our friend, Boots for the weekend.  The boys were all smitten as usual!

 And Mike's gift to his sister was a trip to a Monday Night football Bears game complete with limo.  She appropriately repurposed an old jersey!

So, fall goes flying by as fast as ever!  Looking forward to Halloween and other fun adventures!

Septemberfest fun!

We have settled into the new school year for the most part.  Isaac is enjoying more one on one time, now that his brothers are at school.

 My dear friend, Philie, spent a Friday morning helping me do some landscaping...

 The weather finally cooperated with us to have a Friday night fire in our new house firepit.  It was awesome!

 We walked the LONG trek from our house to Septemberfest (next year: bike or drive), but it was fun to see and Sam opted for some wild face paint!

The parade route is MUCH more walkable from our house, so we got great seats and watched the parade on Monday!

 Future High School: Conant!

 Isaac finally had his first day of preschool.  He was very excited!

 And Bamma is up to her old tricks of crazy dessert projects at 7am before school!

We are about to head out to the annual tristate rodeo, post pics soon!

Off to a new school!

 We had a bit of last minute summer fun before we started school.  I took the boys for a short trip (on account of me forgetting sunscreen) to Bison's Bluff, which is so close to our house!

 We did some shoe shopping for the new school year!

And we had some friends come hang out on my last weekend of freedom.  Corey is Mike's buddy from his Iowa State days, he drove all the way out here from Ames!  It was great to relax and spend time together on the deck.

Kelly, Ginger and Philie came over too for an impromptu party night.  The kids love it when they can convince adults to hit the trampoline too!

 Feats of strength!

 We celebrated Evie's birthday too!  She had a cool animal show birthday party!

Happy 7th to our favorite panda scientist!

 On our last Monday of summer, we spent the day at Brookfield Zoo, checking out there "Dinos and Dragons" exhibit with Bamma.  Cool stuff!

 I headed back to work before the boys, per usual.  So, they got a pool day with Bamma and Bampa!

 And a more extended day at Bison's Bluff with Mrs. Laura!

 One last day time ice cream trip of the summer!

 Noah tested for his red belt in karate.

 And then, we started the school year!  Monday, August 21st, Sam started 1st grade with Miss Kearns and Noah started 4th grade with Mrs Bullon.  Nerge School seems to be a great place!

 Bus riders now!

 The first day of school kind of put a damper on any eclipse plans, I wasn't able to see it using my camera, but we did record the live Science channel footage, cool stuff!

 Bamma had to start the school year off with a themed project of course!

 Bampa at the bus stop!

 Finally pulled out all the costumes, after having them in storage for months!

 And this weekend witnessed the return of Uncle Josh Sunday dinner.  And, yep, they were able to convince him too!

So, off we go on another adventure of school.  So far, everyone is adjusting really well!  Isaac is looking forward to starting preschool after Labor Day!