ANOTHER GREAT WEEKEND!

This past weekend was another great one for us.

Friday night Lee and Tyler went to the Newton Homecoming Football game, while my mom, Brady, and I stayed back at the house.  Tyler had a great time at the game running around and playing with his friends.

Saturday morning was Tyler's first Fall soccer game, which Brady got to play in the first half in as well.  They won the game, Tyler did Awesome, and Brady didn't do so bad himself!

Right after the soccer game, we all headed to Iowa City.  The boys stayed at my mom's house while Lee and I went to the UNI vs. IA football game.  We were able to see some of Lee's old football guys from UNI and saw some of my friends as well.  The game started out with UNI doing really well.  However, it didn't continue and ended up with the Hawks taking the win.  Allthough the game didn't go how we were hoping, it was a great day!

Sunday, we headed out to Wilson's Apple Orchard in Iowa City and then to the Raptor Center.  The boys love both of those places and we had a wonderful family day!

It was a great weekend with my mom, friends, and our family!

 Wilson's Apple Orchard

 Waiting on the trailor for the tractor to take us out to the Apples.  The favorite part of this whole trip for the boys is when the tractor, Bessie, gets "stuck" in the creek and needs everyone to yell, "Go Bessie, Go!"

 Apple Doughnuts!

 Yum!

 After the Orchard, we went to the Raptor Center to see all the birds.

 Tyler's wing span.

 Brady's wing span.

Nature walk from the Raptor Center back to our van.

FALL SOCCER

Fall soccer started this past weekend for Tyler.

It's actually amazing how much he's improved since the spring!  I was so proud to watch him during the game and he was so proud of himself.

There are 5 kids on the team.  2 did not show up at the beginning of the game, so we put a shirt on Brady and he played for the entire first half until another teammate showed up.  Brady thought that he was a hot shot playing with the big kids!--And he actually did a pretty good job!

Tyler's team, USA, won the game and Tyler scored his first ever goal and then scored two more!  He did Awesome!

 Fall Soccer Team--USA

 Caden and Tyler

 Brady looked at me like, "Look at me, Mom!  I'm playing a soccer game!"

 Hands on their knees and ready to kick the ball.

 Waiting for Tyler to throw in the ball.

 Both Tyler and Brady going after the ball.  Brady did a great job at keeping up!

 Tyler taking off with the ball and Brady following.

 Tyler going in to make a goal.  Apparently Tyler wasn't running quite fast enough for Caden, so Caden's giving Tyler a loving little push to help Tyler run a little quicker!  :)

Tyler in action.

It should be a great Fall Soccer Season!  Go USA!

GAME DAY

Iowa vs. Iowa State Game Day

9/8/12

We spent the day at the Klein's house for the big game.   It was spent playing, watching the game, and making beaded neclaces, bracelets, and keychains!  Beautifully perfect weather for the day and spent with great company!

I laid out two outfits, hawkeyes and panthers, for the kids in the morning.  I told them they needed to go upstairs to choose which outfit they were going to wear for the day.  They both chose the best and decided on wearing Panthers for the day!  :)  Good choice, kids, especially since the Hawks got beat.

The amazing kids!  They truly are amazing.  Each and every one of them!  Especially those UNI Panthers boys!  :) 

 The men watching the game out on the deck.

Mandy had bought beads and string for the girls.  She thought that the younger girls might enjoy making bracelets during the game.  It turns out that instead of the little girls making them, we sat there and made bracelets, necklaces, and keychains and really enjoyed it!  I made the boys a Newton Cardinal and a Hawkeye keychain for their backpacks!  We ended up calling ourselves the Newton Cardinal Keychain Club.  :) 

What a fun day!

SUMMER EVENINGS

The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting cooler, the evenings seem absolutely perfect, and we are enjoying every second of these final summer evenings.

Since going back to school, our days are much busier.  The evenings go too quickly, but we have been spending most evenings outside playing in the backyard or riding bikes.

.....Still enjoying our late summer evenings and looking forward to fall!

Perfect!

FIRST DAY OF 4-YEAR-OLD PRESCHOOL

Tyler had his first day of school today!

Tyler has been ready and waiting for school to start again.  He absolutely enjoys and loves everything about his time at school with his friends and teachers.  He had a great 3-year-old preschool experience and is looking forward to a wonderful year in the 4-year-old preschool class.  He met a couple new friends today and just really enjoyed being back!

He talked and talked and talked about his day today.  I'm sure he's still laying awake right now thinking about everything that happened at school today!

We are so proud of him!

However, it's kind of scary that the next time I take a "first day of school photo," it will be his first day of kindergarten and he will be at school with me!  Wow!

 First day of 4-year-old preschool.  9/4/12

 Walking into school.

 

 He found his best bud, Caden, right away and they started to play!

This is the project that he completed at school today.  He cut out the yellow bus, wrote his name, colored the tires, thumb printed "people" into the bus windows, and drew faces/hair onto two of the "people."

What a great day for Tyler!

Love you, buddy!  I know you will have a terrific year!

TOMORROW'S EXCITEMENT!

This is a picture of Tyler's "homework."

He starts his first day of 4-year-old preschool tomorrow.  He is looking forward to going back to school and seeing his teachers and friends from last school year.

Name: Tyler

I like to eat: pizza and apples

My favorite toy: Airplanes

Lee will go into work later tomorrow morning so that he can take Tyler to school on his first day.  I look forward to seeing the excitement on his face tomorrow morning!

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

We had a really good Labor Day weekend!

Friday--We decided to take the boys to Grandma Mary's for a sleepover Friday night.  This is only the second time that they have stayed somewhere else without us being there.  They were gone from home for about 18 hrs. is all, but I know that it was long enough for all of us.  With the kids gone for the night, Lee and I went out to dinner with a group of friends to celebrate Lee's birthday.  Then we all came back to our house to play a game.  It was a fun night with some friends and the boys had a great time playing at Grandma's house!

Saturday--Lee went to meet my mom to pick the boys up on Saturday morning.  We went to a football party Saturday afternoon to watch the Iowa, UNI, and Iowa State games.  It was a great party and the boys always have so much fun playing with all their friends!

Sunday--After church, we went to buy Tyler a new bike!  And since Tyler now has a new, bigger, bike, Brady has Tyler's old bike and is doing awesome riding his "new" bike with training wheels.  Sunday afternoon, we had Katie, Mike, Taylor, and Bennett over for play and dinner.  It was a great afternoon to catch up a little and have the kids play.

Monday--We spent some fun, quality, family time at Bass Pro Shop!  :)  We took the kids bowling and for lunch at Uncle Bucks in Bass Pro.  It was so much fun!  They had a blast!  And after bowling, we spent some time shooting and checking out the many fun things in Bass Pro Shop.

 Tyler on his new bike and Brady on his "new" bike.

 He fits much better on this new bike.  It's called the "Rocket" so it, of course, goes really, really fast!

 Brady has also been doing an awesome job on his new bike with training wheels!

 Tyler, Taylor, and Brady

 Bowling at Bass Pro's Uncle Buck's.

 Brady checking to see if a bowling ball is going to come up that Alligator's mouth anytime soon.

 Brady bowling.

 Laying on the bench and checking out the awesome ceiling full of fish and sea life.

Lee giving the boys shooting practice.  They loved this!