daily photos, week 2 &3....

I have managed to finish up 3 whole weeks of taking a picture a day.  I am so thrilled that I have stuck to it.  I haven't put them in the album yet.  I need to figure out a way to print them at home or find a local place that actually does a decent job.  I also realized that I need to be jotting down some notes for what to include in the album when I get time to work on it.  I would also like to include other details from the day besides just the photo. 

end of summer celebration.....

To stick with tradition, we took Charlie out for a special evening to say goodbye to summer.

He got to pick the dinner place, much to my dismay, and off to Burger King we went.

Burger King is not his favorite place to eat.  He just really, really wanted the flame guitar Paper Jamz kids meal toy.  After 4 different visits and lots of pleading with the BK employees, the flame guitar was just not meant to be.

The next stop was the mall.  We had spotted these LEGO shoes the week before and Charlie was pretty sure he needed them for school.  He was a little surprised that we were shopping on his special night, but we made sure to keep it quick. 

And then off to the big surprise, Spy Kids 4D.  Charlie talked about this movie all summer.  He is crazy about anything spy related and 3D, so this was a very big deal. 

Soda....check!

Popcorn....check!

Aromascope......check!

They actually ran out of the aromascope cards during the previous showing so they grabbed some used ones.  Crisis averted.

Charlie gives this night two thumbs up! 

project life....

I have finally jumped on the bandwagon and started project life.  I have been wanting to do it for a while, but just wasn't ready to commit.  Most people start it on the first of the year, but the truth is that the last thing I want to do right after Christmas is start a new project.  I was going to start this summer when I finally broke down and purchased the kit but I kept forgetting to take photos. 

Then, last week it just felt like the right time.  With the move and the new school year I feel like we have a new beginning and a new schedule.  What a perfect time to start documenting our everyday.

Here are last weeks photos.

9.5.2011

9.6.2011

9.7.2011

9.8.2011

9.9.2011

9.10.2011

9.11.2011

I am looking forward to getting them tucked away in the album this week.  Is it crazy that I am a little intimidated to dive back into my scrapbooking stuff again?  It has just been way too long.....

goodbye minnesota.....

Really all I can say about Minnesota is that it was an adventure.  Those nine months went by so, so quickly.

I can tell you that we won't miss this:

Or the humidity.   The weather in general was really not my favorite. 

We also won't miss the ticks.  We discovered a tick burrowed into Cannon's knee one evening at bathtime. Cannon kept pointing to it and saying "ladybug?"  Luckily, when I just wanted to panic, Eric took control and handled the situation.  We were itching our heads and were skeeved out for the rest of the night.  We told all of our coworkers our traumatic story the next morning and they laughed in our faces.  Apparantly, ticks are very common in Minnesota and you aren't truly livin' if you don't get at least one a year.  You better believe that didn't make me feel any better when I found one crawling on my shirt the very next day!

There are a lot of things we will miss about Minnesota though. Do you know how wonderful it is to live just 15 minutes away from the Mall of America? It is fabulous. A few days after we told Charlie that we were moving back to Idaho, he burst into tears when he realized that we wouldn't be able to visit the MOA anymore. The Nickelodeon Universe and LEGO store are important stuff to a 6 year old. So of course we had to make one last trip before we left to soak it all in.

The Science Museum of Minnesota was also a favorite place to go.

The local splash park was also a big hit.

This was as far in as Cannon would get.  He always acts like such a tough guy, so it is funny to see him being so timid.

And of course we had to grab one last Caniac combo from Cane's before we hit the road.

Good-bye Minnesota, it was fun while it lasted.  We just may be back one day, but probably only to visit next time.

it was a pretty good summer.....

So for the last 8 months or so, life just got much busier than I expected.  I was working full time, going to school and trying to meet the needs of the kids as best as I could.  Something just had to give and unfortunately, it was pretty much all of our free time. 

I missed blogging. 
I missed playing with paper. 
I missed being creative. 

Luckily, things have changed over the last month and I am finding that I am no longer flying by the seat of my pants.  We are pretty much moved into our new place and unpacked.  Charlie has started school and Cannon is getting used to his new schedule.  Eric is busy job hunting.  I am almost finished with school and will start my externship in a few weeks.  Things are good.  And we are good.

We did have some fun this summer. 

Charlie kicked it all off with his kindergarten graduation.

I was so proud of him.  I wasn't expecting to be emotional at all, but I did tear up a bit as they did their little march in.

Then it pretty much went downhill from there.  I could not believe how pushy and rude all the other parents were.  We couldn't see anything because everybody kept standing up. From what little we could see of Charlie, he seemed nervous and was not into the program at all.  What is up with the singing of 37 songs in a row?  It just never stopped.
 

Charlie had the best teacher this year.  Mrs. Gerten was so good for him.  She really understood his special needs and encouraged him in the perfect way.   

In June we went to the Como Zoo.  It is a smaller, free zoo that also has an amusement park.  Cannon is a big-time animal lover and was completely in his element.

Charlie was more interested in his new spy watch from GG.

We saw the Sparky the Sea Lion show.

Cannon could have stayed by the monkeys all day long.

Then we headed over to the rides.  I love this picture.  It is such a true representation of their relationship right now.

Charlie decided all of a sudden that he is now scared of rides even though he rode all the huge roller coasters at Legoland just a few short months ago.

He was freaking out by the end of this ride, you can tell below that he was not doing too good.  I think the girl stopped the ride early because he was screaming so much.

Charlie did decide that he wanted to try the teacups after this.  Things went from bad to worse on the teacups and Charlie and Cannon got in a knock-down drag out fight.  It was one of those times where the other parents are all giving you that look filled with judgment and disapproval.  We took a video but I am not going to share that because it is downright brutal.  We headed home with two boys who pouted and cried the entire car ride and naptime just couldn't come soon enough.

For the 4th of July, we headed to a local event that had some games and rides for the kids. It was really small which ended up being good for the boys. We got there early so we didn't really have to wait for any of the rides. 

This carnival was pretty ghetto and they didn't have any height restrictions on any of the rides.  While I was slightly concerned for the kids' safety, it was kind of nice that Cannon could ride all of the rides with Charlie.  Their lives may have been in danger, but at least there were no tears.

 We took a break for some mini donuts and cheese curds.

Then we headed home to get out of the heat. We talked about taking the boys to see some fireworks but Charlie just isn't that interested and Cannon won't sleep in no matter how late he goes to bed, so we decided to skip it this this year. They were stoked with just a box of pop-its, especially this little guy: 

Sometimes it is the simple things that make us the most happy.