Summer Family Fun...

I told Ben to take some pictures of what they did while I was gone in New York.  Here's some of the evidence of their good time...

Ben took the kids to Jump Street - they love that place...

For dinner one evening, Ben took the kids to the grocery store and let them pick out what they wanted.  They ended up with hot dogs, blackberries, and cheetos...

Shortly before I left town, we took the kids to Anthem for some back to school shopping, and to play.  They all got soaked in their clothes at the splash pad, because I was too lazy to put them in their swim suits (even though I had brought them).  We also got ourselves some fudge at a chocolate shop.  Claire especially enjoyed her warm summer evening fudge...

Flour + Water + Egg + Pie...

We had our traditional Fannie Farkle party - bring on the mess!  I didn't get many pictures of the various activities... just mostly the mess afterwards - it's dangerous territory to have your camera out at such an occasion.  :)  This was all part of Emily's birthday party - I love that we do this - it's fun for the kids to see the grown ups get silly, messy, and crazy!  And this year, the kids were more involved and enjoyed it more.  Claire, on the otherhand, did not enjoy it at all - she made an early exit to go to bed.

The games included- digging for pennies in flour, tug of war over water (floury bodies dumped in water, results in sticky, icky goo all over!), egg toss, water balloon toss, and finally a pie eating contest...

Caroline was the most fun of all - she LOVED getting messy!

Poor Claire - this just wasn't her thing...

Beware of flour in the eye...

Scout loved it too - she was all into the flour...

Becca being a good sport about the egg smashed on her head...

This is a funny picture - but we were lining up getting ready for our plates of pie - I didn't get any decent pictures of the actual pie eating contest - partly because we were all too busy getting our faces shoved in pie.   We all agreed that the pie was very good.  I was disappointed that I didn't get to finish eating mine, since Peter took what was left and shoved it in my ear.  ;)

Happy Fannie Farkles!  And Happy Birthday Emily!

Cheese!

Jake finally had his first trip to the dentist this week.  Jake loved his movie star sunglasses he got to wear under the light while his teeth were cleaned.  And we're happy that there are no cavities in that winning smile of his. :)

Afterschool Outings

Ben worked late one evening this week- so I took the kids out for a marathon outing after getting Emma from the bus stop....

First stop- to the splash pad (the waterpark is only open on the weekends now, or we would have gone there instead)...

Look!  Claire stood up on her own and walked some without me telling her to.  Someday she might actually start using walking as her main means of getting around - but for now we all cheer when she decides to actually do some walking - it doesn't happen very often (she's now officially 15 months old)...

This might be some of the reason why she doesn't walk much... because her older sister is always carrying her around everywhere...

Sibling huddle...

Second stop: Dinner at Sonic...

You see how Emma is awkwardly using the side of her mouth to eat - that's because she hardly has any teeth in the front.  She definitely has the typical 2nd grade smile right now - but I think her holey smile is cute, although not practical for eating...

Final stop: the mall play area...

It was a fun evening and the kids stayed out a bit late... on a school night... :)

We've also been going to the library a lot recently.  And today I took Claire to storytime, just me and her - while Jake was at preschool.  She loved it!  And it was fun to do something one on one with my Claire.  That's a new thing for us!  I love her :)

2nd grade, Kindergarten, and Preschool!

The first day of school finally arrived!  I have to admit, I've been extra excited for the summer to end and for the school days to begin.  Now if only the summer heat would end too - the girls couldn't have recess the first couple days because of a heat advisory. 

Emma started 2nd grade and Becca started Kindergarten!  I have TWO elementary schoolers!  The girls were most excited about getting to ride the bus together in the morning.  Becca is doing half-day Kindergarten, so she rides home earlier than Emma on the Kindergarten bus.  :)

Becca was so happy and excited all morning.  She did get nervous once she got to class though.  I followed the bus the first day and then walked her into class to help her get settled.  The girls both missed the back to school night where they would have met their teachers the Friday before - I was in New York and daddy wasn't going to get done with work in time to take them.  That made the first day a little more scary than it would have been.  I think she was overwhelmed by all the parents and the first day chaos.  But once she saw that some of her church friends were in her class, she let me go.

Here's Becca's nervous face...

Emma and Becca came home from school very happy about their day.  They've now almost finished their first full week and they seem to already be happily settled into the new school routine.

On Wednesday, my big Jake had his first day of preschool!  How is he old enough for this?!  Jake is such a ball of energy, humor, and smarts.  I love him.  After I dropped him off at school and drove away, I actually cried.  I've never done that before with the girls on their first days of school.  He's my special guy, even though he drives me crazy.  As he got out of the car to go to school on the first day, he says to me, "you are going to miss me mommy".  How did he know?  :)  What a sweet dude...

On the Farm in New York

I went to New York... again!  2 times in one summer!  Well, I didn't go to NYC this time - but to upstate New York to see my cute Grandma Szymanski (my dad's mom).  Most of my dad's family lives in upstate New York - so we also got to see my Aunts, Cousins, and lots of other extended family.  I haven't been to see my Grandma Szymanski since before I had kids.  A couple of years after Ben and I got married (8 years ago) we all went back east to visit along with my parents and siblings.  It was an awesome trip- and we still talk about it often and laugh about all the amusing adventures we had while there.  This visit was very overdue.  My family was so awesome to help out so I could go... my sweet sister-in-law Emily was brave enough to watch all 4 of my kids.  She has 2 of her own, one of which is Claire's age, so she more than had her hands full - add that to the fact that the heat that week was unbearable - it was 118 on the day that I left!  My other sister-in-law, Lacy also helped out watching all the kids, plus her own little 1 year old, for several hours so Emily could attend a school meeting.  My awesome husband took on the task of driving across town several times dropping the kids off at Emily's while he was at work during the day - and then on the weekend he did an amazing job entertaining them - they went to Jump Street and had movie nights and had memorable kid friendly dinners (ie: hot dogs, cheetos, and blackberries- all picked out by the kids).  The moral of the story is I am so thankful to my wonderful family for jumping through hoops for me so I could enjoy this trip with my siblings.  My dad even used some of his valuable frequent flyer miles, so I didn't have to pay for my plane ticket.

I flew from Phoenix to Atlanta, where I met up with my dad and brother and sister (who flew from Utah).  Everything went very smoothly meeting up after the first leg of our trip.  Our flights were thankfully both on time, and we had no trouble catching our connecting flight into Buffalo.  I was so excited to find my family at the Atlanta airport.  My dad and siblings are never lacking in electronic devices...

They kindly left me a very useful seatbelt extender at my seat.  Too bad they didn't have that service so conveniently provided on the flight back to Phoenix - I actually might have been able to use it after all the food I ate during our trip ;)

After arriving in Buffalo, and then picking up our rental car, then stopping for food, and then driving to South Dayton, we arrived well after Grandma's bedtime - but she was so kind and stayed up for us :)  The next morning, we quickly found our way to the porch for a relaxing start to the day.  We spent a lot of time hanging out on the screened in porch.  The weather felt amazing while we were there.   Grandma and my aunts kept apologizing for the rainy, cold weather, but it just felt heavenly to me - I wore my sweater most of the week!  This is in contrast to the 118 degree heat back home.  Other than seeing my family, the cool weather was the best part of the trip for me!

Grandma's farmhouse...

The barn (right behind the house)...  I love that there is a car and a tractor parked there...

The front of the woods just behind the barn - Grandma owns a lot of property (about 50 acres) - we explored it quite a bit on the last day of our visit...

The view from the front porch (the field across the street all the way down to the tree line in the distance is part of grandma's land as well)...  later we drove through it with the tractor :)....

The first full day we were there, Aunt Julie took us to the Erie County Fair.  Oh boy, we ate A LOT of naughty foods while we were there.  It was awesome!

Aaron let me try a bite of his deep fried Snickers bar.  It was so good!  Later I got some fried cookie dough.  I LOVED it!  I have a thing for sweets :)

There's nothing that says 'county fair' quite as well as fried food and nauseating rides - we did both!  Aaron's phone flew out of his pocket while riding this one - We luckily found it and pieced it back together - it still worked!  It was a county fair miracle!

Woohoo!  Aaron pet a cow!  It was on his county fair to do list...

Hmmm... more naughty food... remember the seat belt extender?  Let's hope I don't need one someday...

And then of course we needed to get a bag full of taffy...

Dad looking for suggestions as to the flavors we should get...

Very interesting street performers...

It was a great afternoon at the fair.  Thanks to Aunt Julie for getting us tickets and hanging out with us!  On the way home, we stopped by the cemetery where many of our family headstones are located.  It was nice to visit Grandpa's site.  I was pretty young when he passed away, but I do remember him well.  He was kind and had a great sense of humor.  He was a lot like my dad. :)

Grandpa's parents are also nearby.  Walter and Kathrine Szymanski were born in Poland and later came to America.  It's awesome to have such unique polish heritage.  :)

Watering the flowers...

Maybe I've just been in Phoenix too long, but I was loving the big green trees everywhere...

A quick visit to the maple syrup shop - Dad showed me the tubes all wrapped around the maple trees throughout the area where they collect the sap to make the syrup...

We spent a portion of every day we were there launching off rockets.  :)  Here's Aaron making some last moment adjustments...

Ready for the rocket show :)

A less successful rocket launch attempt....

Much better... The rockets would fly FAR.  We tried to aim them into the wind, so they wouldn't travel such a long distance, but we still spent a lot of time chasing them and trying to track them down.  Dad quickly discovered the tractor was a useful tool in getting through the thick grass to find them...

The fields and pastures are just gorgeous...

Good work Aaron - he found it...

Grandma's farmhouse from across the field...

One evening we spent at Aunt Julie and Uncle Rick's house.  I'm sad I didn't get pics of everyone.  What was I thinking?  Aunt Jan and her 2 daughters, and grandson came.  We ate a lot of yummy food.  My favorite was Julie's pistachio pudding- we got to take home leftovers and I ate it all gone before the end of our trip.  :)  They taught us how to play quoits (a lot like the game of horseshoes).

Sarah quickly proved she was the most skilled...

A great part of visiting dad's hometown is hearing all the stories of when he was little and seeing the places where he went to school and worked.  I documented "the dad tour" with some pictures. 

Dad often tells stories of his time spent working at the bean factory - this supposed bean factory is legend.  We were all amazed when he actually proved it's a real place... albeit old and no longer used...

This is where dad went to Elementary School... it's now used as an apartment building...  I love these cute old buildings.

Grandma was telling us how they didn't used to have a freezer in their home (just a very tiny freezer box inside the fridge).  So, they actually rented freezer space at a place in town.  They would go to town occasionally to pick up their freezer goods.  Dad showed us the location - it's obviously no longer used for that and now a residential home...

My grandma's Aunt Lillian taught school in South Dayton - dad showed us the school... well, look at that... it's even located on "School Street".  :)

What an awesome old school building... it even has a bell tower!

Grandpa Szymanski worked a long time at the Nestle Carnation milk factory.  It's still there, but not in use...

Grandpa Szymanski grew up on this farm - this was his parents home - and dad remembers visiting here when he was young...

Since we're going back in time, let's look at some cute old pictures...  Guess who this is?  That's right, my daddy!  He's so cute - he looks so much like my brother when he was young.  And I totally see Jake in his face too :)

My Grandpa and Grandma are the two on the right - this was shortly after they were married...

Grandpa and Grandma with my Aunt Jan and Aunt Julie...

My dad with his fun cousin Winanne....  

This was at a birthday party - my dad is the one in the bottom right corner, being silly :)

We just loved sitting on the porch and going through stacks of these old photos.  I also loved mowing the lawn on the riding mower.  But first we had to get the mower out of the barn...

We then hooked up the wagon (that Uncle Rick built) to the tractor for some tractor rides...

Aunt Julie and Grandma came for a ride with us too.  Uncle Rick did the driving...

We drove up the road and to the back of Grandma's woods - Aaron and Sarah and I decided to walk back to the house so we could do some exploring.  We got poked by thorny bushes, and mud all over our shoes, and stabbed in the face by sticks - it was awesome  :)

On our last night, Aaron and I ventured into the dark scary attic and retrieved some old timey games...  the result was a very unique game night!

Every morning we ate breakfast on the porch.  Grandma kept us very well fed.  It was so nice to start each day with breakfast outside...  this was our final morning before leaving for the airport...

Aunt Julie and Uncle Rick came to say goodbye the morning we were leaving - we took some pics...

It was such a great visit!  On the way to the airport, we stopped at Lake Erie for a final hurrah.  It was beautiful...

At the airport in Buffalo - the boys enjoyed waiting for our flight on the rocking chairs - how funny is it that they had a row of rocking chairs at the airport?  :)

It was such a memorable trip, full of fun memories.  I'm already wanting to go back!