Labor Day at Lake Wawasee

 It was Uncle Adam's idea to go to a lake during Labor Day weekend.  My parents said Ok as long as you do the research.  So Adam found the place and we all showed up for Labor Day Laker Fun!

 This is the only picture you can see our house in the background.  It doesn't look big but it held all 15 of us!

 The first day we got there was a little chilly.

 Can you tell from all the sweatshirts?

 But Tommy didn't care!

The next morning the boys went for a bike ride. 

While the girls and Grandpa and Tommy went for a boat ride.  Our ride was much more fun according to Adam.  Heehee! 

Charlotte was just happy to drive the boat with Grandpa.  You can tell how happy she is but how many of her bottom teeth you can see. :) 

We came back to pick up the boys and make some sandwiches for the boat.  Charlotte was excited to make her own sandwich for once.  Mmm cheezit sandwiches! 

Time to head out on the water again! Uncle Adam was ready!

Sandbar time! Hey look that's me! I made it into a picture or two! :)

We met up with one of Adam's friends and his family and their little boy joined us on the tube.

 Tommy and Dada decided to take the tube for an actual ride at some point during the day.  He loved it! He was smart to wear those goggles.

 Charlotte was by Emily's side the entire weekend I think. :)

 Look at Charlotte's face.  She looks like she's actually riding the tube around.  Turns out, she's just floating gently in the water.  Ha!

The house had a beautiful deck where we spent most of our time.

Photo crew goes to Emily for this one.  So cute. 

 Not sure who took this one but I love it.  Isabel looks to the future of boating. 

Uncle Adam grabbed some GoPro Shots that turned out pretty great as always. 

 Charlotte took a good one too! ;)

This one is especially cute.  #topknot 

Our last night at the house, Brandon got out the karaoke machine.  Many of us sang a tune from Andrew's iPhone.  The kids' greatest hit was "HandClap" by Fitz and the Tantrums.  I was involved in that performance and we had the whole crowd going.  It was so much fun that no one got a video! Boo!! :(  But it was definitely awesome.  Charlotte was a dancing machine! 

 At 10 pm, it was sound DOWN.  No more karaoke.  The kids had to go to bed and everything fell silent.  All except for the game of spoons in the kitchen.  I didn't play this time.  It seemed VERY intense so I'm kind of glad I sat this one out.  I don't think there was any blood or biting so that's a plus.

 Awwww someone wrote Lake Keiper on the steps.  Cute!

 Awwww, someone decided to cross it out and write Thornburg instead.  I wonder who that was... ;)

 We picked up some sweet shirts for the whole family while we were in town.

The weekend getaway was a super success.  So much so that Charlotte crawled into my lap at 4:30 pm on Monday and fell asleep.  It was a big exciting and tiresome weekend.  Definitely a win!  Can't wait to do it again!

Girls Day Out

 When your friend flies in from Oregon, you must get together!

So the girls got together in Renssy at Fenwick Farms Brewing Company. None of us had tried it so we had to check it out.

I got a fun little flight to try several beers.

We had a great time chatting it up and then ignoring each other while we checked our phones.  Ha!

After many beers, we decided to walk around the bustling metropolis of Rensselaer.  We found these mushrooms spray painted on a wall behind the brewery.  Why not take a picture?

We thought this looked like a great place to pose like we were in some kind of weird heavy metal band for ladies.

 We walked back to the brewery and got our picture taken out front.

 We also got a picture in front of the jewelry store next door that our friend from high school's parents owned.

 We found a random bus stop behind the pub? Still can't figure that one out.

 Then we spent some time being courthouse critters.  We did a few somersaults in the lawn until we ran into our gymnastics coach's parents.  Well-timed on our part, with the somersaults. :)

 We made a quick stop at the Busy Bee for some ice cream.

Our final stop before walking back to my parents was standing like weirdos to get a selfie in front of the house Krissi grew up in. Awww.
Now that was a super Renssy-tastic day out with the ladies!

Start of School Year 2017: First Grade and The Fours Class

Here we are August (yeah I know I'm late) of 2017 and it's time for school to start.  AAHHH! I can't believe the summer went so fast and I have a preschooler and a first grader.  CRAZY.  

 Because I didn't want summer to end, I took off Monday afternoon before school started and I took Tommy to Get Air... and boy did we ever.

 We jumped all over that place.  Then we went to Barnes and Noble and Tommy convinced me to buy him things that he really didn't need.  But my boy was heading off to school... so of course he needed a Ninjago Lego Character Encyclopedia among other things.
I felt bad so I bought Charlotte a My Little Pony book too. :)

That night was Tommy's Meet the Teacher Night where we dropped off our school supplies. Charlotte came with us and she made herself right at home in Mrs. Lane's chair.  :) Tommy was super excited.  There was so much stuff to look at and school supplies to put away.  We were busy and then it was over so quickly. 

 Charlotte had a meet the teacher night too.  We received this letter before the night addressed to Charolette.  I thought to myself, hopefully this is a just one little spelling error.  When we arrived to the preschool class,  her name was misspelled 5 times throughout the classroom.  Luckily they were able to easily change the misspelled name tags.  She's going to learn how to spell her name this year so we would really like her to be able to spell it right. :)

 The Tuesday before school started for Tommy, we went to the state fair.  Charlotte actually started school on Monday and then I took her out on Tuesday.  Whoopsie! Anyway, we went to the state fair because we had an employee appreciation day there.  My parents came too. My mom and i went to our meeting where we had lots of speakers and then we were free to roam around the rest of the day.  Charlotte and Tommy had to sit through the meeting which was a little rough.  So we stayed in the back and made them eat sandwiches.  Senator Joe Donnelly saw them sitting there eating and said, "Wow, those sandwiches look really good right now!"  Ha! I hope he likes bologna.  :)

 After our meeting was over, we fed some animals.

 We had to visit the Glass Barn for our obligatory Glass Barn photo booth picture.

 They had some new backgrounds this year.  The corn dog one was fun!

 Then it was time for some rides!

 Charlotte and I rode the elephants! Look at that smile.  Hehehe!!

 Tommy and I rode the ferris wheel which always freaks me out.  Gotta be brave for this dare devil!

 Our view of the main drag.

 After the rides, we went to see the horses.  This picture doesn't do the size of this horse justice.  I swear this horse was 10 feet tall.  Flipping HUGE.

 Tommy and Charlotte enjoyed the Lego exhibit.  Tommy was confused though.  He was wondering why all the blocks were the same color and size.  Where were all the lego guys?? Ha! He actually had to use his imagination a little for this. :)

 The next day, I took the kiddos to school. They were ready!

First day of school pic.  Tommy probably wants to play with Legos for a living more than swimming but he certainly likes swimming right now. :) 

Charlotte had a hard time deciding what she wanted to be.  I think she thought it was more of a Halloween question.  I would ask her and she would say, "A unicorn! Rapunzel! Belle!"  I'm like, "No what do you want to do as a job to make money?" "Cupcakes?" "Yeah sure, that'll work." :) 

 Some outtakes from our first day of school pictures. 

 I dropped Tommy off at school and luckily had lots to do in the office dropping off the epi-pen and other meds so I had to keep it together.  It was hard.  But I did it.  Then I stayed in my car for awhile in the parking lot of the school before I took off for work.  While I was sitting there, I was able to hear the morning announcements outside of the school.  Hilarious.  It also made me really excited for Tommy's new experiences to come.  School is so fun and I had forgotten all the cool stuff they do.
Anyway, while I was sitting there, I got a call from the school. I almost got out and ran into the school because I figured they were calling because he was having an allergic reaction or something.  Turns out, I just needed an extra form for the meds and the school nurse was calling me about that.  Phew!
But in the afternoon before I went to pick him up, I got this picture from his soccer coach who is also a teacher at the school.  He was definitely having a great day and has great people taking care of him. I was so proud and happy.  The kid is a stud, right? :)

I don't have a picture from the end of Charlotte's first day but Charlotte is also really enjoying preschool.  I think her favorite part is learning new songs.  She is always singing.  She is working really hard on writing letters and staying in the lines while coloring.  She loves her teacher and her friends and seems to be super happy in preschool too.
I'm sad they are growing up so fast but I am overjoyed to see how they grow and what kind of people they become.
Love you Tomster and Charshe.  :) You make me so proud.