Zac's soccer team

 Zac started fall soccer again.  I love the color of his jersey this time.  Navy blue.  I forget what the name of their team is.  But Zac so far has been doing great. 

Team photo...because we are too cheap to buy one from the professionals.  :)  I wasn't even at the game and Rob snapped this picture.  Good job Rob!

And these cuties guarded the snacks the whole game.  :)  I wasn't there...I stayed home with Finley.  :)

Losing teeth

 Emery lost her first tooth a few weeks ago.  She is the first of my kids to lose a tooth before she started kindergarten. 

 Such a cutie!

Then a couple weeks ago we had some friends over.  Zac and Emery both had a really loose tooth so when Rob got home from work he pulled them out with a kleenex.  The friends were watching all the action and giggling while they whimpered and were freaking out a little while Rob tried to pull their teeth out.  Well apparently Zac's friend had a loose too also because right after Rob pulled both Emery's and Zac's teeth out, Bryant (Zac's friend) and his brother were hitting a balloon back and forth to each other.  Bryant's brother swung at the balloon and missed, but clocked his brother right in the mouth.  When he opened his mouth, his tooth was gone!  ha ha.  Fortunately we found it on the floor. 

 Three teeth gone within about 15 minutes of each other.  :)

My handsome jackolantern!

Peaches

 Our peach tree didn't have as many peaches on it this year as it did last year, but the ones we did get were amazingly delicious and juicy and huge!  We think it was because of a late snow.  A lot of our peaches just fell off the tree.  :(  But we still got quite a few and enjoyed every single one.

 I mean...look how big this peach is.  YUM!

 We all pitched in a picked them together.  I wish there was a way to get a few ripe peaches every week all year long.  But this is good too. 

 This was our haul.  And that is Sadie showing off how big they are. 

Riley couldn't resist and ate one right away.  Look how juicy it is!  

Here's to hoping we get some more of these yummy peaches next year!

First days of school!!

 The kids had their first day of school a couple days after the solar eclipse.  They were excited to start school again and see all of their friends.  We met their teachers the night before so they were ready.  

 They both wore their new shoes and Sadie wore one of her new shirts.

 Zac- 2nd grade  Sadie- 4th grade.

 Emery had another week until she started half day kindergarten, but she wanted to match Sadie so they both wore their hedgehog shirts.  

 This is the first year I didn't walk them to their lines on the first day.  They told me they would be fine and they both line up near each other, so I figured they would be ok.  But it hurt my heart a little bit.  They are growing up.

 Then a week later, Emery finally got to start kindergarten.  Riley and I had fun running errands and hanging out at home while she was gone for a couple hours.  Now it will be me, Riley and Finley.  :)  Emery loves school so far.

Solar Eclipse

 We were excited about watching the solar eclipse a couple days before the kids went back to school.  I was worried about the kids going blind looking at the sun or looking around the glasses we had, so I saw this online and copied it.  We attached them to paper plates for more protection.  :)

 The kids kept running outside to check if it had started yet.  Zac was the first one to spot it!

 We just hung out on the deck and ate donuts and popcorn and occasionally checked on the eclipse.  The thing that I thought was the coolest was how the temperature dropped noticeably.  It was crazy!

 We also loved looking at the shadows.  

I really enjoyed watching the eclipse from our backyard.  My parents drove to Idaho to see the eclipse in totality.  They said that was pretty amazing. 

Sweet's Candy Tour

 Before the kids started school, my friend invited us to come along with them to a tour of the Sweet's candy factory.  I had been wanting to do this for a while, so I said "sure!" and we went with them.  It was a pretty cool tour although you don't actually get to see the workers making the candy.  But they do show you some videos and give demos of how everything is made.  It is mostly taffy (which I don't really like) but it was really cool to see how it is made.  And they gave out free samples.  :)

 We were the first to get there so we wandered around and took some pictures.

 Then the rest of the group showed up. 

 My cute kids.  

 I loved all of the candy on display.  It's just so colorful and bright.  :)

And they showed us how they make their cinnamon bears.  They just use cornstarch and a metal shape that stamps into the cornstarch.  Sadie got to help demonstrate this part.

Overall it was a good tour.  So if you haven't been, you should go.  It's interesting and fun.

Visit from Family- Finale...ropes coarse and tie dye

 My parents set up a really awesome ropes coarse in our backyard for the kids to do.  It was really involved and took a lot of prep work.  They spent a lot of time setting it up for the kids and they really really liked it.  Well I know my kids did anyway.  My dad timed each one of them and it took them around 18 minutes or so the first time and then around 10 minutes the times after that.  It was impressed that they all stuck with it and didn't give up.  18 minutes is a long time, but they finished strong.  And they all improved on their times the second and third try.  So fun!

 Ready to start!

 Sadie went first.  Then I think it was Calvin and then Zac.  Here they are at various parts of the coarse.  Walking through the water, and the wheelbarrow ride.

 They even had to climb their way into the truck and honk the horn at one point.

 Scott showing off his muscles and Evan was on wheelbarrow duty.  He did a good job too.

 Riley even took a turn (with help) and my mom took over on the wheelbarrow for a while.

 I think that was the kids favorite part.

 My dad...the official timer.

 Evan and Scott had to try out the coarse too.  

 When everyone was done outside, grandma pulled out some Nerf guns and the kids all shot at plastic cups.  IT was a hit!

 For lunch, we went out to Tucanos.  So yummy!  Thanks mom and dad!  Scott played this cool piano outside.

 While the kids played on these teeter totters.

 Then we found this table with swings for chairs. Of course the kids had to try them out.

 While we were all together the kids made tie dye shirts and I love how they turned out.  So bright and colorful.

 Then we just started snapping pictures left and right.  :)

 Cousins!

 

 The day before school started, I wanted to take the kids to get a snow cone.  I went at 12:15 and it wasn't opened.  Then I went back around 2:30 and it was still closed!  Finally we went back at 3 and it was opened.  Sheesh.  It was worth it though.  So yummy.

This is just a random picture from that morning.  Riley was laying on the stair and Daisy was watching the older kids.  

It was so fun to have family around for so long.  The kids really love being with their cousins and after they left, Sadie kept telling me how it was too quiet and how much she missed them.  :)