I just finally took the pictures from the end of summer off of my camera, so a beach post it is. While Jon and Hayley were in town we met them down at the beach one day, and the kids had a great time playing with their cousins in the sand. Sadly, it was the only time we made it to the beach this summer, which is really sad considering we live so close. We will have to do better next summer! 
Castle Crags:
Waterfall:
I'm the kind of person who likes lists. I like being able to scratch something off and feel like progress has been made. So, when I saw an idea somewhere for a summer bucket list, I decided we'd better put one together. I let the kids help come up with ideas of what they wanted to do, and then we decorated a can and wrote the ideas on clothespins and pinned them onto the can. When we did something from our list we unclipped it from the side and tossed it in the can to keep track. I like the idea of this, but the bummer now that summer is over is that I feel a little bit of guilt about all the things still pinned on the edge of the can that we never got to. You can look at the picture above to see what was left that we never got to. We might have to do some of them in the Fall. We did do a lot of fun things though, and many I have yet to blog about so you can expect some summer catch up posts coming soon.
A close up of the things we did:
I can't believe my oldest child is now 6! She had a rainbow birthday party last week to celebrate, and she was very specific about how the party should be, from the exact cake she wanted to the activities they would do. That is just very Elise - always wanting to be in control and perhaps a little bit on the bossy side :-). She has a ton of energy and is always getting her little brothers riled up. She plays very well with them most of the time, and likes to teach them things. She has a definite idea of how things should be in her mind for any given circumstance, and she sets out to make it that way. She is constantly trying to get her brothers to do things her way. She loves school, and is a social butterfly. She has become quite a good writer, and loves to do it. She also loves art. It made me laugh that for her end of year writing assessment last year she got a 4 out of 5. Her teacher told me that she actually wrote too much because she flipped the paper over and kept on going after the lines ran out on the front. If she had stopped at the end of page one she would have gotten a 5/5, but she had a hard time keeping her writing straight on the back of the page with no lines so she had to downgrade her to a 4/5. Ha ha. I guess that girl is too wordy even on paper. She is very proud that she has finally mastered the art of crossing the monkey bars. She worked on it every single day last year at recess - she is very determined and when she sets her mind to something, she will do it! She seems to like playing with boys more than girls, but gets along with girls as well as long as they want to play her way. She is a funny girl and she keeps us on our toes. We love you Elise!
A cute little girl who has decided that this year she will be leaving these behind.
And she will be replacing them with these.
I'm not too sure how I feel about that, but her dad is thrilled. All of my Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons in the forseeable future will be occupied with soccer. I am the team mom and have been busy ordering banners, making snack schedules, and handing out game info. I guess that officially makes me a soccer mom. I suppose I'm okay with that, but I sure am going to miss those sweet little ballet shoes.
Wait Mom, make sure you get a really good picture of my new backpack!
Ready to walk to school with her brothers. Notice the sock change? We decided since it has been over 100 degrees and very humid outside, it might be too hot for knee socks, even if they are way cuter.
With her first day of First Grade sign. We forgot to take this picture in the morning so we had to do it after school. Can you tell by her messy hair? Oh well.
