End-of-Summer Fun!

I can't believe it's almost time for school to be starting again! We'll certainly miss the more-leisurely pace of summer but are excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in the coming months! Matt is looking forward to his fourth year as assistant principal at Concordia. The school enrollment numbers are up from last year, and Matt is excited about getting to know the new students and their families. I will tutor again this year and will probably have 9-10 students. As much as I enjoyed classroom teaching when I did it, I don't miss it now that I have the opportunity to stay home with Ian during the day and tutor three evenings each week!

Here's what we've been up to these last few days of summer ...

My friend Lauren (on right) invited me to take three baking classes with her, her mom (not pictured), and Melissa (in middle). So far, we've learned how to make icing, lots of ways to decorate with icing, how to use fondant, etc. We've had a lot of fun together!

On our last "Family Fun Friday," we went to the circus together.

This was Ian's first circus, and the first circus Matt or I had been to in a long, long time!

Ian mostly really liked it, especially when there was lots of action going on. His favorite "events" included the elephants, the motorcyle drivers (both "in the cage" and on the tightrope), the acrobats, and the trampoline jumpers.

He got a little restless during the slow parts, like while the tigers doing tricks. During the body benders part, when I looked down at him, he was lifting his feet up to his forehead, trying to copy them. Hilarious!

One of Ian's favorite pastimes is putting ALL of his stuffed animals into his crib and then asking to get in with them. We're in the process of getting Ian's "big boy room" together so that he can move over there in the next few months. When Kim first showed him his new big boy bed, he said, "I don't like big boy beds!" and then proceeded to call himself "baby Ian" for the rest of the afternoon. Thankfully, he seems to be coming around to the idea now that a few days have gone by. :)

Ian is finally big enough to wear the UT jersey our friend Chris gave him!

We went out for a very belated anniversary dinner this past weekend (thanks for watching Ian, Eric, Carrie, and Ian!). We enjoyed uninterrupted conversation and a yummy "dinner for two" at PF Changs (thanks for the gift money, Mom & Dad!). Ian had a great time, too. :)

We returned the favor so that Eric & Carrie could go out for an anniversary dinner, too. We absolutely loved our time with almost-six-year-old Melissa! We've watched her grow up, so she has a very special place in our hearts!

Ian absolutely loves her, too, and likes to copy everything that she does!

We all were a little silly during our time together!

Matt has been in full-swing home improvement mode! Ian "helped" take off the old door hardware, and then Matt sanded and stained the part of the door underneath where the new hardware would go.

The new door hardware (plus a new kickplate, which isn't pictured) are the finishing touches to making our front door look brand new. Way to tackle those projects, babe!

On Wednesday, we met some friends at Teddy Bear Park, a park specially geared for toddlers that we hadn't been to before. Ian really liked the slides!

He also took time to pull some weeds he found in the wood chips, a new favorite pastime at home as well. He gets proud to show that he also "pulled out the root!"

My friend Carole was super creative and taught a mini-art class to the kids that came. She had all the kids (Ava, Ian, Caleb, and Carson) sit on red mats while she taught them about bubble wrap.

Ian had never seen or touched bubble wrap before, and he thought it was VERY fun to pop!

Caleb and Ian especially liked to lay down while popping the bubbles.

After the kids spent a while popping bubbles, Carole showed them how to paint the bubble wrap and then use the bubble wrap to "stamp" a piece of paper. The art project was a huge hit! Thanks, Carole, for the great idea!!

Afterwards, Carson shared his spray bottle with Ian! Ian was a huge fan! In fact, we bought our own 97-cent spray bottles afterwards and have already had a few "water fights." :)

When we got home, we realized that our brand-new laptop (Hooray! Now we don't have to worry about our computer randomly turning itself off. AND now we're able to successfully Skype with family that lives far away!) came with some HUGE "bubble wrap" that Ian could pop while jumping. He thought it was so fun!

Ian tried his very first artichoke this week. He thought it was very fun to dip the leaves in the lemon-butter sauce and bite off the bottom. We even captured a video of his experience.

Here, Ian and his friend Caleb got the silly idea to lay under our rug. (Ian had just gotten his shirt completely covered in yogurt during lunch.)

Our friend Aliceson had the great idea to have a Date Night "co-op" so we parents can have a night out every few weeks. We take turns watching the kids while the other adults go on a date night. Last night was our night to baby-sit. We had a great time with everyone's sweet kids and laughed a lot at their silly antics.

Needless to say, our house was pretty quiet after everyone went home! :)