Summer has ended, bring on Fall

Warning: The following post has a lot of pictures.... Feel free to skim. Long story short, we had a fun summer! :)

The warm weather is changing into my favorite time of year. I love this season..... "Summall"? It isn't officially fall and it isn't really summer (I don't think needing a sweatshirt in the morning and frost on my grass should be considered summer) And it is my favorite. I love cool morning with crisp fresh air, and I love that it still gets warm enough during the day to feel the need to cool off in the shade. But I wanted to sum up our summer and document the pics and the memories before they were gone. So here they are.....

I love popcicles, and I love that kids think they have hit the jackpot if they get one

The grass is always greener on the other side

I think this picture very well describes both of them

Seriously too cute and fun!

Brian bought us another dirt bike. It is suppose to be for me, but I have learned along the way that it is more of a way for him to justify these types of purchases.... But it is a great bike and I'm pretty excited about the deal he found. Its a CR 150, so a little bigger than the one I was riding. But the day he bought it we went out to the track here in Hardin to take it for a test spin. :) Here are some pics from that adventure.

I think I have made her take too many pictures... These are the faces I get now.

Look at that beast :)

Madi loves... LOVES... taking pictures, and I showed her how to use my camera and she loved it. So I let her take it for a little bit to see what she could do. Here are the results... 

It was pretty nice to BE in some of the pictures and not just behind the camera! ha ha ha nice to have proof I actually do hang out with my family. My "selfies" are usually pretty wretched.

Madi says that the bike is hers, but that she will let me borrow it while she is still growing up. :) So kind and thoughtful of her.

In case you can't tell, she is loving this adventure.

We told Madi there is no way to ride the dirt bike if she still can't ride her bike with no training wheels, which meant (If you give a mouse a cookie...) we had to go home and take the training wheels off and give it a whirl. So the next day that is what we did...I'm not sure how long it will take, but seems like it could be some time before she is on a dirt bike.... I don't think we are the best teachers for riding bikes either, so it is probably the combo.

She thought she was doing so well... but she is pretty dependent on her dad balancing for her.... Other parents, do you have any tips???

Madison's facial expressions have so much emotion in them. It is amazing to me. Her eyes are very telling.

More of Madi's photo work:

We took pictures of each other taking pictures! buah ha ha

The rockstar

I have a friend that always referred to clouds like this as toy story clouds, and that is what it felt like to me. It was a toy story sky.

Here you can see my garden. It survived and it has done pretty well actually! We have gotten a lot of beans, and then a little bit of corn, peas, tomatoes, carrots, and 2 peppers so far! My onions are dwindling. I'm not exactly sure they will make the cut. I guess we will find out soon enough.

The following pictures are from our Labor Day. We went to Dayton, we all love that little town and the fantastic park that it has. It is about an hour away and it was a perfect day. A little bit cooler but by no means cold, there was no wind (I really could go the rest of my life with no wind) and the sun was shinning brightly! We took some food for a BBQ dinner and brought some of the kids toys for them to play with while we were there. It was a super fun day. Some of these pictures are repeats from Mason's post... because well it was his 1/2 birthday. Worth celebrating right? But sorry about the duplicates... 

The Roxy moe got to come. She was so excited. 

Getting ready to get the grill going

I realized the poor child really hasn't been around many trees. We go to parks and such, but big established trees are not common. And at our house we have one little tree that missed a crucial pruning so it looks more like a bush. I wonder what he is thinking?

Bubble Fun!!

She was diving after the bubbles she just made

I love this pic!

And sometimes cranky kids need to be transported like this.

Poor guy was ready for a nap, and it just didn't happen. He was tired and therefore cranky. Carrying him this way prevented a lot of hitting and biting..... I should probably clarify, him hitting and biting us, not the other way around. 

Good ol' Roxy chased a squirrel... and I love how Brian and Madi look almost the same.

She can be so much fun!

This my friends is how my family feels about pictures

The big papa..

makes a splash!

Madi was holding onto some creature, a bug, or worm... I don't remember now, but we told her it wouldn't survive if she kept it and held it all the way home. We made her put it back where she found it...

And this was her sad walk back to us

It is so hard to be 4 sometimes...

Fall will  be here before we even know it. Hoping I can get some things done in my new free time I have acquired. Madison is still loving school and her teacher really likes her (At least she tells me she does) and when I pick her up from school the other teachers also comment on how much fun she is. She comes home with new songs she learned and all kinds of stories. It has been a lot of fun. Mason and I have had some fun mornings just him and I. We were even doing some painting the other day! Poor kid has  been deprived, I feel like I did a lot better with giving Madison opportunities for crafts and such, but it is finally Mason's turn. :) Hopefully I can step up my mom game. :)