the rest of August

 August was filled with school and some other random activities like swimming and painting ducks at the Kentucky Museum.

 Lewis and his duck.

 Lewis at Chick-fil-A.

 A Sixpence None the Richer cd release show! Their new album finally came out.  Funny thing is we have all been listening to it, and Lewis has been figuring out some of the songs on piano. 

More walking around the square.

 A ton of Olympics watching and pretending to be swimmers. Owen LOVED so much about the Olympics.

 Coffee drinking.

 Rare photo opps.

And Family Fest at Chaney's.  Man, we packed it in!

more big girl Phoebe

 So in August, Phoebe seemed to get feeding herself down.  She is not totally neat or independent, but she can get some bites on her own, which is great! Here is a video of her eating watermelon with a fork.

 We enjoyed the boys being back in school to get out by ourselves.

Here's another video of her walking and trying to jump in downtown Bowling Green.

 She got into brushing her teeth, which also seems to soothe her big molars coming in.

She also likes watering the flowers.

Phoebe mastered climbing up and going down our little slide all by herself at 16 months which really surprised us.  She also does slides at the park now too.  She is quite the overachiever compared to her brothers in this regard.  She is climbing on EVERYTHING she can these days which can be scary for us, but so far no major injuries have occurred. Here 's another video:

A couple more of our cute girl climbing into this chair by herself.  So silly!

Cahoons depart

In August, our friends Courtney & Jonathan Cahoon moved to Rochester, NY so that Jonathan could pursue a Master's in Architecture.  You may be noticing a them that we said a lot of goodbyes this summer!  In fact, in this photo from Courtney's birthday party, the friend next to her, Kaycee, also moved in September. 

 We got to play with their many children one day while they packed. Here are four of them swinging at the park (in age order, oddly enough!).

 Our friend, Shawna, helped that day. 

 I failed to take many pictures from their 'going away' party, but got one of the cake. 

And one of Judith with her dog (that every child loves).  It was terribly sad seeing them go, as we greatly enjoy their company, but we hope they will come back someday!!

Mandy's visit

At the end of July and into August, we had a visit from our great friend, Mandy Guss.  Mandy was preparing to leave for a STINT in Central Asia.  She was wrapping up support, connecting with friends and tying up loose ends.  It was great to see her! We enjoyed some good time ushering her out of the country.

 She got to read some books to Phoebe (over + over + over!).

Lewis took the opportunity to dress up like "imposter Mandy" after we ran in the Race 4 Kids.  He got into costume: glasses and all.

We love Mandy and are excited about her time abroad.  To keep up with her, check her blog HERE.

back to school

 Lewis went back to school on August 2, 2012!  He's in first grade this year, and it has been going pretty well.  He's been the student of the week and even got award "student of the month" in September!  He has a new assistant this year who he likes pretty well, and his teachers are the same from last year, so it was a very smooth transition.

 This was Owen on the first day of school when Lewis was back and he was at home with me & Phoebe. He decided to be Curious George.

 After school, Lewis & I stopped in for some coffee.

 Owen started back to school on August 13th.  He was happy to get to go with Lewis.  He's still in Mrs. Brandy's class and enjoying it well.

Here he is getting off the bus after his first day.

He's reading well enough that Mrs. Brandy let him read to the class on day.  CLICK HERE to see the video on her website.

Aunt Ellen's birthday

 We had a birthday celebration for Aunt Ellen in July.  Owen was happy to help her blow out her candles.

 Phoebe was happy to help her eat some cake, though not very ladylike.

Owen was thrilled that we had gotten her a "Mr. Coffee" and made a point to tell her about it way before opening gifts. Oh well, that's what we get for expecting a four year old to keep a secret. 

random summer pics

 Trying to squeeze in all the highlights from the summer.  It's tough!  We spent a lot of town at our local parks. Phoebe enjoyed swinging and even some with daddy.

 In July, we had a visit from the Powells.  Lewis and Corrie were born just a month apart.  It was funny to get them together again.  Owen enjoyed a game of pop-up pirate with Corrie also.  We enjoyed having Mary and Carrie visit too (but failed to capture a photo).  We have such a fondness for this family! Love it when we get to see them. :)

 We spent some time at the fountain at Circus Square Park.  Phoebe really loved it.  The boys were a bit terrifying there because they love to run around, but it is great way to spend an evening when it's hot.

 The boys got into helping me cook some this summer.  And we got to combine that with dress up also.  Nothing like having Buzz Lightyear helping to bake muffins!

 Also in July, we had to say goodbye to Ben & Whitney Winkler. Ben had been working with the boys as one of our Community Living Supports providers through our Medicaid waiver and had also worked at school, even letting us in the door when running late a few times.  Combine that with church activities, our small group etc. and we have really missed this family!  They moved to St. Louis so that Ben could study at Covenant Seminary. We got to spend some time with "Baby Ellie" (who is getting so big) before they left.  She and Phoebe actually played a little together.

Beyond that, we walked through puddles wearing crazy hats, found a decent shopping cart at Walmart, had both boys dress up like me (what an honor!)....

 saw Lewis dress up like daddy multiple times,

&  Aunt Beth made an Angry Birds costume for Owen, totally at random one day.

Owen got to perfect his bike riding (with training wheels).  We had an awful bout with Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease at the end of the summer (late July before school started).  You can see "the bumps" in this photo of Owen on his wrist and hand.  Owen had the worst case, but Phoebe, Lewis, Justin and Aunt Beth also all had it.  It was pretty crazy.  They were over it relatively quickly but the bumps hung around for a while and then their skin peeled off.  Just recently the kids lost multiple toe nails and fingernails (gross, I know!) as new ones had grown in underneath.  I think we are finally past of the effects of this weird illness. Ahh, summer!

Please watch this hilarious video of Owen dancing with his Gordon costume on.  It's worth a couple minutes of your time.