Visit to Nana and Papa's

We had our first trip to a pumpkin field, first huge leaf pile, and first ride (for Eva) on a train.  Life couldn't get more exciting.

She's Two

Well, I left the streamers up from Eva's first birthday for one year.  I wasn't ready to stop the celebration of her turning one.  Now I have more streamers up for her two year old birthday.  I also don't want to stop celebrating her turning two.

Her love is charming, her words are sweet, her smile is contagious, her hugs are addicting.  Holding her makes me feel like the luckiest woman in the world.  Looking at her makes any hard day suddenly right.  I love being her mother.  I will cherish any time that I can hold her.  She is my daughter that I love.

Jackie and Eva in front of her cupcakes that Aunt Jackie made.

 Grandy (96 years old) helping Luke golf... we had the kids try to roll a golf ball into a hole in a pumpkin.

 Here she is trying to play football with the cousins.  Daddy took a few photos while she was on the field.

Eva investigating her cake.

 Birthday kids.... Andrew 9, Bennett 7, Eva 2, Aaron not a birthday boy but 7, Boden 4.

 Eva tried on every present, read every book and opened every toy.  She loved all of her presents.  Here is one of her dolls.  I really liked all of her girly gifts.

Frolicking through the field

I just love the days that I can do something I love and have the kids love it too.  In high school I was voted, "Most likely to frolic through a field of flowers."  Now I just love watching my kids frolic through nearby fields.  They run with squeals of joy.  Every step of the path is new. 

Pumpkin Time

Fall has been so beautiful. Our nephew celebrated his fourth birthday, and grandma and grandpa deliverd mum's and pumpkins .  We also took our annual trip to Eberts.  Every day has been one to savor. 

End of Summer

There are so many fun things to do in summer, but every year it must come to an end.  We enjoyed taking Luke and Eva to downtown Milwaukee for the first time in their lives.  We have taken Luke to Chicago many times and he always asks to go back.  He loves watching all the activity in the city.  We never thought to bring him to Milwaukee.  He loved the harbor the most.  He was trying to guess which boat was the fastest.  Eva loved the kite store and the bike ride.  It was a wonderful day to savor summer.

Then we went to Seven Sea's for brunch...

Luke's first day of school.

Great weekend with friends at Beth Moore Confrence.

This is the best Hazen in the whole world

We had a great time being together with family at the Hazen this year.  We canoed, tubed, swam, played kick ball, roasted marshmallows, hiked, ran, biked, scooted, scavenger hunted, blew bubbles, colored, and played games.  I only get to see my cousins from Colorado 1-2 times a year so it is fun to see their families.  The kids for the first time did a 10:00pm dip with the full moon.  The adults started every morning with a 7:30am swim off of the dock.  We also played a classic game, Hit or Miss, where you try to write a series of common and uncommon things about a certain topic and you get scored accordingly depending on the roll of the die.  We were all surprised that the following things were not common according to our lists... things at the post office: a mail box, things you can slice: bread.  Then for those creative thinkers for uncommon things were... things with a remote: military drones, things in the dessert: maphia graves.