Class Trip to Brown's

I have to be honest, this field trip was stupid. I'm not sure why we went to Brown's (which is pretty much just a market to buy orchardy type things) and why I had to pay $3 for said trip. I'm also not pleased that it was scheduled at 1 pm and they canceled class for the day, which is from 9 - 11:30 am. I think this was just a ploy for the teachers to have the day off.

So, we went to Brown's. The kids listened to a lady talk about the "orchard" and the lame honey house that "once had bees, but no longer does" and then they got to pick 1 apple, that they didn't even get to take home with them, and do a "secret tour" that the parents couldn't participate in. (I assume they went into the market and got brainwashed to tell the parents to do all of their shopping there.) Then, they got a cup shot of apple cider and were sent on their way. 1 hour. That's how long this "trip" lasted. Apparently the teachers of Z's new school are unaware that we live in Amish country amongst 9 million different farms, some even offering HAYRIDES!

I digress. I guess the kids had fun.




Here the kids are listening to the orchard expert talk about apples.

Bees have 5 eyes... circle your eyes with your hands and look like a doofus to demonstrate this. Oh and it was 900 degrees and I dressed Z like it was 60. Mom Fail!

Inside the magical Honey House. Really, 4 year olds don't want to see pictures of bees. Just sayin'

A cute kid with an apple! That was worth $3

Z's class. they were saying "apple" - a bunch of hooligans! Note: there are 13 boys and 4 girls - Yikes!

Tailgate Party!

Zachary's school had a team tailgate party last Friday. Everyone was to wear their favorite teams colors. Obviously we chose to wear our Raven's gear!

Zachary spent the entire time hanging out with his best friend, Ethan.

The boys got their hair spray painted. Ethan wanted his sprayed black and Z went with the purple mohawk.

I would just like to note that Ethan is 6 months OLDER than Zachary.

Fall T-Ball!

Yes, Z is doing TWO sports right now! Tonight he started t-ball! He had a great time learning some of the fundamentals. He learned about putting his foot forward when throwing the ball, and I think he was pretty excited about how far the ball would go when he did that!

**excuse the bad cellphone pics. i left my memory card at home."

catching the ball (or attempting)

throwing the ball with emphasis

Football - European Style

It looks like my van is going to come in handy this Fall. I am indeed a soccer mom now! Zachary start "Wee Kicks" soccer last night and he absolutely loves it. He's still learning the fundamentals and isn't really playing any games yet. We're so excited to spend our Monday evenings out on the field watching him!

stretching before "practice"

doing some drills

soccer!!!! wooo!

Back to School - Pre-K Edition

Well, the time has come. Z is back in school after another fun-filled summer. We made a change this year and he's going to St. John the Baptist for Pre-K instead of Sunny Days, where he was the past 2 years. I was pretty anxious about this change but he has adapted just fine. It doesn't hurt that 2 of his buddies from last year are in his class. Ah the power of a familiar face(s).

We got the traditional "before" school pictures but I forgot my memory card at home so I wasn't able to get any pictures of him in his classroom. I'm going to sneak in during the year and embarrass him though, don't you worry.

My big 4 year old. 

Z & Daddy

and this girl... she's a lot of trouble

How did my baby get so big???

Our Summer

Does anyone know where the rest of July and August went? I can't believe it's September already!!!! I also can't believe I haven't updated in almost 2 months! What can I say? We were having too much fun!

Here is a recap of what we've been up to.

We played in the sprinkler. By "we" I pretty much mean Rich. He didn't even bother changing into a bathing suit, he just had a total blast in regular clothes.

Gotta love the rain boots to play in the sprinkler

Olivia learned how to eat corn. This kid is a corn eating machine and she takes it VERY seriously.

Sumo Corn Eater - Olivia Chisolm

We went to The Turkey Hill Experience in Lancaster with Katelynn. This was a pretty neat place but a bit too "old" for our kiddos. It would be good for kids 5 and up for sure.

Katelynn's face says it all "LAME!"

You know it's bad when we're in an ice cream factory and the kids are admiring the parking lot

Z the ice cream maker

Where's Olivia??

the ball pit was a hit

Katelynn and Z milked some plastic cows

We did some cleaning this summer. (Some of us without our pants on).

We also did some arts and crafts. Olivia LOVES to paint and color. Z has to be persuaded but once he gets started he enjoys himself.

We had some Hooters for lunch. Owls that is.

Olivia grew her hair and got her 1st set of pigtails!

We played dress-up and put out some fires riding horseback. You know, like they did in the old days.

We went to Dutch Wonderland!!!!! Can I say how upset I am that upon arrival I realized my lens was broken? I didn't have my camera bag with me either so I only got a few out-of-focus shots. The only good thing was that I got to really, really enjoy myself playing with the kids instead of worrying about capturing all of the fun. The day we went was super duper hot so we only rode rides for a little while. Olivia absolutely loved the rides. She didn't want to get off of them. We spent close to 4 hours in Duke's Lagoon (a splash park) and ran around getting soaked. The kids were so well-behaved and it is by far one of my favorite memories of the summer.

See Rich and Z up there?

Olivia gave me the stink-eye even when she was all dressed-up for Katelynn's 2nd birthday.

Z was supposed to be napping and I heard him being silly. I walked in to find him wearing his stuffed dog's football helmet. Needless to say, I was in tears from laughing so hard.

We went to the playground (a lot). We took many trips to various playgrounds in the area. This playground is at the Elementary school up the street. It was fun getting pictures of the kids having a blast on a gorgeous day.

Last but not least, we got READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!!!!!

I hope you all enjoyed your summer as much as we did. It went by far too quickly but we're looking forward to the new adventures this new school year is going to bring. Z started at a new school for Pre-K and Olivia and I are going to be enjoying StoryPlay on Mondays starting in a few weeks!! I promise to keep the Telegraph up-to-date as we continue our shenanigans!

My Promise

I promise that this week I will play catch-up and tell you all about our summer. We have a new school year starting next week and it wouldn't be fair to skip right to that, would it?

Stay tuned!!!