Benjamin's first day of kindergarten

Paul coming home, Benjamin leaving

On the "practice" bus ride the day before school started

Paul's first day of preschool

Before

After

Golfing with Dad

I took Paul to preschool orientation this morning, and Jonathan and Benjamin had some bonding time.  What better way to spend it than playing golf?!  This was Benjamin's first time on a REAL golf course.  As he put it on the way home, "This is the best day of my life!"  (Now, he usually says, at least once a week, "This is the best meal ever!"  But we take these statements to mean he really likes something. :)

Splash pad

Broken Moon

We could see a half moon on the way home tonight, and Paul said, "Look!  Somebody broke the moon!"

Aunt Mary and Uncle Ken

Aunt Mary and Uncle Ken came for a visit over the weekend.  They had just sold their New Jersey home the day before arriving.  They'll be permanent residents of Florida now.  We're sad to see them go, because we often spent Thanksgiving with them or would go down for an overnight visit, just to get away.  We could see them and Jonathan's grandma, and sometimes his aunt Joan and some cousins.  However, we had a good visit with them.  Friday we did some sight-seeing, and Saturday we celebrated Paul's birthday.  They left Sunday after church.  I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but here are a few.

 Most of the furniture and and TV came from Aunt Mary and Uncle Ken's house.  Jonathan's excited for the new TV.  I'm glad to have a hyda-bed for another place for people to sleep when they visit.  We did some re-arranging of the living room.  The entertainment center is now in Paul's old room.  We're using it as toy storage, so we were able to claim some living room space back.  Granted, it only looks like this after the boys go to bed!

Paul opening a present from Aunt Mary and Uncle Ken.  Very excited to get more...CARS!

Stonington Lighthouse--we enjoyed climbing the tower!

Hopscotch

Happy Birthday, Paul!

Paul turned three years old yesterday.  I know everyone says it, but I really can't believe how quickly the time has gone!  We moved him to his "big boy" bed a couple weeks ago.  He's sleeping on the bottom bunk bed in Benjamin's room.  We've put the crib in the attic and made that room into a toy room/miscellaneous room.  (I'll post pictures once we get it all cleaned up.)  Potty training is going very well.  We haven't had hardly any accidents recently.  Good news, since he'll be starting preschool next week.  Bad news is he wants to go standing up like the other males of the family, which means cleaning the toilet and floor every day!

This was from the birthday celebration we had when Aunt Mary and Uncle Ken were here over the weekend.

 Paul wanted to go to the driving range and mini golfing for his birthday.  We have a little one in town, so we went after Jonathan got home from work.

Singing "Happy Birthday" again, on the actual birthday.

Paul thought he had to share every present with Benjamin.  He opened a birthday card with $2 in it, and asked Benny, "Which one do you want?"  Guess he doesn't have much that is just his!  I'm thankful they're usually so great at sharing!

Biggest line up ever

They boys made a "line up" with all of the cars, trucks, and tractors they own.

North Dakota trip

We had a great time with my family in North Dakota the last week in July.  All of us gathered at Jonathan and Sarah's house, and then journeyed west several hours to stay at a Lutheran camp.  I had always pictured North Dakota as flat farmlands, but was surprised to find that some of it is quite hilly with a lot of trees and water.  Our cabin by the lake was very nice, surrounded by trees and with a view of the lake.  Besides a few mishaps with some animals, fondly referred to as the "plagues," we had a fun week.  After our third day of animal encounters, we began to wonder what was next:

Day One:  Hornets--Bella discovered a hornets' nest and was stung several times, along with Ryan who rescued her.

Day Two:  Mice--Ryan and Rachel awoke very early to a mouse crawling over their beds!

Day Three:  Horse--James got bit feeding a horse.

Day Four:  Leeches--Jonathan and I got leeches stuck on us while swimming in the lake.

Day Five:  Tick--Jonathan pulled a tick off of himself.

All in all, it could have been a lot worse.

A shot of all the cousins:
Bella (2), James (2), Michael (2 months), Benjamin (5), Bo (13 months), and Paul (2)

The big cousins

We had a campfire two nights and roasted s'mores.

Playing in the sand at a state park.

Hopefully Michael didn't get too spoiled by all the people around to hold him!

 The camp had paddle boats, canoes, and kayaks for us to use.  There was also a small swimming area.

The kids' first time in Canada!

Baseball, of course!

 Holding our new cousin, Michael.

Bo had some stranger anxiety while we were there, and always wanted Mom or Dad in sight.  However, Grandma playing the piano was too much to resist!  He had to sit on her lap.

The tooth fairy visits!

Benjamin lost his first tooth on Sunday evening.  We discovered it was loose a month or so ago, when he tried to eat corn on the cob.  He finally wiggled it loose, and was very excited to have a visit from the tooth fairy that night.