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Didn’t I say we’d have our swimsuits out if it warmed up again? On Saturday the high was in the 80’s, and the kids wanted to do the “crazy sprinkler”. Fortunately (with the cast) the sprinkler was a good pick, since Emma is afraid to turn it high enough to make it crazy and the main attraction is spraying each other with the arms. Now that the highs are in the low 50’s and northern Minnesota had snow today, we were sure grateful for that last day of October summer! (Emma still did ask for the sprinkler today, as she was wearing her beanie and mittens… no concept of cold!)

In all of the broken arm drama I missed posting our photos from our trip to Omaha. We finally made it down to visit our good friends from Philadelphia, without Nate since, as Zach says, “Daddy’s schedule, Brad’s schedule, Brad’s schedule, Daddy’s schedule… they are both really busy!” Besides the portable DVD player breaking as we backed out of the driveway (better there where we could still borrow one than 50 miles out of Rochester, I guess) we had a pretty uneventful trip down there and the kids were even still laughing as we arrived (mostly because Emma was throwing peanut butter crackers into the front seat). What’s a shop-vac for, I guess. Anyways we had a great time hanging out, playing some baseball (of course), feeding ducks (yes it was those Omaha ducks that Zach was chasing…) and at the zoo. Emma adored the princess sleeping bag and all the jewelry; and Zach loved that Ashley was so excited he was up at 6:45 am. (I am not that nice!) And it was good for me to spend so much time just laughing with such a good friend. Our old neighbor that still lives in Philly actually even called me while we were there – it felt almost like we were still in PA. So thanks, Broughs, for the great time – and thanks, Nate, for letting us go without you. We’ll take you next time and you can be the one getting pegged with crackers as you drive.

It’s broken. He was tough enough to keep us from really knowing it was until yesterday, at which point he would still tell you it doesn’t hurt and he can ride his bike, use his mitt, etc.) If you ask Zach how it happened you are certain to get this answer… “Chasing ducks. I was trying to feed them wheat bread (as if somehow that has something to do with it) and they were running away and I was chasing them fast. And I tripped and fell on some stones, with my hand bent like this and not like this but like this.” It is true. And the cast is red, unfortunately not waterproof, and has already started itching occasionally. Luckily Zach still thinks it is pretty cool and if you look at it in the right way, we now have wednesday mornings free (since I’m not sure they’ll let him chase other kids around at flag football with the wild swinging extremely hard cast!)

We took a little trip to our neighborhood fire station the other day… one of our favorite places. They give a little tour and let the kids climb in the trucks, and no matter how many times we go the kids absolutely love it. Having been there a lot, and having a few firefighter movies in our collection, Zach spends half the time telling the firefighter guide what he will say next. There is a lot of “I already knew that” and “In my movie…” and this past time the firefighter taking us around declared that Zach knew more than any kid that had ever come through their station. And all of a sudden Emma is brave enough to climb in the trucks! They both wanted to go there again this morning… I think we’ll take a little break while the firefighters forget what a high-maintenance group we are!

A couple of weeks ago we had a good 80* day right before the weather turned chilly and we had to break out our fall clothes. We tried to live it up and went to the little man-made beach near our house. I hated to leave the beach, afraid we would leave summer along with it, and let the kids stay until they were ready to go instead of responsibly taking them home for lunch and a nap. The cold spell came, as promised, but we still get an occasional really warm day here and there – and you can be sure we will try to hang on to summer and bring out the swimsuits every time.

Really – I’m not kidding. It just used to be Zach… and now he’s talked Emma into it too. Any time I ask anyone what they want to do – “play baseball!” “play t-ball!” “go to the baseball park!” And Zach has had this movie fom the library “Play winning baseball with Micky Mantle” that he talks about non-stop. Just ask my parents, who were doing drills from the movie a good majority of the time they were here. (Kind of like spring training, in the summer!) Zach’s preschool teacher asked him today in circle time what he liked to do with his friends and ended up getting an earful about baseball and sliding into second, proving that no matter what you start talking about, it always comes back to baseball. So here is the evidence of what we have lived this summer but never took pictures of until we had company. With the homemade bases hammered in with slip n’ slide stakes, the real t-balls and bat (finally!), and of course the helmet (that “fits” us all)… this has definitely been the summer of baseball. (The way it looks it may be the fall and winter of baseball too…)

Depending on who you ask, today could be Zach’s first or second day of preschool. He met his teacher and went (with me) for an hour on Tuesday, which to him was the first day, and so I took my camera (the t-ball shirt of course). But today, the official first day, every time someone said to him “are you excited for your first day of preschool?” he would say, “no, second!” We took another picture anyways, because everyone else thought today was the first day and they were. Zach was excited to go but seemed a little nervous when I dropped him off… he did fine though and the highlights of his first/second day included digging in the sand with another boy, pouring his own water all by himself without a grown-up, a monster goes to school story and his cubby with the yellow whale. (This is apparently where you sit when you come in from playing outside and dump the sand out of your shoes, in addition to being where you keep your backpack.) He goes in the afternoon while Emma naps so I’m not quite sure what to do with myself yet… maybe my house will be cleaner or maybe Emma will finally get her first year scrapbook. At any rate, preschool has begun – and although it is a little hard to send him to a “big” school instead of our co-op like last year, I think we will like it.

Grandpa B says that fishing is all about the experience. Since he is the expert, we waited for him and Grandma to come take the kids (and us) during their short-lived but much appreciated Labor Day weekend at our house. I have to admit that the kids disagreed with his definition of fishing – they thought that the fishing was all about the catch. Thank goodness Zach finally caught one… and then another, and then one for Emma. They were small, but they were fish! We had a great time… Emma’s job was to get the powerbait out and her face was covered with the glitter from it; and we had to almost drag Grandpa away from the pond (I think his fishing trips usually last longer than 2 hours.) And he left us a pole… so I’m sure we will be fishing (and hopefully catching) again soon.

When I told Nate we were taking the kids on the bus to the library, he looked at me like I was crazy. Then he told me I was crazy. Somehow, all that public transportation he took in Philadelphia ruined his sense of adventure. For the kids, however, waiting at the bus stop and riding on a real bus was one of the highlights of our summer! So even though I’m glad I don’t have to take the bus to the library every month, I’m glad I did at least once!

So tonight at dinner Nate taught Zach to sing “99 bottles of jam on the wall” (better than the alternative I suppose), which included some banging on the table for rhythm and effect. And then Zach figured out how to make farting noises by blowing on his arm… this one he taught himself, but we deserve the credit for laughing so hard that he did it again and again and then went to show the neighbors. Emma of course did plenty of table banging and “JAM ON THE WALL!” and arm blowing. You just can’t beat a family meal for good fun!