First Day, etc.

So Emma's first day of school went well. As usual, she was not horribly forthcoming with details. She was able to choose who she sat with and she sat with her "normal" friends Olivia, Hannah, and Emily. It was very hot and the school has no A/C, but she didn't really talk about that at all. When she got home she was kind of quiet, but I think mostly because she was pretty tired after a long day! This morning Emma rode the bus to school with her friends Cole (her grade) and Olivia (3rd grade). It was a bit of a trauma for her, but she made it.

The long day of heat was pretty hard on Timmy. He doesn't do very well in the heat! He did spruce up at the end of the day when Grandma and Grandpa D stopped by for the first time all summer. They got back to Lake Geneva a bit earlier than they expected, so dropped by for a half hour or so on their way home. Timmy, especially, was very happy to see Grandpa D.

Today we're enjoying a bit of cooler weather. There was a bit of a thunderstorm and some rain already, and the temperature is still only in the 60s, so I think we're in for a much cooler day ... thankfully. We'll see Laura, Gow, and Sally later today and overnight for the next couple of nights. That plus Timmy's first day of school tomorrow should keep us busy!

Back and Bloggin'

I guess it's been a few days since the last post ... so I better get back to it!

It was an extended family kind of weekend. After feeling a bit under the weather throughout the week (all of us at one point or another), I think we all were feeling back to normal by the weekend. Saturday the kids and I went down to Crystal Lake to go to a parade (lots of candy was gotten) and carnival (one ride each, plus some free crafts, hair painting, etc). In and around that was time spent playing with cousins and BBQing. It was nice to have all my sisters (and their families) there. Cyndie had to babysit for the pastor's kids in the morning, so she stayed home and then spent much of the afternoon running errands kid free, which was a bit of a break in and of itself.

Sunday was church, then more cousin hangout time as the Casparis and Gowans came up (Jane having spent the night with us Saturday night). Dale and Jeannine and their kids came over to BBQ around 3, so we spent plenty of time playing Cornhole and ping pong too.

Yesterday was a bit more low key. Laura, Gow, Sally, and Jane spent the night, and so we kind of just hung out in the morning, had a leisurely lunch and then they left around 2. The rest of the day we relaxed and readied ourselves for school starting today! (Which included a trip to the pool and a run to Home Depot for some jacuzzi related stuff). We all went this morning to drop Emma off. She was excited and nervous, but when Cyndie actually walked her to the door, she said Emma was ready to be off by herself and was gone! Her school day is 8:30 to 3:20 ... much longer than last year. It'll be interesting to hear her account of the day, that is if we can get her to say anything!

"Final" Door pix

So, the doors are in. We haven't gotten a bill yet, so it great!!! We still need to finish the inside (welcome back home Dad, want to help me with some drywall?), but the huge amount of natural light that is now in that room is great!


Here's the guys that put it in ... our friend Dan is the one on the right.

Working outside. It was a bit drizzly, so they used the tarp to keep dry.

The "finished" doors inside (oh, by the way, the locks won't be here until the 15th!).

And from outside.

And some flowers that I walked by on the way to take the pix.

For now the doors are only windows since they're a pain to open with nothing to grab onto. I wrapped a cinder block with a towel to hold them shut in case of wind. We're already enjoying our new addition!!

Getting caught up on Pix ...

Okay, so I say getting caught up, but almost by the time I am caught up, I'll be behind because the door is going in today, so I'll probably take some more pix of that. Oh well, maybe a better term is "nearly" caught up.

Here's Emma and Timmy playing cornhole. Thanks to Jim and Laurie for giving us the beanbags and a giftcertificate to home depot to get the materials. It's a fun game! Basically it's a lot like horse shoes, just with bean bags and no permanent stakes in the yard on which to impale children.

Here's Cyndie and the sailboat racing team. The guy in the back is our friend Jack, the skipper.

Here are some pix of the cousins (minus sick Timmy) on our trip to six parks. The first was the Dragon's Lair ...

Then at Emma's school.

Then a little picnic area near our house ...

Then a little neighborhood park between our house and my parent's.

Then the big elementary school in town ...

and finally the "other" elementary school in town.

Now some pix of the construction project. Here's the dining room minus the beautiful knotty pine paneling.

Here's the outside minus the vinyl siding.

And with the "wound" covered up. It's raining today, so the guys are going to use the tarp as a tent to keep dry.

Here's us at Culver's celebrating the end of summer!

And here's Emma with her new teacher, Mrs. Hintz, at the Hotdog Cookout.

So there you have it. we're all caught up.

Behold the Conquering Hero!

So Cyndie had her last night of sailing tonight. She walked into the house a couple of minutes ago and told me the good news ... team "Second Wind" (the name of Jack's boat) won the season trophy for their division of the Wednesday evening races. Yeah Cyndie, Jack, Joan, (and others).

Cyndie had a really good time learning a bit about sailing (and also getting a break once a week from whiny kids). Unfortunately it's hard to sail when it's dark, so the sailing season is drawing to an end.

Edging Ever Closer ...

to school. Last night was the Woods Hotdog Cookout*. This marks just another line along the way in the progression to school starting next Tuesday. We went in the school, hung out in Emma's classroom for 5 or 10 minutes looking around. On our way back out we saw Emma's teacher who was very friendly and knew Emma and talked to her and complimented her on her hair. We also saw several of Emma's friends from school. We had our hotdogs with Hannah, who was one of Emma's better friends, and saw several of the families from our neighborhood that we've gotten to know. Emma also got to pick up her school supplies which we had ordered through the school as a fundraiser kind of thing. She was very excited about those. They came in a cardboard box thing with a handle kind of like a suitcase.

*This is a misnomer since the only outdoor activity that took place was going out to play on the playground. The rest of the time we were inside the school.

After that we went home and Emma wanted to unpack the school supplies and look at them all. It's fun how little things like that really make her excited ... just paper and folders and pencils and stickers with her name on them. We talked to Hannah's mom a bit and I think the feeling of excitement/nervousness is pretty common in many of the first graders. Emma was very hyper/excited/nervous and didn't end up falling asleep until around 10p. She's a real thinker/worrier who will stay awake pondering things in the dark ... I think she did a lot of that last night.

Today Cole (1st grade) and Olivia (3rd grade) are over to play. They live a couple doors down the street. Tomorrow Emma's good friend Olivia from her class is coming over. Things are moving ever onward!

Zones ... part deux.

Okay, here's part two of the "Zone Visit" post. There are some that are out of order here because I'm working from pictures from Jim's camera and ours, so bear with me ...

Maddi, Caitlyn, and Emma putting on a show in the basement.


Caitlyn and Tim in the rocks at the Covenant Harbor playground.

Ems going off the slide at Covenant Harbor.

The girls waiting very patiently to take a ride on the pontoon boat at Covenant Harbor.

On the ride.

Maddi doing one of the fun things at the water park.

A partial overview of the water park.

The Zone fam.

Maddi staring down the chickens at Farmer Katie's.

And she made a friend.

The kids welcoming Maddi and Caitlyn to WI.

The guys rocking out to Guitar Hero.

Timmy being Timmy.

More boat ride.

Eating at Culvers.

Tim at the water park.

Emma discovered that her head band matched her swim suit!

More water park.

So that's it! I hope you enjoyed today's edition of "catch up with some pictures".