Beach night

We took a picnic dinner down to the beach Friday night. 

I will be sad when he stops writing his js backwards. He gets it right most of the time. 

Blueberry picking

Last week Colin was in basketball camp so I took Joel and Norah to pick blueberries. 

We were afraid we had missed the blueberry season but thankfully it went long this summer. 

Success! 

New home

We finally closed on our house two weeks ago. 

We are almost done unpacking boxes. It's pretty easy when you are doubling your square feet to unpack. 

The best part is our neighborhood. Everyone knows everyone and we've had so many people come over and introduce themselves. They have block parties and Halloween parties and kids everywhere. I think Colin has 5 other kids going into 4th grade and Joel has maybe 4 others in 1st grade. Every night after dinner the kids zoom around on scooters playing this cops and robbers game they made up for hours. One night we counted 17 kids riding back and forth on our street.  The boys are absolutely loving it. Norah is loving the freedom too and keeps up pretty well. 

Here's a picture of our kitchen/dining room. I know people are hoping for house pictures and I'll try soon to go around and take pictures. 

We went last week to see our old neighbors and let Norah play with Elizabeth and it was strange being next door to our old house. It felt weird not to walk home but also felt like that wasn't home anymore. And then came home to this house and it didn't feel like home either. Such a strange feeling.  But it's slowly starting to feel more and more like home every day. 

Summer

 Its interesting to see what responses the kids give to people asking them about their summer.

 We've been busy since we moved in with dentist appointments, school reading evaluations and basketball camp. And most people will as the kids "hows your summer been?"

 Colin usually hesitates a little and goes well its been different.  Or sometimes he will say he was homeless for the summer and then I have to explain....

 It was a different summer.  To do it over I think I would've tried to push our closing back a week so the kids didn't have to step off the bus and leave not only school but their house.  Its always hard getting into a summer routine but this time was harder.  And the fact that swim team schedule was all over the place - either morning or night practice and it made it even harder to plan.  Plus all the stress of trying to find a house.  And alllllll the driving. 

 But while it was a different summer than we were all expecting I hope the kids remember all the fun we had this summer. 

 The late nights Colin spent watching tv with grandpa, and the pretzel making with ma-ma-maa and all the Chinese checker games, reading books with ma-ma-maa, the walks to the river each night, the games we made up on the daily long car rides, going to see Ooo-Eee - all things we would've done but not as often as we did this summer. 

So it was definitely a different summer in so many ways but a good one.

All stars

This boy made all stars in a relay. Hard to believe he was the same boy refusing to swim his relay and mommy making him in the beginning. But Joel making Divisionals and All Stars and Colin not has been really good for Joel. At first it was really ironic that the boy who could care less made both where the one whose been desperately trying to make it didn't. But it was really good for Joel and gave him a lot of confidence. 

He had a lot of fun at the All Star meet. And is proudly wearing his all star and divisional tshirts with his name on them. 

All the other 6 & unders were nervous behind the block and Joel was Joel - not really caring and just wanting to get it over with. 

All these kids are talking about split times and dolphin kicks off the block but I'm just here wanting to get this over with so I can get my snow cone! Ha! He did get his snow cone after.

But his relay dropped 8 seconds which is amazing and Joel was amazing. He only took 4 breaths the whole 25 and I've never seen him swim faster. 

Living museum and training camp

Last Thursday Sarah got invited to the the VIP tent at redskins training camp and brought Brent and Colin. 

 I took Joel and Norah to the living museum. We stayed almost 6 hours. And it's not that big of a museum but the kids loved it. Joel kept saying it was too bad Colin was missing the fun so I'm glad he didn't feel left out not going to see the redskins. (Although who are we kidding - Joel at this point in life could care less about the redskins) 

Their favorite thing was this photo booth we did. They have carried their pictures around everywhere. It made me realize that it's probably the only photo Norah has held in her hand. Most are either hung up in frames or on the computer/phone. After we move and get settled I think I need to print out pictures for the kids to hold and look at. 

Brent and Colin enjoyed the VIP passes Sarah got them for training camp. 

Colin got 7 players autographs! His football is still in storage so my mom got this plexiglass to sign so it will fit right inside his football case. Pretty cool. Colin thinks it's worth $100 already based on his signatures. Ha! He's such a businessman already. Between practices he and Brent hung out at Sarah's work and Colin was put to work for money! 

He thought it was great. 

Williamsburg

Last Sunday we walked around Williamsburg  

The kids had fun in the stocks

But never mess with a girl in high heels holding a gun