My BIG Boy

Carter starts Kindergarten tomorrow. He is my Big Boy!

I am so excited to have him in my school building.

I will not see him a lot, because his classroom is at the other end of the building, but I hope
 to see him a few times a week.

Carter is the best boy. He has grown a lot over this summer.

He actually takes care of Ella and sits and plays with her.

He likes to watch "our" tv shows together...we loved to watch the Olympics.

He will sit and chat with daddy at night as long as daddy with let him.

He is getting to be a better t-ball player each practice and likes to watch sports on tv with Daddy.
He even has hair on his legs!
I can't wait to see him grow and mature over the school year.
OH....how fast he grew up! :)



Final Days of Summer

We have been cramming everything else we have wanted to do into the last few days...

 Jumping Jax Bounce House with Brody

Ella got her nails painted by Guh Guh

This is her smile when she thinks she is a BIG GIRL:)

 Carter has been wanted to go to T-Rex Cafe, so we chose a night to go have a special dinner.

Here they are digging for Dino bones...

Carter in the T-Rex's mouth-YIKES!

T-Rex Cafe!

One last trip to the pool

Such a cute pic!

Ella on the slide!

I started my back-to-school teach meetings last Friday.

Ella was so excited to head back to Debbie's House!

She brought her princess bag and baby doll, Charlotte with her on her first day back.

 The other night was beautiful. We spent a few hours down at the park collecting bugs and playing.

Our collection-a bucket full- of  dead locust shells.

Walking on the bridge

 The path that collects one park to the other park:)

Ella is getting so independent and wanted to pull the wagon.

WEE!

Today was our last day together.

I gave Carter a list of options of how we could spend our last special day together.

He chose to go to Lawrence and have lunch with Uncle Kyle.

We love Free State Brewery and Uncle Kyle!

And then we headed to Tad's Tropical Snow for Snow Cones!

It was a great way to enjoy our last day of Summer!



Tanganyika

This was seriously one of the coolest places on earth!

We had so much fun!

We can't wait to go back.

Tanganyika is an hands-on wildlife park in Goddard, KS, right outside Wichita.

Here is a look at the cool things we did....

We saw white tigers.

And spent a lot of time on lemur island. Wow-did these guys jump on you.

Ha- Guh Guh with a Lemur on her

We got to feed them cranberries.

Carter was a little hesitant

 The kids always like to feed the fish.

Carter with the albino alligator.

Penguins

Carter and Jay rode horses

Carter and the mountain goats

(He insisted to take lots of pictures to show Pappy, since he couldn't join us)

We got to feed bunnies carrots.

Then my camera gave me issues......

we also fed tortoises lettuce

machaw (parrots) nectar

and lettuce to giraffes.

LOVED this place!



Fair Time in Newton

We LOVE the fair in Newton. We look forward to it each summer.

 On Friday, we met Pappy for lunch ( Guh Guh and Jay were there, too)...

the boys dressed up in costumes...

we played in the pool...

the kids had Popsicles....

Carter LOVES them and they only sell this kind at Dillons, which we don't have in KC.

Carter and Jay enjoyed snow cones...

and nachos, funnel cakes, pop, corn dogs....

served by these two.

Yes, that is Grandpa Ranny and Daddy :)

 Saturday we got up early to meet Caden for donuts...

went to the fair and participated in the 'money dig' in the hay...

the boys were excited with all the coins they collected...

Miss Ella posed with the Princess and Queen of the fair...

and we participated in the TURTLE RACES!!!

They are sponsored by my dad's office and Grandpa Randy's office-hence

the matching turtle race shirts.

Here is Daddy and Ella with Turtle at the starting line. Yes, she named her turtle turtle.

Carter with Butchie racing.

Ella won her first heat and then raced again and got second place in the box turtle division.

Here is Ella receiving her trophy from Pappy.

The kids with Grandpa Ranny and Ella's trophy

The winners

First and Second place in the box turtle and water turtle divisions

The kids with the participation ribbons

Jay with Luke Skywalker

Carter with Butchie

Ella with Turtle

My dad's office manager Lisa and her son Dustin

We LOVE the turtle races!

Silly Daddy

Carter and Butchie

 Jay and Luke Skywalker

 That night we headed to the parade and got lots of candy

and we got one more look at the fair animals.

We sure enjoyed the 4-H fair this year!