Just off of our trip to see Thomas, we woke up Monday morning and jumped right into school, as the girls were ready and annoying each other so much they were annoying me. They eagerly dug into their books and we slid back into our school rhythm pretty effortlessly, which was a bit of a surprise!.
This year, Ezri is in the 4th Grade
Alora is in the Second Grade
Tierney is in Kindergarten
and Elam is into everything!
Monday evening, I headed to Allegan for another year of Young Homemaker interviews. This year there were 8 contestants, which is more than twice the two years prior! Out of those 8 applicants, I was chosen as one of the 4 finalists (again), so I go on to Ladies' Day at the fair to find out whether this will be the year I am chosen as Young Homemaker or not.
We did school each day this week and had time for play every afternoon. There were days of canning, baking and even an afternoon of face painting!
Thursday, we had Gunner for our last time of the summer. He will be with another care provider for the school year, so we were all a little sad to say farewell to the idea of having him with us each week. He kept us on our toes again that day! He was especially into Tierney.
Thursday evening, we headed to Grandville for a surprise birthday party for Opa. Aunt Becky, Francesca and Uncle Michael were there too, so the girls got in some baby cousin time as well as a bit of time with their uncle they don't see often.
Alora even got to help feed baby Francesca!
On our way home, we were followed by quit the storm. The lightning show and cloud display was something to watch from the back window.
Friday, we wrapped up school, did a whirlwind packing job and were off on our Labor Day weekend adventure, camping at East Lake Campground. We brought along bikes, so all weekend the kids were up and down the hills riding their hearts out, or across the street at the park playing with other camper kids. They had such fun! Elam especially loved the swings and by the end of the weekend had the kids trained to push him. He grabbed my heart one afternoon while swinging...
Saturday morning, the kids did a craft...
A bit later, we brought the kids to the giant slip and slide set up. It was cold water, but they had a blast for quite a long time!
Elam and Tierney were not interested in sliding down the hill, though Elam did initially follow the older kids up. He was more into splashing in the bubbles at the bottom.
Tierney was content to chatter away at the bottom and watch.
After an hour or so, the kids got too tired and decided the lake might be more warm...
Elam was long asleep by then.
So the kids tried out the lake water, but soon found it wasn't all that warm either and gave up to play in the sun and dry off.
Once the kids were all dried off and dressed, we went for a "hey ride" around the camp, and then returned to our site where the kids set to work extracting a tent spike from the very rock ground. This kept them entertained for quite a while!
A little later that day, we discovered a HUGE caterpillar, nearly the length of the palm of my hand and bigger around than my thumb. A little research told us we had stumbled across an Imperial Moth Larva.
Later, we entertained the kids with some glow sticks and took them on a little glow walk before bed...
We had rain Saturday night, so we woke up to a wet, muddy, chilly Sunday. After some debate and boredom from kids who could not ride bikes, we opted to head toward the Aquatic Center in Holland for an afternoon of swimming which more than made up for the lost pool fun the weekend before as well as the dreary wet campground. For nearly 4 hours, the kids played and swam. The activities in the deep pool required a swimming test, which Ezri was anxious to give a go right away. Of course, she passed with no problems.
Then she was off to the obstacle course!
Pretty Soon, Alora wanted in on that fun and overcame her worry about not being able to pass and also gave it a shot. She also passed with flying colors, as I knew she would!
She had her eyes on the diving board, so off she went!
While the older kids played in the deeper waters, Elam and Tierney were happy to play in the splash pad and whirlpool.
About half way through the afternoon, Tierney and Elam were slowing down...
So, we retired to a bench to watch the others play. It wasn't long and baby brother was sound asleep.
After leaving the Aquatic Center, we made our way back to a dryer campground, where the kids resumed their bike and playground play while we got dinner going. Then we entertained them with a colored fire and enjoyed a little quiet time with them before putting them all into bed.
Monday morning, we woke up, packed up camp, and returned home for a quick unloading of the truck before leaving again, this time for Sandy Pines and an afternoon with Grandpa and Grandma, including the deep frying of a turkey and way too much food. Grandpa also took us out on the boat, which the kids really enjoyed! Well, all but Elam who was ok with the slow moving ride, but not at all ok with the wave jumping and high speeds!
He did have fun driving with Grandpa, though!
As did Tierney.
Alora and Ezri got their turns and had a blast as well, though unfortunately Alora took her turn while I was trying to calm a frightened Elam, so I missed catching her in the action.
While we waited for dinner to finish grilling/frying, the kids and I went to the park
And played an impromptu game of "Sandy Pines Fire Drill" on the golf cart and bikes. They all thought this was just the best!
As the night came nearer, friends went home for bed and school and we stayed to help Grandpa get the boat out of the water, before finally having to accept we needed to do the same.
With that, we say farewell to the laid back days of summer and look ahead to the coming week of the Allegan County Fair which seems to signal the welcoming of fall's return. Much preparation and work goes into the next couple of days for us as we wrap up the last bits, but the girls are excited (Mommy too!) for the fair to be upon us.
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