Amusement city...

One Sunday after church the boys and I packed a lunch to take with us on a little adventure. We parked in the shuttle lot, climbed aboard the giant bus and rode it to Como Town amusement park. The boys each got an unlimited wristband, which meant they could ride as many rides as they chose. We were back and forth over the whole of Como Town riding the swings, train, bumper cars, tilt-a-whirl (lucius wasn't quite big enough to go on it), and the frog jumper.

 

Oliver and I even got to ride the soaring eagle zipline. He and I climbed into a two person chair. We were strapped into the seat and then hosted 420 feet backwards. When we reached the top we were hovering 85 feet over Como Town. Then it let go and we zipped back down to the end. Oliver had a big grin on his face the whole time. It was really fun to share that with him.

After six full hours of riding amusement rides, we decided to call it a day and go home.

Arboretum...

We managed to get free passes to the MN Landscape Arboretum last Saturday. I already posted some of the fun photos I took while we were there enjoying the forest, trees and hikes. After our picnic lunch we stumbled across a free face painter. The lady was super fast and was able to turn the Little Misters into a white and orange tiger in about three minutes apiece. It was pretty fun to watch and the boys were excited to be in disguise.
 

 

 
Then they played in the corn pit for a while till they were good and dusty.

 
It was about time to go and we stopped to get one last photo of the boys in face paint. But right as we jumped out of the car, Oliver decided he was done and wiped/ smeared his whole face painting. Okay then. Lucius at least was still wanting his picture taken so he could see his face painting and I'm so glad we stopped to get this photo cause it is one of my new favorites of him!

 

family photos...

It's always a challenge having a Marmee who likes to take pictures but who also happens to be the only photographer we can afford. How can I be in the shot and capture a fun family photo using a camera timer? "Okay everyone, stand still and smile in ten seconds. Hold it, hold it... almost".

We went to the MN Landscape Arboretum this past Saturday to hike around and attempt a few pictures. Lucius and Daddy worked together to snap this shot of me and Oliver. 

 

 

But we got a little creative, using my backpack to hold my camera because I didn't borrow a tripod. We even got a little silly with my wide angle lens to squeeze us in the shot. I think this one turned out to be my favorite.

I hope someday to have a little money to splurge on a photographer, who isn't me, to capture us being a family, but until then these are pretty special. I'm glad we got some worth keeping.

deconstruction...

A few weeks before school started the boys and I sat down to do a "dangerous thing". We have a book that has "50 dangerous things (you should let your kids do)" and Oliver's been reading it all summer. I had a few appliances that were broken/ don't work anymore, so I figured we use them to do #34 : deconstruct an appliance.

The boys were super excited and we started right away on the vacuum. 

Once we got the vacuum apart and saw all its guts, we were excited to take the CD player apart. Unforunately we didn't have the right tool (a super long screwdriver) so we weren't able to take it apart. 

Then the boys used the pieces to tinker and build other things out of them. 

They can't wait till they're allowed to do more dangerous stuff.

randomness...

random phone pics...
Who wouldn't love being sent to school by a little brother in his "sword carrying bat" disguise. 

Lucius playing a lego super hero video game saying "yeah, bang, bam, yeah!"

Nope, not quite Halloween... we went to a friends birthday party and costumes were optional. The boys were a wolf and a pirate.

We had an overnight with Cousins Max and Casen. We managed to get three car seats in the back of our car so we were able to go to the library Thursday morning for story time.

Lucius and I went to the mall to find something. Of course we had to take a ride on the carousel.

We're all adjusting to the start of new things: Oliver's starting all day school, Lucius in Preschool and Daddy working in the early morning hours. Daddy wakes up sometime after lunch to join Lucius and I waiting for Oliver to come home on the bus. Lucius and Daddy have had some lovely talks and cuddles in the hammock out front.

The neighbor had a garage sale and was selling this driveway tennis net and Lucius spent his money to buy it. He's such a sports fan and loving playing/ practicing any & every sport.

Across the street is a townhouse complex where the boys use their alleyway to play in. Recently their driveways were oiled and rocked over. The workers dumped an excessive amount of rocks on their driveway and haven't come back to sweep it up. So the boys have started using it as a giant sandbox of sorts, moving the little tiny rocks from here to there creating quite the mountain of rocks. I thought by now the townhouse people would be mad at me for allowing the boys to play over there, but everyone who has come to talk to them tells them they like seeing play and use the space.