Last Spray Park of the Season

It has been HOT here the past week or so. Way too hot for the end of September. While I am SO ready for crisp, cool days, apple picking, hay rides, and all things pumpkin, at least we got to take advantage of one last day of swim suits and water.

Great Escape Oktoberfest

We met some friends at the Great Escape for their Oktoberfest celebration yesterday. After living in Germany, if it were just the grown ups, we could have spent all day at the "Oktoberfest Tent" listening to the band and eating German food... but the kids prefered the rides.

It was our first time going with friends. Even though O. wasn't a fan of the rides, it was nice for the girls to have company!

LittleL.G. braving the swings solo!

a trio of screamers

Liberty Ridge Farm

Daddy took today off so we had Field Trip Friday to Liberty Ridge Farm this week.

It was their first week of the fall, and being so close to the beginning of school (no field trips) and a Friday (no families), there was hardly anyone there. Having full run of the place without having to wait in line or navigate school groups was amazing. Especially after last year. And the weather couldn't have been better.

We did miss out on the racing pigs and the animals weren't there this year, but with the girls being a year older, I think they appreciated the activities more.

Great day at Liberty Ridge!

Serious Science

MiniM.E.'s request for a science unit this fall was space, so we have been conducting a lot of "out of this world" experiments.

My favorite so far has been the human sun dial. Since it hasn't rained in forever, we can still go out and estimate the time!

We explored why Mercury is so covered in craters:

Melted some chocolate "rocks" on our "hot as Venus" fire pit (it has been awfully hot!)

Marbled some shaving cream for Jupiter mono-prints:

And explored why Saturn (and the other outer planets) have rings:

In between experiments the girls are just trying to stay cool!

Good-bye West Side Rec

This afternoon we went to West Side Rec one last time before they tear out all the old playground equipment and replace it with a new playground. The girls and I really love West Side Rec because of their old playground...

Where else can you find a merry-go-round like this one?

Or big metal slides like these?

We will miss you, Old West Side Rec...

A Triple Baptism

We definitely dropped the ball on this one. We meant to have a baptism for MiniM.E. five years ago, but we had a hard time finding a church we liked. Then there was LittleL.G. and she couldn't sit through a service. Finally, we found a church we feel like we belong to. By the time we felt comfortable enough that we would baptise the girls, we knew about BabySlimJim.

So here were are, finally baptizing all the kids!

It was a really nice ceremony. Thanks Gram and Grumpy for coming to sponsor the kids on such short notice and thanks to Pastor Drew and Pastor Heather and the SSUMC community.

Happy First Day of School

This year we are going to (mostly) follow the public school schedule to make things easier for reporting, so we went back to school yesterday with everyone else.

The girls were excited about their back to school outfits and all the fun activities we had for our first day, including "First Day Donuts". I was also hoping for "First Day Playground" but it was too rainy. Maybe next year!