At the end of Superhero Camp a few weeks ago the kids remained 'high on superhero' games for a few days so I got to snap some extra cute pictures.
'Strike a pose superheroes….'
I was supposed to run the Bix 7 road race with my good neighbor friend Katie. But of course after I hurt my ankle I had to pull out. But we still went down to our normal spectator spot to cheer her on. Of course her husband Pete and two kiddos George and Grace joined us. Katie had a great first Bix race…under an hour!! Way to go Katie.
After Bix we loaded up the van and headed down to Washington for Corn Fest. We were happy to see that Carter and Reid already had the golf cart out and running by the time we got there. Aunt Kelly was the first to chauffeur the kids around on the cart.
Grandpa Jim and Kennon on Grandpa Jim's brand new tractor!! It's a beast.
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| Uncle Tyler and Cashin - 8 months old already and such a happy baby. |
Maddox getting a turn riding with Grandpa Jim….
And now Carter…who looks just like Tyler did when he was this age….
Maddox and Cashin
Even when the golf cart isn't moving it is still fun to SIT on it and eat your snack… :)
Maddox, Carter, Reid and Kennon. Happy kiddos….carbs in hand and 'power' under their feet.
Aunt Kathy and Aunt Kelly ( who are really my cousins but because they are just a tad older than me…. :)….. I call them both 'Aunt' ) drove all the way from Denver to visit with us and eat good ol' Iowa sweet corn. They were even happy to get in on the shucking of the corn!! It is so nice to see them….we wish they lived a little closer. They kids adore them and all the extra attention they give.
Kennon getting a little lesson from Grandpa Jim on proper corn shucking technique.
'Here's the corn folks!'
When all the family is in town we get to sleep at Great Grandma Reta's retirement home. She has a beautiful one bedroom apartment that suits her well. But in the facility itself there are a couple of guest apartments. We like staying there as it is convenient and the kids LOVE to go down to the cafeteria with great grandma Reta for breakfast. A fun treat…with yummy raisin cinnamon rolls. I think great Grandma Reta enjoys having us too!!
Maddox and Carter and their side walk drawings.
Kennon- 4 Maddox-5 Reid - 2 Carter- 4 Cashin - 8 months
whoot whoot…everyone is looking at the camera :)
I LOVE this one!!
Both of these pictures were taken when Kennon was awake… (obviously)…but he was supposed to be sleeping!! But how can you resist that smile?? We are working on transitioning out of naps and he SURE has been sleeping better at night. I think we may be on to something…
Kennon got his turn at British Soccer Camp the first week in August. He loved it and made some new friends.
Listening to the directions from Coach Rhea.
My good friend Kim arranged for a special tour of one of the Bettendorf Fire Stations. Kennon and I joined some of the other moms and kiddos from the neighborhood and got to learn lots of interesting facts about the fires/emergencies in Bettendorf as well as lots of details about the station and firetrucks themselves. IT was SUPER informative and Fireman Tim invited us all back multiple times. He said they actually love having visitors. There are only about 10 calls every 24 hours in the city of Bettendorf ( which has 3 separate stations now) which leaves for a fair amount of down time so they were happy to see our smiling faces. This is where the firemen sleep at night.
This is their workout area.
Fireman Tim asked for one of us moms to volunteer to try on the gear and Amy was the 'lucky' mama!! :) Amy has a 1st grader and 5 year old triplets who will be at Our Savior one last year. They were excited to see their mom all dressed up.
Learning about the Jaws of Life
The kids each got a turn up in the fire engine cab and also got to climb all over the engine itself. It was pretty cool.
Clara and Maddie…two of our neighborhood buddies.
All the kids with the Lieutenant ( who Fireman Tim said usually never comes out of his office so we were deemed special!! ) and Fireman Tim. Kennon is sort of in the center. We all left with mood changing pencils ( don't ask!!) , fire hats, and a certificate for a free ice cream cone from Dairy Queen if we went home and practiced a fire drill! ( haven't quite gotten to that yet!!)
Maddox making blueberry muffins for our garage sale with had with the neighbors across the street.
oooopppss…the tail end of the soccer camp pictures…sorry they got out of order.
Coach Rhea quietly 'stealing' Kennon's ball from him.
We bought a big poster board to make a sign for our muffin sale. The kids were really into it ( the actual sale of the muffins)….for about 3 minutes…!! Then they were off to play with the kiddos whose house we were having the garage sale.
Luckily for Kennon and Maddox…we sold completely out of muffins in like 30 minutes so they were free to go and play. They enjoyed making the muffins, and putting the money in their banks…..the part about sitting and selling them…not so much! But, hey they are young and it was our first attempt at this process so I was proud of them for engaging for the time that they did. They each made about $4.00 - $2.00 for their share bank, $1.00 for their spend, and $1.00 for their save bank.
These are the kiddos that lured Maddox and Kennon away from the sale of the muffins :) Gavin in the front in the cowboy boots is actually in Maddox's kindergarten class. This family is so sweet and their kids are SOOO well behaved so I was quite happy to see him in the class. They are actually an Air Force family and rent the house across from us but have been in the Quad City area for about 2 years. Unfortunately their dad is getting shipped off to somewhere to go fly jets!! We will be sad to see them go. Gavin has been wearing cowboy boots since the day we met him 2 years ago….every single day! Not sure how those are going to go over in gym class this week :)
Kennon playing Alligator Swamp on the last day of Soccer Camp when only 4 kiddos showed up. Kennon ate up all the special attention :)
Kennon getting his certificate from Coach Rhea.
Last day group photo. The little guy on the left is named Maverick and was a hoot! He had certainly never played soccer before and kept picking up the ball and just smiling at Coach Rhea who repeatedly kept saying 'put it down please' in this adorable English accent.
Free Ice Cream Cones from DQ for wearing their bike helmets and displaying good bike safety. It pays off to have the Chief of Police live on your street :)
Two weekends ago we drove down to Keokuk to spend some time with Eric's family. We spent the majority of the visit at Aunt Lora and Uncle Jim's lake!! The kids were sooo excited to go out on the boat and catch some fish….which that they did!! Luckily Uncle Jim keeps the lake stocked rather well so they were successful…..which is important at this age. Lora and Jim have a beautiful property set back in a forest ( Kennon asked if it was a rain forest as we drove in?? they just don't see a lot of BIG OLD trees in one spot around here in sort of newish Bettendorf ) on a lake. It is super peaceful and relaxing and the Keokuk clan always works hard to provide such great hospitality. Even Uncle Phil drove over from Cincinnatti for the short weekend stay. We all had a nice time.
Uncle Jim and Maddox with her fish….they caught crappie ( got it right this time Lora!!) , bluegill, and large mouth bass.
Out on the boat….or butt…as Nemo's Dad says :)
Sunday morning before we headed back to Bettendorf we took a tour of an old paddle boat that sits on the Mississippi River in Keokuk. Uncle Jim actually works there as a tour guide so we thought we should go down and see him in action!! He knows all sort of fun facts about the ol' paddle boat named the Verity ( which is actually it's second name…although I don't remember the first name…sorry Jim). Maddox and Kennon's cousins Chelsea and Kelby did the tour with us too. It was a fun time.
Maddox in the captain's chair.
Chelsea, on the right, will be staying with us the second semester of school while she does her student teaching in Davenport. She is a great girl and the kids LOVE her so we are excited to have her join our family later this winter!!
We had to rush back from Keokuk to make it to our annual Century Heights Block Party. The kids had a grand time!! There was lots of good food, fun games for the kids to play, and several stations for the kids to do activities at….bubbles, sidewalk pain, sensory corn table…. Kim, my good friend, worked hard at making the stations accommodate all sorts of ages. Everything was a hit! Kim found a homemade bubble recipe with industrial strength Dawn…literally…not like the blue Dawn you buy at Walmart but commercial grade that only comes from Sams/Costco…and then you add karo syrup…!!which makes the bubbles last longer… ie...not pop…. ( a taste good too:) Kennon was covered in sticky white sugar by the end of his bubble session…but man were those bubbles so cool.
Maddox and her name made out of sidewalk paint. I didn't watch her do this but one of our neighbor friends said she actually painted it upside down and backwards… He said she stood up to survey her masterpiece and looked at it funny realizing that some of the letters weren't quite the right way. Funny…!
Kennon and his masterpiece. So this recipe is made from corn starch and fingerprint I believe. It goes on like paint but then dries opaque like chalk. Kinda cool. Another Kim invention….!
The Block Party isn't complete until everyone gets their Kona Ice!
The weather has been so remarkably cool we've been taking advantage of LOTS of outdoor activities. I renewed our pass for the Zoo so we took a picnic lunch last week and had a great time!
Tuesday was Eric's birthday and he was able to get the day off. We opted to go to Splash Landing for an end of summer fun day as a family. It was kind of cloudy but warm so the pool was perfect!! Not crowded not cold and we all had a good time. This was one of several no nap days and the kiddos slept like babies and went to bed without so much as a peep!! Way to go KTK!!
DQ cake for Eric!!…..what???….nope I didn't make him a cake…He likes DQ cake :) as does our entire family!! Yummy!! It was nice to just pick this gem up at the store instead of laboring over a piping bag for a couple of evenings.
We learned Maddox' s Kindergarten teacher last Monday and then her school had 'unpack your backpack' night last Wednesday. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Gaspelin and she reminds me a TON of Mom…which is somewhat comforting. She will have 22 kiddos in her class, 3 of which live right on our road and another that is in our neighborhood. One of her good neighborhood buddies, Avery, happens to be in her class. Mrs. Gaspelin happened to have them seated next to each other in the classroom but she quickly picked up on the fact that they were buds and mentioned to us that she just might need to switch up the seating chart a bit….!! She's been around this block before :) Maddox had a fun time at unpack your backpack night….I was a bit overwhelmed but I"m looking forward to her first day on Tuesday. The bus will pick her up at the bus stop just a few houses down from ours at 8:13. Pleasant Valley does a staggered start so only about 7 or 8 kiddos will be in her class that day. The other kids go on either Monday or Wednesday and then ALL the Kindergarteners go together for the first time on Thursday. Kennon's preschool teacher came for a home visit on Thursday. I really like her, as do Maddox and Kennon as they are familiar with her from the past year. She was a Kindergarten teacher for many years before she moved to preschool. He'll start at Our Savior on September 2nd. Add in soccer, Awana at church, Kennon's Literacy class at the museum, Maddox's dance class, Bible study and phew…the year is starting off to be a busy one!! But we are looking forward to a good year. I've had a shift in my job for the year. I had planned to work at the bakery in downtown davenport but VNA recently offered me a part time position I just can't pass up. It'll be in the quality department doing the audits, like I've been doing since I 'quit' in March of 2014. I'll just have a few more roles related to quality…some of which I'll actually do in the office three mornings a week and the rest I"ll pick up at home putting in about 15-20 hours per week. I was sad to say NO to the bakery but looking forward to the opportunity at VNA and more specifically within the expanding Genesis Health System. I'm hoping it'll be a good fit as I'll have more 'free' hours with Maddox in Kindergarten all day and Kennon at Our Savior in the mornings. Cheers to the start of the school year and lots of firsts for the Kies family! :)
