Here we go...

So I know that I am behind, but we have been relatively busy. Even though we aren't really in any sort of crazy school schedule like years past, I still feel like once the autumn season starts, life gets busier again.

So here we are, dumping a bunch of pictures and giving short descriptions. Better than nothing, right?!

Mid August was fun because it brought about several visitors. Annie and Tod (with 1 "d" and Lucy's birthday) came, and the kids had a great time with them. As you can see below, Lucy loved giving Tod's knee kisses. Awkward, you bet! That is what my kids are about...being awkward. We love them for it!

Sam also followed his favorite person around, or he followed Sam around. Either way, they are buddies. Besides mommy, Grandpa Coop really is the one person Sam gets all excited to see. He even starts searching their house if he doesn't see him right away. It is cute.

Here are the Cooprider boys. We had several gatherings, and this one happened right when Joe got home and Annie and Tod were about to leave.

My garden did give us some harvest. Our tomatoes did okay. I think they would have done better if I had planted them in the ground. I was scared that animals would eat them, so I left them in their pots. Consequently I had to water them everyday, and they still struggled. We still got some pretty decent sized tomatoes though, and it gave me enough of a harvest to want to try it again next year.

 While Joe was in town we all went to a baseball game. The night before Joe came over to hang out. The next morning before the game, Joe watched the kids with Jimmy while I ran 22 miles. I lived.

 

Within the last month or so Lucy has really started to improve her drawing skills. This isn't even the most recent drawings. Now her drawings include curly hair and smiling or frowning faces. It is fun to see her getting excited about drawing.

Here is a picture of one of our friends that is between Lucy and Sam's age. His mom and I think he looks a lot like Sam. He is cute, easy going kid. We love having him over to play.

And this is what happens when I let the kids play with water in the backyard. I will be honest though. I was totally okay with the mess. It kept them occupied for probably an hour. They sat in the dirt shuffling around dirt and water and had a wonderful time playing together. And in the end I just took out the hose and sprayed them off. Lucy loved it, Sam tolerated it.

Here is a kitchen we got for FREE! We have some really awesome people in our church!

And this is just one of my favorite series of pictures. Sam is such a cute, imp of a kid.

At the beginning of September Lucy started a once a week preschool with 4 other kids from church. Super low key, super exciting for Lucy. Every time she goes she seems more grown up. But let's be frank, this girl already talks about going to "university."

Here are some pictures from her first day.

And her backpack, which I love. When we went to Target to pick out, she talked about liking the WWF backpack...I was kind of wierded out by that request so we moved on to more age appropriate backpacks and she agreed on the owl one because it had a heart-shaped pocket.

 

At the end of August Jimmy and I celebrated our 5th year anniversary. We didn't party too hard on that day because it was the middle of the week, but we did exchange some homemade gifts. I made Jimmy and Captain America shirt and a superhero bag and signed him up for a trial Judo class. He has since had the class and loves it. It looks like he will start up the actual class in September. Jimmy made me a slideshow that made me cry like a baby, because I am sentimental like that. Once Jimmy got home from that day, we went out to dinner and had a cupcake with 2 inches of frosting on top. It was epic!

 



A few weeks later (last weekend) Jimmy got half a day off from work, and I dropped the kids off at the Coopriders for the weekend. With this kid-less time, we decided to sleep in (at our house), watch a movie, go to Providence RI, go to the beach, sleep in a hotel for a night and just simply relax. It was lovely.

We also made ourselves a little celebration basket.

During our time in Providence we went to a culinary museum. It was pretty cool. Lots of old kitchen gadgets, some famous chefs items and some pretty amazing cakes.

Plus, they had some pretty giant sized tabasco bottles.

After wandering around Providence, we decided we are not really city people and drove down to our hotel in Warwick. After settling in the hotel we went to a beach near by that had some seafood restaurants. After walking along the beach we went to eat some seafood. We went to the fancy place which wasn't that great, but it did a lovely view.

After the beach we went back to our hotel and played our new board games "Sentinels of the Multiverse." Jimmy was pretty excited to try it out.

 

 

This past weekend I was part of another relay run, Reach the Beach. Just a month ago I was asked to sub and I jumped at the chance. My marathon training is going fine (1 more long run to go...), but I have been running by myself. I have been really wanted to do some races and run with people. It is definitely more exciting and it makes me run faster. 

 

We had a blast and though we didn't really get much sleep I found that all my runs went well. It looks like we might do another one in May.

And one last picture, our cantaloupe that grew from the compost that I had spread over our side garden. Turns out I picked it too early, but it still looked pretty.

Other than that, we have also bought a new car, which we love. It is Honda Odyssey and it drives like a dream. And I am now officially teaching. I had my first lab last week. It was pretty easy-peasy. I don't have another lab until the end of September.

Hope you are all loving the fall weather. I know I am. It makes me all nostalgic for pumpkins and apples and running on trails...