August

Our attempt at making August as fun as possible was a success, even with the start of school. ;) We continued to soak up as much summer as we could.

The first weekend we had our friends, the Dursts, come for a visit. The kids had a blast and the grown ups enjoyed some time to simply talk and catch up (while floating on a raft!)

PeePaw and Grandma Beth came in town for a few days and took the boys back to their lake house with them. They sent this picture as they made it into Virginia. 

So, I sent them this picture:

Because the boys took up so much room, I kept Hallie and she rode to their lake house with me the following day. (Creed ended up having to work a 60+ hour week so he knew there was no way he could go.) That night, however, we took advantage of the boys being gone and Creed took me to get my current favorite meal in town...Buffalo Chicken Tacos at RecBar. 

It took Hallie and I a little longer than normal due to construction traffic in WV, but we finally made it to see this...The boys were not missing me at all. ha!

Ahhhh...
One of my very favorite places to sit back and read.

Caleb has ZERO fear when it comes to anything that involves water and he wants to surf SO bad...we may need to just get a junior board for him so he can do it. Like 4th of July week, he tried so hard to get up but just wasn't heavy enough to keep the board down.

Seeing our Minnesota friends twice in one summer was such a treat!

And then this happened...

On August 15th, we sent Caleb to 5th grade and Luke to 2nd grade. Both boys got their 1st choice for teacher and both have best friends in the class. I am thankful that while they love summer and being at home, they also never complain about school. 

Luke didn't need me to walk him in this year so I dropped them off headed to my first day of school as a teacher. I was so thankful when a friend sent me these pictures.

Tey, Luke, and Porter are the sweetest best friends you have ever seen. Thankful for another year with these cuties!

At carpool that Friday (They just had a 3 day week.) Luke's teacher came up to the car window and told me that because Luke was so good, polite, and kind, she chose him to be the first Star Student of the week. I learned that it is a really big deal because, as Luke explained, he gets to sit in the Star Student desk with a rolling teacher chair and have his own pencil holder. ;) He also gets to be the line leader all week and put up a poster all about himself. 

My favorite...he wants to be a "Lego Master Builder" when he grows up. (He met one of the seven Master Builders at Legofest two years ago and apparently has his mind set on that.)

Caleb celebrated his friend Bryce's 11th birthday at the drive in and then a sleepover. These boys are growing up fast.

We had the Bachmans to the lake the last weekend of August and had the best time. The kids wore themselves out swimming, tubing, and sliding on the houseboat slide. 

Luke was first to show the girls how to jump off the waterfall.

Caleb has decided to begin guitar lessons this year and we are so excited. He loved picking out his new guitar and is excited to start!