Around the House in August

There is always something going on. August was an especially busy month for us. We had to unpack from our trip, the boys started back to school, I started back to school, we bought our new house, we put our current house on the market, I got a job managing a new team over the summer so work has been ridiculously busy for me, Lincoln's karate, Logan tried a week of Little Dragons (decided he didn't want to do it long term) Rick has been packing our house and loading up a storage unit, doctor's appointments, hair cuts, and everything else that goes along with raising a family.

We also try to take some time to have a little fun as a family. Evenings and weekends are definitely times I look forward to when I get to spend time with my boys. Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to.

Boys will be boys....and I definitely have boys.  They are in the rough house stage (does it ever go away?) and I found Logan tackling Lincoln trying to get him to wake up. 

Logan has really taking a liking to his teddy bear over the last couple of months. 

We let the boys pick the family activity one night and they picked Chuck E Cheese. Lincoln was off winning tickets with Daddy while Logan rode all the rides. 

Logan and I met Dad and Lincoln after karate at dinner and Logan's new favorite thing is taking selfies. 

Logan used some creative mind power to build this rocket ship with his magna tiles. 

We've been blessed with some rain and beautiful summer skies and this is an example of one. 

No, it's not Halloween but Logan is playing dress up with his train conductor costume. 

We met some friends at Playgrounds for a Saturday afternoon activity. 

Logan practiced his letters while Lincoln did homework. 

Lincoln brought this to me one night and I thought it was pretty awesome. Things like this make the tough days worth it. 

Then I got this one....

And finally this one.  

Logan trying Little Dragons karate at a different studio. 

Family dinner at Dillon's where the boys watched the flamingo's and sharks while we waited for our dinner. 

We gave the boys our duck calls from our Seattle Duck tour. It was funny for like the first 2-3 minutes and then it because a headache and a decision I regretted quickly after that. At least they were having fun and laughing. 

We tried an experiment that we saw on Facebook. It didn't turn out to be as exciting for them as I hoped but then we turned it into potion making time. 

Lincoln and Daddy at dinner. Lincoln chose Buffalo Wild Wings because now that we let him eat ranch (he was allergic previously) it's all he wants to eat. 

Logan is still obsessed with trains so there is always a train track on the tile of our house somewhere. 

We spent a day at Big Surf water park.  The boys love the water slides and Lincoln's favorite is the wave pool. Logan was hesitant to go down the slides at first but after a few runs he was brave as could be and then wanted to hit the biggest slides in the park. Luckily for me (and my heart) he wasn't tall enough yet to ride them. Soon enough they won't need us to accompany them. Lincoln already did some of the bigger slides by himself.  My babies are growing up!

August School Work

Another new school year brings another nine months of creative, entertaining, and beautiful school artwork and papers. Lincoln is doing much more writing/spelling on his own and Logan is doing more deliberate art creations. Here is what they brought home in August.

Lincoln:

 Lincoln's first project of the year was a "get to know me" poster.  These are all the things that he wanted to tell the class about him.

 This was on the back of his poster so he could read it during the presentation portion of the project.

 Lord Business and the Lego guys that it did in after school club.

This is a mine craft page that he made during art. 

Logan:

Logan made this adorable hat and was proud to wear it home.

Tennis Sectionals

Our 3.5 women's team finally made it to USTA sectionals  together after winning both the fall and spring season. We were so excited to get a chance to go and we had worked hard to get there. Unfortunately for me sectionals came just three and a half weeks after spraining my ankle.  The doctor said I would know if I could play and it was feeling pretty good but unfortunately it kept me from playing two matches in a day, which is what I was planning for. Good news is that the sectionals host site was Scottsdale so we were essentially away for a stay-cation at the Hotel Valley Ho.  It was an extremely hot and humid weekend with court temperatures reading at 155 on the first day mid morning match.  I won all three of my doubles matches but unfortunately as a team we ranked 4th. Win or lose it's always a great time with this group of ladies!  As a result of my wins, I'm now bummed to 4.0 but haven't been able to play this new season yet as I still work through healing this ankle.

 Elements of Surprise

 Hanging out before dinner at Casa Anderson's. 

 Trying to stay cool under the tent before our 10:30 match. 

These three are our best cheerleaders - Ricky, Brad and Roger.  Ricky has gotten me through MANY matches with his uplifting and motivating cheerleader voice....that my opponents happen to hate! 

This crazy group. We always make a scene and have a blast wherever we go. This was the players party.

Coincidentally, just a few days after I got home from sectionals, while I was packing things around the house, I found my old high school tennis racket. It was a nice racket back then (bought it at Tennis Warehouse in SLO where I bought my current racket) but boy has technology changed. This racket is so much heavier than what I use today. It was fun to see it an reminisce for a few minutes on all the great high school matches this racket, purposely chosen to match my high school colors, went through. Good times. Good memories. 

Big Day - Monday, August 4th

We got back from Idaho on August 3rd and Monday, August 4th proved to be a very big day for us. Lincoln started the second grade and Logan started his last year of pre-school.  After dropping the boys at school and experiencing the excitement and nerves of that we went and bought a new house!  It was something we were planning for a while but couldn't do much about it while we were out of town. We first went and picked out our lot and then since it's a new build, we spent the entire day in the sales office going through the details of it.  It's still contingent upon the sale of our current home so it's been hard with the uncertainty of not knowing if/when this place will sell but we're keeping our fingers crossed and moving forward as if it's going to happen. 

After we did all the paperwork, Ricky picked up the boys from school and brought them to the sales office while we finalized everything. Lincoln got to put the sold sticker on the lot display and Logan reinforced it with his strength. Then we took the boys out to the lot for pictures and to let them play in the dirt.  It all goes according to plan, we will be in a new house in January 2015!

That night we went out to dinner to celebrate the days accomplishments.  The boys both had a very positive first day of school and are really liking their classes and teachers. Lincoln told me at dinner that night that he "loves second grade!"  Not a bad way to start the school year. 

 When Logan grows up, he wants to be a train conductor. 

 When Lincoln grows up, he wants to be a photographer. 

Waiting with Lincoln outside of his class before the teacher came to open the room. 

 Logan immediately went to find the train car Legos when he got into his classroom. 

 Lincoln putting our "sold" lot sticker on.

Logan pushing it down securely for us. 

 My boys on our lot.

 Ricky showing them where the house will go and letting throw a few rocks around. 

 Celebration dinner at the boys favorite place, Red Robin.