Baking an apple pie with mommy...

Uh-Oh!!!!

We had to have our very first time-out today! Very sad!:(

our trip to the apple orchard...

hannah riding with her friend lindy... she filled up her little basket all by herself and even insisted on carrying it herself...

just a pretty pic of the beautiful blue ridge mountains...can't wait to go back in Fall for pumpkins and see all the colors...

hannah holding hands with her friend, Erin (who she calls "Moona" for some reason)...

jacob hangin' out..

and Nate...

Jacob, Nate and Kie goofin' off on the haystack..

a stroll through the bamboo forest...

A BEAUTIFUL DAY AT THE APPLE ORCHARD!

Back to school...

The boys getting ready to take off for their 1st day back to school..."can you tell the smiley faces are fake?!?"... But here is Nate getting off the bus...he had a good day nonetheless.

Jacob came home pooped after his 1st day of middle school. But he said he really liked it and had no problems finding classes, etc. He took off on the bus this morning and I was dying all day to know how he did. But if you know boys...they don't give you too much information without you prying so I had the cookies all ready so hopefully he would tell me all about it:)...kind of worked! Of course the face is a "Oh brother, mom...not another picture" face:)

P.S. Josh did super also...loved his day and classes. And Hannah asked if she could go to school too. Daddy told her that mommy still needs her home for a while and she said, "O.K!"

End of summer weekend...

So, we decided to take one last trip to the amusement park before school begins this Thursday. Well, actually the kids lucked out because I took them on Friday with Nate's buddy, Kie and his family for Kie's birthday (Happy Birthday Kie! 'even though you ARE a clemson fan:)...and we had a great time with his family. It was sooo funny, Nate had on his Gamecock jersey and Kie his Clemson Tiger jersey (these are the 2 rivals of South Carolina...everyone is one or the other...so funny!) and Kie's dad won them both footballs and of course they picked USC and Clemson ones)...you have to understand...it's rare to have these 2 rivals in the same household...it's called "a house divided" if you do...and they definitely got lots of comments...but it's all in fun for them:) "Go Gamecocks!!!"
So, since Bill didn't get to go with us "my other boy:)", he wanted to go on Sunday as a family before the kids go back to school. (We have passes) So, the boys had one last day to soak it all in...they made us take turns going on rollercoasters with them this time (instead of me hanging out in the kids land the whole time) and boy is my throat sore today! We're getting too old...we're pooped! So sad! Here is a pic of the boys on the bumper cars:
Here is Nate... Jacob bumping into dad...

Hannah watching daddy and her boys...

The spoiled princess...

I asked Bill to get her a little lollipop while we were riding the rollercoaster, and this is what he came back with!

And just look at this face...she was COVERED in lollipop!!!

And funny story...(well, kinda':)...a little girl asked Hannah what her name is and she replied, "Princess!" (Ugh-Oh!!!)

Just an ordinary day...

Step 2: from crib to toddler bed:

We went ahead and did the toddler bed and she is sooo excited to have her first "big girl" bed!!! She picked out her Tinkerbell blanket and does absolutely wonderful at naptime AND bedtime...in fact, she still calls me when she wakes up before she gets out of bed. One night I put her to bed and she got out to play but I told her she needed to get back in bed and I closed her door. I walked to my room to peek on her through the video monitor (how did I manage with the boys without this???) and she had already climbed in bed and was off to sleep!!! As long as she has her princess music playing, her tinkerbell nightlight on, and her blanky, she is all good:)