Labor Day Hike

On Labor Day we met our friends (the Fowlers) at the park, shared a picnic, and went on a hike. Our girls LOVED the hike! Sydney didn't want to stop. Reagan enjoyed riding in the backpack, though she did fuss a little at first. If she cried at all, Mike would stop walking and only begin again if she was quiet. He only had to stop 3 or 4 times before she stopped fussing!

Raging Rivers - Grafton, IL

On Saturday of Labor Day weekend we drove to Grafton, IL to enjoy Raging Rivers waterpark. I won free tickets on Facebook, so we were very excited to be able to go for free! The weather was nice and hot for our visit! The ferry was not operating, we had to drive around the long way, but it wasn't too bad.

That is the Mississippi river behind us.

I told the girls that I would stand under the huge dumping bucket with them because they were scared to, but I cheated a little bit.

Kathryn's favorite part was getting to eat chocolate Dippin' Dots ice cream. It was the last weekend of operation, so all of their treats were buy one get one free!

New Roof!

We got a new roof at the end of August! Ours was damaged during a few hail storms we had in the spring. We were happy to have it replaced since it was a poor roofing job to begin with, and it didn't even have tar paper applied! They did the entire job in 1 day, from stripping the old roof, to laying the new roof!

Indian Camp Creek

This weekend we drove out to Indian Camp Creek and enjoyed a simple hot dog cookout. The girls enjoyed playing in the small stream, though Reagan was very unsure at first and spent most of her time walking carefully to avoid the water.

We stayed at the park until dark and the park ranger came to tell us the park was closed!

School days

Nonnie is visiting us this week and got to eat lunch with both of the girls at school! The girls requested chicken soft tacos from Taco Bell.

My matching girls. I took this pic in the parking lot before I dropped off the big girls for school. They usually ride the bus, but I had some PTC things to do at the school, so I brought them with me.

Sydney and her teacher, Miss Reside. We love her!

Back to School!

Sydney on Kindergarten Orientation day!

Kathryn at 1st Grade Supply Drop-off.

Kathryn with her teacher Mrs. Reynolds.

Kathryn & Sydney on the first day of school!

Reagan looking really happy about her big sisters going to school and leaving her alone with Mommy! This is her new "say cheese" face.

Our family waiting with the girls for the school bus!

Getting on the school bus!

Sitting on the school bus! Kathryn was too busy saying hello to everyone to be bothered with taking a picture!

I was a little sad to send my Sydney off to Kindergarten, but she is doing amazingly well! Kathryn was very eager and excited to go back to school. I am up at the school a lot since I do a lot of volunteering with the Parent/Teacher Committee. It's nice to be able to sneak a peek and them sometimes.

End of Summer Fun

We had a busy and fun summer! To finish it off we:


snuggled our Daddy as much as we could...

played with the down-the-street neighbor boys...

and visited with our friends who moved to Iowa last year.

British Challenger Soccer Camp

This week Kathryn has been attending the British Challenger soccer camp at O'Fallon Sports Park. It was super hot all week, but she stuck with it. I sent her with a cooler filled with water bottles and icy-cold wet washclothes.

Wednesday was crazy hair day so I fixed her hair super crazy with little knobby ponytails all over her head, then sprayed with glitter. She loved it until we got to camp and then she got super embarrassed! We had a non-sensical argument about what we were going to do but she finally decided to just leave it in. (But she insisted that I leave and just stood there staring at me and pointing at the car.) (AND, major fail, I did not take a picture.)

Here is a group picture taken today on the last day of camp.

Kathryn with Coach Spence

Kathryn & Reagan. They met when they attended camp at the YMCA together a couple of weeks ago. The coaches were all British and pronounced their names: Kafryn and Reegan.

St. Charles County Fair!!!

We love going to the fair! Even if it was 100 degrees! We went on Wednesday night so we could see the Little Mr./Ms. Pageant. The girls had fun watching the kids strut their stuff.

Kathryn did the rappelling wall. Sydney kept changing her mind, but ultimately decided not to do it.

We fed goats and donkeys.

We rode my favorite ride ever....The Sizzler!!! The girls are having fun, you just can't tell from their facial expressions!

Watching the bull riding.

Yay for a fun, hot, tiring, long evening at the fair!