{August 2011}

**Be prepared for picture overload!! =)

Our August was busy but fun! We started the month off by taking Brenna to Camp Gilead. She spent the week there with her best friend EmmaRae. They always have such a great time together at camp. Their counselor this year was Jessica Hittinger, as very neat gal from our church. They had a great week together!

The kids had a camp out in the backyard with the neighbor girls. Emma and Callie spent a lot of time with our kids this summer. Callie loves to be with the big kids, especially Brenna, and tried to join in on the camp out but didn't make it all night. She was having a very hard time falling asleep. It was fun to have her a part of night even for just a little while. The kids did great in the tent and we didn't hear from any of them until morning.

Next up was the Northwest Washington Fair. This year, Alyssa entered one of her canvas paintings that she completed in Art class. She was thrilled to find a blue ribbon on it. After going through some of the hobby exhibits and all of the animal barns and seeing a few of our favorite animals, the kids spent most of the day in the carnival area. I don't think the kids did more than one or two rides in the smaller carnival. We pretty much spent our ride time in the BIG carnival. There were only a couple of rides that Ethan couldn't join in on. He attempted the zipper with Alyssa but after the first go around, they were both in tears and we had to convince the guy to stop the ride and let them off.

Tyler called and invited three of us to join him and Wayne on the boat to go crabbing. Last year, Jason, Brenna and Ethan went and Jason and Brenna ended up getting sea sick. So, this year I went with Alyssa and Ethan. It was a beautiful morning out on the water and we had a lot of fun. Ethan and Wayne spent a lot of time eating snacks. Good thing Tanya and I each packed a lot of food. These boys didn't stop eating all morning. Tyler let the kids help pull in the pots...we even caught a few starfish in one of the pots. When we got back to Tyler and Tanya's, Ethan learned how to prepare the crabs for cooking. He was pretty proud of himself!

Later that same evening, we had a surprise 60th birthday party for my mom. She totally thought she had things figured out but boy was she wrong! Happy Birthday Mom!

We ended the month with the start of school for the kiddos. Brenna started 7th grade. This year of middle school is very different than last year. This is her first year of having 5 different teachers and having to change classes throughout the day. She also had to start the year out by learning how to open a locker and get in and out of it in her 4 minute "passing" time between classes. That was interesting but thankfully she was never late to a class.

Alyssa started 4th grade and got a very favorite teacher of ours. Mrs. Crane is such a great teacher and loves her students so much. Alyssa is going to have an amazing year!

Ethan started Kindergarten this year. He got the same teacher as both of the girls did for Kindergarten. We are thrilled that he will get to spend his first year of school with another one of our favorite teachers, Mrs. Hoekstra. He is so ready for full day school, a little disappointed about not going every day though.