Everybody is back to school

Well, all the kiddos are in school. Ali & Cody started back on August 19th. Dustin just started yesterday, September 2nd.

Ali started 5th grade this year. At our school, 5th and 6th grades are middle school, and 7th and 8th grades are junior high. She is really enjoying it! She is especially loving science. Right now, they are collecting monarch caterpillars and eggs, and observing their steps to becoming butterflies. She has found so many to take to school.

This is Ali's first walk into the middle school/junior high school wing.

This is her cool locker that she has been so excited about!

Cody has started 2nd grade. Now that Ali isn't in the elementary wing, I think he feels more like the "big kid" now. He is enjoying school and being with his friends very much.

Cody's classroom

Dustin just started preschool. He will go for one year, then head off to kindergarten next year. I think he really enjoyed school yesterday! He has been so excited ever since we started telling him about going to school this year. He goes in the afternoons. So Mommy & Dustin have an early lunch together, then he is off to school like the big kids. Today, he is even going to ride the bus. Talk about excited!

Dustin's first walk down the hallway as a preschooler.

He's looking up at the wall with pictures of the Preschool Friends.

hanging up his backpack in his very own cubbie

Dustin's classroom

Of course, I have to share this pic of Mommy & Dustin before heading off to preschool for the first time.

A Day At The Carnival

PaPa John and Vicki invited us to the Brimfield carnival for the afternoon. Grandma Soni & PaPa Wally joined us too.

We enjoyed the parade, then headed to the kiddie pedal tractor pull. The boys both participated in that. Dustin did pretty well, but didn't place in his class. He had fun though.

Cody had a "full-pull" and then they had a "pull-off" for the four kiddos in his class that had full-pulls. He ended up winning first place in his class. He won a trophy and $5.

Then Ali and Cody both participated in a lawn tractor driving contest. They drove a lawn tractor through a course of bowling pins. Cody placed 2nd in his age group, and won $3.

Ali didn't place in her age bracket, but did quite well.

Keith and Vicki both did an adult course too, but neither placed in the end.

Then of course, we had to enjoy the carnival rides.

PaPa John and Dustin raced Cody down the slide...Cody won.

The boys cruised on the motorcycles

Vicki, Cody, & Dustin took a whirl around the Tilt-o-whirl track

PaPa Wally & Ali rode this crazy ride together.

I think it was a hit!

Ali & Cody took a swing together

Vicki and Dustin rode the Octopus

We enjoyed a nice day at the carnival!

Swimming

We got to take the camera swimming...literally. I thought the waterproof feature with our new camera sounded like fun - I was right. It was so fun getting these pictures of the kids. If it had been sunnier, I think the underwater pictures would have turned out a little better, but I was quite happy with the pictures I got. We all went swimming at Leslie's on Wednesday. We did have an extra little guy in a couple of the shots. Nate was over at Aunt Leslie's swimming too.

Of course, jumping in is always a ton of fun!

Daddy even got off work early to come with us.

I really wish this had been centered better! I think it would have turned

out to be such a great picture!

It was quite un-nerving, to say the least, to put a brand new camera under the water - intentionally. I thought it was pretty cool though. The kids had fun "posing" for these ones.

Nate was my first candidate.

and Cody

And Ali

Daddy and Ali went for an underwater ride for this one

We'll definitely be doing this again!

My crazy boy

I forgot to add these pictures to my post with the pictures I took yesterday. Anyway, I was playing with yet, another feature on my cool new camera. This is the original picture that I took. This look that I captured on Dustin's face was priceless!

This was adding the banner.

You can't see the orneriness oozing out of this crazy little guy, can you?!

New Camera

We decided that we were buying ourselves a new digital camera for our anniversary. Our Nikon that we had was great, but the battery compartment broke and becoming quite the pain to have to hold and take pictures. A friend had recently gotten an Olypums Stylus 1050 SW, and I have seen some of the pictures she has taken. They're fabulous! We went looking and did find that model. We also found an Olypmus Stylus 850 SW. Very similar and a lot of the same functions, it was just a model down. We opted for this camera. The shockproof and waterproof features were the most enticing.

So the camera was delivered yesterday. It's so cute! I am loving the blue color. Of course, they didn't have a purple one, but that's ok. The blue is so pretty, and it will stand out if it gets misplaced at a gathering or something like that.

So of course, I played with it all afternoon and evening, experimenting with some of the different settings and features. I did learn that a lazy cat is a great way to play with these different settings. Garfield was a perfect subject.

And of course, I had to get some pics of the doggies too. Here is Kasey.

And here is Nika.

My pink dahlia is finally blooming again, and very well actually.

and here is one of my buckets of various flowers by my garage

I took some pictures on the landscape setting too.

And of course, my favorite subject is my kids!! So you know I got some new pics of the kiddos yesterday with this thing!

While the kids were swimming, Dustin wasn't following the rules and had to get out. When I took him out of the pool, I took off his vest. He knows not to get near the water without it. Well, while he was "sitting out" he decided to put the vest back on himself. He was quite proud of himself when he did get it on. He even did it correctly, but I tried to reinforce that he can't get back in the water until Mommy or Daddy does his vest.

This is after he was told that he still wasn't allowed to get back in yet. Not a happy guy!

GOT CORN?!

We had sweet corn on the cob with supper last night. We all love this stuff!