September Happenings

School doesn't start here till after Labor Day, so we still have some time in September to squeeze in more summer fun. My friend Katie Richardson, from our MSU days, came down to visit from Grand Haven with her kids. We had Silver Beach Pizza of course and then headed to the beach. Her son Cam is Netta's age, but EZ and him really hit it off and EZ requested a special picture of the 2 of them. 

 We also had time to take a few more pics with the art statues downtown. We have taken so many over the summer that EZ is no longer impressed. 

Labor Day weekend, Uncle Casey was playing volleyball in Cincinnati so we made a little family vacation out of it. It was insanely hot and then it rained like crazy. The rain messed up the schedule so much that a bunch of the games were played late at night and sometimes John was the only representative of our family there.

 Casey is sponsored by Paul Mitchell and they always have a booth at the events. Netta had her hair braided. I was amazed that they could actually get it in a braid. Poor girl loved it and I have never even tried to do it. I better up my game. 

When Casey wasn't playing, we explored Cincinnati and I was pleasantly surprised by it. My bad google directions ended up with us trying to find a Chick-fil-A that was actually in the college stadium and then because that didn't work the next closest one was actually just over the river in Kentucky, so I can now say I have been to Kentucky as well. We also made sure and try some local restaurants, like a really cool grilled cheese place, where actually the best part was the desserts made out of grilled donuts. Our favorite place was the museum center housed in this old train station. It had a really awesome children's museum. 

We all loved cheering for Uncle Casey and they made it to the finals, which was awesome. King was the most excited to see him and to get to have dinner with him after the final game. He is actually smiling in this pic and not ruining it with a crazy face like he usually does. He talked to Casey the entire time at dinner. Casey couldn't always understand him, but he was a good listener. 

As soon as we got back from Cincinnati, it was back to school. I can't believe I have 3 kids in school now. I was really worried about King and how he would do. He has been insisting that he is not going to go to Brown school and that he only wants to stay in preschool. When we went to back to school night to meet his teacher, he wouldn't even look at her. Luckily, at that same event we were able to tour a school bus and actually meet our driver. His name is Mr. Rath, which I think is hilarious, and he was so nice to King. I thought I was going to have to drive King to school the first day and then pry him off my leg when we got there, but he was so excited to ride the bus that he just strolled right on. I still can't believe, but I'll take it!

Since Conrad and I have all this time to ourselves now, we decided to stand in line at a new restaurant, Taco John's, to be one of the first costumers and win fee Potato Oles for a year. They actually aren't that great, but hey I love a deal!

A week after the kids went back to school, Conrad started preschool. He goes 2 days a week at the Y. It was so funny to see him wearing his back pack that is humongous on him. I can't believe that I now have a 3 hours twice a week with on kids. I gotta say it is really nice for actually getting stuff done.

Every fall they have a little festival on the bluff and of course we had to check out all the animals. Usually we would have been running around at soccer in the morning, but this year we gave soccer the boot. EZ just isn't into running that much and Netta loves dance so much and only really played soccer for the candy and I couldn't handle how crazy it made out lives. King wants to try it out, so this year we opted for doing an intro to soccer at the Y. EZ is taking a speed and agility class at the Y in hopes that it can improve his running for when basketball starts. It makes our Wednesdays absolutely crazy, but I love having such lazy Saturdays!