Choosing Pumpkins

After school today -- I know, right?  I'm actually doing a post on something that happened TODAY, instead of something that happened a few months ago!  Anyway....

After school today, I took the kids to pick out pumpkins. 

We ended up at the same farm we went to three years ago, but thankfully it was a lot warmer today, just over 50 degrees, and not snowing.  Of course, I went to get Nathaniel out of the carseat and realized that he was wearing his slippers instead of his shoes.  So he couldn't walk around to pick out his pumpkin.  Instead, we found a wagon to pull him around in.  He is wearing a Lightning McQueen shirt, socks and slippers.

All the kids picked out their pumpkins pretty quickly, even though the girls had told me in the car that they were going to look at every pumpkin until they found the perfect one.  The girls picked out traditional pumpkins, but Nathaniel chose a warty one.  I love his pumpkin!  Megan claimed hers was too heavy to carry, which is why she's making a whiny face.

They had a cute little photo spot all decked out with pumpkins and other fall stuff, just like they did three years ago.  The girls each wanted to pose with their pumpkins.  They chose their own poses.

Last Day of School

I'm going to be like Becky and start catching up on some of the posts I missed this year.  Because this is a daunting task, I'm going to start with a post that will be short and sweet with very few photos (for me, at least.)

The girls loved school last year (kindergarten and 2nd grade), and they were so sad on the last day.  I took a few photos in the morning before school, because I love to try to get photos of the two girls together.

I asked them if they were going to be sad when school was over, and if they could show me their sad faces.  Megan refused to participate, and gave me a fairly natural smile, while Amelia overcompensated with a sad pouty face.

When I picked them up from school in the cafeteria at lunch time, Amelia was already crying, and Megan was feeling very sad indeed.  I got a photo of each of them with their teacher; Amelia had Mrs. Lutz and Megan had Ms. McKeith (who I absolutely loved).

Because I love to torture them, I took another photo of their sad faces before we drove home to start our fun-filled summer vacation:

And Nathaniel (still in his jammies, people!) photobombed the photo near the school sign:

 Even though you may not think it based on their attitudes, we had an awesomely fun summer!  And they did cheer up once they had lunch, a little bit of quiet time, and some outside play time.  But I'm sure the same thing will happen again next year...

Olympics - Medal Ceremony

Finally we got to have a medal ceremony.  I believe we gave out the medals thusly:

Amelia - marathon, high jump

Megan - rhythmic gymnastics, fencing

Natalie - cycling, swimming

Noah - shooting, discus

We played and sang the National Anthem (and I am proud to say that no one refused to participate, even though no one knew the words)

Emotions ranged from giddy to jubilant to stoic to exhausted:

And one final photo of all the participants:

The girls are already asking if we can have another Olympics next time!  We had such a great time, thanks for hosting and planning and feeding us all, Becky and Brian!

Olympics - Field Events

After everyone showered and had lunch, we moved on to field events.  First came the long jump. I think we tried the standing long jump first and then the running long jump (I believe I have the photos in the right order).  It took the kids awhile to get the hang of running and then jumping.   I like to see all their different techniques.

Then came the high jump.  Taller kids clearly had an advantage over shorter kids, but they all had fun jumping.  I love the motion shots with the hair flying!

Even Brian gave it a try:

Then they revisited fencing for the third time.

Dad fenced with Noah and let Noah mortally wound him.  Everyone thought his dramatic death scene was very funny.

Then we moved outside for shotput.  The kids mostly threw the ball in the right direction, and nobody got clocked on the head (although there were a few close calls)

Then we tried discus, using a hula hoop.  Noah's first shot landed in the neighbor's yard, so he was the clear winner.

And finally, the kids attempted pole vaulting.  Noah had a hard time getting the hang of how to use the pole, probably because we demonstrated it in a right-handed way.  It was funny to watch:

Everyone else had fun pole vaulting, too:

 Ok, I found some more photos, so I'm updating this post.  The kids also tried javelin:

And who could forget about the marathon!  We had no idea how long to make the marathon, so we sa... --- WAIT!  I have to take a break so that I can try to by Cubs World Series tickets for Becky!!! ---- I HAVE SUCCEEDED!  Becky and Brian are going to the World Series!

Okay, sorry, back to your regularly scheduled program....

We said the kids had to run ten laps around the house, which turned out to be nowhere near enough.  So we made Amelia (and maybe Noah) run a couple more laps, which they thought was unfair.

Their favorite part of the marathon was the water table.  I think they stopped almost every lap to get a drink or throw water on their heads.  Natalie especially loved getting wet.

They also loved getting to throw their cups away as they ran.

Here is a photo of the tired marathon runners:

And then they went back to riflery.  Thank goodness they were only using water guns!

Wait, where's Natalie?  Haha, here she is!

I think that was the last of the Olympic events.  It was a busy couple of days!  We did the following events:
4 x 1/4 lap around the house
1 lap around the house sprint
cycling
disc golf
fencing
rhythmic gymnastics
equestrian
hurdles
shooting
kayaking
swimming
diving
synchronized diving
synchronized swimming
long jump
high jump
shotput
discus
pole vault
javelin
marathon