My kind of camping

It's not a big secret that I'm not a huge fan of camping.  As a kid, I thought it was great fun... as an adult.. not so much.  It's a lot of work to pack everything up, cook and clean without modern conveniences, and then have a not-so-good night's sleep!  
In spite of this, I was determined to go camping before the snow flew this year.  We are finding it more difficult than ever to carve out a little family time, especially with our busy two oldest boys.  So, when I heard of a campground that offered cabins with a few of my favorite amenities... off we went for a weekend of unplugged fun.

Ta da! The cabin!

  A fridge and a microwave.... sweet!

No words necessary!





Panda acrobats

When we were in Guangzhou, I wanted to get a picture or print to hang up in our home. I searched many different shops and finally came across a stack of prints in a shop right next to the White Swan hotel. (I forget the name, but it was fairly large shop with the word "Love" in it??)

I was instantly drawn to the prints because they were all done in bright colors (the paint seems to be like tempera paint). There were many different kinds, and I had a hard time choosing one. Now I wish we would have bought several more!

Anyway, it sat on a shelf until just recently when I was organizing some stuff in Sarah's closet. I wanted to get it framed, but was waiting for a sale. Fortunately Michael's (craft store) was having a 60% off frame sale, so I took it in and... here it is!

Not sure where we're going to hang it yet-- maybe the family room. It just makes me smile when I see it and brings back great memories of our trip, too.

...and they're off!

Not gonna lie... there weren't *any* sad faces on the first day of school at our house. We had a good summer... but the last few weeks really started to drag. We were all ready for a little more structure and routine.

Logan is in third grade at the neighborhood elementary school. Evan is an eighth grader at the junior high, and Justin (not pictured) is a sophomore at the high school. We have a kid in every school this year! The year Sarah starts kindergarten will be Justin's senior year. How's that for a spread? :)

Justin has been getting up at 5:30 a.m. for the last three weeks to complete a driver's ed course at the high school. When I was in high school, driver's ed was a semester class you took during regular school hours. Not so here, at least in our school district. Now that driver's ed is over, I'll have to corner him for a photo! :)

The two littles are also busy. Jason is attending preschool twice a week and loves it. He will go to kindergarten next year. (My babies are growing up so fast!)

Fall soccer is also in full swing. Justin is playing for a club (competitive/traveling) team, and Evan, Logan and Jason are playing on city league teams. Sarah really wanted to play soccer, too... but I was a little worried her barely-30 pound-self would get clobbered. We'll give it another year and see...

Instead of soccer, Sarah takes a gymnastics class once a week. She *loves* it. This is the child who did entire "routines" on the bottom or her high chair before she was two and can do this.

You knew this picture was coming, right? ;) Jason wanted to do splits just like Sarah.

Sarah is also taking a creative dance class with other three year olds. She really enjoys this as well. And yes, the little dance outfits are very cute!

So that's the latest... we have also battled several cases of the stomach flu :( during all this back to school "busy-ness." It's nice to have a long weekend to recuperate and regroup!