September

Sasha graduated to a bigger bike this month.  She especially loves the white tires which she believes make the bike look much fancier.  The little white pack on the handlebars has proven handy for fetching the mail from down at the bottom of our street.

Phil met his brothers and his parents for a long weekend in Michigan as part of a x-mas gift to his dad last year.  It sounds like they had a great time boating and exploring deserted Manitou Island.  The kids and I had a surprisingly fun, easy weekend without him.  On Saturday we went to see Despicable Me 2 which is the funniest kids movie I've ever seen.  On Sunday my dad and I played music for the wedding of the guy who built our house.

Jack helped me make chocolate cupcakes to take to his school on his birthday. 

He was very proud to be turning 3 and learned how to hold up 3 fingers to go with it. 

One of Jack's gifts from us was a big Lego set.  Both kids are really into building Lego things right now.  Sasha loves to follow the step-by-step instructions in the booklets that come with them and Jack just wants us to create various vehicles which he then modifies in one way or another.

Sasha learned how to pump!  It has opened up a whole new world for her on the playground.  The next week she reported that she used the swings the entire recess for all 3 recesses at school every day.

Jack still loves his glide bike.  I take him to a skate park occasionally during the day when the big kids are in school and he enjoys doing "tricks" on the hills and bumps.  He especially loves to get going fast enough to put his feet up on the pegs and ride like a "motercycler".

We had a little party for Jack at our house with a few of his little buddies, Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt Megan. 

Jack requested a rocket ship cake with fire coming out. 

Sasha and Jack love to pretend they are eagles sitting on this big rock in our yard that has 2 holes in it which they pretend are nests.  They have "eggs" in them that they protect and then I am the fox who tries to sneak in and steal their eggs while they are off gathering food in the yard.  Never gets old (for them anyway!)

Already the Halloween excitement is palpable in our house.  Here they are painting trick-or-treak maps on cardboard (Sasha's idea).

Fall photo shoot.