Reds rule, PiRATS drool, etc.

Happy Birthday, GranJan!
Grandpa made brownies and Lucy & Max made a cake and the kids were all very excited by the dessert options!

On the day of the solar eclipse, Mom & Dad had to work and Max had school all day but Lucy had early dismissal so she went home with Talia & Dominic.
Luckily, Tammy had a pair of the glasses so Lucy could take a look. There were a few people with the glasses at my work and they were passing them around so I got to experience it also. Max was on lock-down in his school so he'll have to catch the next one!

Dominic, Roxy, Annie, Talia & Lucy

Maxy went to his very first Reds game on Sunday, August 27...Reds vs. Pirates. 
Grandma & Troy had gotten the tickets from someone at Grandma's work but they weren't able to go to the game so they gave us the tickets. Dave had something else going on, too, so we asked GranJan to tag along with us.
The Reds didn't end up winning, but they got ice cream in a ball hat and Max got his first game certificate and it was a fun day!

I'll leave you with a couple of cute pictures of a couple of cute kids:

Back to school!

Summer had come to an end...back to school time!
Last year, I had to replace the super-cheap (in cost and quality) Shopkins backpack I'd gotten Lucy halfway through the year. I'd found this giraffe backpack on Amazon and she loved it but we thought it was a little too big for her back. But when the Shopkins bag fell apart, we pulled this one back out and she started using it. I lucked out when she wanted to use it for 1st grade, too!

We got a chance to see her classroom and find out which teacher she had a couple of days before the school year started. Cleo told her all about Mrs. Stratman and said she hoped Lucy would get her so we were super-pumped to see her name on Mrs. Stratman's 1B class list...but Lucy was a little disappointed to be separated from so many of her KB friends.

Checking out her new desk!

She was ready for the school year to begin, though, and was excited on her first day!
Looking oh-so-cute in her uniform!

She did get a new lunchbox this year, though - Auntie Ema spotted this American Girl lunchbox at a TJ Maxx and snagged it for us...love!

She said she had a great first day!

Soon it was Maxy's turn!
He continued at Walnut Hills but soon after Lucy's first day was the first official day of preschool! He had fun helping me fill out his answers for the first day of school board...when I asked him what he wants to be when he grows up he said "a BIG Max" with the "duh implied! Lucy was a little exasperated with him...kept giving suggestions - doctor? garbage man (he's obsessed with garbage trucks)? fireman? All he know is that when he's older, he'd going to be bigger! 

His backpack came from back-to-school clearance a year or two ago...it had been in the basement closet and he was pretty dang excited when he saw it! Talk about a bag being too big for a tiny little back, though!

His school shares photos on FB periodically and monthly shares an entire album...I love how many pictures they take of the kids there! Here are some cute ones:

August adventures - festival fun and more!

A couple of Dave's Beechwood friends recently had a destination wedding but wanted to celebrate and decided to do so at the Crescent Springs Community Park.
We'd never been there before but Lucy and Max loved it - and not just because of the yummy wedding cake they got to eat before heading home!
We didn't make it back this summer but it's definitely on our list of parks to visit again!

We went to the St. Joe festival as a family on Saturday night (August 5) and went back again with more family on Sunday! Lucy was excited to see a friend and ride some things with her - she saw lots of friends and classmates at the festival and I think she realized she was ready for the school year to start so she could see them regularly!

Max really wanted to ride this and Lucy really did not! She was too scared and didn't even care that her baby brother was brave enough to ride it and she wasn't...but later when a friend wanted to ride it with her, she hopped right on! She faced her fear and ended up loving it.

Max's favorite part of any festival is the funnel cake! After riding a few rides with Talia, her daddy bought a funnel cake for us! Yum!

Being brave -
Max, Talia & Lucy

The next night we ate dinner in Memorial Hall and tried to dodge the rain! Such fun!
Uncle Jason helped both boys win giant Spidermans!

Puddle dancing!

One doozy of a day - August 8.
The kids were home with Daddy, enjoying summer break while Mom slaved away at work. They were all getting ready to go to the YMCA when Max went outside and grabbed the railing - right where a wasp happened to have landed...
So they all went back inside to get an ice-pack for Maxy and to calm him down after his sting.
Not to be outdone, once they were ready to leave again, Lucy had a freak incident...she was running across the living room when she tripped over her flip-flop and landed face-first into the corner of a wooden box - of a favorite toy left out in the living room:

Dave was already on edge - he really hates bees! - and Max was still recovering from his sting and suddenly the girl was screaming / crying in pain and blood was coming from her mouth! I got the call at work and could barely understand Dave - I just knew I had to get home!
By the time I got there, no one was crying and they were all sitting together on the couch.

Lucy was feeling a bit better but had clearly hit her teeth and was in need of a dental visit. We called Dr. Rider who could get her in later that day. We took it easy until then and she was completely calm by the time we headed to his office (whew!).

He did some x-rays and wants to keep an eye on it with follow-up visits but all should, thankfully, be fine. The two teeth affected were still baby teeth and one was practically ready to come out already anyway. The other one - the one next to the front - suffered some bruising and he wants to keep an eye on the nerves but it should come out fine and the permanent tooth should be able to come back in fine. too.

We did a little back-to-school shopping afterward and of course got her an Icee!