Earrings

Paige and her friend, Maeve, got their ears double-pierced over the weekend! They didn't waver from their decision but they did start getting pretty nervous when it was about time to pick out which earrings they would get! Paige went first and Maeve followed and neither girl even flinched! 

Before...

A little nervous...

Done!

All smiles after!

 

River Run!!

The River Run is back! I had to run my own version last year so it was nice really nice to be back officially. The weather was perfect and I was so excited to run! I pushed a little harder than I probably should have but I was very proud of my time, 1:54:54 and 7th in my age group. Unfortunately that meant I was so sore that I had to skip a training run for the marathon training which wasn't so great. But I'm back on track and can't wait to get the marathon done next month!!

 

Labor Day

It's always strange to me that we don't wait until after Labor Day to start school because just as you start getting in a routine they throw a day off at you. The kids like it though:) Owen ended up having soccer practice so we took that time to go on a hike. The parking lot was pretty crowded at the nature center but we found a spot and didn't run across too many people on our hike. 

Owen was tired after soccer but we made him go for ice cream at Remixx anyway! It was our second time there and it's always too much ice cream!! I think only Owen finished his and nobody was super impressed with their creations this time. Actually, I may have been the only person that was happy with mine! We decided to stop at the lake since we were so close and we spent some time on the beach and then checking out a new playground they built there before heading home

Classic posed picture spot for us. For example

Pat and Paige

I remembered to get in a picture before we got to the car

Ice cream! Our choices clockwise from top left: me, Paige, Owen and Pat

Kids sitting on the sprinkle bench

Great view of Cleveland!

 

Extras but Mostly Binx

 

It's September so it's basically Fall and I've started drinking my favorite tea every morning

Binx found a comfy spot by Paige

Every time we play a game Binx likes to be right in the middle of the action!

Binx in a tunnel on a sunny day

Back to School Feast!

A week and a half into the school year and we finally fit in our back to school feast! I looked back and we've been doing this tradition since Owen started kindergarten in 2012 and it's one of my favorites. This year we had lasagna, broccoli and apple pie rolls for dessert. I can't believe Owen is a high schooler and Paige is in her second year of middle school!!

The set-up

We hung the banner a little lower this year apparently

9th and 6th grade cards!

Making a wish for the school year and blowing out their candles

Apple Pie spring rolls with caramel dipping sauce (from Costco, they weren't homemade but they were delicious!)

 

Starter!

The next game after the freshman got to play a bunch of the varsity game the coach also let them start the next game! So Owen had his first varsity start, so fun to hear his name announced and see him run out there and line up with his team!

Warming up

Lining up for the anthem

The game!

 

Varsity!

Owen got to play an entire half of the Varsity game the other day! The situation wasn't the best, they were losing badly and the coach was frustrated so he took out almost all of his starters for the second half and put in the entire bench in but they did great though and were able to keep the score down to a reasonable amount. They played so hard and were so pumped to be out there!!

 

Michigan Visit

The day after the wedding we were able to visit with Pat's grandma and get some pictures of everybody before we headed home

 

Wedding

We traveled to Michigan last weekend to see Pat's cousin get married! It was a hot, hot few days leading up to it and out air conditioning was broken (actually it wasn't, it just needed a new filter!) so we appreciated the timing of getting to stay in a hotel while we waited for it to be fixed. We were only briefly cooled off though because the wedding and reception were outside and it did not cool off until we left! But...we had a really fun time! It was so nice to be in a different place with a different view with nothing else to worry about besides hanging out with each other. The food was good but we didn't do any dancing. Paige made a friend though and the two of them and Owen spent a good amount of time playing tag around the reception tent and chasing after the bride and groom's dog, named Snuggles. We also had a large number of Shirley Temples and we kept sending Owen up to get them for us so the bartender may have thought Owen had them all himself and would start making them for him as he approached. Unfortunately the good-natured bartender had no idea how to make them so we kept having to mix them ourselves!

Waiting for the ceremony

Trying to cool off in the grass

Stopped for a posed picture on the short walk to the reception tent

Shirley Temples!

These were the people we hung out with for most of the time

Seriously, we had so many Shirley Temples

The sky looked beautiful so we took some pictures and I was going to save them for our Christmas card but then obviously I posted them so we'll have to get new "surprise" photos another time

Selfie at the table

Family picture!

Owen wasn't actually on his phone a ton but we seem to have a couple photos from when he was!

Finishing out the night! Took off the tie, took off the shoes and one more Shirley Temple!