Our little mechanic

Earlier (in August) Bruce and Andrew put working lights in Andrew's Ford truck. He loves the lights, and it does look pretty cool to see him drive across the yard at night. Here's some pictures of the project....

Learning how to use the glue gun:

Miss Jenna entertained herself by doing this:

Caterpillar

Yesterday we were all out in the corner of the yard clearing out some weeds, and picking up some rocks, when I noticed a fuzzy brown and black caterpillar. I pointed it out to Andrew, who immediately picked it up and had it crawling up and down his arms. Being a great big brother he took it over to show Jenna. She wanted to hold it so he put in her hand....then she squished it! Yep, she squashed the little caterpillar between her fingers. Thank goodness she had her gardening gloves on...they apparently have green goo inside of them, and in case you were wondering they are black under all that fuzz (she also rubbed his fuzz off!).
There was also a worm that most likely didn't fare very well yesterday....Andrew built him an apartment building out of rocks - ouch.

Mom's weekend

This past weekend (9/11 - 9/13) Bruce went to Winona to go fishing with the Ihrke crew on the river, so that meant it was just the kids and I all weekend. We had a lot of fun just hanging out. We visited an apple orchard on Saturday, and went to a park on Sunday to play. The weather is very summer like right now, so that helped....although Jenna kept telling me that it was too hot. I let Jenna pick where we went to eat on Friday night and Andrew got to pick on Saturday. She of course chose 'ta-don-alds' or McDonald's as the rest of us call it. There girl toy at ours is Barbie, and boy was she excited. I wasn't even aware that she knew what Barbie was, turns out she does. Her happy meal toy was a little compact with lip gloss and sticker 'earrings'. I told her she could have it until she ate her chicken nuggets, which typically means about 2 nuggets for her. She must have really wanted it because she ate all her nugget & some of her fries! I'm not sure if I've ever seen her eat so well.

Here she is showing off her 'earrings':

Latter that night her and Andrew decided that they wanted tattoo's. Unfortunately I didn't have any girl tattoos, only boy ones, but Jenna didn't seem to mind 1 bit (she has a football helmet & lightning bolt).

Saturday we went to the apple orchard to pick up some apples, and visit the animals. The orchard we went to has the new apple SweeTango, so I bought some - they are really good, although really expensive right now! We also picked up some Zestar apples. Now it just needs to be fall weather so I feel like baking a pie or a cake w/ them....for now we'll just enjoy eating them - we don't need the cool weather to arrive any earlier than absolutely necessary! The orchard has goats, chickens, and a bunny right now, and will be getting a calf soon.

Andrew fed the goats

While Jenna stood as far away as I would allow her too....(she wasn't impressed by the goats):

Andrew enjoying his apple:

Jenna didn't want an apple for snack, and opted for cereal instead:

After heading to Chipotle (Yay Andrew! I was relieved to not have to go to McDonald's, Burger King, or Wendy's). We met up with some friends at a park to play. The kids had fun, and burned off some more energy, before we headed back to our place for root beer floats. Andrew liked the floats, while Jenna preferred the ice cream w/o the root beer.

Jenna eating her ice cream w/ a straw:

Sunday while Andrew was helping Bruce wash the boat, Jenna was inside practicing one of her new skills she's attempting - cutting! She actually does fairly well considering that she's only been testing it out for a week or so.

Labor Day at the Lake

We left Friday (9/4) for Park Rapids to spend the weekend at Two Inlets Resort. The drive up took much longer than we anticipated (6+ hours) due to some accidents. Nothing brings traffic to a grinding halt like a car accident...Jenna decided she didn't really need to sleep in the car (even tho it was nap time), and spent what felt like the better part of the trip, crying, whining, and screaming.....we know we endured at least 2 hours of it, and are serious about wanting to invest in some really good ear plugs for Bruce, Andrew and I. She just really hates not being able to move about the car freely.

Once we made it to the lake she was fine, she just really isn't a happy kid when she needs to be strapped into a car seat. If it wasn't for the occasional laugh, or asking for a snack you would never know that Andrew was even in the back seat, he's an awesome traveler. We keep hoping that she'll notice how good Andrew is in the car, and decide that she'd like to give it a try too.

The weather at the lake was awesome. We had better weather in September then we did in July! The kids enjoyed swimming, kayaking, playing in the sand, fishing, and checking on the turtle in the turtle pond, and of course visiting our lake neighbors (Grandma & Grandpa Fullerton). Bruce and I enjoyed being able to go out fishing on our own a few times, and the extra hands w/ the kids. It was nice to have 2 extra sets of eyes watching them when they were running around outside.

Fishing w/ Grandma & Grandpa (about 10 minutes after we got there!):

Fishing Jenna Style (dunking her bobber in the water/sand/weeds):

Playing in the sand:

Surfing:

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

A few hours on the lake, lots stories, and here's what they came home with.... (it was worth it)

Helping with candles:

Happy Birthday Grandpa! Happy Birthday Dee! (they share a birthday) The kids added every available candle to the cake just to give them a challenge when it was time to blow the candles out. Didn't work - they got all of them on the 1st try.

Andrew Kayaking:

Jenna Swinging:

The resort has a Turtle Pond that they keep at least one turtle in for every summer. Every Labor day they release the turtle back into the lake. This year Andrew and Jenna were able to help with the release of the turtle.

Want to pet him?

Go Turtle GO!Watching for him in the water:

The ride home from the lake went much better than the ride up. Jenna actually slept during the ride, which is always a big help, and makes the time pass faster(& quieter). She was excited to pick up Sadie, and seemed a little sad when we put the boat back in the garage. Sadie must have had a good time with Lynn, Tom & Thor at the lake because she was exhausted. Once we got home, Andrew went to work on his project for school - he had to decorate a cut out of a person.....let's just say red sparkle glue and 4 year old is not a good combo. I went to get Jenna something out of the fridge and came back to him adding pants to his cut out that were made of glue. This was after he added 5 different colors of sparkle glue to it in the shape of a heart - the gob was at least 1/2 an inch thick. We didn't think it'd ever dry!

1st day of Preschool

Today was Andrew's 1st day of preschool at Bethel Highlands. He did awesome with the drop off (Mom & Dad did fine too), and it sounds like he had a great day. He's already asking when he gets to go back, so we are pretty sure he liked it.

New backpack, lunch box & shoes:Breakfast: Ready to leave for school:

Hurry up Mom we're here:

On his way:

Waiting to go in to his classroom:
After his 1st day:

Celebratory ice cream cones:

Today was also Jenna's 1st day w/o her big brother at Melissa's (daycare)....apparently she barely noticed he was gone! Just went about business as usual. I think she's only been there a few times w/o him, so we weren't sure if she'd be lost w/o him or not.