Christopher's 5th Birthday

Christopher was very excited for his birthday this year.  He was set on having a Ninja Turtle birthday party.  We really missed all of our Cleveland friends!!  It just wasn't the same. 

Christopher's birthday was on Friday, August 23rd so we took Ninja Turtle cupcakes to share with his class.

After school Christopher opened his cards and presents from everyone.

Christopher's "Happy Birthday" banner

Ryan and I had a really neat birthday present for Christopher but we needed to give it to him at his party so for his presents on his birthday were clothes (something that he needed!)

This was Christopher's reaction when he realized that all of his presents were clothes.

We went to dinner at Red Robin for his birthday.

On Saturday the 24th we had his party.  We weren't sure how many people would come since we didn't know a lot of friends yet.  We invited a few people from his Primary class and our neighbors that they play with frequently.

All ready for the party!

Christopher's cake--This is where Christopher's presents from us came in.  Alex and Angel gave him a Ninja Turtle last year and ever since then he has wanted the rest of them.  So for the top of his cake he got the rest along with Shredder.

pinata

We started the party off with a small ninja training exercise...(They had to "pop" the bad guys)

Someone had popped Emily's balloon

After the exercise they all earned the rank of "Ninja Turtle" and received their shells and masks...

After our training we had pizza (of course) and bread sticks along with cake and ice cream

Blowing out candles

After our tummies were full we had another training exercise...A ninja obstacle course...

They had to get to the "gold" ninja

The bad ninja

Christopher-Mission Complete

Emily-Mission Complete

James-Failed

Nathanial-Failed

The Ninja's would not let go of Nathanial

After the attack of the ninjas we went outside to attack the pinata

Christopher

Christopher

Nathanial

After the pinata we came inside for presents...

A ball and bat from the Cleary's (James and Shannon)

A painting project from Anne

We had a great time and we think it turned out to be a fun party.  Christopher was happy with it and asked for a Ninja Turtle party again for next year.

Summer Fun and Emily's First Hair Cut

The boys have been enjoying their new found freedom.  I let them ride their bikes down the sidewalk to the driveway past the big evergreen tree...

Once we were settled in we decided it was time to potty train Emily...

August 17th Emily was a little tired from all the "training" and fell asleep

After some debating we decided that Emily was in need of a haircut so on August 21st I decided to just take her and get it done.  She was so excited and sat there the whole time saying, "Emily haircut"

Before...

AFTER...

Ryan thinks that Emily looks like his mom in this picture

I sometimes miss her long hair but now it is all even and looks a lot better.

First Day of School

The boys started school on Thursday, August 15th.  On the previous Tuesday we went to a back to school night and were able to see who the kids teachers are and meet them.  We decided to make these pencils (filled with Dove chocolates) for the boys to take on the first day to give to their teachers...

Nathanial started first grade and was happy to go back to "real" school...

Nathanial's first day of 1st grade with Mrs. Simoni.

After looking at various preschools in the area and not feeling like any of them were the right fit for Christopher we heard about a program through the district called Transitional Kindergarten (TK).  It is for kids who turn 5 between June and September that are not quite ready for kindergarten.  After hearing about it I knew that it was the program that we were looking for.  It is an all day, 5 day-a-week program.  He was so happy that he gets to go to school with Nathanial.

Christopher's first day of Transitional Kindergarten with Ms. Purhman

First day of school at Whiitier Elementary School, Sioux City, Iowa, August 15, 2013

The house is very quite during the day only having Emily at home.  She missed the boys for the first few days but now I think she enjoys having her mom all to herself during the day.

Also something that we have never heard of until we moved here are "heat" days.  It is similar to a snow day but caused by excessive heat.  The school doesn't have air conditioning so if it gets too hot they have to end school 2 hours early.  So far they have had 8 heat days (as of September 13th).

Woodbury County Fair

Nathanial, Emily, and Christopher at the Woodbury County Fair on Saturday, August 3rd.

The kids loved all the animals

Christopher the Combine

At one of the booths there was a snake...

Christopher thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Emily couldn't get enough of the snake.

Nathanial is like his mom and wanted NOTHING to do with the snake!!

There were pony rides that the kids wanted to go on so we headed over there...

Emily kept saying "pony, pony, pony!" the whole time and had a huge grin on her face

Nathanial chose the biggest pony there to ride and was happy

Ryan walked with Emily for safety reasons :)

Christopher was cracking jokes and making this guy laugh.  The guy liked Christopher so much that he let him go around a few extra times.

I think that we were spoiled growing up going to the Eastern Idaho State Fair.  The kids were content going to the Woodbury County fair but Ryan and I kept saying how small it was.  It was a great day to get out of the house and go and do something as a family.