Happy Birthday Amber!

We took Amber to Outback steakhouse for her 17th birthday. She loved her ice cream sundae made with Blue Bell ice cream!

We looked for a new cat for Amber since Molly died. We looked at kittens advertised on Craigslist, at the Humane Society and Last Hope shelter.

Meet Amber's new cat. We are still waiting for Amber to decide on a name for her new 5 month old tortoise shell kitten.

Steven starts a new sport

So Steven started a new sport last week. He decided to play football this fall instead of soccer. So far he is really enjoying it. I am very glad that he has red cleats; it makes it very easy to find him on the field! Here are some pictures from his second game. They won!

Nice tackle, Steven!

Molly

Amber's cat Molly died last week. We will miss her. She loved to sleep, as you can see from these pictures. We planted some mums outside Amber's window as a memorial to Molly.

Mary Poppins

The day after school started we had an amazing night watching the live musical "Mary Poppins". It is such a great story, I like it even better than the movie. It has a great pro family message. We went to downtown Minneapolis to see this version. Amber, Megan and I saw it in London 3 years ago, but we knew the whole family would love it!

Back to School

Summer is over and the kids have gone back to school. They leave at 4 different times: Amber and Megan at 7 am after seminary at our house, Steven at 7:20 am, Marissa at 9:00 and David at 12:30pm. Then I breathe a sigh of relief!

Megan is a Freshman and Amber is a Junior

Steven off to 7th Grade

Marissa in 4th grade

David didn't start school for one week after the kids, so he took advantage of the nice warm weather to play on the slip-n-slide one last time.

The warm driveway feels great after getting all wet!

Soak up all you can because we won't feel that warmth again for many months!

David turns 5!

David is FIVE years old!!!

Harry Potter and Spiderman cakes skillfully made by Amber

Star Wars-He loves it!

Minnesota State Fair

Monday we visited the Minnesota State Fair in St. Paul. It was a day of rides and eating all things on a stick or fried! We went matching in our family reunion shirts (2 different ones).

Maria and the boys

The Girls

David with his monster corn dog!

Marissa with a refreshing lemonade

Twin lambs that we saw being born in the Miracle of Birth center. We saw piglets be born, too.