Instagrammin’ in August

August saw Jack’s birthday, volunteering, the start of soccer, a trip to Florida, the end of summer, and the start of school. 

happy birthday to jack. | jack’s birthday fun. | man on crutches lighting fireworks. #runjonrun | 9-year-old boy’s birthday perfection. | volunteering at loaves & fishes. | 4 long, hard nights of soccer. | sewing like a fiend. | my new artwork for our bathroom. | ella’s selection of headbands to sell for her fundraiser for the lunch project. | spanish wines tasting. #allinthenameofresearch | headbands all labeled, sorted, and ready to deliver. | so proud of my little socially-conscious entrepreneur! | lauren and zoe made a cake to celebrate jack’s birthday. | volunteering at sow much good. | their new earrings skink! | time to change the school sign. | lots of tennis this summer. | yay! we made it to st. augustine! | jack getting the hang of the skim boarder. | ella, too. | catching waves. | more fireworks to celebrate jack’s birthday. | kid catapult in the pool. | ella, too. | 9 holes with nonni and papa. | world’s largest airboat tour of myakka river state park. | above the trees. | long live the fun island! | love these cuties—at tarzan the musical. | one more stop in florida—hanging with nana and poppop in gainesville. | yummy restaurant opening. | great end to the summer, with great friends. | soccer tournament weekend…trying to block my picture. #momstoofastforyakid | an end of summer tradition, recounting our wonderful summer over bruster’s ice cream. | first day of school! #5thgrader #3rdgrader

First Day of School

Ella and Jack started school on August 25th—Ella’s in 5th grade and Jack’s in 3rd.  We have a fantastic school with amazing teachers, so we are looking forward to another great year!

5th grader!  I can hardly take that this is her last year of elementary school…I’m truly making a conscious effort to not jump ahead in my mind and just soak her up as the young girl she still is.

3rd grader! 

…the last year these two are together at school until Jack’s in 6th grade…yikes!

Visiting Nonni and Papa

On our trip to Florida in August, we (Ella, Jack, and I) also made some time for a few days at Nonni and Papa’s house.  It was a short visit, but we packed in the quality time.  The 5 of us played 9 holes on Nonni and Papa’s golf course—loved hearing from Jack, “Mom, I didn’t know you were so good at golf” (I love challenging their image of me as “just mom”).  The kids tried a few drives, but mostly just played from where we were chipping onto the green.  We spent a morning out on the “world’s largest airboat” (although Jack was doubtful that was true) touring the alligator-infested waters of Myakka River State Park (sidenote: this is the park Jonathan I hiked about 9 miles out to do some primitive camping for my Backpacking class in college, but this park is so large that I never even saw the trailheads we took on our time there this summer).  After some alligator spotting on our time on the boat, we hiked into the park to check out a really cool tree canopy bridge and tower and got a great view of the endless park.  Later that night we went to see Tarzan the musical at the theatre where Nonni and Papa see a season’s worth of shows each year.  We also got in plenty of pool time, snuggle time, and hang out time at Nonni and Papa’s house.  It was a fun visit—wish we could fit in more!

St. Augustine Beach

Just as we do every August, we headed down to Jonathan’s parents’ house in St. Augustine Beach for several days as our last trip of the summer.  This August’s trip to St. Augustine Beach, however, was quite different than our August trips over the last several years.  For one, we weren’t down for Jack’s birthday because Jack’s new soccer team started practice just a few days after his birthday and Jonathan’s parents were on a trip of their own for the days leading up to Jack’s birthday.  Also, Jonathan was still on crutches over our trip so, although he did make it down to Florida with us and spent some time at the pool, he did not get out on the beach.  And, finally, the biggest difference is that we found out the exciting news that Aunt Jacqui and Uncle Randy are expecting twins!  We’re all so thrilled!  Jacqui was taking it easy in her early pregnancy (she’s due in February) so she and Nana kept Jonathan company at the pool whenever we headed out to the beach.  We had such a nice visit and it had been way too long since we’d seen everyone.  Most of our time was about catching up—a lot has happened for all of us over this past year (so much so I am admittedly worn down by 2014…thankful for our many blessings, but worn down nonetheless)—so I really didn’t take many pictures.  Unfortunately, I only really got my camera out on the beach.  I did try to catch a shot of Jacqui and Randy on FaceTime with the Scherers to tell them the big news, but I was too slow on the draw.  Anyways, we had a very fun visit and you’ll have to look for a few more pictures of our trip in my Instagram post…definitely the new resource for documenting daily life.

{we bought a skim board on our way in to town (we had to stop at walgreens because a certain little boy forgot to pack not only a comb but also a toothbrush…) and the kids quickly learned that it was a lot harder than it looks, even with uncle randy tossing the board for them.}