Summer Comes To A Close

We've awakened to a crispy-fallness in the air, so posting about summer activities has seemed to take on a new urgency. Today is the day!!

First on my mind today is that in August Melissa got to have lunch with the Mayor of Nampa, Tom Dale.

Melissa was one of two kids chosen ~ the only one from Caldwell. She got to talk with the Mayor about school and her favorite class (Reading). His Assistant, Adam, was also nice.

They had lunch at the 2nd Street Diner. Melissa ordered a grilled cheese. It came with a pickle that she was happy to save and bring home to her dad.

Melissa came home from her cousin's birthday party in August saying that it was "THE BEST PARTY EVER!!". Aunt Jennie knows how to throw a party!! They got to have a fashion show ~ complete with make-up and hair-do's. We're STILL finding glitter in Melissa's hair! :)

Here's Missa with her cousin and another friend.

The City sponsors an event every couple of years where they rent the Zoo and serve dinner to all the city employees. This year we got to see the Zoo's new Africa exhibit, complete with Lions and Zebra and Giraffe's.

Here's a picture of our "pride" of beasts:

Emily is on the move these days, and loves to climb the stairs! She's cruising the furniture, and will let go sometimes if she's interested in something that takes both hands. Our homework is to get her walking while just holding one hand, and she's getting better at that. She isn't "stair certified" yet (meaning she doesn't know how to come back down on her own), but it won't be long...

Gratuitous cruise pic:

We made it to the last Tuesday home game for the Hawks, using the tickets the kids had earned through their summer reading program. The crowd was small, and the Hawks lost pretty miserably, but we had a good time singing and chanting with the rest of the fans.

The field from where we were sitting.

We bought five of these little hackey sacks (the money went to charity) and had the chance, after the game, to throw them out onto a bulls-eye laid on home plate. If one hit the bulls-eye, you had the chance to win half of all the money collected. The person closest to the bulls-eye got a $10 gift certificate to Wendy's restaurant.



We threw, but won not one thing. Oh well!








Emily decided one night not too long ago to DUMP her dinner on her head.... she thought she was pretty funny! (no judging on the Christmas bib ~ it was one of those days for laundry, and we were at the bottom of the drawer)

Kathryn reunited with her soccer team from last season to play in an indoor tournament in August. It was her first time playing indoors ~ the rules are interestingly different! (There are no out-of-bounds, for instance, unless the ball flies up into the net around the arena. You can also throw your arms around, as long as its the part between your shoulder and your elbow.)

Here are some shots of her warming up:

At the beginning of the summer our goal was to MAKE SURE we would all have really good answers for that "What did you do over the summer" question. I think we accomplished that. whew!