Life in August

Well ... we survived the first two days of school and are officially in Fall mode around here. But before we fully transition, here is a glimpse about how we spent our "non-bloggable event" time in August.

We spent lots of time with neighborhood buddies - including bey blade battles on the front step with the OG reason behind the bey obsession, D's friend G. On Fridays when I worked from home, I swore it was Grand Central Station here. Like can a doorbell really ring that many times in a single day?!?! But we are loving all the friends and outside and social time. It makes for tired and happy kids!

So you know I'm not exaggerating ... on National Night Out, we popped back to our old neighborhood for dinner and to visit. It was a nice, small, calm gathering and was sooooo fun to see everyone. Then we came home to make an appearance at the block party for the new 'hood. Look at all those kids!!!!!!!!! And that's not even all of them! It was both fun to start to meet people and incredibly overwhelming for 5 out of 5 Vannestes. No one fought me when I said "time to head home."

I spent a couple days away from home on my first work trip in almost two years (to Boulder, CO). It was a bit of a shock for all of us. The kids went from fairly fine with me traveling to the struggle bus. Luckily it was a quick trip - and my flight landed early enough Wednesday evening that Mike and the kids even came to pick me up. They are fairly certain they saw my actual plane land! [Note: this picture is from our team night out. We had an Arcade Olympics competition. I did not score well - and had to look up what Frogger was on my phone ... but this group is always fun to party with!]

August meant the return of hockey [as if it ever went away!] in many forms. There was a lot of street hockey with the new goalie pads that Uncle Brad bought for Q.

There was real ice hockey. Q's AAA team is back on the ice to mid-October (and then the winter season starts). This is a picture from her first fall game - up in Bloomington. Fiona, Dec, and I came to watch. Q's team (the Bulldogs) was down 0-2 at the end of the 1st period, up 4-2 at the end of the second period, and tied 5-5 with 3 minutes left of the 3rd period. Right after we gave up the tying goal, Q's line was heading out. Mike was the offensive line coach that night - and he looked at Q, Reese, and Hadley and said "you need to score on this shift. It's up to you to win it." And you know what - THEY DID! They put so much pressure on that goalie, hustled to the rebounds, and finally Reese put it in the net. Then the next line held the lead and they won 6-5. Such a fun game to watch! [Pictured: one medium-sized Moon and one medium-sized Vanneste hockey player]

And there was old man hockey. Later that same week, Mike's summer hockey team was in the championship game. So the troops and I set out for the rink again to cheer them on. M's team played really well and handily won the game. So fun to go cheer for Mike! [Pictured: one tall Moon and one tall Vanneste hockey player]

Fiona spent three days at horse camp - and is proud to say that on Day 2 and Day 3, she got to ride her horse at a trot. The camp was for all levels of riders, so she felt like it may have been a little too beginner for her. However, she truly enjoyed feeling like an expert and helping the other kids out. Mike said it often looked like she was holding court when it wasn't her turn to ride.

The girls and I went on a school shopping date that was less successful than we had hoped (there were no fall tops in stock anywhere!). So we celebrated our few finds and eased our sorrow with their first trip to Cold Stone. They weren't allowing any inside seating and didn't have a patio - so tailgate ice cream it was. Despite the lack of inventory, we had the best day together. Meanwhile, the boys went to the Mall of America and checked out the Mystery Mine Ride and the Rainforest Cafe.

And finally, thanks to the 15 gallons of tomatoes that Uncle Phil dropped off for us, Q and I have been elbow deep in tomato sauce. We have used up about half the tomatoes and have 5 quarts of marinara sauce in the freezer. Next up, salsa! Fair warning: your next gift from us has the potential of being tomato-based!

So there you go, the August that happened in between the next few posts about waterslides and hikes and ninth birthdays!