September Fun

Duke has been through a lot these past few months. After he lost his brother, Bronx, we found out he has diabetes. Thankfully, since he is 110 lbs, two shots a day doesn't bother him in the slightest. But he also had awful hips and a possible torn ACL so he is now on several different medications to try and make walking easier for him. But even with all of his health issues, he still loves being part of the family and always follows the kids around - even when it means Madeleine will dress him up.

James isn't always thrilled to go to school, but he carpools with a friend which he loves - so at least he is usually happy while waiting for his buddy to come and pick him up in the mornings!

One of Madeleine's friends turned 4 and had a really fun birthday party where they rented a retired firetruck to come out so the kids could take a ride around the neighborhood and get sprayed with the hose. It was a very cool experience for the kids.

We went apply picking with our friends at Sky Top Orchard. This is our third time there and every time it is so much fun!

Football season is fun but practice makes for long nights.

It has lightly rained the past two practices but each time we get the prettiest rainbows afterwards!

First day of Madeleines last year of preschool

Last week Madeleine started her last year of preschool! She was very ready to go back to school, especially since she had to watch James go off to school for almost three full weeks before she got to go. I am so proud of the young lady she is becoming, I am excited to see how much she grows this year - 4 is turning out to be such an amazing age for her.

Some more end of Summer pictures

Most of these pictures are just from my phone that we just some happy moments the last month or so. We had such a busy summer (as always) that it is good to look back and see that we actually did have some relaxing moments where we could just enjoy our time together.

One of our good friends has a lake house in Georgia that we went to this summer with a few other families. James was the oldest and the only boy out of diapers. He handled himself pretty well for being surrounded by lots of girls.

John basically spent the weekend like this...

This is one of the dads with most of the kids. It was a really fun weekend with lots of kids and laughs.

For Madeleine's birthday, she got a new bike! This one is super special because it has a basket AND a baby seat on the back for her dolls.

John took James and one of his friends to a Charlotte Knights game last month. It was one of their family nights so the kids got to run the bases after the game and there were lots of activities to do while the game was going on when they got a little restless.

Olympic watching!

James started playing flag football a few weeks ago - and he LOVES it! He is one of the smallest on the field but he is quick.

Boys Weekend

Over Labor Day, John took James back to Ohio for an epic boys weekend. On Friday, we picked James up from school early and I dropped them both off at the airport so they could fly back to Columbus. It was James' first flight and John was able to upgrade them to business class!

Saturday morning we were able to FaceTime with James while they drove to OSU campus to tailgate with Johns family for the game.

After the game, they all drove up to Cleveland to see a Cleveland Indians game!

This is Meredith, Johns brothers girlfriend. She is staying with us for two months while she completes one of her PT clinicals in Charlotte. As you can see, James loves her. Madeleine was amazingly jealous that Meredith was allowed on the boys weekend and she wasn't. But I think that has more to do with the fact that she missed out on Meredith time, because she also loves her. Both kids are thrilled she staying for two months - poor Meredith might regret staying with us because she will not get any rest from those two! Also, she has the best name ;)

Sunday they went to the Cleveland Air Show - and James conned Uncle Stephen into getting him the biggest lollipop he has ever seen.

After three packed full days, they headed home on Tuesday morning. I picked them up from the airport and then James went straight to school.

I am so happy that they were able to have such a special weekend, but we were very happy to have them back home!