The End of Summer

Last week Chase had day camp all week.  I was kept pretty busy running him and his cousins to camp in the mornings and/or picking them up in the afternoons.  Patty and I worked together on it :)  Thursday, Joanna and Katy and I went over to my friend's Ronda's house to see her new pony, Charlie Brown.  They had gotten it that week and Ronda knows how much Joanna wants to be a cowgirl and loves ponies so it was so nice of her to indulge her :)

Charlie Brown was a little nervous with all the kids and people around him so he just munched on some grass for a little before giving rides.

He's a very pretty pony!

Joanna finally got her turn to ride and she was so excited!

All cowgirls wear red sparkly maryjanes, didn't you know?

All of the kids got a turn, except for Katy who didn't want one.  Joanna got three rides!

Ronda also happened to have three adorable kittens that she was taking care of, so it was pretty much the best day ever for the girls.  Katy wasn't as scared of the kitties as she was the pony...

Yes, she's wearing a play dress.

Does that look like a "can we please get a kitty, mom?" face, or what??

 

I like how they were looking at each other here:

 

 

This one with the tiger stripes was my favorite:

 

We hung out there for a while, had lunch and then headed home to meet Chase before he got back from camp, it was a very fun day.
Saturday evening we were scheduled to go to my grandmother's surprise 80th birthday party.  I had gotten this beautiful arrangement from my favorite Mennonite flower lady for only $9!

I also got myself this really cute and pretty one for $4!

We had a lot of fun at the party and Grandma was really surprised too.  We got home very late though, 10:30pm... which may not seem very late to you but we're used to going to bed at 8:30 or 9 every night, ok! :P
Monday was going to be the first day of school for us but Ronda informed me that we should really use our Dutch Wonderland tickets, that we had gotten for the library summer reading program, before they closed during the week.  So that's what we did...

I had never been there before and it was a very nice park and the kids had a blast!  The first stop was the merry-go-round, which Katy LOVED.  Apparently pretend horses are ok :P

the three older boys on the sky lift ride:

A little after lunch we took the kids over to the splash pad, which was huge, and let them play there for a couple hours.  I left a little after 4:30 in the afternoon.  It was a very fun day but also very tiring!

Tuesday was another fun day.  We went to Ricky's cousin's house for her annual Fun Day bash.  She and Patty always organize this day right before the kids start school as the last hurrah of summer. This year the theme was the Olympics.  All of the kids got to pick a country and compete to win points.

Of course there was a torch lighting ceremony...

 and the score board...

 Races:

 relays, archery and hurdles...

 the little kids had to go under the hurdles :P

the kids finished competing and then we had lunch and then an awards ceremony.  Chase tied for 2nd place!

 Dominic being silly:

 Joanna was so proud :)

 as was Katy :D

After the awards the kids all jumped in the pool to cool off.

It was a hot day and tiring but also a lot of fun.  It's always so much fun every year and I'm always very thankful to Patty and Ricky's cousin for organizing the day for the kids!
So that was officially our last day of summer.  We started school on Wednesday of this week... but that's a post for another day...