Summer's last Hoorah

This last month has been a whirlwind.  A really fun whirlwind.

We were lucky enough to have time with the Larsens before and after our trip to Utah, as they came to stay with us.  Here they are + Ira at the Henry Ford Village.

 And here are our boys at the park around the corner from us.

  I had to take this shot since the last time I saw them on a swing-set, it didn't have any swings.  It didn't seem that strange at the time since we were in Africa.  

I love those guys!

As our last Summer hoorah, we went to the beach at Warren Dunes.  If you are ever in Michigan and have the urge to climb some sand dunes, this is a great place to go.

The boys and I finished up our time with the small preschool coop a couple of friends and I put together.  Here's our last day.

And Ira transitioned to Preschool.

As you can see, Eliot was not nearly as thrilled as Ira.

Ira went right in the first day, no problem, even though it sounded a bit like a torture chamber with all the kids screaming for their moms.  He had a little aggressive outbreak later that school-day, but since has been great.  It's fun to volunteer there once a month so I can see what he's like in the class room.

And then I turned 30.  I know. I'm ancient.

Anthony and the boys wowed me with these birthday rainbow pancakes! And then we spent the whole day at Ikea picking out stuff for our family room.  What a birthday!  Anthony made a really sweet "auditory card," or in other words, a recording of him and Ira plotting fun for my special day.  It was very, very sweet. 

Our trip to Chicago went well!  We went down for a 4 day Bradley Workshop so that I can get certified to be a birth instructor.  Anthony came because he's going to teach with me.  Days were long 8:30 am-10:30pm, so we didn't have time to go into the city.  But we learned a lot, and I'm almost done with my academic requirements...sort of.  I hope to be teaching by November.

Giant bowls of Vietnamese soup.  Every meal felt like a date...

even our frugal meals eating pb&j. This was our first time buying Goober since our honey moon.  Appropriate since this is our first time away from the kids together.  Goober mini-moon!

The boys did really well.  I was pretty stressed about leaving them, but it sounds like everything went pretty smoothly, and they still loved us when we returned home.   

Not the best picture.  But this is Marian Thompson, one of the 7 founders of La Leche League.  Very cool.

And these are all the girls.  

Here we're demonstrating the relaxed jaw that all laboring women should strive for. :)

In other news, we made it back to the Village for GE's family fun day...

 

 and made it to a Tiger's game, which we won!

Can you tell it was during naptime?

Oh, also I made this cake for my neighbor friend who's birthday is the day before mine.  She's a book lover, teacher, and family history fan (thus the tree).

Anthony's been working really hard at work.

 Here he is at a morale building, really boring, mandatory meeting.  

Alright, I'm sure that I've more than covered it.  I hope every one is doing fabulously as we welcome in beautiful Autumn!