First Day of School 2019

And just like that summer is over and it’s back to just me and Bridger wondering what we’re ever going to do without our boys. We’ve got a 7th Grader, 4th Grader, and 2nd Grader this year! My how time flies!!

So Long Summer

Dean heads back to school a few days before the boys, so I tried my best to be a fun mom and check a few last things off our summer bucket list before school started back up.  I got brave and loaded all four boys, the dog, and a picnic lunch into the van to head to a local park with a mile walk around.  We somehow all made it around the mile loop, but it was not without whining, sitting down in the middle of the path, taking off our roller blades, threatening to leave our scooter in the middle of the park, and some pooping! (Just from Chloe though....don’t worry!) And to officially finish up summer we hit up Bruster’s after dinner where we had similar behavior to the park!  Let's hope their teachers get better behavior out of them this year.  So long summer!

A Birthday at the Beach

I mentioned that we spent Braddock's birthday at Raccoon Creek Beach, but it deserved a post of it's own, so here's our day in photo form.....

Braddock's 7th Birthday

 After a very late night at the ER with Landon, we mosied out of bed to start Braddock's birthday celebrations.  Donuts and fruit for breakfast got us prepped and ready for a day at the beach per Braddock's request.  We were worried if Landon would be up to it, but with a little pain medicine he was more than ok.  We had the best time as a family and could have played at the beach all day.  We had the place almost to ourselves and a little cloudiness made it even nicer.  We came home just in time to shower and fix his birthday dinner of ravioli, corn on the cob, garlic bread, and strawberries!  Yum!  Then we had the grandparents all over for presents and dessert.  Tanner was a rockstar the night before and stayed up late while Landon was at the hospital to help make Braddock's oreo cheesecake while I put together his birthday door and decorations.  With a major team effort we pulled off a pretty great day to celebrate our favorite 7 year old.  We sure love you Braddock!

Hookstown Fair 2019

The end of summer brings some pretty fun things here in PA.  One of our favorites is the Hookstown Fair.  We make sure to go on 1/2 price Community Day and it's super inexpensive to take the whole family, and then we feel even better about spending money on fair food!  Yum!  Our good friends the Cunningham's always show their cows at the fair, so we made sure to stop by and see them.  As luck would have it several of Braddock's best buds all ended up there that night too, so they had SO much fun riding all the rides together.  After several rounds of kiddie rides we appeased Tanner and Landon by trucking it over to the bigger ones.  Landon was a little more careful this year about not making himself sick, unfortunately before the night was through he was starting to feel some serious joint pain.  He had had a rash on his legs for a week or so, and it was looking lots worse, so between the two symptoms we decided to take him to the ER.  Dean carried him all the way to the car and dropped the rest of us at home before running to the hospital (why do these things always happen after hours!?).  After blood tests, urine samples, and several intrigued doctors later, he was diagnosed with an HSP rash.  It's an autoimmune disorder that causes inflammation of small blood vessels.  The inflammation causes blood vessels in the skin, intestines, kidneys, and joints to start leaking.....hence the rash on his legs and the joint pain.  Once they confirmed that it hadn't spread to his kidneys they sent him home and told us to keep him on Ibuprofen for pain and watch for any stomach issues that could indicate it was affecting his intestines.  It made for a much more eventful night than we had anticipated, but we were relieved it wasn't something worse, and Landon was a trooper!

The Corner Scoop

After being in Utah for a big chunk of the summer there was a few things we wanted to do here before school started back up, like make a stop at The Corner Scoop.  Soft serve ice cream that hit the spot!!  Tanner was at Grandma and PapPap's for the day, but they spoiled him with ice cream too so we didn't feel bad!

Back to School Dates 2019

One of my very favorite things is one-on-one time with my kids, so I take advantage of back-to-school shopping each year to sneak away with each of them for a quick date.  We grabbed lunch/dinner and a treat and grabbed the school supplies they needed for the year.  I sure love these little goons and hope they have a fantastic school year.