Ready or not, we started our fall activities this past week!  Technically it’s not school, but it feels like it.

Tuesdays we go to Little Lights, a mommy-and-me style Kindergarten readiness program at church.  Natalie is still 2 years away from Kindergarten, but I was  able to get her into this program this year and I think it will be really good for her!  Personally I am most looking forward to all the field trips.  She’s loving it so far.  Each mom has a job, and mine is basically assistant to the program director- I handle the finances, making sure the announcements get communicated to all the moms each week, and other random stuff that comes up.

Thursday was the first day of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers).  This is my second and final year being coordinator of this group. Our first meeting was a lot of fun, I am excited to spend more time with my ladies, and hope that the speakers I have lined up for this year are a blessing to them!  While I am there, the kids go to Moppets, the childcare program.  I’m sure Ben loves running around with all the other 1-year-old (that is a fun age group to observe), and I am so happy that Natalie’s teacher is Mrs. Campbell again.  She always has the greatest crafts and games and Bible lessons for the kids… it is like preschool but way less expensive, hehe.  Natalie always tells me what she did with her friends afterwards… so cute!

I tried to get some pictures with the kids as we headed out the door but they are not big fans.  I guess some good skills to work on this year would be how to not look pained for the camera (Natalie), how to hold still for 5 seconds (Ben’s not smiling, he’s screaming and trying to escape), and how to correctly frame your subject in a photograph (Andy– just teasing honey!).

We’re fitting in as many fun activities as possible before summer is over and we get into our busy fall routine!

Everything from eating lunch at our favorite local sandwich place, to slip-n-sliding in the sun, to hanging out with Aunt Jamie while she works at Anthro (still can’t believe she let my kids color at an $800 table).

Of course we are making good use of our year pass at the Santa Barbara Zoo!

Plenty of watermelon… and a trip to the Ikea showroom with the Aunties.

Personally I’m hoping for a few more beach days, now that the sun comes out on a regular basis!  It was a really foggy summer here!

We had a wonderful time this week on the Wilkinson Family Camping Trip!  This was a tradition when Andy was growing up, and made such a lasting impression on everyone involved, that we all want to continue it with our growing families!  What an awesome extended family.

The kids really bonded with their cousins!  Apparently the Wilkinsons just have a knack for producing super cute, sweet natured kids.  The little ones played so nicely together and seemed to love camping.  I know Natalie was thrilled to sleep in a tent and Ben loved being covered in dirt for 2 days straight!  Cousin Eden is one year younger than Natalie and these two had a blast together.

It was nice to have plenty of hands to help. You will notice that in every picture has someone is holding a baby?  Thats what happens when you take 5 kids age 3 and under camping!  They did incredibly well, I thought.  (Though Ben made it clear that he has his girl cousins beat in the tantrum department.)

Breakfast story time with Cousin Crystal (who Natalie keeps calling Aunt… close enough).

Josh entertaining the kiddos while we make dinner:

Aunt Becky with quite the audience:

Natalie has no problem drawing everyone into her imaginary games… hey wait, is Lexy smiling in this picture?!?

Like I said, plenty of willing baby-holders like Andrew and Michelle… love it!

We had one visitor who was most definitely not related to the Wilkinson clan…  but we will never forget him or the TWO visits he paid us! (Wish I had a picture of Ricky, the heroic bear chaser.)

I have tons more pictures to share, and will try to get those into a Facebook album tomorrow!  Also Andy will put the hi-res versions of all of them online so our fellow campers can download them and print them if desired. 🙂

Admin Edit: The pictures should now correctly appear in all versions of Internet Explorer.

There’s no doubt about it, Benjamin keeps breakfast (well, any meal time) funny.

He’s become an expert climber, which allows him to climb up and help himself to Natalie’s abandoned breakfast on a Saturday morning…

I guess oatmeal is just not the same after Ben messes with it… even when daddy puts chocolate chips in it.

So Ben has this brown blanket.  It is his favorite thing EVER.  He drags it all over the house, can’t sleep without it, cackles like a crazy person when you mention it, and finds strange comfort in chewing on the corners.  I’m not sure how he managed to get it to the breakfast table one morning, but it was pretty funny to see how he wrapped “brown blankie” around himself and always had it in one hand.

Natalie of course was horrified.  This was her face after she said, “MOOOOOOOOOM! Oh no! There’s crumbs on his blanket!”

They keep us laughing at table!