Ninja warrior

We have enjoyed watching American Ninja Warrior over the summer. A classmate of Kyle and Em told us about a ninja warrior clinic at a local gymnastics facility. Emily went and had a blast running parkour style through some obstacles at a local gymnastics facility with 2 classmates of her and Kyle. 

Star Wars practice

Because you know, you have to practice your light saber fighting skills. In costume. Before Halloween. Anytime. 

Darth Vader v. Yoda & Princess Leia

Darth Vader v. Luke Skywalker

Halloween prep

I'll give you one guess as to what we are going to be for Halloween. We figure our years are numbered for doing a family coordinated Halloween costume set. So we're making the most of it while the kids will still allow it. For now, they aren't too cool for us. Our days are numbered though. So yes, Jeff is Darth Vader, I am Padme Amidala, the twins are Luke & Leia, and Aaron is Yoda. 

Aaron practicing his light saber skills with our neighbor. Brett taught Aaron how to use the force. Mind blown. 

I think Em's costume is the best one. Isn't she adorable? 

Darth, you may be my father, but I will still light saber your. 

Darth Yoda. Never seen that one before. 

Kyle's monkeys

Miko and Albert are Kyle's monkeys. They are his prized monkeys. It used to just be Miko. Then Albert came along from Grandma Sondra and Auntie Judy and broke into the inner circle. Other monkeys had tried, but Albert has been the only monkey that has successfully become part of Kyle's inner circle of monkey(s). Each morning, he brings them downstairs as he starts his day. They eat breakfast with him. Before leaving for school, he sometimes sets them up for the day. Here is how they were left today. On the couch, with a blanket and a remote. And notice that Albert's tail is wrapped around the back of Miko. What love. 

Visiting the swamp

I had a relatively last minute escape to Florida to visit Spike for a weekend. Sadly, I hadn't been down to Florida since she moved there too many years ago to admit. I drove down on a Friday and got to spend the weekend seeing her stomping grounds and escape the cold that was running through everyone at home. 

We met some gators in the swamp. Yes, those are real, live gators near us. That was as close as we got to them. And then we got out. We also did a nice 20 mile bike ride. It was the first time I had ridden my bike since before we moved to NC. Believe it or not, I (thankfully) did not fall off my bike, foot clips and all. And Sunday morning we went for a 6 mile trail run. Then I hit the road back home to come home to the cold waiting to nail me that week. 

Gator selfie!

Track out

Kyle and Em were off for the better part of September. This was essentially their summer break. Kids on this track actually get June off, but the new school year starts in July so they didn't get the June break because that was technically last school year's break when they were on a different track. 

Anyhow, we had some fun over their break. We went ice skating several times. We sure were missing Simon there. The second time we went, our friends came along with us and they all ended up skating for 3 hours (with breaks of course). 

We also visited a pumpkin / fall farm with friends. The kids had a blast seeing the animals, riding the slide, burying themselves in corn, jumping on the magic pillow and panning for rocks. 

All the kids buried in corn

Aaron pushing Annie on the swing

NU v Duke football game

Duke was playing Northwestern at Duke this year. Being a divided house for this game, we went to the game to support both teams. Aaron and I had on both NU & Duke gear. Kyle and Em don't have NU gear that currently fits them so they were decked out in Duke. And Jeff was in Duke gear of course. The game was loads of fun despite the blazing temperatures and zero shade. Northwestern pulled off a great win though Duke did look good. 

Family football game selfie

Aaron with his NU shirt and 5 Duke hats. Because you need 5 hats. 

Emily reading to Aaron

This is just cute. Emily reading with Aaron at home together. Some Curious George. LOVE. 

Aaron Yoda

Aaron loves Star Wars. I think I've said that before. Aaron will be Yoda for Halloween so he now has his Yoda mask. He loves wearing it anywhere and everywhere. He is so 3 years old. And very cute. 

While eating lunch

This is his wound (between his eyes) from light sabering the ground, losing his footing and falling face first on the ground. Moral of the story: don't light saber the ground. 

When going swimming

When you wake up

Before nap

While napping (note the sword decapitating Darth Vader on top of the garbage truck)

While getting yogurt from the fridge

While drinking said yogurt

Aaron basketball

Aaron was so excited to have a sports class for him. We signed him up for a little peewee basketball skills class. The class itself was a bit of a mess as the teacher seemed to think having 3 year olds play a basketball game was a good idea (3 year old fight club is what it looked like), but Aaron enjoyed getting to dribble the ball and shoot on the little basket. 

He shoots, he scores!!

Aaron making piggies fly

We have had a breakthrough ladies and gentlemen!! Aaron will now eat greens!! Previously, anytime we dared serve him anything green, he would say he doesn't like it. We continued to serve him greens and kept telling him how eating his greens would make him strong. And the few times that he would lick a green, taste a green or even swallow a green, we would make a happy production about it. I often said, "look out the window. I see a piggie flying!" since it was such a rarity. Now today he willingly ate his greens. He said, "I want to make more piggies fly!!" and gobbled up more greens. And admitted to liking greens. And he of course wanted to show us his big muscles from eating his greens. Persistence does pay off. Wahoo!!

Aaron's first day of preschool

Aaron had his first day of preschool today. He is in a class with eight other 3 year olds. The first day was very difficult for him when he realized that we had to leave him there. Apparently he cried for 15 minutes. That must have been so hard for him. Other than with babysitters or family, he's never really had to separate from us. His second day, he didn't cry. His third day he only cried for a little bit and after that, he got the idea. He knows that we always come to pick him up. And he loves his teachers and friends in class. It is really good for him to have time with his peer group since he spends most of his time with 9 year olds and the kids in the neighborhood who are mostly older than him. 

So handsome

Beach visit with Alice

We spent tons of time together in San Diego at the beach so we thought it would be fun to hit the beach here on the east coast together. Aaron and Alice picked up right where they left off. And so did the big kids with boogie boarding and surfing. The weather was great. It was very warm out and the water was incredibly warm too. We were very pleasantly surprised to not need wetsuits in the water. It was bathtub warm. We would never have said that about the Pacific ocean in San Diego.

The kids all caught great waves boogie boarding. I was able to surf a little bit. I took Em and Ian out to surf as well and they both caught some waves. The day was great. Until the end of the day when we should have gotten out of the water instead of going for one last ride around 4:30. Mind you, there have been shark attacks at North Carolina beaches all summer, but not any that week. All of a sudden, Kyle starts screaming in pain about his foot. He was inconsolable saying his foot, something was stinging his foot. We didn't see anything so my thought was that he pulled his achilles or something. We carried him out of the water to find sting marks along his ankle and achilles. From our professional google searches, he was most likely stung by a jellyfish. Aaron and Em happily provided some pee (in a cup) to pour on his foot to help relieve the pain. It doesn't work. After about an hour and advil and benedryl, he could walk on it and wasn't in terrible pain. A few weeks later, he still had scars from the stings. Not sure if they are still there 1.5 months out (yes, I am really behind in writing).

Nevertheless, we had a great time at the beach with our best beach buddies. 

Em in from boogie boarding

The kids heading to catch waves

Group selfie (minus AJ). Betsy brought a selfie stick. 

Em & Ian walking along the dock near the intercoastal area.