First day of first grade

 Tuesday the 4th was Abi's first day of first grade!

She was so excited!!

She wanted a My Little Pony backpack so bad and we had the hardest time finding one.
Finally, right before school started, we were able to find it!

Back to school feast

Monday the 3rd was a big day! Not only was it labor day but our last day of summer break. That night we got to have our yearly Back to School Feast.

First I hung the banner that I printed out last year.

This year I went with a very "school"ish color scheme.

I made this that morning. It is kind of like a mission statement.
I wrote Van Wagenen down the paper in red and then wrote a phrase for each letter. It is the things we want to stand for so I presented it to the family that night so Abi would remember what Van Wagenen's stand for as she went back to school.
It says "Ha(v)e fun, (A)lways tell the truth, (N)ice words, No (W)hining, (A)lways keep your promises, Be (G)rateful, L(E)t go of anger, clea(N) up after yourselves, (E)ncourage each other, and Practice Ki(N)dness. I think those are things we all want to work on.

Abi got to put on her new unicorn jammies after her bath and then it was time for the 'feast'. We had roast with veggies, rolls, and corn. Then we had apple dumplings with ice cream for dessert.

I started the tradition last year of giving her a new book so we kept that going this year with a new Judy Moody book.

Then it was time for her special fathers blessing from Doug and then a little earlier bedtime!

A lost tooth

On Sunday the 2nd, Abi lost another tooth. It was the first of her top front teeth. I couldn't stop laughing as she tried to figure out how to talk without it.

That night I found a note next to her tooth fairy box. It said, "Dear Tooth fairy: I would really like the My Little Pony castle but if you can't get that for me please leave me 2 quarters."

Nutting party (kind of)

We spent the first few days home just chilling out and being lazy having fun being together. Saturday September 1st we decided to welcome in our favorite time of year by going on our annual nutting party. I usually do this later in September (near the first official day of fall) but thought it would be fun to do it on a day when Doug and my mom would both be able to come with us.

 I always go to Hawthorne Hollow for the nutting party because there is a nice area for picnics and running around and then there are also a lot of trees to find acorns and feed the squirrels. 

I spent the morning making the treats and gathering supplies and then we got in the van to head for our destination. As we were about to pull into Hawthorne Hollow I was surprised by how many other cars were pulling in and then we saw the sign that today was their Art festival. Oops

I decided we would go over to Petrified Springs Park instead. I don't like it as much for picnics but it has a lot of trees. The roads were all blocked off. 

So, we drove to a park in a nearby neighborhood. I spread the table as best I could in the wind and we enjoyed our nutting party without gathering any nuts. 

Our food for the day was acorn shaped sandwiches, acorn donut holes, pretzel sticks, and applesauce....

trying to keep everything from blowing away....

Even though it didn't work out like I planned it, it was still a very fun outing! And the girls loved being able to play on the toys for awhile.

Finally home!

We arrived in Sioux Falls really late and were perplexed to find out that our hotel was not in the best area (of course as we drove around the city that night and the next day I wonder if there are any good areas to Sioux Falls.) and there was a transport bus from the prison there as well. That was fun. 

We checked in and then drove to McDonalds to get a very late dinner. They forgot something and so I had to go in... and they had to unlock the door for me because of the hoodlums they had locked out. That is how nice the neighborhood was. 

The next morning we drove over to look at the falls....

Then we made our way home! It was a long day and we were so happy to be home with Doug again!!

South Dakota

Monday we drove to Rapid City, South Dakota and spent the night at the same Best Western we stayed at last year so we could play at the little water park. Unfortunately a lot of it was broken/closed but we still had a good time. It was really good my mom was with us because one of us could be with Abi while she swam around and the other could keep track of Maddy who, now that she was no longer afraid of the pool, was being very active! 

We were exhausted after swimming, gave the girls a quick bath, and then ate a very late dinner and went to bed.

The next morning we went over to Mount Rushmore. 

I wasn't sure if the girls would be that excited since they had been here last summer but they both really enjoyed it again. This time Maddy walked the trail too.

We went into the cafe to get ice cream- now that we have done it both times I think it's safe to say it is now a tradition! It is expensive ice cream but it is so good.

On our way back toward Rapid City we stopped at the Christmas Village. It was kind of fun to be immersed in Christmas for a little while and browse the ornaments.

Then we made another stop I wanted to do last time and didn't. We went to Storybook Island. It is a free park and looked like lots of fun. The girls were  SO excited!

Everything had some sort of storybook theme. You can see the billy goats gruff in the background on the right while Abi swings from the gorillas arms on the left...

Peter's house...

visiting Santa...

Maddy taking a ride...

being pirates...

Maddy loves the 3 little pigs so I thought she would love their house but the big bad wolf on the roof threw her off. She wouldn't go near it...

She was pretty excited about Raggedy Ann though...

As always Abi was happy to see a unicorn...

My mom on her way to see the wizard...

more storybook fun....

Abi did this one for Dad...

It was really fun at first and then it started getting really hot and we were tired and hungry so we left as soon as they had played with everything. We got a very late lunch and headed out toward Sioux Falls.