September Scenes

Here are some scenes from September life at the Storm household. 

Roman is doing safety patrol this year so Leo and I typically have a few minutes on the playground on Friday afternoons as we wait for him to finish his shift. 

It is that time of year! Dan and Ken have been hard at work on all of their deer stands on the land. 

Whenever we go to the land Leo loves cruising around in the side by side.

September means it is time to bust out my favorite snack combo - popcorn and candy corn. So good! I truly cannot understand all of the candy corn haters out there! ;)

Lucy has been working on her Hunter's Safety education and she passed her coursework this September. 

Here is our proud graduate! Our girl is ready to get a deer this season. 

We started another Fall Ball season. Our Roman loves baseball and would play year round if he could. 

Roman attended his buddy Malcolm's birthday party. One thing that I did not expect about 11 year old boys is how much time and energy and love they still put into homemade birthday cards. Makes my heart happy. 

Here is the cheering squad! 

Leo will still occasionally take a nap in his mama's arms and I am here for it. 

The boys play baseball on Saturday and Sundays are for the girls. This Fall Lucy bumped up to 14U so that she could continue to play with Coach John and Genevieve. 

Halloween is on the horizon which means that there is lots to see at Costco! 

We told the kids to dig through the dress up bin before making any decisions on Halloween costumes. How sweet is this lil Harry Potter! 

Leo enrolled in swim lessons again this September ... let's just say that things started off well and then went off the rails about half way through the session. I am just trying to get this kiddo comfortable in the water! The older Storm children are like fish and Leo is very cautious. I am sure we'll get there eventually but dang - these lessons can be painful. 

Here is the view from the seating gallery - Lucy's cross country feet. :) We pick her up from practice and head straight to the YMCA to cheer for baby brother in swim class.

We watched the Presidential Debate in September - Ai yi yi! 

Roman came home {not once but twice during the first 2 weeks of school!} with these sweet little tooth necklaces around his neck. Love that he is still loosing his baby teeth and that he proudly wears these necklaces with zero embarrassment at 11 years old. Yes, he still gets $1 per tooth from the tooth fairy. ;)

One of our favorite events of the year took place - the semi-annual children's consignment sale! It is such a joy to dig through all of these treasures and find some bargains. 

Good thing that I have 2 super helpers to assist me in the hunt! 

This time around we were looking for Pokemon treasures for Leo - I spotted some poke-ball toys and took a picture for Roman to reference. :) 

Spotted in the TJ Maxx parking lot ... a jeep with a skeleton buckled in the back seat. 

We were getting closer to spooky season so we got out the Halloween jammies and stuffies. Leo was delighted! 

Even though we were getting close to October, the weather still felt like summer so we spent lots of time at the park - especially during ball games. ;) Sometimes we were caught in a brief downpour during a game so we had to hustle under some shelter + protect our popcorn. 

Leo came home with his first pieces of Math homework. So cute. 

Dan went to the Cities to go to a concert with Brad and hang out with his sibs. 

It was still warm enough to catch toads and critters in the lawn. 

I went to Vegas for a work trip and the children were so jealous! I took a picture of Roman's favorite arch at the airport. ;)

My room was at the Westgate which is just off the Strip. I did have a great view of the Sphere. ;) 

I sit on the Board for this event so I was spoiled with some room service when I arrived. 

I hit the jackpot weather wise and somehow Vegas was cooler than Wisconsin on the week I visited. I went to a cocktail hour at the pool and got to see all kinds of weird performances. Hah!

Cheers to 25 years!

Best part of the this conference - the trade floor with vendors and all of their goodies. I mean look how many pairs of socks that I picked up for Dan! That is his gift for holding down the fort - a dozen pairs of new socks. ;)

I headed home from Vegas, flew into Minneapolis, and on my drive back to Wisconsin I stopped at Trader Joes. Love all of their Fall things including this delightful tortilla chips and these yummy Dolmas. 

I got home from Vegas and promptly got my hair done. ;)

Hey - anytime that I am looking good with my hair done - it needs to be documented. ;)

More playground time for the win!

We went to one of the of the last Pizza nights at Vino Cappucino. So fun to sit outside with the fam. 

Happy Fall Y'all! 

First Days of School

We had lots of germs cycle through the Storm household in early September but eventually all of the children made it to their first day of school. Whew! 

Lucy started her 7th grade year at Northstar - can't believe she is in the middle of middle school already! Lucy joined Cross Country this Fall so her first day was extra long with classes all day + cross country after school.

In the elementary space - the Eau Claire School District has a Welcome Back Day for the kiddos. This means that the 'first day' is really just a time to drop off stuff, meet the teacher, and take some photos. Roman had rallied and felt well enough in the afternoon to stop by school. This is my boy's last year at Sam Davey. Awwwww! {Side note - it was also picture day so that is why Roman is wearing a button down and church pants ;)}

Roman found out that Mrs. Geske is his 5th grade teacher this year! She had Lucy in her class a couple of years ago and was happy to show us that she still has a little flower pot that Lucy's painted in the classroom. So sweet. 

Leo was still sick and at home with his Dad so I had to drop all of his supplies off in his new Kinder classroom without him. I was so sad that he was still feeling so rotten. 

Nola brought over these lovely zinnias from her garden to cheer us up. 

The next day Roman had his official first day of school - he carefully selected his outfit! Most of the items were birthday gifts - big thanks to Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Glen for the shirt, Abram for the bling and Clay for the hat. ;) Roman was looking pretty sharp. 

True story about the state of affairs around our place ... Roman's back to school breakfast was a gas station muffin. Mom of the year! Whomp whomp. We were all running on fumes and it was only Wednesday of a holiday week. 

Roman was eager to be King of the school as a mighty 5th grader. 

Kindergarten has a slow start which means that only kiddos with the last names starting with A-M go to school on Wednesday and the other children start Thursday. Leo was feeling better during the day so we opted to pop over to the library. He was living his best life with some 1:1 time with Mom and a trip to his happy place - the iPad table at the library. ;) He was still in recovery mode so it was good to have one more day to recuperate before heading to class. 

At last the big day arrived! Here is my precious Kindergartener - our last kiddo is off to school. 

My mama heart is so happy that my boys get this one year at Elementary School together. The Storm brothers boarded the school bus together on Thursday morning. Roman reported back that Leo was very cute on the ride - he kept exclaiming 'Squirrel' when he saw critters. Leo got so excited to see more people get on the bus saying, 'More stops! More friends are getting on, brother!' Awwww! I am sure that this love of the bus won't last forever but I am fully embracing it while it lasts! Haha! 

Guess what - by the time Thursday rolled around, Lucy was home sick. Not the best start to our academic year but we made it! Ai yi yi.

This is pretty much how Ranger and I both felt by the end of the week - collapsed on the couch!