The Lieslands

Last weekend we made it back to Cincinnati to visit Simon, Rachel, and their new baby, Samuel.

Since we were camping for Susan’s birthday we had to celebrate a little late.

We got out for a quick camping trip last weekend with Cat and Andy and had a great time. We camped at our friend’s land, so there was no one else for miles around.

Here is a video I shot at one of Mari’s soccer games. She is #17 on the green team. I am the coach, which is why I have to coach every now and then.

Susan and the kids hit the apple orchard today. They had good time and came home with a bunch of apples.

Today was the first day of school for all of the kids. They were a little excited.

I am a little slow on the post, but last week Mari fell off the ottoman and had to get 3 stitches on the inside of her lip. It made for a long day, but overall she handled it well.

Yesterday we had to take our large, borrowed, dining room table up to Ames and while we were there we decided to go play at Ledges State Park. The main road through the park was washed out, over, under and away in the floods last year, but if you are willing to walk a little bit you can experience beautiful, overgrown, abandoned trails and recreational spots. The kids had a blast!

We are officially homeschooling our kids next year! I just filled out the paperwork and put it in the mail. There are some good school options in Des Moines, but no Waldorf schools, which is where our loyalty lies. It should be quite an adventure and I hope that we can give our kids an education like no other!

Mari got a butterfly house for her birthday. We are waiting to order the official caterpillar or caterpillar eggs, or whatever it is we order. In the meantime we have found some caterpillars in our backyard and currently have two Swallowtail chrysalides and two monarch caterpillars who should be about ready. We have all really enjoyed watching them!

This morning we headed to Yoga in the park at Gray’s Lake. Susan practices yoga occasionally, it was the kids’ second class, and it was my first class ever. We all had a good time and hope to make it back more often.