August was such a great month. We enjoyed our last month of summer and did all the things so we felt good about the transition to start school.

This summer we did a lot of evening park hopping, which meant we found some really neat spots.

Joe's mom, Kathy and sister, Emily came for a short visit

and we were able to celebrate Emily's 16 birthday.

We also celebrated my brother Cody's 20th birthday (Maxwell likes him a little bit.) ; )

We spent every Friday at the pool, which was fun for everyone (and sometimes a little stressful).

Our floors needed to be redone so our living room looked like this for a week. Can you find Naomi in the picture?!?

When the bulk of the floor work was done we needed to be out of the house for the whole day so we went to Mall of America. Maxwell was so excited when he got to meet Chase, his favorite Paw Patrol character!

I told the kids we could go to MOA but we weren't going to spend money so we played at the Lego store

and looked at everything at American Girl. Maxwell decided he would rather take a nap.

Lucky day, it turned out to be the mall's 25th birthday so we got free cupcakes! I was quite proud that I took 3 kids to MOA for the day and only spent about $20 on dinner and everyone had SO MUCH FUN!

I noticed that my phone got hijacked quite a bit this month. The videos are my favorite but my oldest probably wouldn't approve of me sharing.

We are frequent fliers at the park and on this particular day, Naomi decided she wanted to read while swinging. See the house to the right of Naomi, that's ours. It's close, which is great for spying on the kids while they're playing at recess.

And this guy likes to swing on the big kid swing, which I don't like because he isn't allowed to grow up.

Both girls started soccer (but I didn't get a picture of Naomi),

we went on countless evening walks,

and the girls met, Princess Belle at a birthday party!

The highlight of the month was open house at the school where the girls got to see their classrooms and meet their teachers!

We are so excited for both of them and love that we are in such an amazing school.

It's so fun having these two in the same spot this year.

This guy still has a few years but like I already said, he isn't allowed to grow up.

Stay tuned for back to school pictures coming soon!