August

Caleb's Camp Roger cabin

These two

Why do you put these things in my hair?

They are 18 months apart in age and quite different in size

First merry go round ride

Walking a goat at Dutch Village

Riding the ferris wheel

Not sure what I think about this

Grandparents are here!

Love

Miss Amy got married

Baptism day

Grandma DeMaster made a quilt for Grandma Jongsma

Stephen loved his quilt from Grandma

First time taking all 5 to the store. Why is Stephen making the Loser sign?!

Back to school

Caleb attended Camp Roger for a whole week.  This was his first time going to camp.  He was nervous, mostly because he wasn't going with a friend.  I was nervous too!  Camp Roger put pictures on their website every day and had a blog post about camper activities each day.  So it was nice to have a little window into Caleb's camp week. He did have a great time.  He said it was hard to not go with a friend, but overall he enjoyed camp.  Nate told Caleb before he went that he did not have to send a letter home, so Caleb didn't.  Stinker.

Our college friend from Canada, Jer, came to visit with two of his kids.  We spent the weekend with him and other local college friends.  We went to Dutch Village, the aquatic center and the beach.  It was a busy weekend, but we enjoyed catching up with Jer again.

Mom and Dad DeMaster arrived on August 11.  That is our anniversary, but I can not remember what Nate and I did to celebrate this year.  Kids drain your brain.  It was fun to have the DeMaster grandparents at Isaac's 8th birthday party.  I'll write about that in Isaac's birthday post.  While the grandparents babysat, Nate and I (and Lexi) attended Amy Dozeman's wedding.  She taught our kids piano lessons, babysat occasionally, and most impressive- cared for the kids while we were in China. We are very happy for her and Neil.  Unfortunately, they live in Grand Rapids so our family will not see her much anymore.

Lexi's baptism was on August 16.  Nate shared some of our story with Lexi and how God has been working in all of us.  I was crying.  Lexi did not want to be held by the pastor, but she was making faces at him while being baptized.  My parents, Nate's parents and Tim's family were all at the baptism.  We then had lunch back at our house.  My regret from that day is that we did not take any pictures after church, of our family or a group picture of the whole family.  It just slipped my mind in the chaos.

We enjoyed Grandpa and Grandma DeMaster's visit. We warned them it would be fairly low key as we were still adjusting to life with 5 kids.  And it was low key, just doing the things we like to do with Grandpa and Grandma- playing outside, crafts, reading books, playing games and laughing.  I wish I had taken more pictures.  Grandma gave Stephen his 3 year old quilt.  His reaction was cute.  He was so happy and he snuggled up with her and his quilt.  Mom mentioned she had never had a grandchild act so happy.  Mom DeMaster also made a quilt for my Mom, and she was also very excited.

After Mom/Dad left our house, we began back to school preparations.  I took all the kids to the store by myself and survived. It was different starting the school year without our neighbors the Petersons.  We always carpooled or biked with them.  As they are moving later in the year, they switched schools at the beginning of the year.  The first week of school was a whole week- kind of a shock to the system for all of us.  Stephen and Lexi were not sure what to do without the older kids at home.  As much as I love sending my kids to school, it was hard to send the older ones back- they are quite helpful with the younger kids now.  Caleb is in 5th grade, Isaac 2nd, and Julia 1st grade.

We finished out the month with a quick visit from Colleen's family.  It was short, but the cousins made the most of it!  Caleb and Isaac also began the soccer season in August.  Nate was the coach for Isaac's team again.

Stephen struggled the most with Lexi's arrival.  He became quite aggressive with her and I couldn't leave the two of them alone. Slightly stressful. Lexi learned to tolerate grass and loved to play outside and at the playground.  She also loves to climb everything. One month after her homecoming she had gained some weight, grew a little and was adjusting quite well.