Peters Family Blog: The rest of the Summer, Trinity Alps Backpacking, Starting School, Halloween

What a fun, fast summer! We had so many adventures but it flew by in a flash.

Benny decided this summer that his favorite color is "geen" so everything he does revolves around finding green. It also means I do a lot more laundry to make sure his green clothes are clean and ready to wear! There is not enough green in this world to satisfy my boy. Unfortunately his consumption of green vegetables has not improved at all.

Ben loves playing dress up with his big sis

Mac and my parents dog Jack

Stealing kisses

In July we hosted a co-ed baby shower for the arrival of baby Walter, Scott & Roz's second boy.

Jeremy's beautiful table setup

Mac plays with her cousin Ali

Trip to the zoo

Getting messy, as always!

Getting sprayed by daddy

Pictures with princesses after ballet class

bundled up after swimming

Hairdresser Benny

Jeremy has been working on our hot tub for quite some time now. It's still not filled with water, but this summer he took the time to assemble the slats. It's a cedar tub and came in wood slats, so he had to carefully fit them together. He did a test run on our patio and Mackenzie watched and wanted to do the same with her blocks. It was very cute to see how proud she was that she could build like her dad.

Lots of amusement parks this summer! We went to Fairyland in oakland with Gigi, and Funderland in Sacramento for a birthday party, as well as Pixieland in concord with some friends. Not to mention the zoo and steam train trips. These kids get to go so many fun places!

Fairyland with Gigi

Funderland Train

Of course he picks the Green one!

Mac made a new friend

Fun with pony rides

They can play pretty well together...

Mac 'cooks' for me

Our chickens started laying eggs in August. Slowly at first, but by the end of the summer we had about 7 eggs a day from our 9 girls. Now that it's fall and colder, we only get 2 or 3 a day, but it's been really fun going down to the coop to see what's what.

Our first eggs!

Lemon & Sunshine

Decorating egg cartons

Steam train with William and Stella

Swaddled in Quilts and 'napping'

Benny and Papa

Spinning in gymnastics class

Jeremy and I took a big backpacking trip in mid-August. The kids were looking forward to it, because they spent the few days we were gone with Papa & Dee Dee in Capitola at the beach! Jeremy's cousin Molly came to visit and brought her kids, and Sterling & Scott came too. It was a really fun afternoon, then I left them there to go hiking!

Sterling, Henry, Ben, Mackenzie and Annie

Mac ate like a queen while we were gone

and the kids got lots of ice cream!

There was still smoke in the air from all the fires that had happened over the summer, but it was safe enough to go. Because of the smoke though, we had the place to ourselves. We drove up on a Wednesday and spent the night at a nice lodge called Indian Creek Lodge. We could have stayed there happily much longer, fishing and swimming in the river, it was a nice place. But instead we woke up early on Thursday and started up the trail.

Indian Creek Lodge

The start of the trail!

Jeremy carried the most weight, and his fishing pole

our campsite the first night. Can you tell where the water begins? We are standing next to a lake here!

Jeremy catches a small (very delicious) fish

We had the lake all to ourselves.

It was a hard, long hike but we made some great memories in beautiful scenery, and I got to spend quality time with my dad and husband. I can't wait for the next trip.

School! Mackenzie graduated Old Firehouse Preschool and started Kindergarten! It was such an easy beginning for her. We luckily got to attend a few events before school started and she was able to meet a few new friends beforehand, which made the beginning so easy. She's so confident at school, learning a lot and having fun.

Ben also started at Old Firehouse school! His transition wasn't as seamless, and there was definitely some crying at drop off for awhile. He has (mostly) stopped saying that he doesn't want to go to school, and he has started talking about his school friends at home. We are so lucky that Mackenzie's teacher, Miss Erika, is now Ben's teacher and will stay with his group until they graduate to Kindergarten too.

OFS graduation

Miss Erika and Mackenzie

Got their backpacks ready!

First day of K!

Walking to school

Ms Alves Class

First day of Preschool!

Fun at the playground

What my house typically looks like with all the fort making

Ben decided to go and bash his head on one of our benches in our bedroom, and got himself a big, deep cut on the forehead. Luckily it was early saturday morning, and Jeremy was home. So we drove to the hospital with no traffic, and were the only ones in the ER. He was such a trooper, didn't even cry much. I think he was stunned at how much attention he was getting. His cut got glued, not stitched, and he even laughed and had fun with his sister in the ER.

Mackenzie did my hair to pass the time

SF symphony opening Gala

We also snuck in a trip to Guerneville in Mid September

Unfortunately Ben's glued cut opened back up and we ended up back in a local hospital to get real stitches this time. Mac stayed with grandma and grandpa, and we had another easy time in the ER. We were really lucky to have such great service both times, and our boy hardly cried!

Ben loves to do anything Mackenzie does. Which includes a lot of dress up, playing tea party, making forts, playing house, and doing beauty parlor stuff. We also throw quite a few fashion shows.

Fashion Show!

Jason Mraz at the Greek Theater

Gigi and Mackenzie in downtown Walnut Creek

In October we went to Sutter, CA, to a baby shower for Jeremy's cousin Jennifer who is due in January. The family got to meet Baby Walter too, my new nephew, who is a dream baby.

Judy and Walter

Scott kept the boys busy at the ranch with stickers

Mackenzie holds Walter

We also had a very fun trip to Jeremy's cousins Justin and Andrew's Pumpkin patch! They grew several fields of pumpkins and let us pick a few.

Mackenzie got promoted in ballet class

More amusement parks!

Pixieland Train with Katy, Eli and Vanessa

Mac and Ben love Rock City in Mt Diablo State Park.

Kinder field trip to the pumpkin patch!

Girls trip to Reno

Fall swim clinic at the pool

Picnic with Papa

Petting zoo at the school carnival

Fun with face painting at a birthday party

Mackenzie learns to 'babysit' the boys

Ben and Walter

Benny's tractor costume

Mackenzie and her friend Lily

Halloween Parade

Ben's Preschool parade

Love notes from Gavin to Mackenzie

playing with eye stickers

I always wanted Mackenzie to join girlscouts once we had started school, probably since I had never gotten to do it and it always looked like fun. What I hadn't realized was that in kinder, the troop obviously hasn't been started yet since it's everyone's first year in elementary school. So there was no existing troop to join! Two other moms and I decided to start one, not realizing how much work it would be. Still, it has been fun. We now have 13 girls in our troop and had our first troop meeting at my house last month.

Doing our first craft

Learning the friendship squeeze

Learning the daisy song

SF has been very smoky the past few weeks, so we offered to host Sterling's birthday party at our house since the air here was slightly better than the city. Most of the guests were closer to us anyway, so it worked out well. Jeremy decided to bust out one of his fancy table spreads again and we had a great time.