a fun fall weekend and more 40th fun

We let both of the kids skip their sports on Friday for a fun family night.  We started off at Taylor's volleyball game and then headed to Ashland for fourth Fridays. 

We enjoyed dinner on the porch, live music and the sights of the small town!

On Saturday I took my friend Kathryn out to lunch and to see Mean Girls for her 40th birthday.  Confession:  I had never seen the movie so I watched it this week so I would know what to expect at the show!

Saturday night we attended a surprise party for Jason's childhood friend Mike who turned 40 this week too.

It's always fun to get together with friends we don't see often enough!

We're celebrating another friend's 40th on Friday! 

friends who are 40

My best friend turns 40 tomorrow and we celebrated big this weekend.  

We spent the afternoon wine tasting at a winery and then we walked next door to the house of the property that we had rented for the night.  

We enjoyed a Chipotle dinner and then spent a relaxing evening sipping on drinks in the hot tub.  

It was a fun night and our celebrations are going to continue next weekend!

back to school

Before covid, our school system always started school the Tuesday after Labor Day.  After covid, we had lots of students going back to a school building for the first time so they started staggering the first day of school.  Because our kids are not new to their schools, they didn't have to go back until Wednesday.  We tried to hold on to summer as long as we could so we went out to dinner and got ice cream on Tuesday night before school started!

This is Emmy's last first day of elementary school.  See below for a fun school picture.  Next year she goes to middle school. 

This is Bryce's last first day of middle school. 

These two make us so proud and man they're cute!

Because this is the year of lasts, here is Emmy on her first day of elementary school and her last first day of elementary school.

Bryce's first day of middle school and his last first day of middle school.  I personally love his hair!  He has great hair.  Fun fact which isn't fun at all, Jason cut his bangs before school started and ruined them so I took him for a quick fix.  The stylist said it would take a couple of haircuts to fix them, but he's managing.  

They took these fun pictures at school. 

Emmy had piano and gymnastics on the first day of school.  Bryce typically has baseball the same night but it was cancelled because of rain.  We were able to celebrate the first day around 8:30 with ice cream!

After gymnastics on Saturday we took Emmy to Ashland to walk around, watch the trains, and enjoy the small town vibe.  I always tell Jason I want to retire here.  

Bryce was living his best life this weekend.  He went to a high school football game on Friday night and then he got to go Blacksburg for the Virginia Tech game on Saturday night.  

It was a rainy tailgate, but it was fun!

Thankful to be friends with our kids' friends' families!!

Nothing like a free turkey leg after the game!

Jason and Emmy and I enjoyed the game at home where it was dry!  

goodbye summer

Jason's company gives tickets for fun family events in the summer and we cashed in on ours on Tuesday.  We opted for tickets to Busch Gardens.

  

Our county is one of the last ones in VA to go back to school so we had the park to ourselves.  We walked on to every roller coaster with no wait! 

We had food vouchers and ate plenty of good food.  Like a slice a cake bigger than the kids' heads!

Emmy had to do the teacups by herself because I can't do spinning rides anymore.  

Bryce saw these prizes at the start of the day and made sure to go back and play the game at the end of the day.  And as luck would have it, he won!

It was such a fun day!

Bryce had Open House at his school for his 8th grade year on Wednesday night.  I forgot to take pictures but I got one on Thursday night at Emmy's.  She was so excited to get the same teacher Bryce had for 5th grade.

We went to a friend's house to watch the Hokies play on Friday night.  Jason got a new suit for the occasion.   

We closed out the pool season today!  We had planned to go watch the cardboard boat regatta and Emmy decided at the last hour (this morning) that she wanted to participate.  

Their boat wasn't very stable and we were short of decorating materials, but they participated and had a great time. 

There were some really amazing boats that did really well.  We learned a lot in case we do it again next year!

There were other fun events at the pool today.  The kids played Bingo and both won treats from the snack bar.  We've got one more day of summer vacation tomorrow and then we head back to school!