School work

Doing extra math practice online:

Working to solve the mail order mystery clues:

Coop and his friend Eliza showing off the science report they wrote following an experiment:

New grill

Over Labor Day weekend, Coop and I bought a new grill, that we then had to haul up to the back deck and assemble:

Coop inaugurated the grill with a meal of hot dogs for our friends Gus and Eleanor:

Success:

Coop also assembled this new locker for his room at Alan's house -- a place to store his BB guns:

Coop and I (not grilling) playing with the iPads at Applebees:

Piano lessons!

Coop has started piano lessons at the Americana Music Academy!

Practicing at home:

Our new Halloween decoration friend practicing:

At his lesson:

Recent activities

We watched a ton of Olympics.  And Coop ran laps around the house.  Hundreds of them.

The karate studio invited a professional photographer in to take pictures of the kids.  Coop wanted to pose with a sword (even though that's not something he's trained on during lessons).  Looks pretty cool!

Homework and paper-grading:

Baking Grandma Farm's rolls:

Wamego!

One of my childhood friends lives in Wamego, about an hour and 15 minutes away from me.  We scheduled a meet-up one recent Saturday, so Coop and I drove to visit Amanda and her family.

The first thing Coop noticed was the Jeep CJ-7 in the garage, and man, he was in love!

We visited the Oz Museum with Amanda and her daughter Annie:

In the tornado machine:

And apparently Walter Chrysler, founder of the car company, was born in Wamego.  His house, cleverly, has the witch's legs sticking out from underneath it.  I told the kids to act shocked and surprised.  They were less than thrilled.

And then, as all great days must do, it came crashing down (literally) off of a scooter.  Amanda saved us with hydrogen peroxide.

August

Working on vocabulary homework:

At a nearby shooting range with Alan:

So excited to hear the news that his new lego set arrived!

Legos!

Coop announced that he got sent to the principal's office during the first week of school.  Uh oh.... "I wrote a poem that my teacher liked and wanted me to share with the principal!"  Ok then!

(Naturally, we're all in school because of the swimming and the compliments.)

Last gasps of summer

Alan took Coop to the electronic shooting range at Cabela's:

Meanwhile, competing for the role of most unfun parent, I showed Coop a website for learning out to type:

Coop's best friend Molly surprised him one evening with this awesome x-wing fighter made by a local artist out of plastic cardboard stuff.  Amazing!

And then, at last, it was time for school to start.  First day of fourth grade!