Maya turned 3 this Labor Day weekend

I can't believe Maya is 3! She had a fun birthday.... I think her favorite part was taking her birthday money (in her pink princess purse of course) to the store to choose some toys. She, like Alex, is a good bargain shopper. She got a big tea set, a pony and a toy cell phone (insert eye rolling here) and still had money left to put in her bank account.
She is not going to preschool this year but we are doing a few organized group type activities. This week we started doing the preschool program offered through the nature center on tuesday mornings. She calls it her nature school. I was very impressed that she sat on the rugs all by herself with the other kids and actually participated and answered questions!
Then wednesday she started dance class. She has been talking about it for months and it was everything she was hoping it would be! She told me on her own that she did not want to do the "mommy and me" class, she wanted the big girls class with just the kids and the teacher. And she did great, I don't think she even looked out the window to see if I was watching. She practiced all afternoon yesterday and can't wait to go back.

Galveston!

After Ben got home from work on Thursday the 26th I took off and drove to Green Bay to meet my mom and get up early friday morning to fly to Houston. We had two connections (3 planes) and then rented a car and drove out to Galveston. We were going down for a wedding on sunday - a friend of mine's wedding, we have been friends since early elementary school.
I'm not going to go into a day by day detail - we had a great time, loved getting to visit with everyone and tried to make the most of our downtime and get some exploring in.
Alex wanted me to "take pictures of everything!" so I tried my best.
It was sad to see how much damage was still left from Hurricane Ike. So many people had to just walk away from what was left so there are damaged buildings just left or some are completely gone.

August 14th - Buckley Old Engine Show

I really think a more accurate name for this event would be the Buckley Old Tractor show. We have heard of this since we moved here and never gone before. Why we chose this year when it was sweltering hot I have no idea. But Alex loved it. They do have an old steam engine and train and also some very old steam powered farm and lumber yard equipment but the bulk of the event is the classic tractors and the enormous flee market. We were completely unprepared for the size of this thing. Ben and I are not in a hurry to go back but we'll probably have to make sure Alex doesn't hear it mentioned next year because he will want to go. He sat and watched (and enjoyed) over 2 hours of classic tractors (all which really do not look that different IMO) drive past.
Maya and I did not last that long through the parade, we had to go exploring. There was some very good people watching - although it was terribly sweaty and a little stinky people watching. The flee market had something like 600 stalls. I think we only made it through 2 rows. After the booth that sold enormous bloomers (for decoration? that hard to find gift for the large relative who has everything?) we called it a day.

August 11th - Alex turned 6

It seemed his birthday came so fast after we got home! He had a couple friends over and they seemed to have the most fun just playing and running around, although we did play a few organized games - pin the tail on the donkey and bingo.

Our last day Saturday Aug 7th

Saturday we swam and I did some packing up in preparation for the trip home the next day. Alex learned how to canoe - I don't have any pictures because I was the other one in the canoe with him! We decided to take the canoe that evening to get over to the Blue Lake "Wing Fest" at the Blue Lake Pines Resort. It was a great idea on the way there, however while we were there it clouded up and started raining so we had to paddle super fast on the way back. We had just pulled up the canoe and started up the hill when the thunder started!

Thursday Aug 5th - Friday Aug 6th

We went to a "craft" (I use that term loosely, there was a lot of junk) fair in town one afternoon and found some cool bubble wands. We took a last trip to the library to return any books we still had out. Got in some swimming and of course friday night we gathered a bunch of friends and headed to St. Germain for the Pig in the Pines festival. One of our lake neighbors is the bass player for The Ides of March and they were playing at the festival. A ton of Blue Lake people went, all the kids came too. Maya got really tired but overall we had a great time.

Wednesday August 4th

Mom had a meeting in Land O'Lakes wednesday afternoon so we thought it would be a good time for the kids to finish their treasure hunts. We only had a few more stops to make but in those few stops they got quite a few good treasures. Then we took our maps back to the library and turned them in for 20 "gold" pirate coins which they could use to buy things in the treasure store. They each walked out with quite a collection!
We hit one last ski show that night before we would be leaving the coming weekend. A pair of loons wandered right into the middle of the show despite all the boat traffic and waves!