Labor Day weekend 2014

Today is the Labor Day holiday in the USA, and John and I both had off work.  This weekend is often known as the end of summer too (bittersweet…I have no idea where the summer went this year!?).  No matter what, we wanted to make sure we soaked up the sun and did summery things while we still could!

On Saturday, John also had off work so we ran some errands and took a family walk to our neighborhood park for a picnic lunch and some playtime.  Then during the kids' nap, John and I washed and sliced our first picked batch of apples and I made applesauce, dehydrated apples, and then I also made another chocolate zucchini cake.  The applesauce turned out so good (the small container is already gone!) that I will definitely be making more of it with the rest of our apples (along with some apple pies per John's request).  John mowed the yard and I did the grocery shopping and we got several loads of laundry done. It turned out to be a busy, but productive day.  I don't think I've had that productive of a day (without having the kids in daycare) for a loooong time!  I loved it!  And our reward for it was by having an easy going no-chore relaxing day today.

John had to work yesterday so the kids and I took it easy at home.  Then last night we hosted a BBQ with some friends and we roasted marshmallows and made smores over the fire pit (Evan still doesn't like the roasted marshmallows by the way…either uncooked marshmallows on their own or he'll just want to eat the chocolate from inside the smore instead of the whole sandwich).  I loved watching Evan and John sitting together with the glow of the fire light…it rained on us a bit throughout the evening, but as the evening wore on the stars came out and it was a little bit cool after the rain so it ended up being a really nice night to have a fire!

That lead into a beautiful gem of a day today…sunny and warm, but not too hot.  In fact, sitting under the shade of a tree it was the perfect temperature!   After a big home made french toast breakfast and Emma's morning nap, we took a walk to the bigger park near us and that's exactly where Emma and I hung out…laying on a blanket under the shade of a tree.  It was wonderful!  She crawled all over me and even practiced standing up unassisted.  I'd clap for her when she'd let go of me and stand all wobbly before she toppled to her bottom.  John and Evan were at the playground at the time, but John would look back and see her standing and I could see her face light up when she'd catch his gaze at her too.  Eventually she got brave enough to crawl off the blanket and then spent the rest of her park outing climbing on Evan's tricycle.

Meanwhile, John and Evan took off into the field to fly the kite.  There was only a slight breeze occasionally, but just enough to get the kite up and going for awhile.  Evan got to take over several times and John taught him that when it starts to go down to walk backward to keep it up.  He learned that quickly and found himself pretty far backward from where he started!

Flying the kite all by himself

Check out the video: Evan flies the kite

We also brought Evan's soccer ball so they kicked that around a bit.  Evan did a really cool kick of the ball for me just after I started taking some video…you gotta check it out.  I see a little soccer champ in the making!

Check out the video: Evan's best kick

While summer may "officially" be over after this weekend, we should still have several more weekends of nice sunny weather ahead of us.  In fact, early autumn weather in Colorado can be quite nice.  Although given the wet and relatively cool summer we've had this year, I am not as excited for the change in season as in some years where you look forward to the cooler weather.  In fact, I'm really quite bummed summer is nearly over because it seemed to go by too fast.  Tis the seasons…they keep changing and reminding me how fast time is moving.  At least we've made some wonderful memories to keep me warm during the winter ahead.