Schahl Fall... part 1 of 3

So I know it's been absolutely forever since we've updated.  We have been very busy, and lucky for you, most of that time we've had a camera along.  Many of you have seen our last post about losing our Columbo.  Thank you to all of you who expressed condolences.  Yes, he was a member of our family and is sorely missed.  

Well... we've got a lot to do, and we're going to break this up into a few posts (thinking three) so I'd better just get to the pictures.

Back in September we had a little get together with some other families from daycare.  Here's a shot of the kids enjoying the new playground area.

 

 We decided on a spot in the yard to put a garden shed.  As you can see the gravel base has already been laid, and the dirt was piled up  It was going to be used to fill some ruts and low spots in the yard.  Carly insisted on putting her shovel and wheel barrow to work as well.

 What do you mean that's not proper attire?  Don't you wear flip flops and a skirt when doing hard labor?

 Ok, she may have had a little help getting from point a to point b.

 Backfilling the edge of the playground.

 Off for more dirt.  This thing sure is a lot easier to use with no dirt in it.

 Hrmmm.... apparently that lighter with no dirt thing caught on.  She's no dummy.

 Pretty soon after that the Strocks came up for a visit.  Isaac was a big help to Molly on the playground at the park.

 This park we went to also has a large population of permanent resident geese.  We did take along some bread to feed them, but man...in the feeding frenzy there was no time for pictures.

 Sporting a life jacket, getting ready for paddle boating on Silver Lake

Ellie, Carly and Jason shared one paddle boat, Isaac Jenni and Brian had another.

 Also spent a little time playing with this most awesome bubble machine ever... it makes bubbles inside of bubbles.

 Works very well in our large yard.

There are no words, but Uncle Brian looked at home in this tiny house, sitting on a little pink chair.

 Check out the airplane swing!

 A new favorite of both girls.... hard to get them to take turns.

 Next up came the tractor show at LeSueur.  Kim brought the girls over to see what was keeping Jason busy all weekend.

 Not that you can tell from this picture, but that is one of Carly's favorite tractors.

 I'm certain she'll be fighting Molly for it one day.

 Carly took her little sister for a spin in the antique truck on display in the museum.

 Then Molly went to work on this railroad trolly thingamajig.

 Too cute not to include.

 So now we're up to about the end of September... had a break from the heat and decided to check out Como zoo up in the cities.

  Miss Molly struttin' just doing her own thing.

 The have a great old carousel there, we thought maybe Molly would like to ride a pony... she had other suggestions about that.

 So.... we ended up in on of the sitting booths.

 Carly also really had a blast.

 

  And to conclude this first of a medley of posts... we'll leave you with a familiar weekend morning scene in our house.