After all the work is done, we play.  I got my yearly cold at the beginning of the year from my giving students, so I layer down for a bit and woke up to dad and Denali being gone to gymnastics and my other two playing together on the iPad, I know with Isaiah I only have a moment to get a couple pictures before he runs away from the camera, but I got a couple.

Oh I love my kids!

 All the kids have been reading, as it's part of homework.  I love how the girls read together!

 Denali got her wish come true!  She finally started gymnastics, and I was impressed, she was pretty good at it!

What to do after the first week of a new school year?

Go fishing!

  We learned about types of fish in Nebraska.

 We learned about types of bait.

  We learned how to stay safe by the water.

 We practiced tying knots.

 We practiced casting.

 We took some pictures.

 We graduated from fishing class, and got free fishing poles.

 and finally we went fishing.

 Quinn loved fishing.

 Isaiah caught his first fish.

Denali caught fish too.

What a fun day.  Spending time with friends, and fishing!

It's official, we are back in school.

Here are first day of school pictures.

 Denali has a tradition of always doing one close up on the first day of school, so we have to go with tradition!

Isaiah is going into 3rd grade.  This year the socks are the big thing, those long socks with neon on them somewhere.

Denali is our drama dance queen, and has a hard time sitting still.  She is going into 2nd grade.

Quinn is also going into 2nd grade.  She is loving her freedom of moving here seat around and is getting better at driving.  Then Chrissy goes and changes all her driving tools, so now she is relearning, and soon she will be driving even better, we hope.

and there they go, on their first day of 2nd and 3rd grade!

We said prayers this morning for a fun, education year for all of them!

 The last day of summer, after I got off work, all of us went to therapy.  I love how my kids love to be a part of each others lives, the kids wanted to help Quinn, by cheering her on, and helping her every way they could.  I love watching them in their excitement to help each other.  Thanks to Diane for letting them help out.

Finally a few fun pictures from summer.  I sure do love my kids and they sure do love each other!

 Last week was bittersweet.  The kids had their last visit with their therapist.  I love therapists and think we all have things we can talk about with a good counselor.  Ours was the best.  So they had been planning for their last session and both kids were excited and sad about not visiting our amazing therapist.  Thankfully her door is always open! :)

 They frosted cupcakes and played with balloons, and talked.  They talked about things they did:  Learning about Family.  Cooperation.

 Honesty, Adoption Day.

 Juice Pouches are Delicious, and Controlling Anger, and so much more.

We are so thankful for Miss Nikki!  She did so much to help these two through some big issues!  How grateful we are!

In other news, Quinn had her Miss Amazing Dance Program.  I did not get to go, as I had my school open house.  As did our other two.  We were all bummed, because it was so AMAZING last year. So Chrissy and Quinn took off on their own adventure to Omaha to meet up with Addison and Olivia, and the other amazing helpers.

 Getting ready, adding glitter

 What cuties!

 The theme was Hollywood, so we needed star shades and star crowns.

 What a great team.

 Last minute pep talks.

 and the performance...

 Ending with great applause.

 The newest member of the crew had to try out the star shades too.

What an amazing night.  

Want to know more about the pageant?

http://missamazingpageant.com/ 

Well, I am that mom that makes my kids do homework during the summer.

Quinn went to summer school at Maxey and worked on her Dynavox a lot this summer.

Denali and Isaiah had a lot more homework that I gave them.

They also got to take a bookworm class, where they got to write their own books.

Denali wrote a nonfiction book about our trip to Tennessee.

Dedicated to our family.  Oh I had to fight back the tears when I read that.

Her biography says:  Denali Otte is 7 years old.  She currently lives in Lincoln NE.  She enjoys dancing and playing with her sister Quinn.  (Ahhhh)

 Isaiah's book is a fictional book.

 He titled his the, Green Ninja.

 His biography is:  Isaiah Otte is 8 years old.  He currently lives in Lincoln NE.  He enjoys collecting Pokemon cards, playing video games and building lego sets.

 His book is dedicated to:  His fish Gemstone and his dog Blue.  (His dog Blue, hmmm, I thought it was my dog Blue?)

 As I always say, things in moderation, so after working hard, we get to play.  We have a great accessible playground right here in Lincoln.

Granted, Quinn was also working with Chrissy, on her driving, but that is just as fun for her, when she works with Chrissy.

 The other exciting news, is Quinn gets to dance in the Miss Amazing pageant this Thursday.  It's the national pageant for girls with disabilities.  It's amazing!  The bummer is I don't get to go this year, as I have open house at my school.  So thankfully Chrissy will get to go enjoy the fun with Quinn.