First day of school, summer camping

Looking good Eva...This girl has had lots of injuries, but I've never seen as much blood as was pouring out her mouth.  The neighbors scrubbed off the sidewalks for us as we took care of her!  As I was washing blood out of her hair for the 2nd time, I told Chris "I've never had to wash my hair in 34 years to get blood out of it?"  Her mouth ended up really cut up and 2 front, permanent teeth were chipped and need to be repaired after the cut heals.  LUCKILY, the teeth were not broken off in the jaw, just loose and moved a bit.

The razor scooter is clearly the winner in both of these first day of school pictures, one from 2 years ago. 

For those of you who refer to me as "super mom:"  It's pretty easy to look "super" when you just skip school shopping all together and make them wear something from their closet.  They get an entire new wardrobe each and every season anyways because they are human growth phenomenons.  Travis was crabby about this picture and the fact that I didn't get him a haircut until AFTER school today.  Oh well, old clothes, old hair.  Ha!

Chris and Erika in Vegas!!!!  The Heartland Poker Tour had a party in the Hugh Hefner suite.  And, since our room somehow went missing, we got to stay here for the night!  (Doesn't my husband look so cute in this picture?  I think so!)

Desperate Poker Wives:  Erika, Kylie and Sara

This probably would've been a cooler picture if I had taken it BEFORE the party and before the garbage was all over.  

Boyfriends Todd and Chris ordered room service for breakfast the next morning in the suite while I slept in.

Sara and I drank and sat by the pool most of the vacation.  We just went straight from drinking at the pool by one hotel to another one.  

Chris and Erika, Greg and Sara Lang

I also got to have a fun weekend with my friend from Minot, Ginger, and her daughter Kirby.  We finally caved and put in a Baby Einstein for Marie and Kirby to watch while we got ready to go out for the night.  Yes, weird, a naked Hanson. 

Marie is obsessed with coloring.  Unfortunately, she's not particular that there be paper or not.  She is the worst color-on-things-kid I have ever had.  My walls HAD made it through 3 kids without scribbles on it!

Luke was obsessed with building train tracks this summer.  Most of the time, we couldn't even walk in the kitchen without stepping on them because he'd try to make them go from the office to the kitchen.  Travis could not handle the simplicity of his boring train tracks and tried to make them much fancier. 

Hot rod mi-mi at Grandma Tree's while we were in Vegas.  

We had a great trip camping in Aberdeen at Wylie Park with Uncle Adam, Auntie Sheena, Cousin Halle, Grandma Tree and Grandpa Gerry.  We loaded all 6 of us into the cab of Clint's pick-up and pulled the motor home.  It was so fun.  

 Halle definitely won the cutest and quietest and best sleeper award for the kiddos. 

Grandpa Gerry making breakfast for the troops.  (Look at Marie sitting behind him in the booster chair on the ground.  Hee, hee.) 

Family picture at Story Book Land.

We found out that bikes are a must when camping... which I should've remembered after years of begging dad to take our bikes camping?

OK, so we gave in because I didn't know what to do with them in prime mosquito eating time and they watched a video on the Ipad.  Spoiled brats. 

This is Luke on the way home from camping, which shows how well sleeping went for camping.  

Marie screaming about cats

If you are a cat person, you will think it's very funny how excited Marie is about watching a video montage about cute, silly kitties. It's Marie, Emma Critelli, Eva and Travis. Doesn't Emma look just like Travis? These four all look like siblings!

Hankinson 125th Centennial

Chris golfing with my dad.  He said that he had never drank so much golfing in his life.  Nice dad.  

The Buckhouses all wore shirts with our "team roster" on the back. We weren't able to get all 12 of us together for a picture though. So great to see Chris wearing a shirt that said "BUCKHOUSE" across the back.

Marie feeding baby Halle very seriously.

Travis takes such great pictures of his Uncles.

So nice and close that you can see Adam's awesome grill.

God Bless America

Safety goes out the window in Hankinson. We also road in the back of a pick-up truck.

95 degrees for the 4th of July. Hottest in 20 years. Why would we want to be at our lake place when we were, instead, standing on main street Hankinson for a kiddy parade in which they handed out hershey's kisses which Marie and Luke proceeded to bath themselves in? Luckily, the weekend was very fun with all friends and family getting to be together for a long weekend with nothing to do other than drink at all activities.

Mall of America and Rich's Wedding

Can you see Marie's face just screaming out "THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!" I should start buying tickets to people's wedding dances because my kids loved going to Rich and Jessica Teske's. Eva has said that Adam and Sheena's wedding was the most fun she's ever had in her 8 years of life. And, Travis cried when we had to leave Rich's dance.

Marie was a muddy, sloppy, spilled on mess by the end of the night. She was a flamenco dancer, lifting her dress up all night and laughing....

...so, Luke thought maybe he was missing out on something?

Cousin Jack went to Mall of America with us. He went on big rides. Luke would've gone on every one of them if he'd have been tall enough. I sent him on the log ride with Jack. But, there are no pictures because I started to get crazy worried about my decision to let a 10 year old take a 3 year old on a ride like that. But, they had a great time!

Jill and Carter Schinkle and their boys, Cannon and Caseyn (the little guys, as Luke calls them) also joined us. My kids loved the little guys house. And why wouldn't they? Jill let them make their own rainbow cupcakes and paint flower pots with acrylic paint and stickers. She's way nicer than me!

Travis glady taking Marie on the little kid rides... because he's scared of anything bigger.

Luke will out-ride Eva, that's for sure. He was so calm and well-behaved at the MOA since something was finally fast and loud enough for him.

Jack, Luke and Eva

Travis, Eva, Marie, Luke and Jack

Fine parenting moment.

As a parent of four, I hope that I can teach others some of my skills I have acquired over the years. Sue posted this picture of Andrew, her neice Libby and Norah and labeled it "Erika Buckhouse style." Watch out dad, I'm stealing your label! So glad I can spread such fine parenting advice.

And this picture of Travis from 2006 shows why Sue said that. We were the only ones with kids back then, and we all went to Walker for the 4th of July. Well, I forgot a high chair type seat for Travis. So, I made him one out of beer box! Beer boxes were plentiful back then, but baby seats were not.
We had a great vacation to the Evens house in St. Paul recently; complete with a trip to the Children's Museum and Grand Ol' Days.

Marie and Norah.

The video of Luke the DJ follow. He was commanding the board and wasn't going to let anyone touch the controls. Travis was doing his big brother duty and making him as mad as possible.

Andrew, Travis, Norah and Luke at the Children's Museum. Luke was really into the water room, as you can see.

Sorry, jumped around on this post. Andrew, Luke, Travis, Eva and Marie at Grand Ol Days. Look at Ol' Man Travis with his legs crossed. He always sits like this.

Luke and Andrew. Too cute.

Grand Ol Days parade.... Travis being super weird....And if you look close you can see that someone wrote in chalk "put candy here" with big arrows. Ha! Chuck or Chris I'm guessing as I never saw it until now!

This was the face Luke wore for about an hour as he watched the ping pong balls float threw the tubes and canals and water at the Children Museum.

Andrew and Eva

Luke being a DJ

This was at the children's museum in the cities. Luke was commanding the board at the "dance." It's ruined by me yelling at him to share, but doing nothing about it because it was so funny and I wanted to record it. And Marie ruins it by whining. Still funny. He's so Chris.

Travis' Kindergarten books

Travis made about 100 of these books in Kindergarten. I figured since we have some friends getting married this weekend, this story may be humorous. Also, my brother, Adam, is sitting around this weekend NOT playing softball because an unsoftball was caught by his face and he broke his jaw and his mouth is wired shut for 6 weeks. So, I thought he could use some reading material.

"The Frankenstein Wedding" By Travis Hanson- age 5

"I want a girlfriend."

Oh no, there's a girl going to jail who is really sad, she'd be a great pick!

She's crying for someone to help her....

Silly guards, they left their post and Frankenstein dressed up like a policeman and grabbed the keys. Genius!

She's crying; no problem though because his cute little hand with the keys pops around the corner.

"Come on?" says Frankenstein. "Huh?" says the gal.

"Will you marry me?" Who needs match.com people? Just head down to the jail!

So sweet.

The saga continues...

"I cannot believe we are going to the hospital."

"Well, I have a present." So, as you can see, that's pregnant Mrs. Frankensteing laying on the bed with her IV poles and her big tummy. Travis is an experienced big brother.

"Ta-duh!" Travis will be a great husband some day if he has flowers ready to go in the car when they go to the hospital to have a baby.

There is Mrs. Frankenstein, all smiley and happy looking at the flowers with the baby getting lower on her body...

"It is coming out!" This is where I am very glad that he is not writing this book in the 2nd grade when we've told him many more details about how this happens.

First, Mr. Frankenstein had wished it was one boy. But then, as you can see by the scribbles, he changed the story a bit.

Mrs. Frankenstein did NOT want two boys.