Monday, September 23, 2013

Monday!

This is a bit backwards. BUT They were all in bed at 8 last night and it did us all a world of good. Lots of rest. They had played hard outside most of the afternoon. And have been waking each other up WAY too early. Like 4 or 5 am early! 






The boys were ready to rumble for school. They have been doing a great job getting ready and out to the bus on time.  
These guys are pretty special. Josiah has taken on the role of "oldest guy" and I am loving the help he gives! Jordan made sure the garbage was hauled out to the road today, the MINUTE he got off the bus!! 

After school I try to let them chill with a snack and then they can ease into their homework. The boys were done today by the time I had to run to school and pick Michelle up after practice. 


AMAZING facts for today! Jordan can READ all these books!



Eli had ALL his homework done in 20 minutes!!! 


AND Michelle and Josiah are planning to write a book together. I kind of hope 8 days at Grammas doesn't have much to do with this! 

Josiah landed at a site for Science Kids. SO he did an experiment to see if eggs float in salt water. 

YEP! They do!! 

Michelle has been working on a photo challenge for the month on Instagram. This involves shooting "selfies" for more of the afternoon, until I need my phone back. Today was "smile". And hers IS beautiful! She has also been keeping the laundry moving along! 


But she found a cool app:  Sketch Guru
Then she threatened me that I may NOT hack her instagram and post photos of myself all day while she is at school. hmmmm  

We are settling into a nice routine here. I am sad that the rains have returned. Michelle's fastpitch game was rained out today. Tomorrow is the make up game, and Jordans football game. 






Sunday, September 22, 2013

Sunday.

I am kind of out of words today. We went to church, came home and ate. I took a nap. The boys seem to be accumulating energy as the hours pass... I had Jordan take a "rest" as he seems to have contracted the cold from Cohen and Ezra. 

They have been playing "house" upstairs. Lots of coloring, and reading to each other. They had lots of outside time once the rains stopped. Now they get and hour of wii before we wind into the bedtime hours...


Michelle made apple crisp and a double batch of cookies for lunches. She made a batch last night and it was eaten in an hour. 
My faithful assistant!


We did have to re-institute the "laps around the house" activity. 5 seems to be a good number. For starters....




Fess up Sunday?
I wrote a bus pass for Karen Rinehart. Michelle was able to use it and get on the bus. The driver never even looked at it. 

We have not eaten ANY Cheerios for breakfast, so I told them it was FINE to have them for dinner, as we had hot breakfast, so what does it matter if you eat them early or late...

Have fun and I am SO happy everyone survived skydiving. 












Saturday, September 21, 2013

Saturday. Soccer. Sun.

Today started as usual, EARLY. I don't mind as I am usually up by 5 or 6. So I get a quiet hour before 7. 


I started in the kitchen at 7 with Dutch babies and JUST left it at 7pm. 


I had a turkey in Jana's freezer and decided to thaw that out the other day, which seemed a great idea at the time. So I baked a turkey, made 10 pints of green tomato salsa, and 20 quarts of Italian tomato sauce. While the turkey was roasting. 

Grampa took all the boys to Eli's soccer game. They lost 2-1. But that gave me a FREE hour! They picked up Michelle on the way home. We had lunch and the kids played games. 

Then Grampa took them all for a walk out back to the pond, so I could have a quick nap. I am a much happier person with a 20 minute siesta. I gave Michelle and Josiah the camera today. they did great. Josiah came back with pictures of 25 farm implements! They found another frog and a dragonfly. And of course pockets full of rocks. 








Jana and Danny came to dinner to help us eat the Turkey. The kids played and played out side. Then I grabbed them in one by one and sent them to shower! They are watching a Looney Tune and then off to bed! 

Ezra could NOT take his eyes off Grampa's mashed potatoes! 








It was a really good day. No homework to worry about, etc. Very fun just playing. Michelle made peanut butter cookies and played with Ezra. 

Friday, September 20, 2013

It's FRIDAY we get to stay up LATE!!! ????

It's Friday- all ready! Josiah said, "It's FRIDAY! we get to stay up LATE!" hmmm O.K. That's like 9:30, right? 

Michelle was off to the bus, in the dark again. She had no practice after school because they did so well at their game, coach gave them the day off. So she got to ride home on the bus for the first time. 

It is beginning to be VERY fall! 


Reminds me of the old days...


The boys left on the next shift. 
There was only ONE cow that was impressed with the favorite bus stop game, "kill each other with your backpack" 



In the afternoon we had a visit from our favorite 2 yr old and his mother. He had a fine time outside with Grampa, and found a beetle, grasshopper, bugs and a frog. They had snack time outside, with JANA?
Move over guys! 

We cleaned out the garden and dug the potatoes, picked squash, carrots, cabbage, and onions. Also finished up the tomatoes. Gramma will be busy tomorrow. 






Grasshopper Hunting










Dinner potatoes! 


The boys have spent the past 3 days counting my "money". Dividing it up into cups and labeling the $ in each cup. (this is a jar I put all my change in.)  They think it is a fortune and is is fun to listen to the ways that they think they can tap into this fortune. the most recent was Josiah, who thought since they had counted it all, we could divide it in half and I could KEEP half my money and the 4 of them could divide up the rest. That sounds fair. ???


It has been awesome to have my personal recycling facilitator on site. Saves me a lot of steps. 


After dinner I took Michelle to see a friend and the boys put together 2 United States puzzles. I found some stuff at the Thrift store that was new to them and seems to be working for some quiet entertainment. The price was right! 

I saw this in town today:

By the cemetery there USED to be these HUGE 80-100 ft fir trees. I drove in and did a double take because I thought it was giant cactus and I knew I was in the wrong state for that. They were cutting down all those HUGE trees behind the cemetery in the driveway to Lynden Meat. This guy was WAY up there! 

Happy Friday. Congrats on the two WINS Josh and Joel!!