September in Review

There were some beautiful days to spend at the park.

There were piles of leaves to rake.  If you look carefully you can just see my face in the leaves.  The kids loved burying everyone in the leaves.  They are sad we don't have more leaves.  I am not. 

We even spent some time wading in the river.

Everyone but this guy.  He had to get a mole removed on his foot.  Then he had to go back in and get it cut at again.  It had a few questionable cells and we needed to make sure we got them all.  The first time he had six stitches and the second time he ended up with twenty four.  Stitches across the top of a persons foot are no fun at all.  There was no wading in the river for him.

September also saw Michael and I at the Sun Valley Inn.  He had to record a conference all weekend.  Meanwhile I sat around in a beautifully quiet hotel room.  It was completely quiet and everything stayed just where I put it.  It was amazing.

And last but not least our favorite visitor came for awhile.  This is O.L.F. (our little friend) and he likes to visit our mailbox during the summer and fall.  He has visited us every year since we moved in.  It may be a different frog each year but we choose to believe it is the same frog year after year.

That about wraps up September.  Now I need to catch up October.  Halloween has already come and gone.

Things Are Slipping

The school year has officially started.  We are busy doing writing, math, science and such every day.  We attend our homeschool co-op where I teach a class on Colonial America to the 8- and 9-year olds.  We are also adding a 4-H and orchestra co-op on Fridays.  Hopefully this craziness will only last until mid-November.  Then we will have to choose one co-op to attend.  I don't have the energy for two co-ops, plus we need to have time to do some actual schoolwork. Life is busy, as it always is.

I then decided I would go back to school with all my free time.  It wasn't something I was consciously planning but I was presented with an opportunity to get my bachelors degree from BYU-Idaho while doing 95% of my course work online, all for an incredible price.  So now I am back in school.  I am taking two classes and it seems to be about all I can manage. 

For those people who keep asking me how I get it all done I invite you to drop in anytime.  You can feel superior when you see all the weeds crowding out the flowers out front.  When you enter my house and find the three year old running around naked (I'm hoping he will grow out of this at some point and not grow up to be the neighborhood flasher), the clutter everywhere and the piles of clean and dirty laundry all over the in the bathroom you will realize how I am getting everything done. I'm just not.  Even my poor blog which I have been faithful to for seven years now is feeling neglected.

We are all getting educated over here but not much else is happening.  I wonder if we will ever have clean underwear again?  I can almost guarantee the socks will never again be mated.

End of Summer

Summer has been lovely but I am ready to move into fall.  Cool air, crunchy leaves and pumpkins.  I love me some pumpkins!

We celebrated the end of summer with a Scout activity, a beautiful sunset

and snow cones!

The kids and Michael equate summer with cups of ice covered with flavored sugar water.

We couldn't let summer end without one last snow cone...

Even if it was past dark when we finally pedaled away.

8 Years old

The plan was to go to the park and have a birthday party with family.  The park had other plans that involved some sort of craft fair and lots of people.  So we all ended up at my sister's house.

But the cake was still yummy, the presents still wonderful, and Libby still turned eight (even if she was awfully disappointed that we couldn't go play in the fountains at the park).

She decorated her very own princess cake.  Each wand makes it more magical.

The next day we met Michael's family at the park by our house.  Libby hardly knew what to do with herself - she was having such a great time and enjoying the presents she was opening.

She told us after getting this doll she didn't think she wanted one, but now that she has one, she loves it.

Eight is great!

2013 Western Idaho Fair

First stop was the Expo building to see if we won any ribbons.  Imagine our delight with:

Blue ribbon brownies!

2nd Place!  (She has plans to beat her brother next year)

Ethan's chocolate chip cookies

and Libby's gluten-free peanut butter cookies.  The gluten-free category was open to all youth 17 and under.  She beat out the big kids which made this win especially sweet (pun not intended but I made myself chortle)!

My niece Aubrey.  You can't really see it in the picture but she won a blue ribbon for her carrot cake.

 AG Pavilion.

 Getting our

 tractor riding

 groove on. 

Libby came the closest to pulling for the whole 25 feet.  She hit 24 feet and couldn't move another inch.  She has big plans for next year.

We did a little cow milking.

Libby decided she would milk the cow this year.  I wish I could show you the pictures but she begged me not to post the evidence of her utter udder milking disgust on the blog.  She didn't say anything about email though.  Just sayin'!

"Momma, listen to me!"

By the end of the day we were all exhausted.  My 17 year old niece was making the little ones push her in the stroller.  I was thinking about arm wrestling her for the seat.

Love the Fair.  Glad it only comes once a year.