Milestones and Mail

Grant is starting kindergarten next week.

We went in Thursday to meet his teacher and do placement testing.

 

 

He is excited to get started.  Two weeks home alone while the big kids are in school has him bored enough to make starting kindergarten appealing.

 

I cannot believe the baby is now a school boy.

 

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We are always getting packages in the mail.

I am an Amazon woman.

 

 

not this kind of Amazon woman.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the kind of amazon woman I have become. 

 

If I can buy it online, I am not wasting a trip to the store.  I can shop in my pajamas at three in the morning with no children begging me for stuff we don't need.  Plus I don't have to fight traffic, parking or people.

 

The only thing nicer would be if my kids would learn to put the dirty dishes IN the dishwasher, not just NEAR the dishwasher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANYWAY,

 

 

 lots of packages make their way to our doorstep with great regularity.

One of the best packages I have ever opened held some surprising content.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take a look.

 

 

 

Inside this tiny little box

 

 

 

 

I found

 

 

Grace

 

 

 

Yes, she folder herself over to fit down in that thing.

 

 

 

 

Grandma, she obviously did not inherit your aversion to small spaces!

 

 

She was so proud of herself.

 

 

 

Yeah, I'm proud of her too....

 

 

maybe not for her self-folding-box-cramming-body-squishing talent,

but for so many other things, I am very proud of her.

 

 

Goodnight!

 

 

Happy visiting in Edwardsville this weekend!

Love you all.

Bedtime Thoughts and Parking Problems

would you like to know what David is doing in the woods with the kubota?

More on this later.

 

 

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When we put the kids to bed at night, we always try to spend a few minutes talking with them.  Grant has gotten pretty chatty lately.  In fact David spent forty minutes chatting it up with him the other night.  Tonight was no exception.  Here are some of the highlights of the conversation at bedtime.

(showing off his missing tooth)

Me - Did you have fun at the pool tonight?

Grant - Yeah, and I liked eating Zaxby's today.

Me - Were you scared when you started home from the pool alone on your bike?

Grant - No.  Where were you?

Me - I got caught talking to someone after you had already left.

Grant - So who would I talk to if you and dad and john and emily and grace were gone?

Me - You mean if we left you at home alone?

Grant - No if you were dead in the house and I was still alive...who would I talk to? (this is what he asked)

(long motherly explanation)

Me - Is that okay?

Grant - Yeah,okay.  For my next birthday, how many matchbox cars can I get?

(I am guessing I must have answered his question.  It took him exactly 2.3 seconds to move on from the mortality of the entire family to exactly how many matchbox cars he could get for birthday.)

Grant - (asked as I am walking out of the room)Why can squirrels hold so many nuts in their cheeks?

Me - ASK ME IN THE MORNING! (this could go on all night)

you just never know what direction the conversation will take when talking to him.

 

 

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Be careful.....

 

locked doors are no guarantee around here.

 

Grant has figured out how to use a golf club to knock the key off the top of the door frame.

 

 

and to think I have blamed John and Emily for all of the missing keys.

 

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This is a picture from last week, but thought I would post one that shows she's quite a spunky little thing.

 

She bucks and kicks and loves to play.

 

 

 

I hope to get out there this weekend and check on her.

 

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So

 

 

 

have you figured this out yet?

 

 

 

David was in the woods because John ran into some technical difficulties while parking the Rhino one night at the farm.

 

 

Here is what his technical difficulties looked like.

 

 

 

 

 

It seems John took the Rhino out of gear when parking it at the TOP of the hill one time after feeding Snickers.

When I went to get the Rhino for the next feeding, it was gone.

 

I found it.........

 

 

 

at the BOTTOM of the hill.

OOPS!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Also, thankfully, the Rhino only ended up at the bottom of the hill and not at the bottom of the pond which could easily have happened based on where it started its trip.

 

 



Catching Up

A very wise person gave this to me....

 

 

I am sure I will be saying this prayer a lot for the next seven years (plus five more for Grace) (plus two more for Grant).

 

I guess there is comfort in the thought that I will NEVER have four teenagers all at once. 

That would not be pretty.

 

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Last week we went downtown to Waterfront Park

to play and have fun

 

on the last day of summer vacation.

 

It was a beautiful day.

 

Grant could not resist chasing the ducks.

Dad met us downtown at Joe's for one last summer lunch.

 

 

Oh, and that is ROOTBEER, not beer, in John's hand.

 

After lunch

 

I let the kids play in the spray park.

Some were a little more enthusiastic than others about getting soaked.

 

 

Before we left we rented a surrey bike

and took a spin around the downtown.

 

Kind of a nice way to end summer vacation.

Skating and Biking

David and I met with John's orthodontist today.  The kid is getting a reprieve from braces for a while.  It looks like you won't be able to call him 'metal mouth' or 'tin grin' or anything equally offensive for at least another year.  Enjoy that gum and taffy while you can, son. Your day of reckoning approaches.

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Lessons from the trenches.......

 

Lesson #1  When you take your children to an elementary skating party, DO NOT wear open toe sandals.

 

 

 

Tonight was the first PTA skating party for Grace's school.  Emily stayed home since she doesn't care for skating, but the other three plus a friend of John's loaded up for an evening of skating and falling.  For some, it was mostly skating.  For some who shall remain nameless (GHS) it was a lot of falling....at least when he wasn't running over my toes, he was falling.

 

 

Ouch!

 

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Friday afternoon

 

 

I threw our bicycles in the back of the car and we headed off to explore.

The little community near us has a public walk/bike path with lots of fun things to see and do along the way.

 

 

We spent the afternoon seeing

 

and doing.

 

We had to stop for a few breaks along the way too.

It was warm here on Friday.

 

This was Grant's favorite thing to do on the trail.

 

 

We got a little exercise and had a little fun along the way too...

not a bad way to spend an afternoon with my youngest son.