Grantisms #260 and counting

While on vacation.....and after asking for exactly seven hundred souvenirs....and getting a good portion of what he asked for.....

Grant said, "I'm finished with the I WANTS now".








From the back seat of the car in carpool line....

"Did God have to go to school?"








Explaining to Grace why PURTY is a word.....

"Purty means five percent more than pretty"







On why rainbows are so pretty.....

"Rainbows are really made of sugar."

 

 

 

We were recently discussing with Grant the importance of doing his chores daily.  This includes feeding the dogs.

 

To show Grant the importance of feeding the dogs daily, David asked, "What would you think if Mom didn't feed you for an entire day?"

 

Grant's answer?

 

"I'd be okay with that."

 

Not the answer we were hoping for.

 

Some days parenting are tougher than others!  Grant sure keeps us on our toes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grant crashed his bicycle the other day...no surprise there.  He flies down our hill like a fighter pilot in enemy airspace. 

David asked Grant about the latest crash and burn.

 

When asked if he cried, Grant said, "I started to, but then I sucked it up."

 

I'm sure he did too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grant "sucked it up" today too. 

 

 

I received a call from school yesterday.  Grant was in the office not feeling well.  I picked him up a little before lunch.  After learning that being home sick means no television and no friends, Grant wasn't so sure that missing school was all he had hoped it would be. 

 

Last night was a school skating party.  Grace skated.  Grant got to sit home with Emily.

 

 

Today he decided maybe he should go to school even if he didn't feel the greatest. I bet he sucks it up and stays the entire day.  There's bikes to ride and friends to play with.  Who has time to be sick when you're seven years old?

 

 

Drawings Grant made on David's whiteboard

It's Poke'mon stuff.  That's as much as I can tell you about it all.

He loves Poke'mon right now.

 

 

 

 

 

The Irma Hotel in Cody, Wyoming

Grace and Grant sitting in the barstools

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grant staying warm while he gets his morning cartoon fix....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend

Friday night fun

Go Bulldogs!

John and Emily's high school football team is still undefeated this season. We enjoyed a beautiful evening watching them beat a cross town rival. 

Saturday was off to the farm to shut down bee hives for the winter, mow some fence rows and split A LOT of firewood. The kids were so excited. We also stopped by a neighbor's house to help him gather eggs. Grant and Grace found this little chore very entertaining. The chickens were not impressed with the new helpers. 

Sunday morning we enjoyed fresh eggs and sausage for breakfast before heading back to town. 

Hope your weekend has been enjoyable!

Random

Picture day for Grace and Grant

Plaid was the clothing of choice. 

Trip to BMX track near our house. Grant has been begging to go ride. We finally made it. 

At least someone in the house likes their veggies.....

Squeak loves lettuce. 

Engineer in training....

He was drinking from two glasses of colored water so he could watch the colors mix in the straw. 

Happy Thursday!

Study Time

Grace and Grant have new desks in their rooms. One more step toward independence. 

Grant is so proud of his new black desk. He put his new school supplies in the drawers right away. Homework gets done in his room now. 

Grace had to wait a little longer for her desk. I could not find a small white desk, so she waited patiently while I painted a desk like Grant's white. 

Project complete. 

Happy kids. 

The end

Precocious Puberty

Grant is in serious need of a razor. 

I was a bit startled when Willie from Duck Dynasty strolled into my kitchen after school.   

The beard and duck call were prizes for a school fundraiser. Both grace and grant have shiny new duck calls and beards. 

Their duck calls from last year's fundraiser were inadvertently lost (perhaps in a trash can) just a few months back. Honestly, can you not give these kids a quieter prize like playdoh or maybe crayons?  Something not quite so LOUD!

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Saturday we took one last trip to Kentucky Kingdom...

The water park wastill open.

Eighty degrees and sunny

Beautiful weather and lots of fun

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Back to the fundraiser thing.......

What about BOOKS!  Give them books for prizes!

See how quiet a book is?

Okay. Rant over. I have to go find the Tylenol. All this quacking is giving me a headache!

Austerity Measures Implemented

The house is gone!  

I am amazed how high the house sat in relation to the world around it. Glen has a lot of dirt to move in the next couple weeks. 

In order to afford Glen's work on the bulldozer, we are cutting back in other areas of the budget.....

like the clothing budget. John is gonna have to get used to his air conditioned sock. There ain't no money for new ones. 

Just kidding. For the record, he has good socks. He chose to wear these awful things with holes. 

Picking berries in order to cut down on the grocery budget.....

....one more way to pay for the new barn!

Emily expressing her opinion of the newly implemented budget cuts...

Teenage attitude. Yep. 

Fun. 

Hamster Hating - Again

After the eleventy billionth escape by Houdini (aka Squeak)  and his assistant (aka Shirley)(you know by now we are naming impaired as evidenced by a hamster named Shirley),  I spent money tonight. 

I bought two new hamster cages. 

Sixty dollars and two cages later I am optimistic that my days of hamster search and rescue are over. 

Have I mentioned I hate hamsters?

The day we bought hamsters was not one of my smarter parenting moments. 

Goodnight!

Progress

We have made several trips to the farm lately to document progress on tearing down the old house in preparation for the barn. 

The trees around the house were mostly gone by Friday. 

We took one last walk through it Sunday afternoon

because by Monday evening the entire hill should look like this. 

The bulldozer was quiet over the weekend but Glen the Dozer Guy will be back to finish the job this week. 

We took a few minutes to say hi to the horses. 

Snickers greeted David with a slobbery kiss on the head. 

Doc and Snickers shared a moment. 

Fall cleanup has begun. The garden is tilled under. 

The orchard is cleaned up too. 

I will put the bees to bed for the winter in the next few weeks and start cleaning out run-ins and barns. 

David hopes to get a late cutting of hay yet before finishing up the year mowing fence rows and pastures. I think the farm is prettiest in the fall when the work is done and days are short.

The kids are doing well. John took a friend to the farm this past weekend to help haul firewood. They had a lot of fun while getting a large amount of wood stacked. 

Grant goes to the orthodontist today. Maybe another child will get their braces removed!  Yeah!

Take care and have a great week enjoying this beautiful weather!

Parenting Moments Best Forgotten

While riding home from swim lessons tonight, Grace and Grant decided to have a contest to see who could make the best farting noise with their mouth.  

As any responsible parent would do, I joined the contest.

I believe I won. 

Yes.  It would be safe to assume it has been a stressful start to the week.

Let's Swim Again

We have fallen headlong into fall and all of the typical fall stuff on the family schedule. 

Grace and grant started another year in swim lessons tonight. They are in Billy Blue class together. At this level they are learning to improve their strokes.  They love the class. I love that they're enjoying themselves. 

Just to keep the craziness contained to one night of the week, I put grace and grant in a class on Wednesdays because john and Emily have their church youth group meeting on Wednesdays too. They are meeting for the first time tonight. 

Emily spent twenty minutes last night picking out clothes, accessories and shoes and deciding how to wear her hair for this first fall get together tonight.

John took a full two seconds as he walked out the door tonight to make sure he was WEARING clothes.  

Guys are so different than girls.  

I did the unthinkable and signed up for a bible study that meets Wednesday morning. I figured I could add something to the discussion even if it isn't the most conventional contributions. I don't fit the image of the typical bible study momma. We'll see how this goes. If they haven't kicked me out by Halloween, I think I'll be okay. 

Life is settling into a pretty good routine around the zoo. I am looking forward to the approach of cold weather and quiet evenings....

evenings spent taking lame pictures of our dogs.  

Goodnight!

TWO!

I just had a conversation last week with David about our uncanny ability to have two of everything. 

You know....

Two dogs

Two cats

Two boys

Two girls

Two boats

Two rental houses

Two farms

Two filter businesses

To date he has restrained from adding two wives to the growing list of doubles. 

 For small favors such as this I am thankful. 

Today we can add one more double to the list.  Momma #4 gave Shupe Farm our first set of twins. 

Poor gal. I know how she must feel. 

Happy Sunday!

Meet Our New Maestro

Grace is the newest Shupe band member. She is playing flute. 

This situation was mutually beneficial for Grace and Emily. Emily  is the proud owner of a new professional flute and Grace is exploring the world of music using Emily's old student flute. 

The fact that David didn't have to spend money for two new instruments was music to his ears!

Grant

Something about Grant just doesn't seem quite right.   

This is what we found at Grant's desk at open house Tuesday evening. All of the kids made cut outs of themselves. It was really cute. 

We met new teachers and hugged those we know from previous years. Grant's teacher is teaching a Shupe scholar for the first time.  Grace's teacher taught John and Emily many years ago.  Both are sweet ladies. We should have a great year. 

Thursday night I went to John and Emily's high school open house. The evening was busy as parents walked the halls on a shortened version of the student's daily schedule. I do not envy my kids.  They have busy schedules and some tough classes. Better them than me!

Today we spent several hours at Kentucky Kingdom riding roller coasters and other rides. I'm so glad our kids love coasters, but today I thought we might have an issue with Grant. We put him on his first grown up coaster. There might or might not have been a few tears as we were hauled up that first big hill!  He was more than a little bit scared. I'm happy to report he survived. However he did not suggest a second trip.

Happy birthday to Grandma Shupe. Hope your day was as special as you!

Goodnight!

Exciting rides

We spent the evening on the lake tubing and skiing. 

Grace and Grant can both get up on two skis for short distances, but they both prefer the tube. 

Just for meanness, we made all four kids ride together. 

They were not pleased by this mode of transportation. 

I on the other hand rather enjoyed the few moments without the chatterboxes in the boat. 

John slalom skiing...

Emily NOT slalom skiing. 

She tried several times to get up on two skis. She almost made it too. With a little more work she will be skiing before we put the boat away for the winter. 

Our chauffeur.....

We spent the long weekend working at the farm and helping Grandpa celebrate a belated birthday. Fall cleanup time is quickly approaching at the farm. We overcame the urge to work and instead spent some time riding horses and playing in the creek. 

Snickers got another big girl lesson. We had bridle and saddle on her. 

She got a little fidgety when we tightened the girth,  but she settled right back down and let Grace sit in the saddle for a few minutes

Hope you had a nice Labor Day weekend!  

Goodnight!