Where's there's a will...

What do you do when you can't reach the light switch? Well, you just crawl under the desk and squeeze through the hole under the stairs, of course. I wonder, was it really worth it?

Our month on theme blog is up and running for the month of October (starting a little early cause we couldn't wait. What I love about these challenges is how it pushes me to do more with my kids; like when we did "December through our eyes", it encouraged me to initiate all our traditions and even start a few new ones. And when we did "Capturing the light", it made me aware and appreciate all the beautiful things that the sun touches. The "Nature Scavenger Hunt" brought the whole family outdoors to explore. If you've never tried anything like this, I encourage you to give it a shot. It's a lot of fun.

Pathways

 

I love how well our kids pair up. Here's three sets of buddies. We planned them that way, you know. ;)

Spur of the moment

The first week of school was terrific. The second, eh, not as great, but still good. We are settling into a nice routine and have found a curriculum and schedule that works well for us. It's gonna be a good year!

Amy invited us over for a visit, and you know I would never say no to that. So we put our schoolbooks to the side. Math can wait; and it did. And we headed over to take advantage of the warm weather while it lasts.

(Grace trying to pick the very top flower for me)

Boys being boys

"Aww! You guys are so cute!"

Na's home!

Grandma Connie (Na) has returned from her two week trip to Hawaii. We are so glad to have her home. I told her to take lots of pictures, so here I am, downloading 924! I think I'm rubbing off on her. :)

I haven't gone through many of them yet, but I had to share a couple. Isn't this breathtaking?

How to ride a tricycle

 Our friend, Jaynee is in need of our prayers.

http://www.lockwoodfamilytomexico.com/

Kitties, kitties everywhere

For a couple of "outdoor" cats, I'm finding them wandering around my house quite a bit. The kids (and myself) are really enjoying them. Jacob said today as he was snuggling with Kitkat (who purrs constantly) "You can feel her viberating."

Watching the fun



Life after camp

I've been told it's time to put up a new post. We've been a little busy since we've been home, mostly we've been busy resting...

And spending a bit of time with friends. Last Friday we took a lat minute trip to McDonald's to have lunch with Julia and Michelle and the kids.

(Brittney making faces with Joshua)

I've also been busy editing two sets of senior pictures this week. I really am enjoying myself doing these this summer, but getting those done takes priority to blogging. Also I had a few night where I had to lay off the computer due to a lack of vision.  I was weeding (and I learned my lesson- I'm never doing that again) and I pulled up a bee hive. They weren't too happy about it. I was stung 16 times and ended up looking like the elephant man. No, I'm not posting a picture of my face.

I want to thank all of you that wrote me kind notes and gave me a call. I really felt loved.

And thank you (a very sarcastic thank you in case you didn't pick up on that) to those of you that sent me such lovely presents...

And my kids were wonderful. They were helpful and so very quiet while I recovered...

("Lalalalalala- I can't heeeeaar you!")

Last Day

I don't enjoy this part of camping; not one bit.

Stopped to get some family pictures before we hit the road

But do you have any idea how hard it is to round them all up?

Ok, time to get in the car. Who's got to go potty?

"Me!"

..."Who wants pizza?"

"Me!"

"Who wants ice cream?"

"Me!"

4 1/2 VERY long hours later, we reached our house. The first thing the kids wanted to do was to go check on the cats. They were so worried about them. Midway through the week, Grace yelled out "Oh! I forgot!" "What did you forget?" "I forgotted my one and my two and my three kitties. I left them at my house!"

They grow a lot in a week. We took them out for their first walk in the yard. They had been stuck in a tote in the garage. Every time we messed with them too much Oreo would move them somewhere unsafe- like the ceiling. But we don't have to worry about what Oreo will do now- we haven't seen her since we've been back. It does seem a bit strange that she would leave her kittens. They are just about old enough to be OK on their own, other than the fact that they were unable to get out of the tote by themselves. It's a good thing we weren't gone longer. We told the kids not to worry- that the kittens would be fine because they had their mother to care for them. I guess we never thought that would happen.

Anyhow, other than being very sad over the disappearance of Oreo, we are tickled with these little kittens running around.