Fall, Part I

I was reading my last post and realized just how long it's been since I've written anything on this blog.  Whew.  Life has been a bit busy, to put it mildly.

So, where have we been and what have we been doing?  Well, a big part of our busyness comes from the house remodel, but that will need its own post.

Way back in July we went camping, our only time this summer, to Grand Marais, MI.  The kids kept asking, "When are we going camping again?" but this summer was just too crazy to do more than one trip.

Our garden did much better this summer than last year.  After being taken over by weeds last summer, we planned for them by using landscape cloth and wood chip mulch.  I really enjoyed going out to work in the garden when it looked so neat and orderly.  A huge improvement from last summer.

Update on Clare:
Seven years old already, and such a sweetie.  She started second grade this year and loves her new teacher.  She's doing really well in school and has a "best friend" this year, something new for her. All the girls in her class are really sweet, so I'm glad for that since this is the class she'll be with through high school.

Clare has really turned into a reader.  She spends a lot of time curled up in a chair with a book.  She purchased a horse for her American Girl doll this spring with some birthday money and has been horse-crazy ever since.  I'm scouring used book stores and inter-library loan to find books in her favorite series.

Karl
Karl will be turning five next month and going to school next year.  It's hard to believe that he's that old already.  He's turning into such a good helper.  He loves being goofy and he still loves hugs and tickles.  :-)

Karl loves his Legos.  He'll spend all day playing with them.  One day we were out doing something that I thought was really fun for the kids and he kept asking, "When can I go home and build Legos?" He can follow directions for them but he really loves building his own creations, usually heavy equipment like garbage trucks and cranes and fire trucks.

Karl loves his little sister.  He's still learning how to be gentle with her but he loves to play with her and talk to her and make her smile.

Nora is a big three year old now.  She's starting to assert her independence when playing and so things aren't as peaceful between Karl and Nora this year.  Nora is one tough cookie.  She plays hard and keeps up with her older siblings.  She is brave and adventurous but loves her snuggles and hugs too.  She's especially loving being read to.  Ten Apples up on Top and Going on a Bear Hunt are her current favorites.

Nora loves helping in the kitchen.  When I start to bake or cook I hear her crying, "Wait for me!" as she pulls up a stool.  Eating chocolate chips while baking is her favorite thing to do.

Lena is growing, growing, growing!  She started crawling around 7 months and is getting into everything.  She loves following her siblings around and everything goes into her mouth.  I've really got to keep an eye on her because our house is anything but child proof.

Lena is such a happy baby and always has been.  She treats us to many giggles and smiles every day.  She loves to be tickled.

I didn't realize I had chosen that many pictures of her.  She must be cute.

When she gets enough sleep during her nap (despite living through a remodel project, she's a light sleeper and wakes up easily if the kids are too loud), she is so happy and just grins when we go to get her.

This kid pen has been a life saver.  We often have had bits of drywall, chunks of blue board, burrs from the dog, and random nails and screws lying around.  This kid pen keeps her safe when I need to get something done.

It expands big enough to fit all the kids if Lena gets bored playing by herself.  That said, she is the best baby for playing by herself.  She really loves her toys and can entertain herself for a long time.

What else have we done?
In August we went to the children's museum in Marquette.

Here's a little boy for you.  A huge grin while pushing the button on the intestine slide that makes a farting noise.  The first couple times he laughed hysterically.

Nora flushes the giant potty.

Our garden produced some huge beets and carrots with all the rain we had this summer.

The kids' sweet corn did well too.

We added a ram to our small flock of sheep.  His name is Sage and despite his pulling Clare on the leash, he's quite well mannered.  He's a Shetland so he'll always be little.  Which is perfect for a ram when we have little kids around.

Clare's Americana-strain of hen turned out not to be a colored egg laying chicken after all.  The store made a mistake and gave us a Light Brahma hen instead: a very beautiful bird which lays brown eggs.  We'll have to try again next year.

The kids played on this swing set almost every day this summer.  So glad we found it when we did.

That's it for tonight.  Hope to post more this week.