Lou gets a bath

Yeah, she looks content, but really the only thing holding her there is Tim's hand.

Lou is thinking, "WHY are they ALL rubbing me??".

I love these boys.  I love that man.  I love galvanized tubs.  I even love Lou.

 

Our very own grapes

Our home, built in the 1880s, has only been lived in by 3 families including us since it was built.  We've heard lots of fun stories from the family before us, and many of those are tales of the hard work the kids did outside.  Much of our yard (which is half of a block...four lots) was planted as a garden to feed the family.  There are apple trees and grape vines still.  The apple trees got diseased a couple of years ago, but the grape vines are still kickin' it.  Last week, we discovered the grapes were ready.  Simon helped me pick the grapes, and we brought them in to make grape juice.  I've never been able to leave the grape juice alone long enough to make jelly.  When I was little, my mama would find me sneaking into the kitchen to drink the juice.  Sometimes she would actually make me my very own jar of juice and I would drink it proudly, pretending I was a grown up out to dinner drinking a glass of wine with my steak (which was actually probably a hamburger or a grilled pork chop!!).

There is only a little bit of grape juice left, and no jelly got made, but that's ok.

This is what happens when I ask Ezra to take a picture of me making the grape juice. :)

First Day of School

Is it really time for school? In some ways, I'm ready...ready for the routine, for fall weather, hoodies, packing lunches, chores... I will miss sleeping in and jammie days and swimming every.single.day. Life comes in seasons, though. Here's to moving to the next season....

Mrs. Keown's fifth grader...

Mrs. Crumrin's first grader...

and just for grins, a picture of Isaac four years ago when he was Mrs. Crumrin's (except she was "Miss White" then!) little first grader...

Snapshots of the Woodshed

Ezra has been asking all summer to get the sprinkler out. Since summer is almost over, he took matters into his own hands and found it himself...

Pork burgers on the grill that were bigger than our heads...

the rarely used dining room table is now a homework/arts and craft station. All of us (well, all of us except daddy!) have enjoyed using it already...

...and a new gallery wall in the dining room. I have been dreaming of it for quite some time, and I finally took the plunge...

Sweet Silly Simon

So, Simon really DID turn 3 in April...I've just been a lazy blogger. Here's a picture so that when the children look back on my blog, they know that we really did have a special birthday dinner for the 3rd child's 3rd birthday.

Diego and Baby Jaguar cake balls are where its at...does anyone else feel a little silly when they talk about cake balls??? Maybe its just that I live in a house full of boys...