1st Day of School

Today was a bit of an emotional day. My baby - my sweet little Gabriella - started school today! Her very first day of school! She was SO excited to go to school. She's been counting down the days for the last 3 weeks! And this morning she was up and ready so fast, just excited as could be!

Here she is just before we left home this morning

With William & Tabitha

When we got to school, she was so excited to see that her 2 best friends, our neighbors, sisters Madyson & Hannah were already there. Hannah is in 1st like Gabriella, but they are in different classes.


I think the hardest part was when I had to leave her there at school. We found her desk and then she just clung to me, nervous and shy. I did my best to not show her that I was nervous for her as well. So we snapped this picture, had one more hug and kiss and a promise to be there as soon as school was out and I left, fighting tears as I walked back out to the van. And then at home, I found myself constantly looking at the clock, counting down the hours, the minutes until it was time to pick her up! And when that time did come,s he was all smiles and happy and excited about her first day of school. Her favorite part of the day was lunchtime!

My little first grader - we are so proud of you, Gabriella!

Spaghetti Squash

One Word - Yummy!

Why have I never tried this before? I don't think I had even seen a spaghetti squash before a few days ago when my neighbor gave me one from her garden!

So I fixed it up for dinner tonite, to go along with our spaghetti. I steamed it, put butter, salt, and pepper on it. I was in heaven! I couldn't believe how yummy it was! Kind of reminded me of buttery popcorn! So a huge thanks to Amie, my wonderful neighbor, for sharing the excess of her gardening!

And guess what will be growing in MY garden next year?

The Children Were Nestled . . .

all snug in their beds! Hooray for early bedtimes!! Yes, sometimes I feel mean that my kids are the only ones in the neighborhood who go to bed while it is still light outside, but you know what? I need it, and they need it, too!

So it is just after 8 pm. There are 3 sleeping children. Rick is gone camping/hunting (cross your fingers for him! maybe this will be his first deer!) and I am going to do something I have not done in a long, long time. I seriously cannot remember the last time I have done this. I am going to sit and watch a movie - start to finish - by myself! Well, me and a bowl of cherry cordial ice cream, that is.

And no, I have not yet finished Breaking Dawn - only about 100 pages left (of 750!). Truly, I am just a bit nervous for the end - there is a big battle coming up and I just am not all that excited to read it and have it be done. And I've had this new Cary Grant movie that I have never seen, sitting on my dresser, still unopened for about 2 months now - I really need to watch it!

On Hold

Yes, that's right. My life is temporarily On Hold.
Why? Simple.

I have FINALLY gotten my hands on a copy of Breaking Dawn!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer. What an amazing writer and story teller she is! These books have been on my favorites list since the beginning! And now I finally get to read how it all ends up! I am so excited!! So, for the next couple of days, nothing unless it absolutely, positively has to be done, will get done. Sorry kitchen, sorry bathrooms, sorry laundry - you all have to wait just a couple more days!

Busy Saturday

What a day it has been!

I spent most of the morning at a meeting. Then an hour at Wal-Mart. Normally, I avoid Wal-Mart at all costs - especially on a Saturday, but it was on my way home and I had to pick up William's 4 year old pictures and a few other things while I was at it. Over 20 minutes I waited for assistance to pick up his dang pictures! Apparently, the one and only gal that works there does not know how to assist more than one customer at a time and will not leave one customer for a moment to help another! I finally got the pictures and got home.

Lunch time, followed by naptime for Tabitha and then Gabriella and I went to visit a sweet old lady down the road for a bit. As soon as we got home, I got a call from my brother Jason. He was in town and wanted to come and visit us (wow! Twice in one year!)

After he arrived, Rick suggested we go play Frisbee Golf. I had gone with my YW girls on Tuesday night and we wanted to go back. Now this isn't your typical Frisbee Golf in a nice green park. No - this is Frisbee Golf thru the woods, with lots of hills and other obstacles. It was quite the adventure! And the kids were SO great! Even though they were hot and getting tired - it was quite a ways we ended up walking - they stuck with it and managed to complete all 18 "holes" with us! Ok, only 16 - we couldn't find 1 and they left at the 2nd to last hole to go play at the very nearby park. But they really did great! And us big kids had a lot of fun , too - Jason and I ended up with quite a few scratches - we each got our frisbee caught in big prickly bushes a time or 2.

Got home and started marinating chicken for the grill. While it marinated I took a quick peek at Freecycle. Someone not far from me was offering free apricots - just go and pick them. So Jason and I took the kids and came home with a few bags of apricots. Since a lot of them had been picked off the ground and I was worried they wouldn't last much more than another day, I made a quick trip to the store for some pectin to make some jam - I love apricot jam!

We had a quick dinner, Jason left, got the kids in bed and then I started cutting up the apricots. I then realized I didn't have enuf jars! So another quick trip to the store (I'm so glad it's only a few minutes drive!) and then home and here is the outcome of my last minute jam making!

It was a fun and busy day!

Thoughts for the day

I want to quit this "potty-training" business! It has been going on for way too long! Ok, so maybe 2 1/2 or 3 months, whatever it's been, isn't that long. I read somewhere that on average it takes 8 or 9 months - what?! Gabriella was a few weeks. William was a month or so. But my Tabitha. I know that she gets it, but I think she is just lazy. She feels like she has to go and it doesn't come right away so she hops off the potty and a minute later, dumps her brown junk on the stairs. Nice.

School starts in 11 days. I can't believe it is almost here. Gabriella is SO excited and keeps asking questions about lunch at school (she will be in 1st grade - should she buy lunch or take her own lunch? and if that's the case then she needs a lunch box and is asking every day when we are going to get one (after school starts and they are on clearance for cheap!) She asks when we are going "school shopping" for clothes and shoes and things. I have never said that term to her. I knew it came from her older, more school experienced friends. But um, no, no school shopping for us. Personally, I think she has enuf clothes - not a ton, but enuf, we don't need our drawers overflowing, or 7 garbage bags full (that's how much a neighbor just cleaned out from her 3 kids rooms) of old clothes. So she gets a few new things that have been waiting for her to grow into them, bought on clearance when I've found great deals.
And then I wonder, did I do the right thing?! Was I right to put her in 1st grade with kids whose reading and math level she is on? Or should I have had her go to kindergarten, like she technically should be since she missed the deadline by 19 days? I really hope that this is the best thing for her socially and academically. August 18th is going to be a tough day for me.

Will my house EVER be organized and clean?

Will I ever get enuf sleep?

Last night we finally got our FHE in for the week - we haven't been so good on that this summer. But we went to a park, had a nice picnic dinner of fried chicken, pasta salad, strawberries, and lemonade. Then went for a walk in the woods. The kids loved it! We had never been there before and it was a fun new adventure. Before long we came to a clearing or sorts - a small dried field. And coming in our direction, hopping along gracefully were 3 deer - a doe and her 2 fawns. We stopped and I told the kids to be quiet and watch. The deer stopped and looked at us. They were maybe 50 feet away. Then Rick and Tabitha came up behind us and she shouted out excitedly and William moved and the deer quickly started hopping away. I loved watching their run - or their hop as I call it. The kids were so excited. We continued on, now following the deers' tracks, until we got to a rocky little ridge and then decided it was time to head back. It was such a nice, peaceful evening - we will definitely have to go on a picnic and explore the woods again!

Birthday - Part 2

Further reasoning of why we call William "Bug"

He'd been playing at a friend's house and they ended up catching snails by the creek, which ended up in this cup on my kitchen counter, where they tried to escape, at which point they were promptly banished from being inside my house!

Here's a picture of him and his Dinosaur cake - I admit, I took the very easy route this year - no fancy cut-up cake. Just stuck a new dinosaur on top and called it Dino-licious! And as you can see, he loved it - he especially loved licking off the triceratops frosting covered feet!

For his friends party the next day I went even easier and did cupcakes with little plastic dinosaurs on top. I am always surprised at how many kids at parties do not eat cake and ice cream! What is wrong with kids these days?! :)

Here is just a fun picture of him and his friends wearing their dinosaur hats and making silly faces at the camera.