How Sammy Does School

Today was our "official" start of school (we started last week, but not on a regular schedule and not with all the subjects). It went very well and everyone was involved in some way in the morning (although there were a couple of times when I thought Sam might still "need" two naps a day). :) Sam's favorite way to help was erasing the board for us when we were playing a math facts review game. I couldn't write fast enough for him!

Bring it on!

This weather (60s and rainy) is making me feel a little autumny and so I decided to change our blog to something more approrpiate. The last few days have really made me excited for fall, shorter days and longer snuggles (to stay warm). Crazy, I know, since it means winter will be right behind. Bring it on! :)

Doors

Dad put 3 of the doors in this morning and the frame for the closet. I have a few things to paint this week and some other odds-and-ends to do down there along with picking up some finishing details (like doorknobs) and ordering the carpet. If I hadn't procrastinated so much, this could've been finished in June...but I'm grateful -- very grateful -- for the addition of livable space and excited to start living in it!

Basement Progress

I know these pics don't show much, but they're the most recent ones I have. And for those of you who are keeping score -- yes, the main room used to be green and, yes, I did repaint it before we even had a single piece of furniture in there (let alone the trim or carpet!). After my woes with paint colors in the basement, I have vowed to never again buy paint sample cans...I'm going back to the way I used to pick out paint -- just by the sample cards you get for FREE. I won't even mention how many cans of sample paint I bought...

Dad's coming over again tomorrow to work with Brad on putting in the trim, doors and casing and doing some other odds and ends, and then the carpet will hopefully be in by mid-September. This does mean that we'll have to start school before the basement is finished (we're starting on Monday), but I'm so looking forward to getting stuff moved in down there and having a designated spot to do school everyday, especially since this is the first year we're "official" (have to register with the state and complete a certain number of hours of schooling).

Thanks to all who've helped with advice and thanks a million to Dad for doing everything he's done (which is practically everything)!

A Sweet One

Bekah, on the way home from Home Depot last night: "Mom, I wish God could wash (stain) the doors for you so you didn't have to." Made me wonder however, if I'm complaining about this task and making her think it's something I don't want to do...

Pondering The Deep Things of Life With Bekah

The other day: "Is this today or tomorrow?"

What two weeks of non-stop cousins will do to a six year old...

This was at about 6 in the evening the day after our last day with the cousins. I don't even think she's done this when she's been ill!

Paddleboats at the Lagoon

I think the adults were all glad we only did the 1/2 hour...It was fun, but a lot of work!

The girls got Connect 4, a Ballerina card game and bubble gum.
The boys got a nifty foam tractor puzzle (trust me, that's what's in that package). :)

Julie had the idea while they were all home to do an "un-birthday" party for all the cousins since they don't typically get to see each other for their real birthdays. The party was complete with balloons, cookies (with candles) and presents! It was nice to be able to all be together for this!

Sliding Down the Stairs

Emilie got a pretty nasty rug burn from this...but I still think she'd say it was fun! I remember being terrified of doing this when I was a kid!

A Couple of Cute (?) Ones...

Nathan, last Sunday looking in the mirror (gigling): "That's my face!"

The first 45 seconds of my grocery trip last night to Aldi with Bekah and Sam: Bekah asks if she can put everything in the cart for me and I tell her 'sure' and point to one of the boxes of cereal that are stacked just inside the door. She grabs it and the rest come tumbling down. In the chaos of trying to hurry and clean up the cereal before someone comes in the door, Sam grabs my car keys and presses the panic button. Amazingly, he can make it work from where we are but, try as I might, I can't get it to go back off. But we must clean up the cereal first. After the cereal is once again stacked precariously, we attempt to head out the 'in' door to turn off the annoying car. We can't go out the in door. I have to take Sam back out of the cart, walk around to the out door, turn off the panic alarm, take a deep breath...And then we started over as if none of it had happened. I'm sure it was pretty comical to those who observed (I was laughing as well)!