Friday, September 23...

they are ALL going to miss the piles of dirt now that the sod has been laid

Wednesday, September 21...

the boys were so excited to get out "their tools" and help Boppa hang the bulletin boards...

G was excited to read to Boppa (and that he brought her to school all by herself in the morning!)...

Monday, September 19...

didn't surprise us too much that C was the first to get staples...

Saturday, September 17...

afternoon naps don't happen very often for him anymore...
but after 3+ years his "snoedel" (gray snuggle doll) is still his constant companion at bedtime.

good neighbors...

So what do we do for our wonderful neighbors who have put up with all our construction and noise and mess this summer?

Why, have them over for brownies and ice cream sundaes!

And while the noise from our house will never go away, especially with adding another little one, we are ALL happy that the kitchen and the entryway are now finished!

The seal of approval was given by everyone, too. (the kids' mostly for the sundaes =)

stay tuned for before and offical after pictures coming soon!

garden harvest...

We were surprised with a very early state-wide frost last week.  It hurt a lot of the crops, especially since they had a late start due to the very wet and cold spring.  But there is still some time before harvest for some of the beans and corn to fill out and dry up, and in the words of my farming father, "We want to finish this year up so we can start thinking about next year."  I am always a bit in awe of farmers, especially growing up on a farm, with how much they have to rely on God for so much in their profession and how much it changes every year.  Truly an example for us all.

Anyway, not a stellar year for farming all around, and that includes a lot of gardens as well.  We had a lovely garden this year with a lot of foliage, but not a terrible lot of fruit.  We did finally get a bunch of green beans in August to freeze for the winter, but that was probably our best vegetable this year.  The rest provided enough for some meals, but not the preserving that I was hoping to do.  Which being tired and pregnant I am actually just fine with right now! =)

Before the frost, the kids and I went out and brought in everything that was still out there.  They had a blast picking everything with me and then arranged the pile on the counter into a "salad" to show Dadda when he got home:

Not too bad - a 12 pound zucchini with a couple more smaller ones, a few green peppers, one squash, and a handful of tomatoes.  Made some chocolate chip zucchini muffins, fresh tomato sauce, some soup, and we called the garden year done.

Now remember the one non-vegetable that planted in the garden?  Morning glory by the windmill!  This photo was from July...

...and this is what it looks like now!  With all the humidity and heat in July and August, the vines went crazy, but we didn't get a single bloom on it until after the frost last week.  Don't understand, but we are enjoying the few blue blossoms and hoping a few more show up before the snow does!  But the morning glory vine wasn't the only thing to climb up the windmill.  Can you guess what else we found there?

Can you see it now?

Yep!  A cantelope was hanging about 2 feet off the ground from the windmill!  That and our watermelon did not fully ripen or turn out this year, but they were fun to grow and we will definitely try them again next year.

So now we can start the process of cleaning up, and then looking forward to plans for next year.  Because as G recited to us from her memory verse for this week:

"As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

day and night,

will never cease."

Genesis 8:22

he's a doodlebug!

Up until probably the beginning of the summer, W had always been pretty attached to Momma and Dadda.  This was a little later than G had been attached to us like that, so we (ok, mostly I) started to worry (imagine that, a parent worry?) about W being able to go to school.  I did realize that he had a whole year to do some more growing up, but there is nothing like worrying in the present about the future that will maybe be totally different but maybe not...(have I lost anyone yet? =).  Anyways, just like G, W came out of it just fine and had a blast at VBS this summer not even looking back when I dropped him at his classroom.  So we knew he was going to be fine for school.  

Still, partly from experience with G, and partly from prompting from W ("I want to go to school like G!!!!!"), we enrolled him in the same preschool nature center classes for this year that we had G take the year before she went to school.  They are just once a week for 2 hours and they focus on nature and they also take place at the wonderful park system that we have fairly close to us.  Gives them a little bit of independence without having a huge time commitment and cost for pre-school. 

Needless to say, W was so very excited to start his "own school", especially after G started first grade!  We counted the days and he has the schedule down of what day he goes to school too.  His classes are a little different that G's were, because we chose a park that is closer to G's school so we can drop G off and continue on to W's class.  It is called "Doodlebugs" and is every Tuesday from 9:30 to 11:30 in the morning.  They focus on a specific nature book each week and do activities and art and nature walks that go with the book.  And last week was his first day!  He was up and ready to go and in typical boy fashion, would have NOTHING of standing by the door or in his classroom for pictures.  I didn't know if he would change his excited little mind when we actually got to his class, but he didn't and said "ok mom, you can go now!"

C was pretty devastated that he wasn't able to go to school too.  We talked about how Sunday School was "his school" on Sundays, but he still was pretty sad when we had to leave W.  The park is a ways from home and not real close to anything else (often we would go grocery shopping during G's classes at a different park), so I planned on just hanging out at the nature center with C every Tuesday morning.  So I packed a bag of "school related things" like crayons and color books and flashcards, and also some toys.  That didn't interest C at all at first, but the park happens to have a fabulous coffee shop so a smoothie and muffin helped both of us feel much better. =)  And then we went on to have a fabulous morning!  What a treat to spend one on one time with this 3rd child of mine.

And of course we hit the trails for part of the morning too!!  "Let's go on a walk, momma!"

We talked about Baby B too and C was pretty tickled that Baby B was on a "walk" with us and laughed at this photo!  And then, before you know it, it was time to go pick up W.

Once again, he did not want to take any pictures, but he excitedly showed me his class photo and told me about what he did in his class.  They read the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert, then went on a nature walk and picked up leaves and rocks and acorns in their baskets to make their own leaf man.  Best phrases from him?  "I got to use real glue momma!  And I was good at it!"  "I only played with the boys in the class.  I play with girls all the time at home." (cousins are girls and good friends from church are girls =)  And, "I can't WAIT to come back next week!!!!"

Neither can I, big boy.

in which we play at the park and auntie takes some lovely photos...

C (2.5 years old)

W (4 years old)

G (6 years old)

Baby B (29 weeks)

thank you as always, ceb!

...and we have a first grader!

Each year it seems to vary a bit (because they can, being a private school), but this year Calvin Christian started school after Labor Day, which is when public schools in MN start.  And we were all happy for this!  After the crazy remodel project, it just gave us another week or so to enjoy the end of summer...sleeping in, wearing pj's most of the morning, going camping and to the fair, playing and reading and doing whatever we felt like.

But there was no doubt about it that G was super excited for school to start.  She was excited to see her classmates again, meet her teacher, and just start back into the school routine.  She played school with her brothers at home, and counted the days until school started.  There were a few before school "school" activities that really got her excited too.  We went to the playground at school one morning to meet two new classmates and play with whoever could make it.  We went to the all school picnic.  And S took G to school one morning to meet with her teacher and do a reading assessment.  She is doing really well for her age - reading and writing well beyond where she should be.  That was really nice to hear and Mrs. H said she was looking forward to having G in class and would have to work to challenge her.

And before we knew it, the first day of school was here!  We literally had to pin G down the night before to get her to fall asleep, and she popped out of bed plenty in time Tuesday morning too!  Her excitement was pretty contagious, which helped Momma not be too emotional. =)

I love how Calvin starts their school year too.  Families are invited to bring their students to school and to their rooms, and then stay for a chapel.  This is really good for our family because the boys get some time at G's school then too and know where she will be at everyday.  I really enjoyed getting back into the school too, kind of orientated me, and prepared me for the year.  (I think teaching and school is in my bones because I love being in school on the first day - everyone is so excited and things are all new and ready for the year to start!)

G is very excited to be a first grader.  She is proud of the bigger responsibilities that first graders have, like individual desks and "jobs" that you have to do all week (rather than just one day).

We know G is in good hands at Calvin and are really looking forward to see how she grows and learns this year with Mrs. Hielkema.  We are also thankful for good friends that she is making at school and enjoy hearing all about her days when she gets home.

Which so far is one of our favorite times of day.  The boys (and I!) are super excited to get G from school and hear about what she did and be able to play with her when we get home.  They tell her all that we did too, and of course there are snacks (which aren't always as fancy as the tea party we had with Mrs. L and Kacie to welcome her home on the first day of school).  It will be an adjustment to have her at school every day, and I am already missing our Tuesdays and Thursdays off, but we will just make the most of our time together when she is home and hopefully it will be a great school year!

six...

Each birthday that S and I grow another year older, we often comment that "are we really that old already?"  But, we are finding out that our kids' birthdays really make us question how fast the time flies by.  Can our baby girl really be SIX already?  I really miss the little baby and all the other "little" stages that she has flown though, but I also really love the sweet big girl that G is now.  So that and all the happiness of birthdays is what I have to focus on otherwise the tears will flow!!!!

My parents came up the weekend before G's Monday birthday, and we had a very nice celebration with them on Saturday night.  Mom and G made her birthday cake, and that really made G's day!  She had so much fun baking with Aahma and it was so fun to see the spontaneous giant hugs and thank-yous for Aahma when they finished.  Plus the cake was pink!!!  (jello cake, one of my favorites growing up =)

G also decided that opening presents was going to be a big show and she made her own throne for us to watch her...=)  We humored her and had a very happy girl who was very thankful for all her presents!

One of the things that G asked for for her birthday was to have a school friend over to play.  So her good friend K came to play one morning and the girls had fun catching up and playing together.  It was nice for us to get to know one of her school friends better too!

So Happy Happy Birthday, our sweet girl!  We all love you so much and can't wait to see what year 6 brings for you!!!

and finally, it wouldn't be summer without a trip to...

...the state fair!!!  This was our 5th annual trip - we have been going since G was one.  And we love it.

Since we have been going a number of years, there are certain things that we cannot leave the fair without doing and/or eating:

• ice cream from the Dairy Goodness Bar (not the Dairy Bar - believe me there is a difference between the ice cream!)
• wild rice cheeseburger and wild rice corn dog from Wild Rice Specialties
• scones from French Meadow Bakery 
• Miracle of Birth barn (always a favorite with the kids)
• all the animal barns of course
• Little Farm Hands

And since we have been going a number of years we also decided to do some things we haven't done before:

• missed Little Farm Hands (this was not intentional, and G was especially not happy about this, but we didn't realize it closed at 7!)
• saw the afternoon parade (other years we seem to have been in the wrong place or came to late and have always missed it)
• watched English horse jumping competition (this was really fun!  and the kids loved it!)
• rode the sky ride gondola

We ended up staying much longer than we were thinking, but only because we were having a good time and the kids were doing so well.  And we had great weather too! 

lots of animals were petted

watching the parade (U of M marching band had just passed!)

the horse jumping competition

why yes, we did eat french fries for supper

Momma and kids on the sky ride

G especially not happy that we missed Little Farm Hands (no photo by the chicken height chart this year!)...

...but a piggy back from Dadda to go get ice cream before heading home changed her mood!