Monday, September 30, 2013

September Happenings

Peter was excited for his first day of Grade One
Waiting for the bus
Climbing on the bus
We enjoyed a picnic outside one afternoon
Tummy time
Reading a book with all the kids - running out of lap space!
Happy third birthday Nate! 
Opening up one of his presents
Taking goofy pictures
Aaron, Nate, Stephen and I went to Happy Rolphs one morning
Why hello, duck!
Feeding the ducks
Happy baby
The kids helped Daddy wrap a birthday present for Mommy
Robert and Matthew came with Grandma, Aunt Karen and Aunt Andrea for a sleepover on my birthday weekend, and Nate is opening up his belated birthday gift.  Dave and Bethany, Tom and Lauren, Dad and Mom M, and Tim and Danielle also came over to celebrate with us. 
Aunt Andrea gets some cuddles in
Grandma and Aunt Karen had way too much fun playing with Nate's new Lego set :)

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Interpretive Art Lessons

Yogurt is the most exciting part of lunch time at our home.  Lucky is the child who finishes first and can go get a yogurt cup from the fridge for everyone at the table - usually this allows them to select for themselves the ultimate favourite flavour - Strawberry.  You would think this would be a great incentive to eat faster, but they usually forget about that reward until the first person is finished.  Yogurt time also includes an Interpretive Art lesson, as we examine and discuss everyone's yogurt lids.  Here are some of the artworks we have scrutinized:

Map of the USA
 Pi  ( π )
 A Triangle on the Moon
 Frog Legs
Grumpy Fish-Shark
Two Birds Flying
 Seagull Pooping
 Duck in the Sun
 Dog Wearing a Party Hat
 Chicken
 Barn on a Hill
 Beaver Looking Over His Shoulder
 Dinosaur in the Sun

Abundant Harvest

There is a crop that I grow in a box in a closet in our house.  I like to call it my Lonely Socks Box Crop, and it grows almost every time I do the laundry.  Single socks, left in the bottom of the laundry basket when the others have all been paired up and returned to the drawer, are placed in the box to seek comfort with others who have been abandoned by their mate.  Every once in a while I harvest the Lonely Socks Box and reunite any sock-mates and return them to active duty.  The last harvest I did was quite abundant, although I am still left with some stubborn lonelies, and I am beginning to think their matches have been cremated in the dryer and turned into lint. 

Monday, September 23, 2013

The End of the Summer

One day's tomato harvest - we had an interesting variety of tomatoes thanks to my Mom.  I made a good number of spaghetti sauce batches for the freezer.
We've been living 20 minutes from Niagara Falls for seven years now, and we realized that we have never even gone there once during that time.  Nate was at Opa and Oma's for a sleepover, and so we took advantage of the greater hand-to-child ratio to show the boys this amazing natural wonder.  
Dad and the boys
The littlest one gets a lot of love from his older brothers!  In general they are very gentle with him and are quick to give him hugs, kisses, gentle bounces in his chair or a soother if he's sad
They often like to play "Farmer" - perhaps we should look for some costumes of more domesticated animals, as I think they playing more of a "Zookeeper" game
Danielle, Lauren and I spent a day attempting to can seven 11qt baskets of peaches.  We got the majority of them done, and they sure are sweet this year!  We were reminded of how important it is to wash your jars out well before you start:  Yuck!!! 
We've had a new "pet" in the house for a few weeks now... Jack the Millipede.  I'm thankful he's not as fast and creepy as a centipede, and I'm also thankful for a terrarium that has a firmly latching lid.  Aaron has been calling it MilliPeter the Millimeter.