Farewell

How do you define summer at your house? June to September? Memorial Day to Labor Day? School out to school in? At our place we define it the way that gives us the most possible days of summer - school out (this year that happened to be May 27th) to astronomical autumn (September 21st), which gives us almost 4 months of summer. We (well, mostly the girls) like summer quite a bit. 'Cept this year we missed pretty much the entire first month of summer. Remember all that rain in May and June that officially precluded any chance of us ever moving to the Northwest? **shudder** That was not my idea of summer.

Despite the delay in getting started, summer turned out to be pretty great. Lots of Otter Pops. Lots of fishing trips with dad. Lots of time in my garden. Lots of picnics. Lots of story times on the front lawn. Lots of bike riding. Lots of swimming. We even made it through nearly all the summer list; we just missed three - pick huckleberries (we tried, but they weren't quite ripe enough - we did eat a few of our cousins though), farmer's market (Saturdays were just always so hot; I guess that's more of an autumn adventure for us), and sleep at Grandpa's ranch (we did go there and Ben slept on the way home...so almost...).

I found a few pictures this week that I never got around to posting. Here are a few shots from our trip to Island Park and Yellowstone:

Out the car window somewhere in Idaho.

Ben couldn't quite make it to the end of our hike.

Annie is a great little fishing companion - lots of patience and persistence.

Dad somehow fashioned a minnow net for Cole out of odds and ends left behind at the cabin.
And also a few from our trip to Tony Grove Labor Day weekend. All of Ben enjoying the lake. He started out fully clothed (it was a bit chilly that day).......and somehow ended up in his diaper. A fearless soul, I tell you. He wouldn't leave the water long after all the other children were on the bank with chattering teeth.

But it's time to say good-bye to summer for another year. The kids are in school. The leaves are turning above my house. There are pumpkins on my front porch (although probably not for long since Ben enjoys rolling them down the steps). I neglect my family every Saturday to watch football (yep, me, not Floyd).

It's a good thing summer is followed by fall. I like fall quite a bit too. The crisp mornings. The colors. The hunkering down and yummy food.

But secretly (or not so much now), I wouldn't mind a nice Indian Summer.

Star Student

Annie was the star student in her class yesterday. She took the role very seriously and asked if she could please wear makeup to class. She said it so nicely that I couldn't refuse (tangent - it's a problem in our house - she usually gets what she wants because she asks so nicely whereas other household members who shall remain nameless tend to demand or whine for what they want). Here is a shot of her very seriously applying a bit of eyeshadow and then showing off her work.

She had an excellent day at school and loved being star student. The rest of the year may be disappointing now that she is finished with her special day.

Don't Smile

The best way to get our kids to smile is to tell them not to. Classic reverse psychology. Floyd is especially convincing at this trick and captured Annie's attempt at "not smiling" below.

It's cute, but also a little alarming how much they enjoy doing what Daddy tells them not to do. A little scary for when the stakes are higher than a smiling face.

Because I might forget when I'm 90...

Who am I kidding? I can't remember the funny things my kids do at the end of the day to tell Floyd, let alone when I'm 90. Not to give the journal-keeping 101 lesson or anything, but the only hope I have of remembering things is by writing them down. So, without further adieu, here are some things my kids have been doing lately that make me smile:

Cole: He's reached the ripe old age of 6, which means his funny comments are further apart than they used to be. Sad, cause he had some great ones back in the days of being a preschooler. But here's something that always makes me smile: the kid can't stand infomercials. He used to really like them and always wanted to buy whatever was being advertised. Somewhere along the way, he stumbled upon the "Your Baby Can Read" infomercials and things changed. I think it started out as jealousy - he was used to getting a lot of attention for being able to read before he went to school and was upset that babies could be able to. Then I told him that it didn't really work as good as the announcers said and that most babies will not actually learn to read if you buy them the program.

"So, they are LYING?" he asked incredulously.

"Yep," I replied. "Most commercials like that are just trying to get your money and they aren't very honest."

Well, that was the end of it. Now, he absolutely hates infomercials and whenever they come on, he starts heckling the announcer about the false claims and yelling at the TV "Not True! Not True!" And he is always sure to calmly explain to Annie that whatever they are saying is not true and she shouldn't buy it. Just in case she missed all the yelling.

I don't know why, but I get such a kick out of this.

You should have seen him when he saw the packages of "Your Baby Can Read" stuff in Wal-Mart. I didn't get such a kick out of that. We hustled ourselves right off that aisle.

Annie: My favorite thing Annie is doing these days is a little naughty actually. She has taken to calling people either, "miss," "mister," or "missy." I swear I don't know where she got this and I apologize if she calls you one of these names, but I am usually laughing to hard to stop her.


She doesn't just say these names, she says them with some serious attitude. This morning, I was running on the treadmill and when I turned it off, I heard, "Mo-om," being called from her room. When I walked in, she looked at me all huffy and just said, "Missy." Apparently she had been calling me for a few minutes and was afraid I had left somewhere.

Ben: Little dude loves his dog. I think he's our animal guy. Lately, I have been finding him filling up the watering can and walking over to her kennel and filling up her water bowl. The following information is a little explicit, so if you are faint of heart when it comes to animals (raising my own hand) you might want to look away.

Ben eats dog food. We can't stop him. I try and try and try, but somehow nearly every day I am pulling dog food out of his mouth. I have put heavy rocks on top of the feeder so he can't open it and keep the dog food in a box he can't open, but he somehow finds little crumbs around. He is always trying to sneak his hand into the kennel. Makes me crazy. Also a little nauseated.

Another delightful Ben and Daisy tidbit - they are kissing buddies. French kissing buddies no less. Daisy licks his face and he opens his little mouth and licks right back. I gag and gag and gag and put Daisy right away. It makes me shudder.

Yesterday, Daisy was drinking out of Annie's swimming pool. Ben leaned right over the side with her and tried to lap some up. He might actually think he is a dog.

So that's my kids these days. Wild as ever. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Except at church. We are considering sedatives for those three hours every week.

1st Day 1st Grade

Yep, it's true. Back-to-school already. And just like that summer comes screeching to a halt. I'm never ready. Cole couldn't sleep the night before he was so nervous/excited.

He was at school for approximately .04 seconds when his friend spotted him and said, "Cole! Chase me!" and off they went.

I'll miss him around here. It will be awfully quiet.

Bear Lake

We spent a bit of time in the mountains last week and then spent a day at Bear Lake. I didn't get many pictures camping, which is just fine considering how dirty we all were. Here's Ben enjoying a S'More.
Bear Lake was tons of fun. We went to North Beach and clear at the end stuffed between 5 million other swimmers, we found a little patch of sand.




When we first got on the boat, Ben was so excited that I thought he might burst. He was the first one on and just stood there watching the rest of us clamber aboard (or get pulled up by Floyd in some cases - not always just the kids) with the proudest look on his face. It was like we were all boarding his own boat and he was the host welcoming us aboard. When Savannah and Karlee took the maiden voyage on the tube, he clapped for them pretty much the entire time. The kids all had a great time riding the tube and Floyd tried not to get too wild on them. He gets a little crazy when he is pulling tubers and really likes throwing them off.

Cole and Josh gave Floyd the thumbs-up trying to get him to go faster pretty much the entire time they rode.

None of the kids could get enough turns and didn't want to leave. My favorite part of the day was when Kelli and Karlee went for a ride together on the tube. I laughed the whole time. I don't really know why it was so funny, but my cheekbones hurt when they finally spilled into the lake. The only picture of the ride is on Floyd's phone and he is in meetings somewhere in the south (Nashville? Birmingham? I'm such a bad wife....). When he gets a chance, I'll have him send it and be sure to post it. It's classic.

Ducky Dippers

My kids just finished up summer swim class. They all had a blast - I don't know whose children they are when they get around water because I am possibly the world's worst swimmer. Ben even got in on the action in his Ducky Dippers class, which is basically a lifeguard supervised play session. He loved it. Oh so very much. Like wanted to marry it loved it so much. There were 3 other little kids in his class. They were all about 2 1/2 - 3. They didn't do much other than cry and sit on the side and occasionally splash their feet. Not Ben. He was all over that pool like a kamikaze pilot.

He loved his teacher and the two of them played and played. His teacher, 16-year-old kid, was awesome. Ben's favorite game was filling the watering can, dumping it on his teacher, and then running away. He also enjoyed climbing out of the pool and racing to the lazy river whilst looking over his shoulder and laughing at his teacher trying to catch him. The teacher definitely earned his keep when Ben was around.

By the 2nd week of the session, Ben had his own cheering section - a group of parents who had noticed his antics and came to the kiddie pool just to watch him and laugh. It was entertaining.

So it looks like I've got another swimmer. Go figure.