Mid-Week Randoms

I'm pretty pleased with the garden this year.  We cut back on the number of plants -- limiting it to some tomatoes, cucumbers (both to eat and to pickle), a couple of jalapeno plants, one watermelon plant (Sophia was INSISTENT) and some herbs.  We also laid down untreated bark to keep the weeds under control.  It worked really well.

Jack was my main helper all summer.  He helped water, as we kept gallon jugs under each plant with a small hole in them.  Then, we would run the hose along the back of the plants (next to the garage) and fill the jugs.  A nice, slow drizzle for the plants -- directly on their roots -- helped to keep them hydrated without providing much water for any weeds.

I stapled dryer sheets on each of the cages to keep the deer away and was pretty successful.  The deer do not like the strong smell of soap because they assume that a human (predator) is near.  The smell lasted for a couple of weeks, even through the rain, and then I would simply remove them and replace with fresh ones.

Jack was also my key harvester.  He would collect the vegetables every day for me and offer a report on which ones were almost ripe!

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While we were gone on vacation, the kids' tennis shoes arrived for the new school year.  The best news: they all fit perfectly!

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Mia missed us while we were gone and Samantha was thrilled to be reunited with her!  We're not sure how much more time Mia will be with us (we hope that it is a long time from now!), but she is 12 years old now ...

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Jack's first kill -- a squirrel from our back yard.  Jack has been setting up a baiting pile of corn on a bucket and one day, he timed it well and got his first trophy.  That same say, he learned how to skin a squirrel and save its tail.

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Samantha had a friend over one afternoon (we are being selective of which friends are "in our bubble" so that we can stay safe during the continuing pandemic) and they asked me if they could make scrunchies.  I agreed as long as they included Sophia in the project. 

We dug through my (overflowing) tote of fabric and each of the girls chose one that they wanted to use.  I helped them cut and showed them how to stitch my hand.  Yes, I could have used the sewing machine, but knowing how to do a simple stitch by hand is a VALUABLE and IMPORTANT life skill.  

The finished products turned out pretty cute and are totally functional!

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We celebrated Sophia's HALF birthday in August.  It just seemed fitting this year to celebrate ... she turned 9 1/2 and will be "double digits" in February.  Plus, any excuse to make and decorate a cake is fine by me!

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Samantha has been getting lots of use out of her longboard this year!

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We craft whenever we can in this house.  And I have now allowed Jimmy to use sharpie markers ... with supervision.

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Sophia found a caterpillar on this beautiful Fall day and wanted me to take her picture with it.  I love so many things about this photo -- I love her smile.  I love how long and curly her hair is (just like mine; just not as dark).  And I love how comfortable she feels in a romper out in nature.

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Pepper -- our newest family member.  Nibbles, Samantha's first hamster passed away this summer.  The lifespan of a hamster is only 2-3 years and Nibbles was 2 1/2.  It was really hard on Samantha and she begged for another one right away.  

Steve called around to a few pet stores and surprisingly, it was difficult to find a store that had one available.  We wanted a girl and one that was friendly.  After several weeks, they made a random trip to a chain pet store and came home with "Pepper."  

Sam loves her dearly.

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Another valuable life skill: learning how to change the oil in a vehicle.  Jack isn't able to do it on his own yet (obviously), but he is a great helper.

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Picture Day at school and Jimmy was one handsome little boy!

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One of the big projects that the kids do in 2nd grade is their "Me Project."  They are given a template of a person to cut out and then it is up to them to add details to make it personalized to represent themselves.  Then, the projects hang up in the 2nd grade hallway all year long.

This was a great project for Jack (and my girls loved doing it too!) and I love all of the details that we ended up adding to it.

In the end, we used a real photo of Jack for the head; an MSU shirt (Jack is a big fan of Michigan State, so much so, that we used that as the theme for his 6th birthday); camo pants (because it is rare to find Jack WITHOUT camo on); orange shoes (Jack's favorite color is orange); a taco (Jack's favorite food); and a fishing pole (Jack's new and most favorite hobby).  Yup, he nailed it!

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Samantha learned how to knit this summer and she has been busy making washcloths ... and more recently, as pair of slippers.  I love that she has learned to do this activity and that it is something that she can take with her in the car, or work on at night while watching a movie.  

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It's football season!

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Jimmy's First Day of School - 2020

Just like we did last year, we made a Preschool Countdown so that Jimmy could visualize exactly how many days he had left before he could go back to his beloved school.  Like his older siblings, his school shutdown in March and he was missing both his teachers and his friends.  It also did not help matters that he had to wait almost 3 more weeks to start back into the classroom (the other kids went back to school on August 20th and his school did not open until the week after Labor Day).

All dressed and ready to go!  I'm pretty sure that he was up before the sun!

He's using the same backpack from the year before, as I feel that it really did not get much use.  He loves it so much and he *might* end up getting more use out of it next year for kindergarten.

Steve has been working from home -- out in the garage -- and was happy to jump in a picture with Jimmy; our last kid on his last "first day of preschool."

Jimmy is not required to wear a mask in the classroom because of his age.  In fact, none of the kids wear one (it was up to the parents to decide).  The teachers are required to wear a mask at all times though.  He looks so adorable wearing it and I wanted to document the true version of 2020 though for the future.