Cute kids and Picasa 3

We spent our weekend pretending it was warm.
Maybe we'll just try to do that all winter.

Busy Days

Hello??


Anyone still reading this? Anyone? Bueller?


I apologize for the lack of posting. It's been busy around here. We have officially started our school year. Unschoolers that we are, that is a fairly loose term, but our pace and structure have shifted, marking the start of a (slightly) more structured learning. The kids have started memorizing some poetry (so fun!), doing a bit of math, and balancing this all with gobs of independent reading.


I have also re-instituted our afternoon quiet time. Ahh . . . I love quiet time! It makes such a difference for everyone. On the weekends, I have been doing some serious decluttering, which has allowed me a bit of freedom during quiet time. During on of my major decluttering frenzies, I uncovered my long lost sewing machine. Hooray! It was suffocating under a massive pile of ironing, which I actually ironed, instead of just moving it! And I was so happy to have my machine back. It has been getting lots of happy use lately.


We are going out of town in the middle of September, and I always find traveling easier when each walking child has a backpack. PeterXavier's was filled with holes, so I planned to buy him a new one. I mentioned this to a friend and she suggested making one. Great idea! So I harvested the back panel along with the straps from the old one and made a new front. Ta-da! Free new backpack, complete with "PX" faux appliqued to the front.

I also made a pretty cute, but less than perfect, skirt from a beautiful curtain a found at Goodwill. It was fun to make and it exercised my newly learned skill of putting in a zipper. And this zipper was extra exciting, because I harvested it from an old skirt that no longer fit.

Fun River Weekends

We had a fantastic weekend enjoying the beautiful weather and water at my parents river cottage. Our good friends joined us, as well as my parents and my sister and her family. We did everything you should do on a lazy Sunday afternoon -- nothing. Except eat. And the food was great. (That first picture is my promised cloth diaper picture)

The kids enjoyed the water, which was a perfect level for little people. And they even built sand towns in the new "beach" (Thank you, Flood!)

And this is my daughter getting drunk, unbeknownst to her Daddy. She repeatedly stuck her celery stick in his Bloody Mary and licked it off until my Dad finally pointed it out and Andrew made her stop!

Can you say "Cutie"??

Isn't she adorable?? This is Marianna Eva, our newest neice, and the first on Andrew's side! Unfortunatly, she is living WAAAY over in Washington state, so we probably won't get to meet her too soon.

There is a certain little guy around here who has two distinct things working to his advantage. First off, he is insanely cute with an infectious grin and contagious laugh. This keeps him out of trouble more often than not. The other is that he is the third child, not the first. Had he been born first, he probably wouldn't have any sibling! And his mother would be even more lacking in patience and a sense of humor than she already is!

The good thing is that he has taught me many things I may otherwise never have learned. Today, he felt quite compelled to teach me. Maybe he can feel the "Back to School" vibes.

Whatever his motives, I learned a lot. (Not that I really wanted to know!)

For instance, did you know that lotion is VERY DIFFICULT to remove from carpet? On the other hand, it wipes up quite easily from laminate flooring. Hair spray and curl spray are easily removed from tile with just a swipe of the towel. I am so glad I know this.

And honey. It is very sticky. I know from past experience that it is not so easy to remove from furniture. But today I was so lucky to learn that is comes out of of five year olds curls quite easily in the shower. The cabinets, counter, and floor take a bit of scrubbing, but after the carpet, it seems like a breeze.

Big brothers get very angry when younger brothers take lego projects apart bit. by. bit. and scatter them around the room. In case you were wondering.

And our little monkey learned that the skillet is REALLY hot when it is in the four hundred degree oven. And the oven doesn't care if you want to cut the bread into star shapes. It will still burn you.

But I learned that toothpaste takes the burning pain away. I don't know why, but it really works!

I also learned that when your little terror is really hurt, he screams for Daddy. And even though he it burned him, when the bread comes out of the oven, he is still determined to cut it into star shapes.

It was a day of lessons, and hair pulling, a growing in patience. But with that grin, who could be upset?