well, yeah.

Sunday, September 23, 2018

burch barn

We headed to the pumpkin patch in the afternoon. This is only about two miles away, and it's kind of awesome. We never even knew about it until a couple years ago.

This thing launches corn cobs

Kirsten got one through the tire--probably the only person I know who has.

They made a decent attempt at chess, and Grandpa tried, but they lost interest before the game was over.

The Human Hamster Wheel:

The sea of corn:

Last year kids later complained they even had corn in their UNDERWEAR.

This is inside their fabulous pretend house:

More to come--- love Val

After breakfast and getting everyone dressed, the technology was done. Time to find something to do. I pointed out the bookcase, the cabinet full of art supplies.

Boring.

I mentioned the front closet, the bins of legos, the croquet set.

"Go look and see."

No. It's all boring.

Well.

I like making collages. We have magazines, scissors, glue sticks. I sat down and started snipping paper, getting a collage going.

A lot of times if I get busy doing something like this, soon they will wander over and join in.

There was wrassling on the futon and kicking around, squawking and hollering.

Then they yelled, "His ear is bleeding!!"

!!

I was so not thrilled by that announcement and headed over there to look at it.

Spooner ER, here we come?

No. It was a scratch involving exactly one drop of blood.

Okay, all done with this kicking and flailing. Let's find something to do.

In a few minutes they got to work and some beautiful collages emerged. We had no scotch tape to hand them up, but we will next time we're there.

Later Kirsten took them on a nature scavenger hunt. They said no, it would be boring, but it turned out to be not boring at all. They ran through the woods looking for items from the list.

They found a dead mouse, which was not on the list, and Kirsten would not let them put it in their bags either.

Grandpa came home from an errand and headed back into the woods making bear noises and kind of convincingly startled them a little bit. They were still talking about it today, how they kind of thought it might actually BE a bear.

But no.

Here is the little unfortunate mouse.

So much love, Grandma

a grandkids weekend

Dan and Alicia had something going on Saturday and asked us to babysit. We were hoping to go to the lake, and they agreed we could taken them with us. That little girl p.j. loves to party with her cousins, so she came too.

We had a great time. They were up early, but their tablets kept them busy until it was daylight and the rest of us were functional.

It was cool and bright, out of the wind and in the sun, even warm.

We walked back to the field to play a while. In the summer, this swingset can be challenging. It's often very hot, and usually the mosquitoes are fierce.

But not yesterday, breezy and bright and not one single mosquito. Maybe the rain last week flooded them out.

Beautiful morning. Love, Val

Thursday, September 20, 2018

a fast week

It went by so quick. It was a good week, lots of preschool, two successful real estate closings, a meeting with a flooring guy, and all good.

We're getting ready for our new little baby:

This girl is about to become a big sister.

And this one is a new preschooler and loving it.

See that glass of water? Some smart person told me long ago to never put more in a child's glass than you are prepared to wipe up off the floor.

This is why I doled out beverages two ounces at a time.

Well.

She did this herself, and it's ambitious. And you know what? It did not end up spilled, though I texted this to Heidi and told her I believed a mess was in our future. I was wrong.