thoughts on September

tomorrow starts September.....

if you want to get technical, about 40 minutes stand between me and the beginning of September.

September's a fairly big month for me.....for us.

September means only one more month until we welcome this new baby into the world. I am ready.....but not ready at all. there is so much to do in such a short amount of time:
*re-transition the crib from toddler bed to crib.
*make sure all three car seats will fit in the car (I think they will with a little finessing, but haven't actually tried yet)
*find, wash and otherwise prepare all the baby stuff (clothes, blankets, swing, bouncer, etc)
*figure out how I am going to store another human's clothes...possible need another dresser.
*order birthing kit (which probably should have been done way longer ago than I care to think about)
*finally decide on a boys name.....since we don't know which gender this baby is.
there must be more to do, I just can't think of it right now......

September is also the month Jonny goes to Mexico. I am so happy for him, it will be so good for him.

September is when we have our second Echo done on baby's heart......wait....I didn't tell you about that, did I? At the beginning or so of August, we found out baby's heart has an arrhythmia....an irregular beat. Kind of scary, usually benign, but can be a problem. So, we went to Children's and had an Echo cardiogram done on baby's heart to check on things. Things look good, but the doctor wanted us to go back for a follow up Echo.....to look at the heart when it's a bit more mature. So, we'll be doing that.

September is when I house sit for my parents for a weekend.

September is my father-in-laws birth month.

September's when my best friend's baby is due.....actually, any day now!

I am sure the list goes on, but it's getting late and I am getting sleepy. Hope I am able to sleep tonight as I haven't been getting much rest lately.

So, welcome to September! Or nearly.....half hour or so from now!

David and his Popsicle.

D Week...or not??

No, this is not the D week post. Why? Because I decided to move the letter of the week post to Liam's own blog! I started the blog for him awhile ago, but don't post on it very often.
Well, that is going to change, because now that's where you are going to find the letter posts!

So, go on over to Liam's Adventures and check out D week!

Days of the Week

Yesterday in school, we briefly covered the days of the week. I wanted to do more to help Liam learn them, and I felt he was ready, so I made him a special poster for learning the days of the week.

I am very happy with how it turned out. Take a look:

The large white dots are Velcro, and there is Velcro on the back of the arrow piece, so every morning Liam can move the arrow to the proper day.

He is so excited abut it, and I didn't even have to remind him to change it this morning.

(in the last picture, he's also showing off the "gun" he cut out of some of the remaining card board!)

Saturday's Glimpses of Liam

On saturday, I took Liam to our local library for a "finishers party". While we did the reading program last year, we did not go to the party at the end, and I thought it might be fun for Liam this time.
The mayor was there and called up each child to receive their certificate. Liam's name was called near the end, but he was a patient trooper...although admitted to his dad after we got home that it was "boring".

After the certificates were all passed out, the group had cake and ice cream:

Boxes around the house make ideal costumes and both boys love them. Here's Liam in a couple of boxes:

And, here Liam is harvesting his pea crop. We got tons of peas this year and there are still more coming!

Lake time

Every summer for the past 4 years, my parents have rented a gorgeous house on a lake northwest of here. It is 5 days of family, fun and relaxation. We look forward to it every year, just like Christmas.

We just spent Sunday through Thursday there and as usual, it was a wonderful time. We swam, floated, canoed, waded and played in the lake. We enjoyed delicious meals and plentiful snacks. And the time spent together as a family was just great.

Here are some photoes (mostly picniked to make this post shorter) of our time there:

The house (isn't it beautiful!?):

Floating:

Miscellaneous Fun:

Canoeing:

More miscellaneous fun:

Taking a walk:

Can't wait for next year!

C Week

I didn't get this post out yesterday because we didn't finish school until today. Yesterday was just too busy (I'll explain in another post).
So, here is our C week!

Play Doh C's. Liam has alot of fun with this project:

I love it when Liam goes off on his own and does something that goes along with his letter of the week. With A, he drew A's all over his doodle pad. This week, he made a C with the magnets on the fridge!

We made C cookies!

We did a "photo taking hunt". I gave Liam my camera and he went around the house, taking pictures of things that start with C. I let him take 8 pictures, so I picniked them to take up less room in this post:

We also did a "C" scavenger hunt. I made a list of C words and Liam went around and found them all!

C color pages!

And, today we did a picture search. Went through Liam's old Big Backyard magazines again and this time, cute out C pictures. There were alot more to find than A's...

And here's the token "fridge" picture of all Liam's keepable projects:

We won't be doing school this next week as it's vacation week, so check back in in two weeks for D week!

Non-Letter School activities

Today in school we had some fun non-letter activities to do.

In our Bible, we read about Gideon....so we made toilet-paper tube "trumpets". David and Liam both made one, decorating them with stickers. They then marched around the boxes:

For another activity, Liam used his cool drift wood branch as a horse to ride on (blowing his trumpet, of course):

School with youngsters can sure be lots of fun and very entertaining!

What you get when....

...when you let your child watch a movie while you make a late lunch after church:

And from today:
....when you leave your child alone with his lunch that included black raspberry jelly and ketcup:

"B" Week

This week was B week in school for Liam. Here's his projects!

"B" color pages:

"B" water color painting:

"B" with yarn:

This was cool. I made a list of words, handed it to Liam and said "Circle all the B words and cross out the rest." And left him to it. He got 100% right!!!

Drawing a picture with B......Liam drew a ball maker shooting out balls to hit with a bat into a basket. I had nothing to do with his drawing and they are all B words!

Showing off all the projects on the fridge:

And lastly, we did a B obstacle course!!! I used our curtain ties to make a large B on the floor:

David had to be in on this one, so he followed as his brother first walked around the B:

They tiptoed around it, and then crawled:

Then jumped from one side to the other:

We have been having so much fun with these alphabet projects! Can't wait to see what Liam does with the letter C.....come back next Friday and check it out!

Fun Weekend

We had a lot of fun this last weekend.
On Friday night the boys and I went to my parents house and stayed through Saturday. Here's a look at what we did:

Liam and David, trying out the cool retro chairs my parents got:

My dad bought and painted this mailbox for the boys. They "hid" it at the base of a old stump for the boys to find. Inside was mail---a new car for each of them!

Liam trying a squash blossom!

David pointing something out to Nana

Roasting marshmallows!

On our way to the ferry, we got this beautiful view of Mount Rainier! This picture doesn't nearly do it justice!

Watching the sunset from the deck of the ferry:

And this is what the sunset looked like when we got to the other side. Gorgeous!

And then, on Sunday, we went to the Farmers Market in town. We had some fruit and veg vouchers and got a bunch of locally grown, amazing fruit and veg. The corn on the cob was so yummy!

I didn't get any pictures at the market unfortunately, but here are some of David and Liam enjoying the berries and apricots we got: