Ike's Souffle

"Mom, can I please make you some souffle?" Cutting up baby carrots into smaller pieces is Ike's souffle.
I've been eating a lot of carrots lately. Thanks again Zs for the great cutting board that gets put to such good use making "souffle." I hope Ike isn't terribly disappointed when he finds out what a souffle
really is.

Loving Mac

So I am excited and a bit overwhelmed with my new Mac. Explains the lack of posting. My PC (with my life on it) won't boot up after we switched it out with the Mac. I think it feels betrayed by this sleek, more functional, and a lot more fun Mac. I still hold a little place in my heart for my PC. I knew it pretty well and it has all my photos, familiar software, and microsoft word. However, I hope to get Mac savvy ASAP.
Thanks to my good friend Amy for sharing her skills in iphoto. If anyone knows all the fancy fun stuff on Mac--it is her. I am going to continue begging her help.
Now that we have a computer camera, in the Mac,....we have discovered SKYPE. Many of you probably already enjoy this "Jetson" form of communication, but it is new for us and we are loving it. I fully own the fact that we can be a bit behind the technology curve. With Skype, you can talk, message, and view one another online. My kids love it. You can skype-to-skype anywhere in the world ...for free. If you have our e-mail address, just plug it into the search and you'll find our skype address. Just don't answer from anyone asking to "be your friend."

"When is my school going to start?"

This week has been a little tough for this guy. He is missing the kids. He made a preschool countdown chain today and we did a fly-by Miss Rita's......just to see what it looks like and to "talk about it." He has 10 chains left.
What I love the most about today is the hat. I have been reading John Adams (almost finished) and I love it so much. It was a story that needed to be told. Tom and the kids are the victims of my enthusiasm, especially Isaac. I want him to know a few historical stories. Apparently, he is on board with me. He ran and dug out his patriotic hat and wore it for the day. With a big grin he came down the stairs, "I'm going to wear this because we love John Adams, right mom."
Thanks to my friend, Gale,for turning me onto this biography. It has awakened a deep sense of gratitude for our Revolutionary Fathers and our Heavenly Father's hand in the creation of this great country. I want to go out and read all of David McCullough's work.

The excitement has been building around here. These three all get to attend new schools this year. Cole is off to junior high and the girls to our neighborhood school. Summer and Meg get to bike instead of bus now. They were giddy with delight. They got to meet up with some of their neighborhood friends to descend down "cherry hill" on the way to school.
Cole gets to leave 90 minutes later for school now that he doesn't catch the bus to Franklin. He loved me taking a picture in front of the carpool.

And then there is Ike, sad to be left behind. He has one more year of preschool with an awesome teacher and then he'll be with the big kids. Thanks Mom for coming and taking him out for a little outing. He's been playing with his new Star Wars figurines all morning.
I can hardly wait to hear all the details about their first day experiences.

The closets were cleaned out and organized so that we could go school shopping today. It was supposed to happen last Saturday, but the girls didn't take me serious about their closets and how they should look. Now that they look splendid and we have several big garbage bags full of "stuff", we hit the mall.
They did great with their clothes budget, no complaints. Summer only had to dip into her own money for a new backpack (because last year's backpack was still perfectly fine in my eyes).
I could shop all day with Meg, drama and all. I had some good laughs listening to her observations, opinions, and comments while she tried clothes on and shopped. She wasn't luke-warm about anything.....loved it or hated it.
And then there was Summer, who agreed with all my suggestions and opinions. I doubt this will last, so I thought I would make sure and document what an easy shopping experience it was today. I keep waiting for payback. Just ask my mom how fun I was to shop with, growing up. I still hate shopping.... for myself!
A big thank you to Ike for putting up with our shopping. He just knocked over a mannequin, sprawled on top of a table full of perfectly folded shirts, and crawled into the stall of an undressing lady.....he had to keep entertained somehow.

Two Happy Events

On Sunday two important events took place. Baby Luke (My sister Aryn's) was blessed and my baby sister Bridgette got engaged! Yeah! We love Corey and in a couple months, October 17th, he'll be part of the clan.

It feels good to be back home. The Oklands joined us, at the cabin, and we had a great time. We stayed a little longer so we could put the little boys in soccer camp. It was run by some enthusiastic soccer players from England. They have a way of making ordinary words sound great. I especially like their use of the word "Fantastic."

Just a few of his cousins that were in his group.

Ike loved every part of it, except when his team didn't win the World Cup Soccer Tournament. He was deflated for about 2 minutes.

Cole did awesome in the horeshoe tournament. He was consistently throwing points and some ringers.

Leave it to our "animal lover" to find some interesting creatures to bond with.
Ike had a misstep in the creek. He was brave and then after a while..."I hate this, having my underwear soaking wet!"
Oh and we attempted a second try at riding the bike. Tom tried a month ago, and he wasn't ready. I thought we would see if Cole and Robbie could encourage him ...no such luck!