When not in the classroom...

While the kids were at G'ma Camp, we spent our days in the classroom (and in meetings!) yet found a few hours to have some kidless fun.  First up was the tree removal!  Jeff came home from work at lunch on Tuesday to see how the progress was coming along.  Our lumberjack did an excellent job.

  

Tuesday night the girls and I finally found a night to go out to dinner to celebrate making it through LAST school year!  Melissa and Cassie and I went out for sushi--and I snuck in a pedicure!

Afterwards I met Jeff to finish his last 3 holes of golf at Downriver.

And the second night we had a hot date night--nap in the car (he just needed a 20-minute refresher!) before we headed into the Nordstrom Rack for school clothes and then to the Flying Goat for dinner.

Cracking up at the receipt from NR.  Shopping is not my forte.  But maybe deep down I'm truly a shopping genius!

G'ma Camp (Papa Camp, Too!)

We took the kids down to the farm on a Monday afternoon.  They were excited to have THREE NIGHTS at the farm!  G'ma kept them busy...an afternoon at Mary Druffel's pool, visiting G'ma Trudy to celebrate her birthday, and making paper chains that reached from the top of the deck to the ground!

All tuckered out!

Manito with Dad

August was peppered with a few days here and there where Jeff or I went into school.  But the last week of August was the beginning of the end of summer.  Meetings were starting and teacher-parents were searching for places for their kids to spend the day.  Jeff had gone to Leadership Camp on Sunday, so he agreed to take the kids on Monday, allowing me to go to work.  He snagged the Van Sickle kids and made a fun day of it--Rockwood Bakery, Manito, and the Used Bookstore!  That afternoon, we took them to the farm for Phase Two of The End of Summer...

Nerdy Reading Parents

Jeff hit his yearly reading goal only half way through the year this summer!  His summer reading included The Wild Children, and In the Lake of the Woods.  Eleven books this summer!

I found some time to read too--12 books in all.  My favorites included the Nathan Hale graphic novel series and The False Prince trilogy.

Playing "Piano Lessons"

Grace and Josh did a lot of game playing this summer--house, office, etc.--but my favorite happened in late August:  Piano Lessons.  Grace taught Josh how to play Ode to Joy and he was on fire!  I then taught him Twinkle Twinkle and Mary Had a Little Lamb.  We're planning on starting him in lessons with Sarabeth this winter--we think he'll be ready!

YMCA Return

Near the end of August we returned for swimming fun at the YMCA.  We took Ellie with us once, and then we remembered how fun it was to swim there and returned a few times in the month.  Micah is now a FISH.  He wears his floatie, but the time that Jeff took the kids, they'd forgotten it, and at one point, Micah was found SWIMMING out to the rest in the deep end.  In this particular picture he wanted me to capture how silly he was being...

Solar Eclipse 2017

This eclipse has been quite the news in recent days.  In parts of the States it was a Total Eclipse--Salem, OR, for example!--and we'd toyed with the idea of going to see Kaitlyn in order to view the Total Eclipse, but in the end we were scared away by the prediction of mass chaos that was going to ensue in those areas.  Here in Spokane, we saw 90% of the eclipse, but we all agreed that next time (in 2044) we would make the trek to see the full eclipse.

Grace started our viewing by using sidewalk chalk to copy the eclipse diagram that she found in the newspaper.  Daddy helped the kids make viewers out of cereal boxes, and then we started lingering outside, waiting to see what we could see.

 

I was amazed that a glance at the sun didn't look any different!  I also LOVED the shadows.  Look how feathery they appeared!

Also take note of our big pine tree in the front yard...we're in the process of arranging to have it taken down...

Cheers!  We thought this was the only total eclipse in their lifetime, so we toasted.  But upon further research, we now know of 2044...in 27 years we'll toast again...at the ripe old ages of 65, 36, 34, 30.  Perfect timing to celebrate our retirement.  Bwa-ha-ha!

Lingering Summer

This is what happens when Jeff and I sleep in on summer days:

We'd been pretty good about getting up before the kids at the beginning of the summer, but our bodies are soaking in every bit of sleep as our summer comes to an end...

And this MONSTER cherry tomato plant is my favorite thing!  It's a Micah snack machine...and I planted it back in May just imagining this picture happening.  Also, notice the pants on in 90 degree weather.  Micah's been excited to "dress my whole self" each morning.  This baby of ours needs to slow down a little!

Happy Birthday, Parker!

Parker turned FOUR this August and we are so thankful for this new little buddy in our lives!  The Rhoads are new-found friends of ours that we met through church, and we've loved spending time with them this year.  Parker and Micah hit it off pretty well, and we're excited to have Sunday School bait for Micah:  "Parker will be there...want to go to your SS class?"  Parker had a CARS party, complete with an awesome piñata and trophies for the littles to take home.

The proof is in...the laundry!

Yes, this is a picture of underwear ON OUR BLOG.  One of our children doesn't change their underwear frequently enough to my liking...can you identify which child this is?  On this particular day, I took a picture of the underwear data that was collected after completing a load of kids' dryer clothes.  I'm CERTAIN this picture will motivate him to change these hummers more often...

The Copa Show Bana

The Showalters bought a Lake Place!  It's at Deer Lake and it's DARLING.  Super cute retro trailer, set in a lake resort so close to the lake.  Jen invited us to come up with GG, and we had a blast playing in the water all day.  This is going to be such a fun place for family memories to happen!  We are so excited for them--and us!  :)

And later that night, we snuck over to G'ma Colleen and Papa Scott's for a swim!  On our way to the pool I spied some perfect lighting and made the kids scrunch their faces together for a picture.  Love these shots.

 

Glamping with Heidi on her Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Heidi!!!  It was a memorable birthday for her, as Judy had just had her second knee replacement, and Heidi had been busy helping her to recover.  But the family was able to sneak out for dinner on the South Hill, and then we came over to watch her favorite movie, the OLD Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, outside on the camper awning!  Matt rigged up a projector and popped popcorn after we opened a few presents and, wha-la! Instant August birthday party.

We love this lady--a sweet friend to me and Jeff and second mom to our kids!

The kids say that Auntie...always has safe juice for them...always says YES to sleepovers...and always lets Micah jump on her trampoline.

Fire's Big Jump

Josh woke the first morning after being home, crying, saying he couldn't find Fire in his fish tank.  Upon further inquiry, we found that he was, indeed, not in the tank and my mind wondered if he'd been flushed by our fish sitters.  But Daddy came up and moved the dresser, to find a crispy, little dried out Beta on the carpet.  Our fish tank has a lid on it, so it was a bit of a mystery, but we're thinking that perhaps the lid was left off overnight while we were gone and little Fire jumped his last jump.

At any rate, Josh was beside himself, and we consoled him with a burial in our backyard and a trip to the pet store to get another Beta.  (Fast forward a week and THAT Beta died, too!  Poor Josh!  He doesn't want another fish.  Little Dude got flushed, as we had used up all of our fish funeral energies just a week before.  Josh took the deaths pretty hard, and his little mind was processing big existential thoughts while in hysteria.  These two states don't go well together!)

Our August Farm Visit

The blue-eyed Lochheads joined the hazel-eyed Lochheads at the farm once G'ma and Papa were back.  We were planning a farm visit anyway, but now that Jeff helped with harvest, he and Josh just got an early start.

Jeff's harvest routines changed a bit as the semi driver--no more Garth Brooks hour, instead he had his iced coffee and Zone bar around 2pm.  They stayed fairly busy in fall wheat and ended up finishing on Friday, making it a solid week for fall wheat.

Once the whole clan was here,  the kids spent a couple mornings out in the field, getting combine rides and semi rides with Daddy and Sam.  This was the year that Micah was brave enough to go by himself on the combine with Uncle Ben--3 1/2 was the magic age.  He was enthralled.  He followed Ben around all morning as he serviced the combine and was giddy with excitement as they started out for the day.

 

This classic photo happened.  I remember when Ben used to ride with Dad and the same thing happened.  Little farmers get tired, too.

G'ma Trudy taught Josh "Kings in the Corner" one morning during this visit, and then G'ma Joan and I taught him solitaire.  He's a card shark!  I love that he's learning something that I have so many fond memories of doing as a kid.

Finally, on Friday, G'ma had to go get her nails done and I decided I'd take the kids to the Asotin County Aquatics Center for the afternoon.  It was a good idea.  Super hot day, happy kids in the water--wave pool, lazy river, two tube slides, and a preschool water play structure that entertained Micah for hours!

 

 

 

 They were wiped out.  This was on the way home.  I love it when I wear them out.

 And THIS was on our way to the Genesee City-Wide Yard Sale!  They each got $5 to spend.  On the way in, we saw Mr. Sperber handing out maps and he guessed CORRECTLY the grades that each of the kids were entering.  Apparently he's an elementary school principal now!  Josh told him that sometimes people guess he's a year older than he really is..."That's because you're tall for your age.  But I look at your teeth.  You haven't had those babies a year yet!"  :)

And then we've gotten into a tradition of taking pictures of our treasures...