Time for Pumpkins

Shortcake's pretend pouting

I emailed this last picture to my mom just days before she passed away.  I thought she'd love the piggys!

School in the backyard

This late summer/fall my favorite spot to do our read-alouds has been on the bench under the pine in the back yard.  In between books the kids can run and play and I can watch the kids on the tree swing, the swingset, the beam, it's just a good place to be.

Taking school outside

Lamby's dunking

Shortcake has a very special lamby . . . one day she decided to give her lamby a dunking in a bucket of water that her big brothers were using.

I guess holding a dripping wet lamby didn't faze her.  It's a good thing I had time to give him a proper wash and dry before bedtime though.

Random Summer Fun

This summer the children's program at church challenged the kids to do random acts of kindness. The boys put quarters in zip-locks and taped a note that said "Please enjoy this random act of kindness".  Then we taped them to gumball machines at our local County Market and at Walmart.  The kids were so excited they could hardly stand it, they totally wanted to stake out the place to see who would get the bags.

This was a fun activity and we did it a few times for hot summer days.  I found miscellaneous stuff, put it in a plastic bin, added water, froze it, then pop it out of the bin onto the sidewalk.  After some major warnings about keeping toes at bay when using hammers and the screw driver I let them loose.  Ages 9 and under loved this!

Agent H and papa hit up an airshow.

Agent E and The General are covered in mud but look at those sparkling eyes!  Mud is good for the soul.

One of our favorite "mom needs you outside" activities.  A cup of water and a paint brush so they can "paint" anything in sight.

First day of preschool for The General

First day of preschool for The General (yes this was back in July or August but I'm a litte behind).

Ooooooooo, mixing the freshly dyed rice for the alphabet box!

About to plunge the astronaut into hiding with all the other "A" objects.  If you're interested in what we're doing for preschool you can find it at this post, near the end.

Father & daughter (Awwww!)

My new favorite photo.

Shortcake's first haircut

Our little Shortcake before her first "official" haircut at a salon.

In process . . . .

She was not going to crack a smile but once on that little horse, well she liked it up there.

Ta-da!  I stressed over this haircut.  I wanted so much to grow out her bangs but she just wouldn't keep clips or ponytails in her hair so it was always hanging in her eyes.  I love the results even though it "grows her up" a bit.  I really wanted to call my mom and tell her all about it and show it off to her, I hope she has a good peep-hole in heaven.  Love you mom. xoxo