I LOVE APPLES!!!

Zach's parents were here last weekend and we went to the boys' teacher's house to pick apples. She begs us to pick as many as we can! YAY! They're yummy Macintosh. So today I canned a bunch of applesauce, I LOVE homemade applesauce! Last year it didn't even last through the winter, so I'll try to go overboard this year! I'll also make apple butter and pie filling and regular canned apples for bread or cake later. Oooooh, I'm just so excited!!! Do you have any great recipes that you're willing to share? =)

Back on August 25th...

...the boys had their first day of school!

So, finally, here's a picture!!!

Josiah has been growing his hair out longer. I make him get it wet and comb it every morning. He hates that. On the first morning of school, he complained to his dad about it and Zach told him he could do his hair however he wanted. So, he made a mohawk...and went to school...and loved it. So we were all happy.

Josiah is in 2nd grade this year and Conrad is in 1st. They go full-time at the little rural school that is near us. This year there are 9 students in their class of K-2. There are 4 kindergartners, 1 first grader, (Conrad), and 4 second graders. One girl, all the rest are boys! Our boys love going to school!

It's definitely different for me having them gone so much. There have been a lot of other things going on to keep me busy, so I don't really feel like I have a routine yet. It is fun to play with Brenden by himself. We've been working on colors and stuff. He's a pretty smart little feller. =) The big kids have soccer practise right after school 2 days a week, so I pick them up as school gets out, drive to town just in time, stay there till 5, get home at 5:30, get dinner on, then do homework, squish in some play time, then get ready and in bed by 8. Games are on Saturdays, maybe tomorrow I will remember to bring my camera for the first time, (this will be their 3rd game this season)!

Fall Colors

The leaves are starting to change colors, so I decided to change the colors on here as well!
Happy apple-picking time!!!!!!!
I made my first-ever not-from-a-can pumpkin pie!!! It was really good! No, really! I put a little too much water in when pureeing the cooked pumpkin, but the flavor was great!
I'm enjoying the squash being in season at the garden across the road from us. Zach doesn't enjoy it as much...poor guy.

I spent this morning in the classroom with the boys at school. While they were working independently in their math workbooks, I sat in a place where they could ask me questions if the teacher was already busy with someone else. Josiah had a question, so, he asked his friend. I asked him to not bother his friend, but to come ask the question from me. He looked at me like I was an alien and said, "no, mom, I can't remember what a number story is." I gave him an example. Again, the alien look. Then, he got up, took his workbook to his teacher and asked her!!! Satisfied with her explanation, he came and sat back down, only to use the example I had given him! I made him re-do it, little booger.

Wowzers

Oh my, it's been a long time since I've posted!!!

Well, I don't think I'm going to try to recap the entire summer for you, (thank goodness). But, I will put some pictures on and tell you about the highlights. But I'm not promising that anything will be in the right order!!!

Our summer was very fun and we had a LOT going on!

Zach, as usual, was very busy at Camp, so the boys and I did a lot of traveling and filling our days with our fun stuff.

I am missing several pictures, hopefully I get them on here sometime later.

Josiah and Conrad were Day Campers again at Camp Bighorn, they always have such a great time!

(pics to come)

We took a few trips to Spokane to see family. The cousins got some good playing time together. My nephew Keegan was able to come to his first Camp Bighorn Junior Camp!

(more pics to come)
All 3 boys took 2 weeks of swimming lessons. Josiah is really swimming well, he'll be in the advanced lessons next year. Conrad's skills improved a lot and he's not as timid in the water anymore. Brenden loves the water, blows bubbles, kicks, jumps in, and can pull himself out of the pool on his own. He hasn't figured out how to doggy paddle yet, but always wants me to let him go!

We spent a week at Lake Chelan with Zach's parents. We especially missed Zach during this time and are planning on him being able to join us there next summer. The boys played in the lake and in the pool. They went to a water slide park and played mini-golf. We went to the playground everyday, went for walks, did crafts, and took a paddle boat out once! We also celebrated Conrad and Brenden's birthdays early since we were with Grandpa and Grandma!

We had another early birthday party at my parents' in Spokane! Josiah and Conrad got to go to a week of VBS at my parents' church, they loved it!

By the time the actual birthdays rolled around, we had celebrated so much already that it didn't matter that we were too busy with other things to make a big deal of the actual day! The school had a before school starts potluck picnic on Conrad's 6th birthday, so we brought cupcakes along, he was happy with calling that his party!! I don't even remember what we were doing on Brenden's 2nd birthday! Hee hee. I'm sure we had some leftover cupcakes!!!

I'm sure I left out some big deal stuff we did, my brain is just not thinking enough right now. We swam in the river, swam in the plastic pool in the yard, rode bikes, fought mosquitoes and bees. All the fun normal summer stuff!

I still have more catching up to do on here. But I think this was a pretty good start...for me!