Four Years of First Days

This has been our first week back at school.  Frankly, none of us were ready for it to start.  When I had tiny kids in diapers and toys all over my house, I used to think I would long for and look forward to the first day of school every year, but that's not how it is.  When you have the privilege of staying home with your kids, you get accustomed to having them around every day during the summer.  Then school starts and you feel like you're being robbed when they're away from you for 8 hours a day.  I tend to like my children.  Crazy, I know.

So, as a tribute for back to school and the tendency for time to fly, I've taken the liberty of compiling my past blog pictures of first days of school.

And man does time fly.  I think it should be a law of physics.

2011 (1st, 5th & 7th grade)

2012 (2nd, 6th & 8th)

2013 (3rd, 7th & 9th)

2014 (4th, 8th & 10th)

2015 (Almost all grown up!!)

So, there you have it.  Amazing how much kids change and grow up in just four short years.  And just think, in another four years, I'll have a junior and a freshman in college and a junior in high school. WHAT?!!!

No, I don't think so.  Maybe I'll go get my basement ready so I can lock them up with their crazy mama forever!

Berry Picking

Yum, yum!  Fresh blackberries.  Nothing better.  Morgan is an excellent little blackberry picker (although many of them go into his tummy, but who can blame him?).

Grandma joined us also, but I forgot to take a picture of all three of us.  Morgan had hoped we could get lots of berries this year, but with my ankle injury, we didn't make it out until late in the season. Hopefully, we'll do better next year.  Until then, we'll enjoy our berries!

Tea Party Guest

The kids and I are tired of being stuck in the house due to all the smoke in the air. (LOTS of fires in the northwest (and a rather large fire only 30 miles away) and our air quality is terrible!)  School starts next week and we wanted to come up with something fun to do on one of our last days of summer.  

We tossed around lots of different ideas and finally settled on the idea of having a tea party!  Yes, my kids are a little older than they were when we had our first tea party, but you're never too old to have a little fun with tiny tea cups and funny accents!

We've had many tea parties over the years.  Usually they include wearing a proper tea party hat. Yesterday, we decided in addition to a hat, everyone must put on a crazy outfit.  Sadly, pictures of were not allowed due to my propensity to put all photographic evidence of our lives out on the interweb for the world to enjoy.

But pictures of our special guest were allowed.  His wardrobe is limited to this sweater and witch's hat, so that's the outfit he chose.

He was a perfect gentleman.  A lovely tea party guest.  He sat there quietly taking it all in and looking around at us like we were completely nuts.

He was rewarded with his own little tea party biscuit.  He was a little skeptical of eating off the table, but got into it quickly.  After his biscuit, he was excused to get down, but stuck with us.  I think he was hoping for another biscuit.

Crazy humans.

Family Seamstress

Glenn's dear sister, Nancy, helped Ellea sew a denim blanket this summer.  Ellea has done a little sewing, but this was the first pieced quilt she had ever put together and she did a wonderful job.

She spent hours sorting through all the denim squares to put together this cool diagonal pattern.  And her attention to detail was impressive in her assembly of the quilt.  It turned out beautifullly.

She entered it into the county fair and got a blue ribbon and third place against all the other youth entries!  Not bad for her first time!  She's taking a sewing class at school this year, so it will be fun to see what else she creates.

Dog 4-H

The first day of fair included the dog show.  Nicole has shown our Schnauzer, Zip, in the dog show several times, but had taken a break from it over the past few years.  She decided to give it a try again this year.

She's grown up a little since the early years of dog 4-H.

They did great together.  They brought home the Reserve Championship ribbon for Fitting and Showing.  Didn't do quite so well at obedience.  What can I say?  He's stubborn and full of himself.  He's pretty obedient, but not that obedient!

Idaho County Fair, 2015

Sorry for a lack of activity last week. We we busy with our county fair.  We camp at the fairgrounds (even though we live 10 miles away!), so the blogging time was zero.  With two pig projects, a lamb and a dog, it was a very busy week!

This was Ellea's SEVENTH pig!  She's a pro by now.  They did great together.  Her pig was so heavy that he couldn't walk very well, though.  Hard to show an animal that won't move!  In quality showing, the judge said her pig would have been top in her class (and called back for the grand champion round) if he wasn't limping.  He was a great looking pig about 20 pounds ago, but that's how it goes, sometimes.

Morgan did great with his pig, too.  And he had lots of fun running around with his friends between animal duties.  It's nice to have the camper down there, because we have a home base of sorts, and we have a place we can go sit.  And the air conditioning is very nice!

Nicole had another great year with her lamb.  She was called back for fitting and showing and did great.  Seems like she always get so close to that grand champion ribbon, but doesn't quite reach it.  Maybe next year.

And then it was time for the sale.  Always sad to say goodbye to the animals, but it's gotten a little easier for the kids over the years.  And the money softens the blow a little. :)