brilliant

My garbage disposer was stinky. I cleaned it. Bleached it. Put ice and dish soap down it. Put vinegar down it. Still stinky. Picked up a book on cleaning hints and found one that said to freeze ice cubes made of equal parts water and vinegar and then put them down there. Made sense. What they failed to mention is that having vinegar in your freezer overnight will leave your freezer and your refrigerator smelling like vinegar for many days. The smell seems to have been absorbed into every porous surface. Are you kidding me?

Oh, and my disposer still stinks.

NANA!

My Mom came for a visit this weekend. My little guy of few words learned how to say Nana this week. And for some reason it is always yelled, "NANA" at the top of his lungs. But that's pretty much how we all felt about her visit. Thank you God for NANA!

We all went to soccer games on Saturday. We were thankful that it only rained for the last 30 minutes or so.


Ethan was trying to catch raindrops in his mouth and saying "YUM" whenever one hit its mark.

We had a very successful trip to Red Robin Saturday night (in sprite of the fact that Ethan missed his nap that day).

It was a great weekend. Always sad to say good-bye but so thankful for a Nana who is willing to make the trek over the mountains to come visit.

word of the week

I decided to add vocabulary lessons to our schooling by choosing and posting a word of the week. (I actually got the idea from a great book we read, suggested by Misha, called The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter.) The goal is for each of us to try to use the word correctly at least once a day. Last week our family word was GUSTO which the kids had fun with. And today I posted and explained the word SUPERFLUOUS.

A few minutes ago Liam was in the bathroom and Ethan wandered in. I hear Liam yell, "Ethan, that is a superfluous amount of toilet paper!"

Love it!

fall is here!

We took our annual trip to Stoney Ridge Farm yesterday. It was a beautiful, warm day and we had a great time.

such a treat!

There are so many kids from our neighborhood going to Awana this year that our pastor has offered to drive the church bus each week. To say that the kids were excited would be a huge understatement!

(Ethan was able to hop on while they loaded up.)


And - tonight was crazy sock night. Yes - those are socks in her hair.


We love Awana!

friends

Such a gift from above!

field trip

We took our first field trip of the year this week to Pioneer Park. Many of the first buildings in Whatcom County have been relocated to this park and they offer tours. We went with our good friends and had a great time.



As soon as Audrey found out where we were going, she wanted to know if she could borrow a "Mary and Laura" dress from her friend, Lauren. Lauren and her Mom graciously agreed and Audrey loved it.

The old mail boxes were a huge hit.

But the favorite stop was at the one-room school house!

Can you see Ethan back there doing exactly what the big kids are doing?

Audrey has requested a slate and some chalk for our own school house. How can I say no to that?