Sunday: animals

Tornado was stalking something outside:

But they must have learned that it's safe to come to the deck, despite the cat in the door and the fact that I was picking raspberries 10ft away.  (They enjoy the dropped bird seed.)

I also found this amazing dragonfly on the raspberry bushes.  It is prime raspberry season, so I didn't pick all the raspberries.  Therefore, I decided I could leave him alone and get the raspberries tomorrow.

Saturday: colors

This morning Isaac had a local rock climbing competition.  The expansion was opened up (briefly) for the first time.  There weren't quite as many people either, so it was a bit less busy than normal.  Isaac was in the intermediate category this year so it was quite a bit harder.  However, he still got two tops and several zones.

My raisin bread was good.

Cheryl and I did a guided painting in the evening.  My grass looks way different from the example painting, but I couldn't get nice little thin strokes like the example (the second one below).  It ended up being a feature; you can see the moon through the grass.

Friday: a bit better

My chores today were a bit better.  I started working on the storage room again.  While it never got as bad as it originally was, over the summer it did get significantly worse.  I didn't get to the bad part (yet), but did finish the mini project that I had started before summer.

I made a new bread today - apple juice and raisin.  It smells really good, but I just pulled it out of the oven so I haven't tasted it yet.

Thursday: first day of school

I forgot to share this lovely conversation from two days ago:

Isaac: where'd you get so much cinnamon and sugar?  I though we only had a small spice jar of it. Amanda: ...I made it.
Isaac: ...
Amanda: ...
Isaac: oh! You mixed cinnamon and sugar! 

Anyway, we had some first day pictures.  Joshua was not excited about this.

I got a lot done, but it wasn't exciting.

I also changed out pictures on the picture wall.  We've done too many fun things in the last six months and I had too many pictures to change out...I got rid of some really cute ones and was a bit sad about it.

Wednesday: furniture

It was a good last day of summer.

We biked to donuts.  It was a bit misty, but not enough to stop us.  The donuts were good.

We moved Isaac's new bed frame into his room.  It was outside his room last night, which took up a lot of room.

We put some cubes together for the basement. 

We got a cute cubby for the cats too.

After lunch the local mission picked up a dresser, so that is finally out of the main area too.  Isaac and Joshua worked well together and got the electronics on Isaac's bed working.  I was a bit surprised they managed to get it working without me, but I was also pleasantly surprised.

Lastly, we went bowling.  It's been a while since I've gone.  I did a really good job of getting 9 points a frame: 13 out of 20 frames I ended up with 9 points.

Tuesday: life

We were going to bike to the donut shop this morning, but it was raining.  (We need the rain a lot, and I love rain, so it was a happy thing.)  So we switched days and made Empty Tomb Rolls instead.  I promised the kids that we would make them, but Easter was busy.

But that's ok...we should celebrate the resurrection of Christ all the time!

Well, the marshmallows didn't melt like they were supposed to, and so we all laughed about this.  And...the presence of Christ should expand.  They still tasted good.

The kids had a library event, but after a ton of traffic I managed to go to the wrong branch.  I've remembered to check every other library event, but just assumed for this one.  We made it to the right one about fifteen minutes late, but they were very kind about it.  It was for a cardboard cutting machine, and then the kids made cacti out of cardboard.  While they were doing the event one other mom and I finished up the puzzle we've been working on for a while.

And then it was meet the teacher night!  Joshua's room is very nice and his teacher seems down-to-earth.  We brought school supplies in, and left with more school supplies.  They were giving out boxes of supplies to all students.  We stopped by the art room to talk about art club - I'm hoping Joshua will be interested in it and I think stopping in helped that a ton.  Isaac is also interested, but it would also make his Tuesday's really busy so he was thinking no.  We walked around Isaac's classrooms.  He has many similar teachers as last year so that's mostly nice.  Finally, we stopped by the music room so Joshua could select an instrument for band.  He decided on baritone.  The school has some baritones to loan out and since not many students select baritone we might be able to use it for the year for free.

I got to open some great presents when we got home.

Monday: mini donuts

 We made mini-donuts with the sourdough starter today.  They were good, but not amazing.  I don't think they'll be on my list to make again soon, although the kids could probably persuade me to make them one or twice a year.