Labor Day Weekend

On Labor Day weekend we took the kids to Lewis and Clark Caverns. It was a lot of fun and we even got to stop at one of Josh's projects on the way there. We ate lunch by the big equipment before heading to the caverns. The kids always love to stop by Daddy's work!

Happy Birthday Dan!

Well I have been having trouble getting the pictures where I want them in my blog. So the pictures come first. I was able to get them in order at least!

Making homemade huckleberry ice cream with Grama and Grampa. It tasted wonderful! Especially since the berries were picked by Grama and Grampa!

The birthday boy with his under the sea carrot cake. He baked one of the layers all by himself, made the frosting, and did all the decorating. We were all very impressed!

Presets from Grama and Grampa!

Dan's first Bible! He was so excited that it is the whole Bible and not just a story book Bible.

Playing with the color changing truck.

A close up of Dan's decorated cake. He used fruit roll ups, Swedish fish, and chocolate rock candy. It was a yummy carrot cake with butter cream frosting! So, so good!

Monday the 7th was Dan's 7th birthday! We had a birthday party for Dan and for my dad (his birthday is on the 6th) on Sunday night. It was a really fun time with my parents. We made ice cream (well milk shakes... it was taking a long time in the hand crank ice cream maker and we were impatient) huckleberry ice cream! Dan got some great books to read, some really nice new shirts that he can wear to Co-op school, and a very cool logic puzzle. Then in the morning on the 7th we had a birthday breakfast for Dan. Waffles with fruit salad on top. Yum! We were so proud of Paul and Clara... they spent their own money to buy a present for Dan. Well it did take some encouragement for Clara. She has really been wanting to buy a Polly pocket sized Ariel doll. Anyway, Paul got Dan some glow sticks and Clara got him a color changing hot wheels truck. While the glow sticks were cool the truck was the great hit. The three kids spent most of the morning taking turns putting it in hot and cold water to see it change. They even found out that they could "draw" on it with ice. There was a little bit of arguing over who's turn it was but for the most part they shared very well.

Then it was off to get the last present. We pulled into the parking lot of Pet Smart and told Dan that it would be a hamster! He was very excited. So we went in to pick one out and get the starter kit for hamsters (cage, food, bedding, water bottle, food dishes...) Well as it turned out they were sold out of hamsters and cages! Actually, they has some dwarf Russian hamsters for $16 and the deluxe starter kit for $36. We had planned to spend $9 on a basic hamster and $24 on a basic starter kit. Who knew that there were multiple kinds of hamsters anyway!

That night we were at our pastor's house for dinner. Our pastor's wife said that she knew someone with a bunch of free baby hamsters to give away. So by Wednesday we had a new hamster for free! Dan named him "September". It took a few days of being confused about what we were talking about (the month or the hamster?) before we were used to the name. Josh was a little confused one night when I informed him that "September bites!"

School Starts Soon!

We got our second and last box of books for school yesterday! I am really excited to get started. Initially I wanted to start school after Labor Day. I love summer and did not want to shorten it! However, Labor Day is way too late this year so we will start on the 1st of September.

I was planning on starting Dan with some the first grade stuff that we did not finish before we went the the Philippines last February, but it would be too easy for him. When I was looking over the new second grade books that we received I realized that there is plenty of review built into the first few lessons.

So that means Dan will be starting second grade and Clara will be starting Kindergarten! Wow! Paul will not be left out. I ordered several 3 year old nursery work books for him as well. I am not sure if it is just a waste of money or not. The pages in them look like fun and at least he will have the opportunity to "do school" too.

Starting the week after Labor Day we have home school co-op on Thursday morning and Dan has a science class on Wednesday afternoons. I am not at all concerned that we will be bored this fall! I am thinking that it sounds too busy to me! I am really most happy when I have a day at home.

Trip to Urgent Care

Last Friday we went camping. We had so much fun and got a little over a gallon of huckleberries. On Saturday morning I found a cut on Paul's heal. I remembered at that point that he had run out of the tent bare foot the night before. It was really minor so I forgot about it. Last night I happened to notice a red streak going up his heal coming from the cut. The cut was a bit swollen but not red at all. I pushed on the red streak and Paul said "Ouch! Don't do that mama!" This morning it looked much the same except that the red streak was also swollen a bit. So... we went into Urgent Care. He had not fever and was acting normally. However, I did not want for it to get out of hand.

The doctor was sure upon seeing it that he needed antibiotics and that he wanted to see him again on Saturday to check the progress. Paul is supposed to wear a band aide and a sock all the time too. Yuck! It is supposed to be the last few days of summer! How do I keep a sock on a boy that is completely accustomed to going barefoot?

I took the picture above yesterday evening and unfortunately it does not really show how red it really is. Today it looks a bit worse and Paul is complaining that it hurts. He won't let me near it. So far he has had six doses of antibiotics so I hope that we will see improvement pretty soon!

First Post

I have decided to start a family blog about our daily life. So that means a lot of talk about life with young children! More later...