Pieces of Fall in My Living Room

Today is the first day of Fall, so I had the kids collect some of the elements of the season to bring in and display indoors.

Apparently our trees don't know it's supposed to be Fall.

And it's 80˚ outside today.

Maybe we'll try again next week...

Home Tour - Part 1

When we moved into this house in June, I had every intention of doing a photo tour...

just as soon as I had every room set up the way I want it.

Now that September is almost gone, I have accepted that

the room-set-up-thing's not going to happen any time soon.

So here's a partial tour of our new house as it looks right now, and maybe someday (if and when things ever get arranged like we want them) I'll do another "official" tour.

To the right of the front door:

The Living Room

(looking left from the front door)

The Dining Room:

The Kitchen:

(to be continued...)

Firewood

Yesterday morning we had firewood delivered to our house,

so yesterday afternoon, the kids all worked together and turned this:

into this:

(almost) ALL BY THEMSELVES!!!

(Almost because when their mother saw the methods they were attempting to use to reach those top rows of the pile, she over-rode their protests and stepped in to help them finish.)

I Like Cats

I like cats.

I like taking pictures.

So I took some pictures of our new cats.

And, since this is MY blog, I can post those pictures of our new cats if I want to...

and then YOU can decide if you want to look at them or not.

Everyone's happy this way!

Maria

(She's the only girl, and Anya picked her name. I've been singing "How do you solve a problem like Maria..." - from The Sound of Music - for days now.)

Tommy

(I know, a tomcat named Tommy doesn't sound very original, but Macey named him Tommy in all innocence because she likes the name. I'm not going to enlighten her.)

Billy

(I have no idea why Jaela picked the name Billy.)

A Fair Fishing Day

The kids created their own fishing poles using sticks, thread,

wooden spools, beads, and safety pins.

After a few modifications (including fishing line, real hooks, and worms),

they headed off to the creek to try their luck.

Anya was the first to get a bite, and she and Daddy put their heads together to try to land one.

Jaela's second fishing spot got her a monster of a fish

(and I made her hold it).

Isaak caught his first fish ALL BY HIMSELF,

and Macey's fish was caught and released before the camera person could get to her.

On the way back up to the house, Isaak declared that it was a fair fishing day

because everyone caught a fish!

Grocery List

Mike's parents and one of his brothers are here this weekend, so I went into town yesterday morning before they came to get supplies to make homemade ice cream.

On my grocery list:

milk

cream

eggs

free kittens?!?

cat food?!?

Hey, it was MY list!

Anya and Maria, Macey and Tommy, Jaela and Billy