Someone's Growing Up!!

LOOK WHO LOST HIS FIRST TOOTH!!!  Gregory is extremely pleased to have finally lost a tooth.  He was the only kid in his class who hadn't lost one yet, so he was feeling a little left out.  He pulled his tooth all by himself with no drama or fear. 

And, look what I found.  I rounded the corner to find that Gregory had gotten himself an after-school snack (and a healthy one, at that!) and had gotten out his homework, found a pencil, and started working on his math homework without being asked to.  Talk about big-kid behavior, huh??

Happy Friday!

What season is it, anyway???  Today I picked a zucchini and a butternut from the garden.  Summer squash and winter squash ... summer or fall... which vegetable's story do YOU believe?

Poor sick Gregory.  Doesn't he look miserable?  Nope.  You're right.  He looks perfectly cheery and chipper.  However, there's no denying the the child is ill.  Three cases of strep in a month's time ( or ... is it just one monster infection that can't be defeated?).  He's spending his day vegged out watching movies.

Henry is happy that Gregory is home with him today.  He gets pretty lonely with both kids in all-day school now.  Henry and I have kept busy since school has started, but he still tells me several times each school day that he's missing "his kids".

Five. No kidding. FIVE!

Lily was not to be outdone, and she got FIVE good behavior tickets at school today.  My goodness, what spectacularly well-behaved children I must have.  I am so proud!!!!!!!!!

THREE!!!!!!!

THREE!!  CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?!?!  Gregory came home from school with news of THREE good behavior tickets on the same day!!!  Way to go, Gregory!  Apparently, this boy was specially designed for 1st grade!!

And check out the cute little Henry.  He misses the big kids now that school is back in session, but he has been consoling himself by swinging and spinning outside a lot.  He talks to himself and to his imaginary friend Pennen while he swings and spins.  It's pretty cute to eavesdrop on his cute little monologue.

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of the new school year.  Lily is off to 4th grade, her next-to-last year at Robinson Elementary.  Gregory is starting 1st grade, and his first year of all-day school.  Both kids left with bellies full of oatmeal, backpacks full of new school supplies, and faces full of smiles.  Here's to a great school year!

Here's Gregory bounding off the afternoon bus (minus his backpack, which he had to go back for), SO EXCITED to proclaim that he had gotten TWO TICKETS for good behavior on his first day of 1st grade.  Good news, and a great way to start out.

And now I have them both back.  Henry and I had a nice day - we ran some errands, did some gardening, had a picnic lunch outside in today's wonderful early fall weather, and even had a little nap together (how snuggly!).  But we missed the big kids, and it was so nice to go pick them up from the bus.

I need to do better with more frequent, shorter posts.

These occasional, insanely long posts aren't ideal, are they?  *SIGH* Summer is a busy time with canning, park trips, zoo trips, museum trips, out of town guests, and whatnot.  So ... you get yet another long catch-up post of pictures from about the last 3-4 weeks.  I really will try to do better!!  Maybe once we're more rigidly scheduled with school and all that?

Lily and Gregory have SOCCER TEAMS! They had their first pre-season practice/clinic this past weekend, and things went really well. Both kids worked hard and fit in just fine with their age groups.

These two somewhat grubby kids were snuggling together while Lily played Doodle God on mom's iPod.  The kids' feet and legs have been grubby like that all summer because of a favorite activity for the three of them to do together:  Super-Spins on the old baby swing under the maple trees at the old house!

Our very good friends from Rochester, the Cash family, came to Michigan to drop their older daughter off at Hillsdale College, and they stopped over for a night to see us.  We had a wonderful time catching up with them, and our kids are STILL talking about their two nearly grown-up girls.  We are so glad we got to see them!

Aaaahhh, our lovely Grand Rapids Public Museum.  How we love to spend a morning there!  Henry just can't get enough of that little green car.  It's just about the first thing you see when you arrive at the museum, and he always gets SO excited!  And I always get a kick out of the sign on the time clock in the Furniture City exhibit.  No Loafing!

In the Furniture City exhibit at the museum, we saw a man demonstrating the use of a lathe in the little display workshop.  The kids watched him make a wooden acorn, and then he came out to show it to them, and once he made certain that they would share it, he let them keep it!!  Wasn't that nice?  And on the right, you see a Michigan lakeshore sand dune diorama type thingie.  It looks exactly like the terrain you walk through on the way out to Rosy Mound!

Big fun with the bin of puppets and the puppet theater at the museum.  These puppets are all left over from the various kid-friendly exhibits they've had at the museum over the years... Dinosaurs, Big Bugs, etc.

Helloooooooo from the playhouse at the museum!  And, did you know that some dinosaurs can sing their ABCs?  This t-rex puppet at the museum sings the ABCs every time he sees Henry. 

We always enjoy a carousel ride! 

This fountain is at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.  It was a 90-degree day, and we decided to take a walk after our museum visit.  We got to this fountain and decided to sit near it so that the breeze could blow some of the spray on us and cool us off. While we were sitting there, a security guard for the museum grounds came over and let us know that it was OK for the kids to sit on the wall of the upper pool and dangle their feet in the water.  Oooohhhh, did that feel good on our hot, hot day! 

Kids in the City

Mearsies running merrily on the walkway beside the Grand River downtown.