Who's who?

Which little monkey:

• Was re-telling me about the time he went swimming in a river and said, "Mama, I saw a whole school of fish! But I didn't see their teacher"?
• Gave his special sticker from his teacher to his brother because his brother didn't earn one?
• Got so excited when my tooth (crown) fell out because he thought I could put it under my pillow and get a visit from the tooth fairy and then was so disappointed to find out that grown-ups' teeth have to be put back in their mouths?

Which little love bug:

• Exited school, took off his baseball hat and offered me the cucumber that he had been keeping on top of his head since snack time?
• Refers to the new kids at school, less than a year younger than him, as lil' fellas?
• Whenever he is called to make a wish (on a star or with a coin in a fountain), wishes for a steak?

The Idiot's Guide to Gardening

I'm quite sure that if I head over to Amazon and do a search for "Idiot's Guide" and "fruit and vegetable gardening," I'd find a book (or two or three) that would mention my husband and I by name.

Months and months ago, maybe even a year ago, Scott built two 4x2 foot raised containers so we could do some square foot gardening. Without doing any research about what would grow in our area and when, we set out with the boys and purchased seeds. To keep a short story short, I'll just say that possums, squirrels, our dog, the boys and myself contributed to the garden's demise. Sorry Scott...

After Logan recently decided that some chopped peanuts were really watermelon seeds and was desperate to plant them, did we decide to revive the garden. Once again without any research we set out with the boys and purchased seeds and seedlings. We spent one morning planting basil, peppers, lettuce, cantaloupe, broccoli, carrots, strawberries and a few others. The next day the boys made their own watering cans.

This was an activity I was planning on writing a Summer Survival post about. I'm a couple of months late but here it is:

Homemade watering cans:

This is a project that I like for a couple of reasons...it reuses trash and saves me money because I didn't have to buy new. The watering cans are made from plastic milk jugs. After cleaning them well, you'll need to use a hammer and nail to poke holes in the lids.

Then the kids can get their hands on them to decorate them. We used markers and foam stickers.


Fill them with water and the they are ready to go!

After a little less than two weeks (and some watering help from Papa), this is what our garden now looks like:

September in review...

Since this blog's primary purpose is to serve as a family record and I keep slacking off on posts, I decided that I needed to do a little recap at the end of the month. Here are all the little tidbits and pics that didn't make it into their own post in September...

Happy about:

School started and the whole family was excited. (Sadly, it is Jack's last year of preschool.) Here are the boys and I on their first day back to school...

This is what Logan looked like on the first day after falling and getting a huge bump and scrape on his forehead...

(He wanted a surfing bandaid hence the bright waves and hibiscus.)

And this is the boys calendar so they know exactly what is happening each day...

The little picture of the building with the red roof signifies a school day...look at all those beautiful school days!

Worried about:

My mom has had severe mysterious pains for more than a year now. She has seen doctors and specialists and alternative professionals and no one has been able to diagnose the problem.

On my 'to do' list:

Though we are years away from getting matched to our daughter in China, I still have paperwork to renew. I've got to contact our local homestudy agency to refile our I-600A.

I also have to plan the fall social event for the parents at my boys' preschool. This year we are going bowling...kidfree!

Fun stuff:

We had two of the boys friends over early one morning (I was still in PJs!) so ABC pancakes were in order...

To make ABC pancakes, use a ketchup bottle (with the point cut off) filled with pancake batter. Letters come out best when you write them backwards first because the side cooked first looks better than the side cooked second.

Firsts:

Jack and Logan rode ponies...and I missed it! Scott took them on a boys' day out and somehow they end up on ponies. No mama and no pictures...

Also, Jack put his whole face underwater for the first time ever. After three months of spending time in the pool he finally felt ready and went for it.

I guess that about sums up September for this family!