Hike

In the beginning of August we went on a fun hike with some friends. We took the easy way out by going up on the chairlift and then hiking back down the mountain. It was so beautiful and fun. The only sad thing was Elsie lost her hat on the chairlift and we got attacked by some ants on a long. These photos were taken by our friends as I forgot the camera...amazing aren't they. They have a really nice digital camera and I think they will be taking some family shots of us this fall.

Canning peaches

Since I live near Will's family I decided to take advantage while I could to learn how to can things. I also do not have the processing equipment so the fact that I could borrow it to see if I liked doing it first was a plus. I have made a few different kids of jams and preserverd them but all I had to do to seal the lids was flip the things over!!! So Will's mom came over and showed me the ropes and we canned 17 pints of peaches and a few more little ones. It was a lot to juggle at once so I am not sure if I would want to do it on my own but it was fun to do it with Flora.

Preschool

Elsie started preschool at the beginning on September. Our preschool is a small group of moms from my church who have gotten together to do an at home preschool. It is based on a free curriculum on line that has a number, letter, theme, and shape or color each week to talk about. Each mom takes her turn hosting and teaching the week she hosts. It is just for an hour and a half once a week. There are 8 kids and moms involved so it is a good sized group. This is the third week and it seems to be going great. I taught last week so I have a few pictures of the kids. During free play they all dressed up so that was fun to photograph. The last photo is from the first day of school at another moms home.

Drawing

Elsie has started to draw things. Instead of just scribbling she actually says "this is two eggs" or "this is the sun". Here is an example of her drawing the sun. She did such a good job and was to deliberate with each sun ray. I was so impressed.

Stairs and railing

We have an old set of stairs at the back door. They seemed nice enough but they needed railing put on so we could keep our home owners insurance. As Will and his dad went to take them apart to prepare them for new railings they realized that the stair risers (supporting wood under the steps themselves) where rotting away. So they had to rebuild the stairs before they could put railings on. Thus started the three day project that was supposed to take one morning to finish. They did such a great job though. The stairs no longer bounce when you walk on them and the railings look great and make it a lot more safe (the stairs are over a cement patio). I did not do a very good job documenting the events but here is a shot of them working on fixing the stairs then one of the railings and stairs finished....well we still need to stain them and add the post toppers but you can get the idea.

Lemonade stand

You know your little girl is growing up when she has her first lemonade stand. Now to be fair it was not her idea...it was Will's dad's neighbors idea. When we go out to see Will's dad and step mom Elsie loves inviting this little neighbor girl over to play with her. They both like watching Max and Ruby and on the show there was a lemonade stand episode. So the older neighbor girl who is 6 decided to have a lemonade stand. When Elsie hear of the idea she was happy yo go along with it. They played it for a while inside and we all bought lemonade from them. Then they finally got to bring it outside and even a few passersby bought some too. They loved it and I am sure would like to play the game again.

A hot air balloon festival

Several weekends back we decided to go to a hot air balloon festival. It was out on an island in the lake. So it was a pretty setting and the advertisement photos showed 10 or more balloons in the air at once. We got up early on a Saturday morning and drove the hour to get there. Just to find out that this year for some unknown reason there where only four balloons!!! I was happy to have the fun family time but sad that the balloons where such a let down. We did how ever get some yummy doughnuts for breakfast and we got to walk out to the lake. The lake is very low right now so when I say walk out to the lake I mean walk on the beach towards the water for somewhere between 45 minutes to an hour!!! Ya it is that low but I guess it also has to do with the lake being very shallow...what we walked on was flat it did not appear to slope down at all. The sand was hard for the most part until we got right up to the water. Then Elsie started playing in it and Will tried to clean off her hands by hanging her upside down over the water. It got a little hot but we had a fun time!!!

Family photo

This was taken on August 23rd.

Thirty something

Will turned thirty something in Aug. To celebrate we made him cookies (see below), had a treasure hunt and made him a lemon marriage pie. I try to do a treasure hunt for all his special events like fathers day and birthdays and anniversaries and such. Now that I think of it I would love to have Elsie have this fora tradition too and I think she is getting old enough now to get it. So I guess next holiday that is what she will get!!

Decorating cookies for daddy

Will had his birthday in Aug and all he asked for was sugar cookies. So we made him some and decorated them. This was only the second time Elsie has decorated cookies but she was like a pro with all the colors and swirling them together. Her finished master piece is on the bottom of the happy birthday cookies plate.

Dinosaur Museum

There is a great dinosaur museum near us. In the month of Aug they only charge $2 per person on Tuesdays. So we went two times. Once with dad and some friends and once during the day with some other friends. Elsie loved it. The high light was definitely the sand and water play area but the sand digging area was fun too. There were also some computes to play on which seemed to be calling Elsie's name. Here are a few photos from our visits.

Anouncing...

Will's little sister Charity is now engaged!! We are so excited to welcome Greg into the family. He is a great guy. When they came to visit in August I think Elsie was more excited to see Greg then Charity. They will be getting married in NYC in November so we will have a quick visit with my family as well. We are so excited! (That is Julia Will's other sister in blue.)

Working at the car wash

Since we got the second nice car we have been trying to keep them a little more clean inside and out. We often spend out Saturday mornings washing the cars as a family. You would be surprised how fun it can be.

Tim McGraw

Will and I love country music. I blame it on my roots but he did not grow up listening to it he just acquired a taste for it sometime along the way. Our favorite singer is Tim McGraw. We have seen him in concert once before when we were still in Boston but we just got to go again!!! It was great! But the traffic and will call line were a nightmare!! We missed the opening act but made it to the main event just fine. He was amazing of course and he sang all of our favorite songs plus some. The last concert we went to of his seemed to be shorter maybe that had to do with the fact that he ran off stage half way though it to vomit!!! Yup he had food poisoning and still sang the rest of the concert. This time he was feeling much better. We had a great time!

What we are up to

Sorry it has been such a long time!! We have not been up to too much during the month of Aug. But we did go to another concert and spend some more time with family. It is great to live so close to them....but I wish we could be back east at the same time! Elsie started her first day of our little preschool group last week (more info in a future post) and we went to see some hot air balloons today. You will have to be patient waiting for all this excitement because I still have to download the photos to our already over full computer...we need a bigger hard drive! Lets just say I will get to it as soon as the computer and I can.