We've been busy...

Busy making pictures...

Busy making covered wagons to go with our Little House on the Prairie books...

Busy making music...

Busy making craft show goods...

Busy making... A BABY! Introducing Baby Lawrence... due to join the family in May. We are OVER THE MOON with excitement!

October recap

Well hello, ol' friend. So... October happened. Let's share a few highlights from the month...

We road-tripped to Indianapolis. We made this trip when the girls were 3 and we thought it was a piece of cake then! At 5, it was a walk in the park. We got up and left around 5:00 in the morning - I had the car stocked with a basket of new library books, which single-handedly ruined any chance of Abby falling back asleep. "When will the sun come up?"... "Can we turn a light on?"... "I should have brought my book light..." ... "I just can't wait to read these books!". What's not to love about that? And read she did, with her sister joining after the sun came up. There was not a single negative peep out of either mouth - they traveled great, they slept awesome, they ate like champs (as usual), and they were charming guests in someone else's home. John's cousin and wife, Mark and Lisa, treated us to yet another wonderful weekend getaway, which included:

Children's Museum:

Neighborhood horses and fingernail painting:

After John recovered from the beer and tamale consumption that took place in Indy, life settled in as usual...

Lots of reading took place (as it does everyday):

A couple of teeth fell out... is anyone surprised that the girls lost their first tooth one day apart and it was the same tooth??? Oh, and at their 5-year check-up (which we just had done), their height was the same and their weight differed by only .4 pounds. Not FOUR pounds, but POINT FOUR pounds....

I know other great things happened between the teeth and Halloween but you get what you get. Toward the end of the month, we had our 28th annual pumpkin carving party, followed by Halloween. Abby dressed up this year as "an angel named Winter" and Elise danced her way through the holiday as "Liesl, from the Sound of Music". Homemade costumes rock - Abby picked her fabric and jewel for the shirt... Elise selected her shiny pink material for the poofy sleeves. Simple, inexpensive, and well-loved. Abby started coming down with a cold on Halloween and trick-or-treating was questionable... until the scolding began: Elise, finger pointed in my direction, "Mom, you cannot make Abby stay home. She gets to wear her costume and go and you can't tell her no." Typically, I wouldn't condone that type of tone directed toward an adult. But when your kids stick up for one another, regardless of the circumstances, it's worth supporting. Abby, you have your sister to thank for Winter, the angel, making an appearance at Halloween 2013.

Let's get CRAFTY!

Making "stuff" keeps me going. Really, it does. Big, small, success or failure - the start-to-finish process of DIY keeps my wheels turning. I've pondered the possibility of doing a craft show here and there and, with no further adieu, I took the plunge. I will participating in the Lawrence Craft Collective's first show. This particular show has appeal on a number of levels - one of the organizers is a good friend of mine (Jill, with Stitchouse Designs) ... it will be taking place downtown at Liberty Hall (awesome!)... and there will be Free State beer served. Win...win...win! Keep an eye on the website for info and get your DIY-lovin' derrière down to Liberty on Sunday, November 24th. Here's what I have in the works right now... more to come, with buttons and flowers, oh my!

Bam! Now it's October.

Here's how I feel about waking up and realizing that it's already October:

It seems like September gave us our last summer hurrah that was much needed. We played in the sprinkler... watered the flowers and made chalk drawings... hatched our monarch butterflies for the third year (this year was our butterfly garden's best one yet!)...

And now we welcome the beginning of Fall with open arms, campfires, and hoodies. Yes, please.

Suddenly September

Wowsers. It's September! I bailed on the photo-a-day in August.. never started September... and abandoned the blog for two weeks. I guess that's what happens when school starts, right? It is back to the grind in mid-to-late August and we are deep in our studies about:

Insects...

Farm animals...

Reading and writing...

Music:

Physical Education:

Snack time...

And social skills...

Kindergarten is off to a pretty good start. I guess being back to the grind isn't so bad after all, huh?

Photo-A-Day Challenge: Day #23: Yellow

Bright, yellow egg yolks. Egg yolks from our backyard... from Lavender... two-at-a-time. It seems quite fitting that the first egg we cracked open from our feathered friends was a twin egg. Not the one pictured - this is her second twin egg. What a beautiful sight! Maybe she was born that way... maybe our organic chicken feed rocks... maybe it's the quinoa they eat? Or the peaches, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, kale, KITCHEN SINK???? Hearty chickens, hearty eggs. 

Can you spot the twin-yolker in this picture? Yes, that would be the one that prevents the top of the egg carton from even closing. Kudos, chickens, kudos.

Photo-A-Day Challenge: Day #22: A Room

Which room? The living room. Specifically the living room floor. It's rest time, aka "reading hour". It is also currently a Little House-a-thon... Abby is reading Little House on the Prairie; Elise is reading Little House in the Big Woods. There are few sounds more enjoyable right now than these two reading aloud. Even the dog enjoys it...