A little thrifting

 I've been buying a few things here and there, but the junking hasn't been stellar. Maybe it's because I am distracted by Halloween stuff on ebay. LOL

Still, a pile of pretty things though!

End of summer

 Before summer was over we enjoyed the last bits of our pool. (Which then developed a HUGE leak and is now ruined. Sob. I had hoped the kids would be able to swim after school to burn of energy. We will def be getting a new one next year.)

 We made some friends. HUGE friends.

 The kids have been playing a lot of Pokémon. We went to some raid (Don't ask me) at the park. It was CROWDED with a ton of adults playing pokemon. In the middle of a work day (don't ask me).

 I juiced about 20 pounds of lime. Then drank limeade for dayyyyyyyysssss.

And we worked on a Sam sized puzzle.

Plus a birthday party (sunburn for me, horrible, horrible mistake), and meteor viewing (awesome! I had never seen one before, but also, horrible horrible mistake as the children behaved so badly).

Now I am ready for fall, bring it on!

First day of school

 For the first time in nearly 14 years, I am without a kid by my side nearly constantly.  Right now it's a little strange, the house is quiet and I can do WHATEVER I want for a large portion of the day.

For the kids it's great! Grant was so beyond ready to really get into school every day. And Jack is finally at the high school where he can start to spread his wings academically.

 He is getting so tall!

 It was cloudy and rainy on the first day, resulting in dark photos.

We've had a few hiccups. Okay, more than a few. But we are getting there!

Here's to big growth for all my ducklings this year.  :)

Transitions

 Transition time is upon us for the boys! Off to kindy with Grant.

 And off to the big high school with Jack.

(Grant has grown so much his glasses were too strong and he had to get new glasses only 8 months after the last pair.)

(Jackson has grown so much he is now taller than me and finally over 100 lbs.)

A sherbet quilt finish

I have managed to finish ONE quilt this summer. Wooohoo! This is just random patchwork in some colors I enjoy.

Its backed with a shabby chic sheet, filled with a light polyester batting and currently residing on the back of the couch.

Field trip Friday

 We had a stretch of really, really lovely not hot weather at the end of july and beginning of August, so the kids and I headed off to Grants farm. (Grant still believes this is HIS farm!)

 I let the kids feed the parakeets. This was their FAVORITE ever.  We had just come back from visiting the family in Kansas City and Aunt Diane has a 28 year old cockatiel which the kids were really enamored with. Sam sat there for hours squawking at beaker and beaker would squawk back.  So getting to feed birds right after that? So cool for them.

 They are getting to be picture taking pros. They set themselves up this way with no direction from me!

A mystery box win!

 I took a chance on a mystery box of fabric on a facebook group. I was pretty sure there were a few feedsacks in there, so I forked over the (not so small) amount of money.

To my surprise there were a lot of feedsacks in the box! Score.

Doing

 I have been working on perfecting my homemade biscuit game.

 The kids have been playing pokemon. And we finally got Jack a cell phone.

 I bought 15 lbs of limes and turned them into 104 ounces of lime juice, a batch of Persian limes, a batch of salt preserved limes and a gallon of lime vinegar for cleaning (I hope).

 I made a few pillows in spunky colors to replace the patriotic ones.

And I started a Halloween wreath to keep me busy.

A trip to see Nani and Papa

 As soon as the two weeks of swimming lessons were over we piled in the van to go over to Kansas City to see Nani and Papa while they were in town.

 I made my mother in law a new book tote the day before we left. It turned out SO STINKING cute! It was hard to give it away!

 It rained and rained and rained buckets the entire way across Missouri. When it started to clear we had rain on the left and sun on the right.

 We went to the science museum while we were there.

Then we had lunch at the Crayola café (don't do that if you have a choice. We wanted to eat at the train place but the line was insane.)  This crayon wheel sculpture thing was totally cool though.

Hopefully the kids get to see them again soon!