Summer's Last Gasp

I should be pulling the rest of the weeds; replanting the sage, thyme and oregano; washing windows; watering the compost pile; laying down a new layer of bark chips--winter is knocking on the door here in CV. It's going to snow this weekend. I can feel it in my bones. I'm counting on the fact that there will be at least two more dry weekends before continual frost. It will be cold, no doubt, but hopefully dry. And with those thoughts, I park myself in front of the blog...

What happened to September? I look at these pictures and I can't believe how quickly it came and went. I'll start first with a few more birthday pics and work our way back to the first of the month.

Shown here: more historical evidence of the blob cake; Lachlan's favorite gift, gum; and giving her best shot at the princess pinata.

Jack and Lachlan are now wearing their "hot" jammies every night. Jack likes to have a choc-choc ba-ba right before bed and Lachlan enjoys watching Dr. House on Fox while sucking on an old diaper rag. I told Lachlan to start watching for the sky to get pink after dinner because that tells us that the sun is going to bed. They are now both obsessed with the sky, starting at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Today on the way home from preschool she told me that we needed to hurry because the sun was going to bed (estimated time: noon).

Maria taught Lachlan all about dress-up this summer. I now get frequent requests for hair clips, Sunday shoes, and a purse. I made the pink boa for her. She hates it because it is "too much" (her words, not mine). Of course it's too much, it's dress up! She's only wearing it because I told her to just try it on (notice how she doesn't want it to touch her purse!). Now, on the other end of the spectrum...there's Jack...something "too much"? Impossible. Shown here are his two favorite outfits. Chicken with Elmo "swippers" and authentic gypsy wear that Nanny Nancy brought back from Greece. He totally digs the twinkling coins. Who wouldn't??!

Family night. Jeff got a new church calling and lets just say that it has been for the better and for the worse. Mostly better for everyone, sometimes worse just for me...but let's stick with the subject. In order to avoid total hypocrisy we have implemented a "real" family night. I mean we sing 10 songs, have a 2-minute talk about anything Jeff and I deem pertinent, sing more songs, have a prayer, and then Lachlan does her vocabulary homework.

Or we go mini-golfing.

The course nearest our home isn't difficult, but it does have some screaming water traps. Half of our golf balls are probably still at the bottom of those lagoons. The kids liked it. They didn't love it because they were totally confused. Hit the ball, but don't touch it?? It was much more fun to climb on the rocks. Jeff is a good golfer. He had so many "hole-in-ones" that I stopped counting. I have ZERO athletic ability due to poor eye-hand coordination and no patience. There were several holes where Jeff allowed a "re-do" of the whole thing because it really wouldn't have been a contest if he had to mark down 10-11 shots per hole on a par 3. Oh, and this is a great shot of the kids toasting a successful family event. Cheers.

And finally, we discovered this summer that Lachlan is a rock climbing machine. We were at the park for a Murray Family Picnic and we looked over and saw her climbing the wall all by herself. We couldn't get her off of it. I actually had to pull her down with both arms when she got to the top because she wanted to climb OVER the wall, too. I guess that only weighing twenty pounds can really come in handy when you are trying to lift your own body weight. Jack learned to love the park this summer. He prefers the slide and the swings to climbing. He starts on the slide in the seated position and then hurries and flips over onto his stomach on the way down.