rachel's continued ramblings

sunday: on our way home from church, we spotted this mama raccoon and her baby down the street from our house. SO cute! mama was not super happy about us looking at them and quickly ran over and put her arms around her baby. adorable. also sunday: micah had added some interesting ideas to our summer “to-do” list. this accomplished 2 of them. we walked exactly 4 miles on the trail with bonez. (also, balloons!) monday: aquasox game! another summer list item checked off. (it was FREEZING!) also monday: layla’s last day to be 11. tuesday: and she’s 12!! she had a fun day. starting with picking up a couple of friends and hitting 7-11 for free slurpees. then she helped bake her birthday apple pie, got a new leotard to wear to gymnastics, where she shared cookies with all her teammates. then home to have ribs for dinner, gifts, and pie with ice cream. also tuesday: shane’s last day to be 17. this was pretty significant, as it was his last day of “childhood”. (i may or may not have been quite ...

monday: this is what happens when it’s time for me to make dinner. ALWAYS right in the middle. ALWAYS underfoot. and if you happen to bump into him? you get a dirty look and a little growl. dogs. tuesday: alert the tooth fairy! (also, note the dangling one up top.) wednesday: back to school haircut for me. also wednesday: yup. I hope the tooth fairy didn’t go too far away. friday: this is micah’s “seed pumpkin”. he and shane went down to the farm and were helping lynn, who was pruning her pumpkin plants. this little one didn’t make the cut, so micah got to keep it. he was very attached to it. also friday: happened to be driving down the road by this park at just the right time!! saw this through the trees and went careening off the road and into the parking lot to check it out. they were just taking off. SO exciting! I love these balloons! saturday: happy anniversary to us! celebrating 10 years (a little early) with an overnight getaway.

busy, busy week, with a weird twist… sunday: meet “carrot guy”. micah is way into making his food into people or flowers, or some other such picture lately. monday: on the train at “rumblinger” farms with MOMS Club friends! tuesday: new use for the clothesline: it’s a cat run! toby did eventually wiggle out of his harness, but he only went as far as the garden. he so desperately wants to be an outside cat. wednesday: while running birthday prep errands for her and shane’s impending birthdays, it became quite apparent that layla was NOT feeling very well. sore throat, cough, and what turned out to be a fever. she finally fell asleep on the way home in the back seat and stayed there for at least an hour after we got home. thursday: with most of her birthday plans thwarted by illness, we had a mellow day at home that eventually included opening gifts and having her requested dinner of french toast. she wanted brownies for her birthday dessert. friday: AND… another birthday! shane’s...

we have this local ‘farm’ that is actually more country store/amusement park than it is farm. they do have u-pick berries seasonally, and a pumpkin patch/corn maze thing in the fall, but my kids have always liked to go for the rides. it’s definitely aimed at the preschool-lower elementary crowd. it’s actually called remlinger farms, but shane started calling it “rumbling” farms when he was little. layla subsequently adopted it as well, so we have always just called it “rumbling”. now, apparently, she’s picked up on the “er” part at the end, and added that. I’ll be sad when everyone actually calls it the right name. we probably will have outgrown it by then. a groupon came out in june for 2 for 1 tickets, and it got put on the MOMS Club calendar, so we made plans to go on monday. layla and micah had a blast. pony rides: these are actually lined up in front of a stagecoach the kids can climb into. on the train that takes you through the whole park. the canoe ride. the swing carous...