It's the most wonderful time of the year . . . . (-:

Take no offense dear ones, we've had a good bit of fun this summer and we'll meet up again next June for more of the same...but it's just simply time for . . .

THE LAST DAY OF SUMMER VACATION

AND

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!

This past Friday the gang and I went bowling for our last hurrah!

(It was quite cold and rainy last week so our planned trip to the Cranbrook Gardens turned into bowling...the kids were NOT disappointed in the change of plans, hmphh!)

Perfect form!

(This boy and his ramp won two of our three games)

NOTE:

If the bowling alley is having a special like $3.99 for three games or $3.95 for one game, you may not want to get sucked into that third game...I had a smashing headache when we left the alley after three games.

AND THEN THIS MORNING @ 7:48A.M. (roughly (-:) WE HEADED OFF FOR THE

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Beautiful, sunny day, though a wee bit cold.

Wake up time was around 46 degrees!

(I'm still debating my swim tomorrow, it's my last week in the fabulous 50 meter pool and the temps are like mid-October. That's not funny.)

Cool, skinny eggplant from the garden.

(I forget their name)

Picked them tonight and made this, yumm!

Just Because . . .

New song over on the play list, not related to any post as I usually like to do.

Every now and again you just need a song that's going to crack the corners of your mouth into a little smile and get your toes a tappin'.

This one did this for me today and thought some one else might get a little smile:

Stayin' Alive

The Bee Gees!

(-:

Awww, wasn't that nice . . .

Dear Julie,

For many of us summer is coming to a close and it is back to the grind. U.S. Masters Swimming reminds you to take care of yourself, get to the pool and continue to enjoy swimming.

Swimming for Life!
Your friends at U.S. Masters Swimming

Will do, Masters! Thanks for the note! (-:

It's beginning to smell a lot like . . .

PEACH-ES!

(sung to the tune of "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" (-:)

This bunch of sweetness turned up on my kitchen table the morning after the troops returned from the coasters trip. I've never done anything with a peach other than eat them, so here starts my quest. Try to get much of these frozen before they go bad and make something interesting with the rest.

Today was,

Texas Peach Cobbler

I altered the recipe as follows:

Cut the butter in half (1/2 cup),

whole wheat flour,

3/4 cup of sugar (I bet 1/2 cup would work too)

I guess I could get used to this . . .

Yesterday, the big three, SP and Grandma and Poppie road coasters all day at Michigan Adventure (the kids are still sleeping, 10:23a.m.!). Since William is not 48 inches tall (needed for most rides) and my belly is about 48 inches round (not needed for most rides) (-: we stayed home and got a little taste of what Sept. & Oct. will look like for us.

We took a (relatively) calm trip to the mall for three year old pics at J.C. Penny, a slushy and soft pretzel in the food court (that's been my mall treat since I was 12!), played around a bit and then home for a quiet nap together.

So, Jeff, to revise my answer to you out at Lake MI, I think I can get used to the idea of school starting again! (-:

'Tis the season . . .

For Sunflowers!

Wish I could say these were grown here at the house, but alas, they're from a market near Lake MI. Our VERY tall sunflowers planted by the boys are on the cusp of blooming but they won't be able to compare to these beauts!

p.s. Mansell/Keeney Clans, William caught his first fish ever at Grandma and Grandpa's tonight. Ben helped him get it to shore by hand-pulling the fishing line in.

(-:

Need a project for late summer?

Let the kids make a Geodesic Dome:
(Thanks, Family Fun)

The Garden is OUT OF CONTROL . . .

Secondary working title: Me thinks the manure is working!

Possible revisionary title: When will I learn not to plant so many tomatoes!

(-:

So hard for me to resist planting all those tiny tomato plants in early summer.

I'll give it a better try next year!

...

Maybe!

I also let the morning glories from last year seed themselves all over the garden. I thought it would be pretty to have the flowers vining everywhere. Well, (one with more foresight might have thought of this earlier), turns out the morning glory vines LOVE wrapping themselves around everything, especially a jungle of tomato plants, which doesn't really give tomatoes a lot of room to breath.

They are pretty though, eh?

Now that is a healthy eggplant!

Fall strawberries?

My approach to gardening this year has been throw some plants in, fight slugs for a little bit early in the season, and then...good luck, all...may the strongest plants survive, you're on your own. The garden hasn't made it to my priority list this summer, could it be: expecting baby #5?, four kids home for the summer?, too many mosquitoes?, planning for and taking trips? . . .

With that said, the glass is still half full...nine months from now I can try, try again!

(-:

(Oh, but don't count me out quite yet for this season...I still have dreams...do you think I can manage to finagle this little beauty into being built for the top of my raised garden beds before the first snow?)

As I was saying . . .

William Turned Three!!

This past Tuesday:

We had some dinner . . .

We had some Spider Man cake . . .

(does the indent front and center on the cake look to be the size of a three year old hand print? Yep, it is! (-:)

We had fun with presents and funny cards . . .

We swam, swam and swam some more . . .

And then we packed it all up under a glorious sunset.

Happy Birthday, William!!

Thanks for the pics MA. (-:

Where have I been?!?!

Tonight I went to see the movie Julie & Julia (which I really enjoyed) and could NOT believe what the ticket taker said after I made my selection. Are you ready?

He said:

"That will be $10.00."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For ONE ticket!!!!!

To which I exclaimed:

"Has this been a recent change?"

To which the lady ticket seller looked exasperated and said:

"It's been a couple years."

Wow! I feel like I just crawled out from under a rock.

Then I came home, ordered a book and it'll probably be another couple of years before I catch a movie at a first run theater again.

And one more thing, Harrison . . .

If you're going to open a new jar of olives and suck out the pimentos while leaving the rest of the olives to languish...I recommend throwing them away to destroy the evidence!

Do they sell jars of just pimentos? I should get him some for Christmas.

(-:

Guess who had a birthday today!

William is three!!!

Forgot the camera for our lake birthday party tonight and forgot to take Grandma up on her offer to bring her camera chip home, so I'll hope to post a picture or two later. For about two months William's been talking about having a chocolate, Spider Man cake and this very mask (that I offered the kid's one dollar to whomever found it this morning, lucky Harrison) got scrubbed up and put on the cake! Pretty resourceful, eh? (poor child #4 (-:)

Ah, Harrison...Thanks for the great material...

Recent thoughts from Harrison:

Harrison: "Mom, what's my name?"

(FYI, this question comes from the fact that he goes by his middle name)

Mom: "Well, your first name is David and your middle name is Harrison."

Harrison: "Well, when I'm older, like fifth grade, I think I'd like to be called David because Harrison sounds like some one who would wear glasses."

Mom: "Hmmmm..."

(-:

Mom: "Who wants a carrot?"

Harrison: (Comes running over...fast), "Oh, oh, I do...I have the perfect rabbit teeth for shredding carrots!"

(-:

Coming soon: How we spent our summer.

I've found (and ya'll...(how do you Texans spell that?)...may have noticed) that regular blogging has bit the dust since this past spring. So, I'm in the process of pulling together some of our summer fun for one big post.

Here's a sneak peak . . .

Are you on the edge of your seats? Or do you at least feel for those of us in the front seats that have to listen to these cd's? (-: