Like I said . . .

Still keeping busy, four in school or not!!!

And yeah, those beads stick to little toes and travel ALL OVER THE HOUSE!

Thanks a bunch, Liv.

Only seven thousand, four hundred and fifty two more to go!!!

Meanwhile, she won't sit in her regular booster seat anymore and insists on a big girls chair at the table! Yet, when it comes to squeezing into this dandy...

AND,

when the kids get home...

It's time for more big fun!

Ha! (Garden Talk) . . .

See these GORGEOUS green tomatoes?

They've been hanging on my vines for weeks...taunting me!

"We're not going to ripen before FA-aaall" they sing.

(these are a set of about five tomato plants I put in quite late after M.A. gave me some leftovers. Had lots of great ones from my regular garden already. These I threw in my flower bed...thinking of planting more veggies there next year. Anyway, I've got about 50 green tomatoes out there now)

But . . .

HA!

I got one (well, two...oh, three)!

And I turned it into the most divine pole bean, tomato, garlic, parsley, olive oil and balsamic vinegar saute that I've ever made in my life.

Now that's living my friends!

Got those beans from this mammoth vine that's been crawling up the side of the house all summer. It finally decided to produce some beans in September. I was getting worried!

If anyone knows Jack's number, I could use him to climb my beanstalk and get the ones at the top, they're out of reach.

Oh, just a sec, let's interrupt the veggies for an unbloomed zinnia.

Isn't that cool?

The little eggplant that could.

I have four, sad eggplants in the garden this year.

They struggled all summer long.

Two of them finally started producing mid-september.

The pictured eggplant is about two inches long.

Don't think it's going to be that exciting on the grill.

This year I've enjoyed referring to my garden as a "snacking" garden. It grew a good bit of stuff, but we all went out and snacked on the deliciousness as it came and never really accumulated much for anything crazy like canning. That's fine with me, I kind of love having a snacking garden and the kids seem to too.

Still to come, brussel sprouts. Four plants healthy as ever growing big. Just one concern, I don't see any brussels on the sprouts. I'll keep you posted...yeah, I know...riveting!

(-:

Today we went to a kite festival . . .

"Hey, you're not a kite!"

Now we're talkin'.

Today a faction of the family headed out to the Arb for a "Festival of Kites." What an absolutely gorgeous day it was.

But, the fun did not stop with kites of all sizes floating on the gentle breeze, oh no my friend (-: soon we had Livia running for my lap to take in the sounds of these beauties:

Steven Reich would be proud!
(Check that link & let it play for a while)
Dale and I listened to "Drumming" on a trip out west...the entire piece...about 60 minutes in length! Through places like Idaho and stuff (I think...I'm horrible with geography). I can't believe we didn't crash. I really think Dale LOVED listening to the entire piece, I recall him asking me a number of times NOT to turn that *#&% off!!!
(-:

Hey, look what I got . . .

Yeah, I know...

But really, I'm sooooo excited about this find (even though it brings me even closer to resembling Sanford and Son at the house here). Anyway, with a little shining up, this is the absolutely PERFECT cart for hauling stuff to the beach while camping at Hoffmaster on Lake Michigan. Only nine months till summer you know, don't blink!

AND

Look what else I got!

Oh, I L.O.V.E. this vase! Found it at a great little shop in Milford that I frequent every now and again after my swim. One problem, gonna have to seal the bottom with something because it doesn't actually hold the water 100% like the shop owner said it would. Not taking it back though, love it too much. My mom will know what to seal it with I'm sure.

Oh my gosh. What Fun!!

With those Zinnias (planted by seed late in June, love them too), I can't stand it.

AND

We've actually bought a new couch and the reds have been given to the A2 Reuse Center. Here's a tip...don't give your furniture away until you have an absolute confirmation for a delivery date of the new furniture. We'll be without a couch/chair in the living room so far until Oct. 15th...but they'll kindly let us know every 30, 60, 90 days of any changes to that.

Say what??!!

Oh My Gosh...again!!!

C'mon, you just try to find me something cuter than a girl and her blankie!

Oh, another thing about getting rid of the red furniture (which I've absolutely loved for the 12 years we've had it). This month's Better Home's and Gardens has an entire section on "RED, The Hottest New Color of the Season!!" Yeah...well...I'm busy getting ready for the NEXT big trend!

(-:

I thought it was supposed to slow down around here . . .

With four of five in school.

Well,

It really hasn't!

So, in a rush before picking up one kid in school, playing on the playground between school and sports, watching one kid play on their school's soccer team (while another is running Cross Country practice), running home to start and feed dinner, doing homework/piano/et al, and then the bedtime routine (and quite a routine it will be tonight while SP's at a mtg)...I think I'll post a few...

(-:

AND...

We officially waved goodbye to summer yesterday I believe...

Few last summer pics . . .

Don't have the energy to show you my giant beanstalk, growing brussel sprouts, new vase with zinnias or other various and sundry (psst...I always though it was "various asundery" as in, "I have a various asundery of pictures."...totally WRONG!!!...and, I may not even be using "various and sundry" right, but...I don't care...(-:) o.k., on with it here...other various and sundry pictures awaiting download from my camera, so take a last look at summer with me, will you?

Fun with squirt guns!

This shot was taken just before...

"You better not pull that trigger while I'm holding dad's new camera in the lake!"

(-:

And, I know I posted this one a while ago but . . .

It's not like he thinks this stuff up all by himself . . .

It's just one big vicious sibling circle!

Even with all the who's splashing who, they still manage to have some good fun together. Gonna miss our time at the lake, but let's not blink remember, we'll be back soon enough!

I think this is finally it . . .

I have officially gone INSANE!

Yes, as a matter of fact I bought both a fart-sound-making whistle and an air horn ($1/ea) for a five year old boy the other day! Ummm...yeah...that's about all I can say.

Here's what my afternoon looked like.

(And it's not like I could grump about it, because...

I BOUGHT THE STUFF.)

Check me in now, will ya?

(-:

Did you guess? . . .

Yep, it was him!

Oh my gosh, do I LOVE this picture!!!

Wow!

And, I wonder if it's coincidental that the boy who was thrilled not to have gotten "stuck in more than one conversation" was also SUPER excited to sit down with me and later SP to start the book "Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and other Beginners."

Hmmmmm....

Basically his impetus for wanting to program computers is to make a website where you can still do cool things but you don't have to pay to be a member. I'm lassoing that quest into showing him programming since he was my boy into wires and circuits at age five. This book is absolutely AWESOME (got it from the library) and was written by a father and his young son. It is very kid friendly and teaches programming with the Python language. Yet another thing that he loves, the fact that the language is named after a huge, scary snake. Which then makes me recall his conversation in the car today with Ben on the way home from school. He is convinced that he can speak parseltongue (check the link), then he did a few hisses in the car. And Ben is like, "whoa, how do you know that's not something really bad." Crazy.

O.K., now I'm done!

"Meet Your Maestro" . . .

SP's event presented with the A2 Symphony

(click pic to make it larger)

I found a new fun thing over on iPhoto so I've decided to send and post this photo layout everywhere (plus, everyone looks pretty good...Livia and William had just woken up from a nap and the car ride respectively, so they were still kind of comatose and when the photographer said he wanted our picture, everyone fell right in place without a word. This photo needs to be saved for infamy. Plus, Aunt Sally, see the sweater?? (-: She wore it to church this morning too, everyone loved it!)

Let's play, "who said this quote post event" shall we? I'll post the quote, you see if you can guess who said it. I'll see if I can remember to tell you the answer tomorrow. If you want to leave your guess here that might be fun, if not, no big shakes.

"Yeah, it was fun, and I only got stuck in one conversation."

Here's one for ya . . .

William in the Keweenaw, overlooking Houghton and the Portage Canal.

With his Build-A-Bear, Camo!

A couple times SP asked me about some photo he had in his iPhoto library with William in it and was wondering what I did with the background.  "Not me, no idea" was my response the few times he inquired, without really looking at the picture.  Finally, he asked again last night so I actually tuned in and took a look at the big mystery.  And for a second, even I was stumped.  "Where was the kid?" I thought.  When was this pic taken?  And then it hit me...I have that photo of William and the bear cut out and taped to the fridge.  Someone (all good guesses are on Lara) took the picture off the fridge, stuck it to Grandma's painting of the Keweenaw colors and proceeded to take a picture of it!

Only in a house with frozen chick peas coming out the ice dispenser does this kind of stuff happen!

Last Night, This Morning and Today . . .

Last night I was inspired to photograph my zinnias.

I threw some seeds in the ground mid-summer and

am thrilled by the results!

This was the sky that motivated me to haul out with the camera.  This is looking west over the house, while in yard.

This morning I was inspired to get up in 50 degree weather to participate in the last, outdoor, 50 meter pool swim of the season.  Unfortunately, the lifeguard/substitute coach was not as inspired!

 I sat for some time staring at the double M's.

(click pic, it's too small to see)

Other, more Type A's than I, hovered near the gate.

 Finally, by 6:21 even the Type A's headed back to their cars.

Major bummer!!

 And, since I saw only five cars and one truck during my 15 min. ride in to the pool, I decided I could stop in the middle of the street on my way out for one last picture of the ol' place.  It's always mixed feelings ending that swim season.  I'll miss the workouts and pool, I will NOT miss the wake up time!

Today, was Jazz Festival day!

The kids have been asking about it since July.

 Kids placed (but not asked to smile or pose, not worth the agravation) in a great photo op place sipping their free mango smoothies.

(They were hoping for hot chocolate instead, it was a bit on the nippy side...can't say we didn't tell them eighteen times to dress warmly...)

Interesting angle of the Hart Plaza fountain.

I was trying to just get Livia but those boys (who continually protest photos!!!) kept stepping into the shot. (-:

End note and "Good Bye" summer:

My camera had a "lens won't open" problem in August.  Sent it in, they couldn't fix it, they told me to pick out the equivalent camera that's out now.  Whoo-hoo, do I have a SWEET new camera again (got my other one last Nov.).  This one is a step up (for no additional cost) and if the video below actually posts you'll see one of my new FAVORITE features (in addition to HD video and amazing clarity on my 14x zoom lens).  It's a Canon PS SX230 HS.

We love our lake!

Dicey looking weather weekend so we made SURE to get out to our local lake tonight.  Good night too, with the thermometer registering 96 degrees!

Lake closes after Labor Day and Monday's high is expected to be in the 60's!!!

Sometimes this brother just loves some sweetness with his sister.

But quite often he's pulling something like this!

Sometimes even our little sweetie is known to have a moment or two with blood-curdling expressions.  This was most definitely one of them!

But most often she's a big armful of smiles and joy!

Got a ton of awesome sunset, doc jumping, squirt gun shooting pictures tonight in case it's our last time out for the year.  But now, I'm tired.  I actually swam three times this week (I know J, I tried to do four, didn't quite make it) with one day left, Monday.  Hoping the weather is kind so I can get one more swim in the great 50m outdoor pool.