A little bit of Grant-man

This afternoon, in an effort to keep Grant entertained and distracted while the other kids played outside with their neighborhood friends, I tried to enlist his "help" with our oh-so-fancy-and-nutritious dinner of chicken nuggets and fries (Greg wasn't eating with us). I said, "Grant, do you want to help me scrub the potatoes?" He promptly ran out the slider to the back yard, and I realized, a few moments too late, that he thought I said "pick the tomatoes." He ran back inside, arms full of green tomatoes and showed them to me with the cutest look of pride on his face. He truly thought he was helping me, and it was so very sweet. I couldn't be mad. This just isn't my year to have tomatoes, I guess.


















Grant and sleep just don't go together, never have. This last week Grant had his longest stretch of sleeping through the night--5 nights in a row! I ruined it, though, by telling people after the 5th night. Greg says it's like a "no hitter." We're not allowed to talk about it! Guess we've become superstitious. :)

This is how I found Grant two nights ago around 9pm--sound asleep on the bottom stair.  That particular night Greg was gone, and I chose to ignore Grant and let him wander about, and eventually, he gave in. Not sure this is the best method (pretty sure it's not, really), but it worked for me that night!

First Day of School

I have a 3rd grader and a 1st grader who were both gone ALL DAY LONG. Drop-off was great this year (quite different from last year's drama in 2nd grade), and I only cried a little when we left the school and got back in the car.

Both kids had good first days! Joel did have a little run-in with a metal pole at recess and had to go to the office, but he recovered fairly quickly, it sounds like, and just has a little bruise on the forehead. Aubrey thought they should have come home a lot sooner (asked multiple times if it was time to go get them), but the little two and I had a good day, too. We got doughnuts and ate them at the park this morning, stopped by and saw Grandma who had Russell for a little while, and made cookies in the afternoon to have together when the kids came home.






 



Kari and her friend, Lucy. They were very pleased to discover their desks were right next to each other.

End of the summer beach time

Greg took a vacation day Friday, and we headed to the beach for the day. We made our way to Rockaway Beach via Tillamook so we could go to the cheese factory, do some sampling, and get our ice cream. We shocked the kids by allowing ice cream before lunch. Little do they know, I'm up for ice cream any time of day.

It was a beautiful, sunny day but windy and not all that warm. We were only on the beach for about three and half hours, just about the right amount of time on the Oregon coast for me. The beach is not my favorite, but I love my kids, and they happen to LOVE the beach and everything that goes with it--the cold wind, the cold water, the messy sand. I hunkered down in my multiple sweatshirts and hoodie (should have brought a winter coat) and had a lot of fun taking pictures of my family while they played and had a blast. I took A LOT of photos, as you can see, and I didn't even post them all. We let the kids play, ate our picnic lunch (along with some sand), let them play some more, and headed home in the late afternoon. It was a good day trip and totally worth it.

(click on the collage to see better)

We'd only been there a few minutes when Grant got knocked over by a little wave. He was NOT happy about it. As you can see, Greg thought it was pretty funny, and it was. :) Grant got over his indignation pretty quickly but didn't venture too far into the water after that.