Bee-utiful Day

We've been taking it easy lately as we headed into the throes of the school year. Honestly, I'm quite please with how we toned it down. But the honey crisp apples are ready, and when the apples are ready it's time to rev it back up.

Grammy is in town to take care of Meemaw after her knee replacement so we dragged her along with us! It was all going great, the kids played, they ran, they jumped. Most importantly, they picked. 

Thatch showing that birdseed activity table who's boss.

Grammy and her fellas on the apple train.

Thatch taking a bite of an apple, forgetting that he had a loose tooth. Key word, HAD.

Coopster, nibbling like a little mouse.

He was seriously bothered by his tooth at this point. It fell out at lunch, about an hour later. 

These are cool blocks, I'm thinking adults would make it like Jenga. Kids, however, build awesomely unstable structures. 

A bee ended up stinging Harpie in the mouth while she was eating an apple. It was okay, for a while...

Auntie Lorny and Meemaw came to the farm too! Here's a very rare picture of Grammy and Lorny together :)

 And then we went to lunch, which was fun. Until we looked at Harpie and then it was like "OH CRAP". Her lip had swelled to this heinous state, very quickly. I called the nurse line, grabbed some benadryl (which I will be keeping a bottle in my car now) and headed over to urgent care. Traffic was a nightmare because the only way to the hospital was through the Costco area. On a Saturday. It was an effing nightmare.

  When we finally got there they whisked us back and checked her blood oxygen levels to make sure she wasn't having an allergic reaction. She ended up being okay and we kept an close eye on her to make sure the swelling didn't move to her tongue or airway. After a few hours it calmed down and my nerves were put to rest. If you are keeping track of bee stings this year the current stats are:

Thatch: 1

Cooper: 3

Harper: 1

Coopster wins...or loses, depending on your view.

Here's my sweet little Harpie, doped up on Benadryl and with some crazy sugar lips. Poor little Heathen.

I have a feeling this is one of the last beautiful summer days as the official start of Fall is just around the corner. Harpie's lip made it memorable...as did our 30 lbs of honey crisp apples! :)

XOXO,

S

A Labor (Day) Of Love

The past two days have been...hectic...to say the least.

 I, being delusional about early morning wake ups, decided that we should totally do the NFL Play 60 Kid's run. It was the Seahawks 1/2 mile race around CenturyLink field that ended inside the stadium at the 50 yard line. Boom- you had me at Seahawks.

I signed the boys up (H was too young) back in June and it seemed like an awesome idea. The race was at 11 AM so if we left here at 9-ish we'd get there just fine. And then, they moved the start time to 10 AM. And then Jonathan freaked out about the "holiday" traffic. And then we were up at 5:30 AM leaving by 6:30 AM. My plans were foiled.

But alas, I was up at 5:30 (even though I went to bed at 1AM) and even though my blow-dryer stopped working (turns out I was so tired that I was changing the heat setting, not the on/off setting) we were out of the door by 6:45. Jonathan was a hot mess because we were leaving "so late". Anyhoo, turns out people don't actually have to go to work on Labor Day so there was NO traffic. Absolutely none. We probably saw maybe 50 cars total, obviously savvy shoppers on their way to sales. So we rolled up to CenturyLink at 8:15. Oh, did I mention he didn't want to stop for coffee because we might hit traffic? He wasn't the only hot mess in the car.

Harper just looked like a hot mess. I actually was one though.

Once we were there though, the Seahawk adrenaline kicked in. I LOVE CenturyLink field, it's like my own version of blue meth. It's addicting and I'm willing to spend all of our money to get there. Jonathan gets it too. We're junkies.

Seriously cute little SeaGal. 

Yeah, we were THIS early that we took pictures with no one around. 

Speaking of Blue Meth, we found our own Walt. Walter Jones...NFL Hall of Famer WALTER JONES. Jonathan practically peed his pants. Thatcher, not so much. Coopie was terrified of the giant. Harper though, she lost her shoe she was so excited to meet him.

And then I managed to get a picture with all of the kids! I ran the race with H on my back, just like this. 

And Jonathan, still high from his Jones encounter, even allowed for a picture.

Someone was starting to get impatient and grumpy though. 

This guy was too, but his was from excitement. Thatch went up to the 8 year old section while Coop, Harps and I hung back in the 4 year old section. Coop was pissed about that. 

And here's us post race. I literally ran the 1/2 mile with H on my back. Stupid. Not doing that again.

Cooper showing off his medal.

And some post race refreshments. 

After the race we all went and had lunch with our favorite server at Redhook, Auntie B! But I forgot to take a picture. Jonathan had one too many with lunch and I had to drive home. while he napped in the passenger seat. I don't know how I made it, there was a brief nap at a rest stop but when we pulled into the driveway I got out of the car, opened the front door and went up to bed. Rip Van Winkle managed the kids while I recouped from "Labor" Day.

The next morning was the 1st day of school!! Thank God, after Monday I needed a break.

H needed in on the action too.

2nd Grade. How is that possible?

Coopie is calling this year Pre-Garten. 

Running to get Thatch to school.

And then thwarted by Mom's attempt to take pictures outside of the school.

Thatcher's school mascot is the Gnomes. And this is the new Principal. He's a keeper. Enough said.

I caught this when he thought I wasn't looking. Hello, old friends :)

Thatcher and his new teacher, Mrs. Young.

 And then it was Coopie's turn! It was a short, get to know you, kind of day for pre-school. He's the upper- class man this year so he showed everyone how to roll.

Making our hand print for the Kissing Hand lesson. 

Teacher Charlene and all the Kid/Mom combos.

Rug time :)

 Right, like I'd get a day off. I woke up at 6 AM, painted these chalkboard numbers/letters, made breakfast, made lunches, drove everyone around, did the photo shoot and made it home in time to do the dishes, eat lunch for myself and then pick T up. I need to get a job, this Homemaker gig is rough.

I'm sending the computer away this afternoon so there won't be any blogs for a while until we get it back or possibly get a new one. Either way, you guys are used to it since I often forget to do posts! See, I was just preparing you.

See ya later alligators,
S

As usual...

As usual, I've been keeping these little people busy. Thank God that school starts tomorrow because I am EXHAUSTED. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I had fun also but I'm totally ready for a schedule. And quiet. Three days of three glorious hours of only girl noise. Not so much for the alarm clock though.

Here's what we've been up to, as presented by visual evidence:

We went to the library's Frozen extravaganza. Thatch was too cool to be in the picture but H totally "Let It Go."

Then we went to the BP picnic, which was AWESOME. There was a zipline, a mechanical bull, unlimited free ice cream trucks, trains, and bouncy houses...but no booze for the exhausted parents/employees. Oh, and J had to work so I made Grandma Jonesie and Papa come with us.

There were pony rides too. This is the "unicorn" Coopie wanted to ride :)

And then he found a Papa to ride :)

Here's Thatch freaking out about going on the zipline and Grandma Jonesie restraining encouraging him :) 

This is just cute. I don't know why, in general I'd not be happy about this rough housing but they're boys and it was 3 weeks ago so I'm over it.

Here's a cute video of Coopie pre-zipline. Turns out he weighed enough but his little waist was too small for the harness so he couldn't go. Sadness ensued.

Coopie was able ride the mechanical bull. He wasn't impressed at all. 

But Thatch rode the bull and let me just say, that kid rocked it's face off. Actually, it didn't have a face, but he did awesome! You can see on his face where he goes from "Oh, this is fun" to "Oh.My.Gosh.". 

Okay, so this is just a picture of kids in blankets but here's the back story: I saw a "thing" about a free drive in movie that a neighborhood puts on drive-in movie so I loaded us all up and headed out. When I pulled up though it looked oddly like a grocery store and not like a drive in...word on the street is I'm not really great at keeping up with dates during the Summer. The drive in was the night before! So we came home and rented Back to the Future on Amazon. 

I, feeling badly about the mix up, let them have soda, popcorn, and (GASP) even candy! I'm giving guilty pleasures a new meaning I suppose.

So...then I got a text from my favorite teacher from High School. Good Lord, I must have been an uber Goodie Two Shoes, or was I this cool even that far back? Anyhoo, Mrs. Holmberg was visiting her sister, who lives in Bellingham, and I was able to see her for a bit and she was able to meet the Heathens. Fair warning: I'm in a swimsuit. I apologize in advance.

This vessel is referred to as "the booger". It was seriously fun though :)

Harper has no fear of the water. Life vest it is then.

And then she got tired. Like, really tired.

But Thatch was having so much fun paddle boarding so we toughed it out!

And then the crabs showed up. We played with them, smelled them and then left them to fulfill their purpose in life, dinner. Mrs. Holmberg provided us with an awesomely exhausting day :)

And then we took them to the Fair. And it was dark. And warm. We were confused, that's not how we are used to experiencing the Fair :)

This picture is kind of cool. The trains though, left something to be desired.

Coopie thought they were just fine the way they are though!

Actually, Coopie was into it all. He's not terribly discerning when it comes to a good time. This worries me.

Thatch dug the Dragon Lady too though, so it's all good.

But then we found the real rides...

...and I was terrified we were going to end up buying a $200K tractor and have to live in it. Luckily, we didn't manage to break anything...well no one chased us as we left so that's what I assume.

Then we saw this. Jonathan and Thatcher insisted that we needed it for our front yard. Maybe finding a house can wait a little longer.

We managed to survive the Fair, even though our bank account didn't fair as well. Nor did our waists.

Then we had MORE visitors! My Mom and my Grandma came to stay with us. So what does Harper do to prepare for them? Pee on the couch, of course. I'm really wondering what I was thinking when we decided to not go with the leather couch.

This is me, in case you forgot what I looked like. This is my "I should be cleaning but I'm going to procrastinate and take pictures of myself" face. 

And here they are! I made them pick apples. And then I made a pie, so they weren't mad.

Here's my little Ladybug in a pumpkin patch. 

I'm getting kind of decent with a camera. This isn't even edited. :)

I'm maybe not so great with the angles though. Sorry about my double chin. It's clearly not genetic. My Mom looks great though.

And here we have 4 generations.

Thanks to a flipped cement truck in the middle of I-5 we missed my Grandma's flight. It was rescheduled though and then we had time to head over to Pikes for a bit! 

Cuteness :)

Cutting of the Cheese at Beacher's. Har. Har.

And there you have it...August. Whew. 

Get back to school now little people, Mommy is going to need at least until October to stop twitching. 

Peace out Peeps.

S