August 2013

The finished floor! It looks so nice! And it's slippery right now, we have to be careful walking on it. But it's SO much nicer looking than before.

Caleb, Levi, and Ian with their "city" game.

Ian wanted a picture of him and Ellie matching.

I got french braids into Ellie's hair! It only lasted a few minutes, but it was cute while it lasted.

We made a visit to a nearby town that has a train park - it's one of the boys' favorite places to go.

We grew these! Finally, this year we got some things out of our garden. I picked this many beans at least 4 or 5 times.

And, we grew tomatoes!! We canned over 20 pints of our own tomatoes. That's amazing, considering in the past we've barely gotten enough to eat a few.

School started! Ian is in 5th, and Caleb and Levi are in 2nd. Ian is going to school, and for various reasons, I've decided to homeschool Caleb and Levi. We'll see how that goes, but I'm excited and I think they are, too. Ian loves school and was super excited about all the fun things 5th graders get to do, one of which is change classes/teachers between the three 5th grade classes.

This summer we decided we'd walk 50 miles. We started the first day after school got out. We usually walked a mile a day, and we were doing really well! Then it got hotter, we went out of town a couple of times, etc., etc. So we were down to the last weekend before school started (it started on a Wednesday) and Ian still had 6 miles left to go! Caleb and Levi had fewer, there were times when not everyone went on a walk at the same time. But over Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, we were able to get everyone's miles in! On Monday I think we went on three walks, but we did it, and finished 50 miles two days before school started. That's a lot of walking! But it was a fun goal, and I'm glad we did it.

During August, we also made the 12 hour (one way) drive to visit family. We were able to see grandparents, lots of aunts and uncles, and some cousins. We stayed at our cousins' house and had so much fun with them! It was worth the long drive.