Worst of times and the Best!!!!!!

Wow, never thought i would be able to use that sentence in relation to us! But i guess i have always been alittle dramatic....... : )

Summer i guess is finally at a close. I remember this time of year i was painting the outside of our house during nap time. Getting sun burnt on the ladder, but freezing first thing in the morning. When we wake up it is pretty chilly to where we have to bundle up while watching a.m. cartoons, but too hot in the evening to wear warm jammies to bed.

We had a pretty great summer considering. We got all of our chores and to-do projects done while also waking up in the morning and packing lunch and snacks and heading out for the day to do fun stuff! We went clamming almost every week and have some tucked away in the freezer while getting to make an amazing batch of clam chowder to see if it worked with the clams we got. Marryn and I spent our birthday money and took a day trip to the zoo. Since Erawyn was the only one who has gone before down in San Diego, she had the other girls convinced we were going on a plane to California, cause that's were the zoo is! ; )

Alot of time while we were in town we would spend the rest of the afternoon at the park, or just have plain old smores for dinner and forget the hot dogs! Erawyns favorite food in the whole world is corn on the Cob and watermelon. We made a point to stop at the farm stands a couple times a week to give Erawyn her fill. I guess there is worse things! Funny though shallon can't stand watermelon or corn, same as marryn, but Marryn eats all of daddies tomatoes out of his salad before he gets a chance to sit down. Every other morning i would go out to bring in tomatoes and Marryn would be having them for breakfast.

Our garden did great this year! Already have new plans for next spring that mike and i are excited about. Tomatoes did great so i didn't have to buy any this year to can. My pruning job cut down on the apples this year, but that just means next will be better than ever-hopefully. Right now our grapes are coming on and i am trying to find ways to use them. Fortunately most of them are great table grapes so the kids are eating them up. We had our own blueberries and raspberry and blackberries that we got to make jam out of and also throw in the freezer. We already have a trench dug to separate our raspberries and make a whole new row of baby plants.

Erawyn did great at school! I am so excited for her in this new phase of life. I still remember my days as a kindergartner. Thanks to the Mimi's, Erawyn got some new school clothes that made her feel as special as the occasion. There is one outfit that she wants to wear over and over but sheis doing pretty good picking out her clothes and getting her belongings ready. At the last minute we decided to put shallon in pre-school. It was way too lat to enroll, but with her level, we stopped at a local place that has been around for as long as i can remember tat uses homeschooling curriculum. As you would have guessed, there was an opening so we felt it was right.

Both girls school started at the same time and is only about 1 mile away from each other, so we drive them in. Then i go to pick up shallon at 12 and then Erawyn rides the school bus home for a hour. She is pretty darn excited about it but with the long ride home, we hope to be able to pick her up every now and again.