This Girl

Last First Day of Preschool

Started off the day with the now traditional breakfast of first days.  Whit was most thrilled about the popcorn nose, which I found left on the counter from the night before and decided to add at the last minute.  Gotta love him.

Off to school and super excited!

A Day for the Pigs

We spent the day at the Indiana State Fair with dear friends doing everything you can do at a fair.  As state fairs go, it was very impressive - clean, well-organized, and a perfect array of all the foods I wanted to inhale.

Quinn watched everyone ride the rides

Whit played ONE game (I could barely handle the obscene cost for these things, and now understand why my parents almost never encouraged me to play them growing up) and he won a pretty cool giant bouncy ball.

We posed for obligatory photos

We learned all about how food goes from farm to table in a very impressive kids exhibit

And most exciting of all, we spent a LOT of time with pigs - Hampshires and Yorkshires to be exact.  It was super interesting to a nerd like me.  My friend Hallie's family has a pig farm in OH and they always come show at the IN State Fair.  She and her husband actually met showing pigs when they were young - love at first swine.  It was so fun to learn all about what they do to raise and show these 400 lb. hams.

The event was a family affair - here you see Hallie's sister Hannah wrangling one back to the pen after its auction, and her son helping.  You see farmers doing this while looking like they are going out for a night on the town, as you can see Hannah wearing very nice clothes and jewelry.  LOVE that.

Hallie and fresh baby Eli

Another wonderful visit with Ella and Emerson!

Paradise Lost

My grand dreams of a Martha Stewart garden have gone the way of the dodo.  Paradise was lost somewhere between the animal that has burrowed under our raised box and attacked the garden like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon, the Japanese beetles, the mold infection, and the massive hail storm (the last of which left me embarrassingly weepy).  God bless the farmers of the world, for theirs is a heavy burden (admittedly lightened by crop insurance, but still).  This was definitely a year of learning for us.  Example A: These zucchini look impressive, eh?!  They sure do!  But bigger is not always better, folks, for once they reach a certain size, these giants become filled with seeds to the point where preparing them is no longer a simple task, and they just don't taste as good.

Made for some fun moments for the kids though, and that is worth it...I guess.

Then we come to the pumpkins, which have been both my greatest success and my greatest failure.

We'll grow our own pumpkins, and then when Fall comes we will carve them and have the pride of knowing that those pumpkins on our front porch were made in our backyard!  And look, we even got four pumpkins out of that one plant - one for each of us!  It is fate!

If you look closely, you can see that the stem is broken off the top, which I have now learned is the last sign that things have gone terribly wrong.  I went to pick up this guy's friend the other day, and he deflated (yes, deflated) in my hands.  So all four of our orange beauties have become fertilizer, due in part to the fact that I refuse to remove them.  They don't deserve the effort.  I hope the vermin that burrowed in eats them and gets a terrible tummy ache.

Next year we will plant only flowers.  ONLY flowers.  And herbs, of course.  And the tomatoes have done pretty well, so maybe we'll do those again.  Andy wants to try corn, so perhaps we'll do that, too.  And the strawberries are annuals, so we'll have those.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I can't let the dream die just yet.  And besides, I have to teach the kids to just keep trying........yeah, we'll go with that.

Some People

Some people come into your life for a short time but leave a lasting impression.  Quinn's speech therapist, Lisa, is one of those people.  She has been an important part of our lives for the past several months and her influence cannot be overstated.  As she moves on to a job in another state, we are very sad to see her go.

Whit, Quinn, and I made Lisa a little going away present to remember Quinn by.  She has been an answer to prayers for our family, easing us into this world that often leaves one with more questions than answers.  We will be forever grateful for her encouragement.

Great Friends

My dear friend Marnie met us at the Indy zoo this weekend.  We worked together in the OR in Virginia almost 9 years ago, and I have nothing but fond memories of my time there, mostly thanks to this lady.  It was wonderful to introduce her to our crazy little ones and to catch up.  On the way home, everyone in our family remarked on what a great time we had together (Quinn delivered her enthusiasm in gleeful squeals).

A common sight in our family - somebody loves Daddy