August Highlights

Just a few memories from the month of August....

Benjamin sheds his training wheels

On our last camping trip of the summer we brought the kids bikes with us so they could ride around the paved roads of the campground. Benjamin has been riding on his training wheels for a very long time now and Aaron has tried many times to persuade him to take them off but he never wanted to do it. This time though we were camping with his cousins (Rachel & Riley) who also brought their bikes. He soon realized that his training wheels were holding him back from keeping up with the rest of the kids so when Aaron encouraged him to take them off he was more eager to try. I love this picture because Aaron is promising him 2 chocolate chip cookies if he will try to ride his bike without the training wheels. You can see Ben is considering it but I think in the end it wasn't until he was promised 3 cookies that he finally got the nerve to try it. By the end of the weekend he was riding around with the best of them.

Blackberry Pies

This was definitely the summer of Blackberry pies. The kids were hooked on the first one I made and day after day would pick a bowl full of blackberries asking me if I would make another pie. I think we had a blackberry pie three nights in a row one week. How can you say no though when they're the ones doing all the work? This is a picture of Aaron's sister Suzy when she came to visit with her girls. I was gone that evening but left them a pie to eat. When I got home they had picked another bowl of blackberries so that I could make them another pie the next day. Just as a sidenote-I didn't get any blackberry jam made this year......I'm sure you can guess why.

Summer Chores

At the beginning of the summer Aaron gave the boys some summer chores. Their big project was to paint the old shed out by the sand pit. They were also supposed to gather 10 fallen big sticks or 5 large branches every day to gather in a big pile to be burned. Our acreage is primarily made up of Alder trees which fall down easily in winter/fall wind storms so there are plenty of branches to clean up over the 6.5 acres. They finished the shed just days before school started with very little help or supervising. The only drawback to having them do it was the mess it made and having to clean out their brushes and rollers after every time they worked on it. It almost seemed like more work for me but it kept them busy and now our shed isn't turquoise green.

Nezzy has kittens

After our cat went missing for a couple of days she found her way home and we soon realized she was pregnant! We never took Nezzy in to get fixed because she was a free kitten given to us after our other young cat had been hit by a car. Since we were on our third kitten in less than a year we didn't feel like spending any more money on vaccinations or spaying until we knew she was going to be around for a while. Well, she made it to her 1 year birthday and soon after that is when she got pregnant. I was actually thrilled with the idea of her having kittens because I knew how exciting it would be for the kids. As the time for her delivery grew closer I kept hoping that she would give birth during the day when the kids were awake so they could be a part of the experience. I have to admit that I prayed several times about it too. So it was really neat that she went into labor just minutes after the last child left from Ben's Birthday party on a Saturday afternoon. She gave birth in a little bed we made for her in the laundry room and the kids all gathered around a few feet away and were able to watch the kittens being born. She had 4 kittens and it took her about 2 hours to deliver all of them but it was such a special experience for all of us to be there while it happened. We were all together sitting on the floor and there was such a peacefulness there in the room as the kids quietly observed the miracle of life.

When the kittens got older the kids gave them names: Blackie, Golden Eye, White Stripe & Lucky. We found homes for them among our friends and let the kids keep one. They chose Golden eye-the scraggliest, but toughest one of the bunch. I think that there's something about little kittens that really teaches little children tenderness and love. I was so touched by how careful and loving they were with the kittens. Some mornings I'd sleep in and wake up to find the kids down in the laundry room watching them (and as they got older) holding them. I also learned that my husband is a big softy for kittens. He loved holding and snuggling them every bit as much as the kids.