Fashionista

Kate likes to put on any clothes she can find around the house.  Here she's found a pair of Nate's socks.  She also found one of her barrettes and put it in her own hair.  Then she found a small Tupperware container and wore it as a shoe.  I heard a strange clumping sound in the kitchen and found her walking around like this.  She always says, "Pretty!  Nice!"

Backpack

Thank you for the backpack, Auntie Jill!  Kate absolutely loves it and wants to wear it all the time.

All ready to go!

Bedtime Story with Daddy

Kitchen Help

Grant and Kate really wanted to help with dinner one night.  They were so excited and did such a great job.

All was going really well.  Grant offered to grate the cheese.  I told him I didn't think it was a good idea because it was easy to accidentally grate your fingers.  He was SURE that it wouldn't happen so I let him.

Aaaaaand, of course he grated his finger.  And was quite upset.  Kate, on the other hand, was completely unperturbed about the whole thing and just kept sneaking tastes of the cheese during the chaos.

 Daddy had to examine the injury.

Grant pointed an accusing finger at the offending grater.  

(At dinner, Nate commented that his food tasted a bit like Grant's finger and he must have gotten some of Grant's grated finger in his food.  Grant stared at him, wide-eyed and said, "Are you serious?")

Readers

 Normally, when it gets really quiet I get nervous and find two very guilty little faces.  This time I was in for a nice surprise--they were reading!  

Disconcerting Find

Grant spotted this outside our window and asked what kind of bug it was.  I went outside and saw the red hourglass on the spider's belly.  Yech!  (If you click on the picture, you can see it better.)  About a week later we found a huge black widow trying to climb out of our fire pit when we had lit it.  Nate had just put the wood in without his gloves on and was thankful he didn't get bitten.  Then we moved a storage chest that came with the house out to the curb for the garbage man to pick up.  When we moved it, we found about 8 black widows and a bunch of egg sacs living under it.  Since then, we haven't seen any more.  Hopefully, getting rid of the old wood and the storage unit took care of their favorite hiding spots and we won't seem them any more!  I know there are a lot of black widows in this area, so I'm a lot more vigilant these days.

Recent Quotes

(Context: Grant found about 5 teeny, tiny snails on the pavement.)
Grant:  Aaaaah!  I can't stop looking at them!  They're sooooo cute!

(Context: Kate wanted to see a sheet of tattoos Grant had in his hands.)
Grant: You want to hold them?
Kate:  Uh, huh.
Grant: No--they're expensive!  What are you going to do, waste them?

(Context: I'm trying to encourage Kate to use the potty instead of her diapers.  She was complaining in her car seat about her diaper hurting her leg.)
Me: Diapers don't feel good.  You need to wear panties.  Diapers are yucky.  Panties are pretty.
Kate: Panties pretty?  Diapers yucky?
Me: Yes.
Kate:  Panties better!

(Context: Grant and Kate were hanging out in my closet.)
Grant: Kate, this is called a birthmark.  It means I was borned.

Sign of the Times

Grant made this sign for his bedroom door.  It says "You're Not Invited.  Don't" (don't enter?).  The little person on the sign is supposed to be Kate.  She had been acting particularly pesky that day and he decided the only solution was to make his version of a "Keep Out" sign for his room.  We need to work on his hospitality...and of course his spelling.

Beautiful Day

It finally cooled down at our house and we got to open all the windows and doors.  For a good part of the summer, the kids didn't want to go outside at all so I was so happy when they asked to go play outside.  AND they were laughing and having a great time together.  It was a great day.

Pumpkin Carving

 Nate and Grant discuss what it should look like.

 Grant read a book to Kate while Nate was working on the pumpkin.

The finished product.  

(Hmmm...apparently the jack-o-lantern ate Grant's pants.)

Flower Hat

Grant learned about plants in his science lessons.  We talked about the leaves, stem, roots, and flowers.  After we were done with school, Grant disappeared for a while and returned with a "flower hat."  He said he was the roots. Such fun.

Big Girl

Kate started joining us on a regular chair at the dinner table.  She was quite excited.  This lasted about 2 days, until she flipped her chair over backwards.  Now she's back in her special seat.  But she still tries to sneak in a regular chair whenever she gets the chance.  

Cutie

Family

I just love them so much!

Dinosaur Dreams

We went in to kiss Grant goodnight and found that he'd fallen asleep reading a dinosaur book to his dinosaurs.  It's a little hard to see past the T-Rex, but they're lined up behind it.  

Pumpkin Patch--Lombardi

We took our first pumpkin patch visit of the season this last week.  It was about 64 degrees and a little overcast the day we went--just like it SHOULD be.  Normally we're wearing shorts and braving the heat so it was a very welcomed change.

Helping

Kate LOVES to help. You can get her to do just about anything by asking her to "help" you. The other day she graciously offered ("Help you! Help you!") to help me make some eggs. She was so pleased to get to help and actually did a good job! She was a very careful stirrer and didn't spill any at all.

New Boots and Umbrellas

 Grant and Kate got new boots and umbrellas.  Grant has worn out two pairs since we moved here a year ago, so I know they will get lots of use.  They had a blast trying out their new umbrellas.  There was lots of spinning and twirling.