Project 365: Day 274 - September 30

These girls had their first Junior meeting with their new troop tonight.

It's like a homecoming for them since they both started out in that troop. They moved from that one to another one to follow some friends, who are no longer in scouting, and then when that troop folded they came to my troop, which worked fine for last year. But now the age difference between these 5th graders and my other girls, who are 6th and 7th graders, is a bit more evident. Tens and thirteens just have different needs, even in girl scouts! while I'm sad to see them go, they're really going to have fun - their leader is fantastic and enthusiastic. They're planning their Bronze Award project and a trip to Savannah, GA!

K1 Trip to the Apple Orchard

All eight K1 classes travelled to the apple orchard today. As if that wasn't enough chaos, there were also three chartered busloads of kids plus two large groups of preschoolers! The kids went to "apple school" where they learned what happens in the apple-growing process during each season of the year.

They got to pick all kinds of apples - the Golden Delicious apples were the closest to their height so Will's bag was mostly filled with those. He did get a couple JonaGolds, a Winesap, and a Red Delicious. He's very excited about making applesauce with his apples.






There were bins with gourds and mini pumpkins, as well as more apples and larger pumpkins. I did manage to escape without buying a big pumpkin, but Will really wanted those cute little pumpkins! I'm wondering where they have disappeared to, and am thinking he's stored them away in his room to be forgotten and found later when things get really smelly!




After apple school and apple picking, the kids got eat lunch before going on their hayride. There was a lot of running around and finally a posed group shot!

By the time they all got back to school all of the teachers needed a nap!

Project 365: Day 273 - September 29

Mud Buddies!

Project 365: Day 272 - September 28

This two-trunked tree came down in the middle of the night. We'd been watching it and hoping that when it fell it would miss the tree house. Thankfully it did! The trunks straddled another tree, keeping it from falling closer to the tree house and taking it down too! It's really amazing that it kept standing as long as it did - there were no roots left!

Field Hockey #1

Caroline's team is the pretty blueish-purple team. She hates the color!

They lost 5 -0.

That's her with the blue & purple bow in her hair!

Project 365: Day 271 - September 27

Katherine at the computer pretending to be the president.

Will in his house-box getting mail from the president.

Morgan finally got her team rugby - six months after ordering it.

Did You Know?

There is now an official Care Bear museum!

Royal Sharks - Game #2 cancelled for rain - boy bummed

One More

Katherine was a trooper yesterday when we had to run to school to take care of Will and then run him to the doctor. She had stayed home because she wasn't feeling well and was actually sleeping when Will's teacher called. She wanted to stay home by herself and keep sleeping, thinking I'd be right back. I'm so glad that we didn't do that!

Non-Running Scenes from the Meet

I love this picture. I love that we can see K's 10 year old face and that the little girl looks from behind just like K did when she was 3!

Will is a big help - if we wandered away from our home base blanket he'd pull it along with us along with every belonging we brought with us!

Granddaddy came to cheer Morgan on Wednesday! She loved that!

Will kept busy with the calculator until the races began. Then he was all about cheering the runners at every point that he could get to on the course!

Project 365: Day 270 - September 26

It's been so long since we've collected eggs!

These guys (gals?) just wandered on up to the back door and started pecking at it!

She has an Orange Cast

This is the girl who likes to climb trees and swing from the branches like a little monkey! Mary got her cast today and let KK sign it! Pretty cool!

Project 365: Day 269 - September 25

We have a narrow white board next to our kitchen doorway where we have been measuring the kids. When we moved in I transferred all of the prior house's measurements to this board and then nailed it to the wall.

Although I try to at least measure each child on her actual birthday, somehow I have failed my oldest! We looked at the wall this morning and she noted that she had not been measured since January 17, 2006! That's almost three years ago! Yikes.

I'm not sure how that happened but I'm pretty sure that some of that time she just wasn't growing! That's my story anyway! Since that time though, she has grown 6 1/2inches! Now, she's almost as tall as I am (no great feat!), but not quite.

That's Two!

This morning at 10 the phone rang. It was Will's teacher. Never a good sign.

He was in the office with a bag of ice on his eye because he'd been hit(accidentally) with a block by another child. His teacher said, "The wound is bleeding and you should come see." So, I dragged sleeping Katherine out of her nice warm bed and headed to school, where I left her in the van (with the windows down!). Will was in with the Principal playing with her magnetic toys. We looked at his wound which was close to the right eye, and thought it didn't look so bad. We went to the doctor just to be sure the eye was okay. Because the cut was so close to the eye the doctor didn't want to use glue, and she thought stitches might just traumatize him. So, she taped it together with steri-strips and told us to leave them on. No glue. No stitches. Got a sticker though.

This is the story that the boy wrote while we waited for our pizza:

Once upon a time there was a little boy who had to go to the doctor and he got a package of band-aids right on his eye. He was playing with blocks at school and he got hit by a block. It was bleeding and he had to get some ice from the principal at the nurse’s office. He got to play with some sticking guys until his mom came. He had to go home because his eye hurt. But then he decided to go to the doctor because his eye was still hurting. So, he got to see Dr. Perriello, but not the real Dr. Perriello. It was his daughter, Dr. Perriello. She looked at his eye and washed his eye and then put some band-aids on his eye. And that’s the end.
The End.

Written by Will
9/25/08

Project 365: Day 268 - September 24

Today we were blessed with not just one, but two, babies at Bible study.

The girls are both moving around much more than they were the last time they both joined us.

They only distract us periodically and never all of us at the same time!

Home Meet #2

They run before they run, and they run after they run. You'd think they'd get tired.

Here's the start -the yellow team had at least twice as many and maybe three times as many runners as we did. The green team only had one female runner.
Here's our top runner. Last week she broke the course record. This week she came in second. I haven't heard yet if the winner broke the record.


The coach had the girls run in groups of four and five. Each half mile a different girl was to set the pace. At the two mile mark the girls were on their own and could run as fast or as slow as they wanted. His goal was to give them a good run but not wear them out since they have a big invitational meet on Saturday.

Bye Bye Now

These girls are headed to Wallops Island for the next 4 days. They are in for a treat.

You can tell that Caroline just hates leaving home - bye mom, see ya!

The forecast shows rain and wind...luckily there will be hot showers and hot meals! As long as the food is plentiful the girl will be happy!!

Project 365: Day 267 - September 23

Charley decided to like Will's backpack today. He actually took two different naps on that backpack! I think it's really funny because today's picture from school was of a red cat trap. (you can see it in the picture.)

Of course, Charley could not have had even the first nap if the backpack had been put away properly.

It's a disease. I'm convinced of it. There's not a soul in my house who can walk into the house and not drop everything on the floor! If not a disease, it must be a disorder or at least a condition.

Project 365: Day 266 - September 22

Project 365: Day 265 - September 21

Caroline was supposed to have her first field hockey game today. It didn't happen. Somehow her team was the only team to show up for the game. The girls didn't mind and really enjoyed being able to practice on the real field!

Out of the Box

This beautifully decorated box came home with Caroline this afternoon. Little did we know that there would be an ever prettier cake inside.

It was yummy too!

Project 365: Day 264 - September 20

This one is having a girl!

Royal Sharks - Game #1

Will and his fellow Royal Sharks had their first soccer game today! There are several friends from his class on the team, including David, Troy, and Ian. There's also the Carter from preschool, not to be confused with the other, from-church-very-special-friend, Carter.

There was a lot of running up and down the field, sometime with a ball involved! Each week the players will have a 20-minute demonstration period, followed by 20 minutes of practice, and then a 20 minute game!
Today's skill was dribbling - they dribbled with their feet, their hands, and their heads. Will especially liked kicking the ball backwards.

Molly and Caroline - today's pick ladies - helped the game out by throwing balls in every time a ball went out of bounds. They had a great time being helpers!



Since Morgan was away (and David, too) we decided that there should be lots of pictures and a post-game interview with the family's favorite Royal Shark!