Good advice

A wise friend recently told me that it's not a bad idea to invest in something early in life that will make your life easier, especially with little kids, and very much especially with 5 of them!  So with that in mind I finally decided to make a couple of purchases that would do so.

When you go from a house with 2 trees in your yard to one that looks like this...

 

 Front yard

Back yard

 

Did you count them all?  I have.  There are 22 trees and all will lose their leaves each fall except for 2 of them.  So when you have 20 trees (not including the lilac bushes, and grape and ivy vines), in a small, fenced-in back yard & live on a corner lot, it's not crazy to invest in one of these...

 

 

Oh, and 3 of those trees are apple trees and this year they look like this...

 

...so that's why I bought 2 of these...

 

Why 2, you ask?  You remember that we have 5 kids, right?  Well, 2 peelers are better than 1, but 5 was out of the budget.  Plus, I am thinking that after a few apples, they will get tired of it anyways, so when they do, Jason and I will have something we can work together on.

Thank God for good friends and good advice!

Bravery

I can't tell you how proud I am of the kids in the following pictures for their courageous hearts last weekend.  #35 is A.J. during his first football game of the season.  They beat the Lancers.

 

 

Later that afternoon, he was tackling the climbing wall at Bug Days.



 Miss Faithy climbed many times as well!

 

Ian couldn't take watching his older siblings do it without him & he begged for a chance.

 

Actually he did it several times without any hesitation.

Our niece, Brooke, ran for Bug Days Queen...

 

 ...and had to answer a question in front of a crowd (among other things before that night).

 

 She was 1 of 11 candidates...

...and she went home with the well-deserved crown of "1st Princess"

 

Brooke and the rest of the royalty will now attend the local town parades until next year's coronation and gain a load of experiences she'll always remember.

 

Laney and Faith, along with friends, started up a rollerblading club and decided to be in the Bug Days Parade together.  They made shirts...

 

 ...and handed out freezies to parade watchers.



Noah's courage was in taking on a doughnut the size of his face.  Now that's the kind of courage I can relate to!!

Signs of Fall

The kids have been back to school for 3 weeks now...yes, we have 4 in school full-time now!  Just me & Mr. Noah at home...what will we do??

 

Well, the wait is over and harvest in our yard has begun!

So, I think I'll be making lots of juice and sauce... 



 

"Improvising" by Ian Allen

It should come as no surprise that when there are boys in the family, who like to play baseball, and a yard full of abundant apple trees,

that this is bound to happen...

 

 

I guess it makes more sense to have an endless supply of "balls" to hit rather than waste energy chasing after the ones hit into the raspberries or the neighbor's back yard!  (On a positive note, Ian DID make sure that his little brother was out of the way before swinging away.)

In July...

Noah caught his first fish

Ian loves to fish, too!

 

A.J. fished pretty much non-stop that weekend!

(You can tell by his wind-blown hair.) w/ cousin Kaden

\

Another good day of fishing!

40th birthday surprise for Jason...

the kids blew up all of the balloons themselves and then dropped them over the stairs onto his head.

A.J. went to Legionville camp with 2 classmates

 

Take me out to the ball game

It comes with little surprise that when I married a man who loves baseball that most of our children would love it too.  So as our kids grow, I realize that my years of sitting beside a diamond will become a more frequent occurrence during our summers.  It is fun to watch them play and I am amazed at what they can do at such a young age.

 

Faith started her first year in fast-pitch softball after a few years of T-ball.  She was often seen on the pitcher's mound and behind the plate.  She likes to be where the action is.

Ian played T-ball again, but his favorite place to be was with Daddy and the Mudhens team...

in the dugout...

...and on the field afterwards.  I swear the boy would sleep on the field if given the chance!

Noah had the role of spectator with me, but sat by Daddy any chance he could get.

A.J. did lots of playing behind the plate and at shortstop, as well as pitching a little.

His team took 2nd place in an ALL DAY double-elimination tournament.  

I think they ended up playing 6 games that day!

We were all tired, but they did great...coming in 2nd to a team that played over 30 games this year, compared to our dozen or so.

As you can see, they never rest and baseball doesn't end even when we're off the field,

but I sure love it!

 

(If you're wondering about Laney, she doesn't care much for sports,

but she really enjoys being in a quiet home with SuzyCat while the rest of us run around.)

Ya, I know!

It's been awhile!  I finally got pictures moved over from my camera to my computer, the kids are back in school, and I can sit at my computer to do stuff like this...finally!  I am somewhat overwhelmed by how many different things I could blog about, but how about we start here for now.  I will let pictures of the younger boys tell you how our summer went.