The Last Fruits

This is the last harvest of grapes off our vines.

We have enjoyed an abundance of yummy fresh fruits and vegetables this summer from our backyard. At a time when grocery store prices are creeping higher and higher each week, our family has had the fortune of having fresh fruits and vegetables at our fingertips for free! Now if we just had room for a cow and a couple of chickens we'd be set! Anyway, this summer I think my favorite crop was our grapes. They were so tasty...very sweet and crisp and they were such a nice and healthy snack for the kids (and for us too!) We realize time and time again what a blessing it is to have a yard big enough for a garden, a nectarine tree, and grapevines and I realize time and time again what a blessing it is to have a husband who enjoys gardening. Thank you Daniel for planting and tending to all of our crops!

Buddies

These two boys have been having so much fun together lately. They are at the age where they can actually work together and play together instead of just working and playing side by side. Andrew came over the other day and these two lined up all of the buckets from the sand box and systematically filled them up with sand. Meanwhile Rachel and I are shouting from the patio, "Remember boys, keep the sand in the sandbox." And last night our Bible Study had a farewell party for the Drollingers and Aden and Andrew played together the whole night! They had so much fun jumping on the trampoline, playing in the playhouse, dumping wooden puzzles out all over the floor, etc. They both got to bed WAY past their bedtime but it was definitely worth it because it was one of the last times they'll get to be together like that for a long time...sniffle, sniffle. So sad! How do you explain to a 2 1/2 year old that one of his best friends is moving away? Anyway, this morning at breakfast I asked Aden if he had fun last night and he smiled and said, "I have fun with Andrew!" It was sweet.

That's One Way to Do It

I was washing dishes this morning and heard the boys playing the piano. It actually sounded quite nice so I peeked my head around the corner to spy on them and this is what I found. Jonathan was "cruising" along the piano keys. For the record...I do actually supervise my children. I'm learning, though, that it doesn't take long at all for them to do something naughty or to get themselves into a precarious situation.

The Shirt Says it All

"Jonathan's a wild man!" is an ever-so-accurate quote that often comes out of Aden's mouth. He really is a wild child...sweet, but definitely wild. His t-shirt says, "I do all my own stunts"...so appropriate for this string of pictures. The shirt actually belonged to Aden when he was Jon Jon's age but it fits so much better with Jonathan's fearless, rough and tumble personality than it did with Aden's sweet, compliant, somewhat timid and tentative personality. Jonathan has proven himself to be every bit of a climber that Aden was (maybe even more so) but he is much more reckless than Aden ever was and he doesn't obey quite as quickly as Aden did. Hmm...a recipe for disaster? Perhaps. A recipe for some bumps and bruises? Most certainly.

"Corn anyone?" (In this picture he really does look like a wild man!)

"Maybe if I hide behind the curtain, the stool and the cracker tub Mom won't see me in here stuffing my face with Saltines."

"Just doing my part to help around the house Mom."

Orange

Can you tell what Aden's favorite color is?

The other day Aden and I were playing with Mr. Potato Head and we had him fully assembled with all different colored pieces when Aden looked at me with a "Wait, we need to fix him!" expression on his face and said, "A orange shoes Mommy" and he took off the blue shoes and traded them for the orange feet. Then he said, "A orange nose Mommy" and he took the pink nose off and switched it out for the orange one and did the same with the ears and then the hat (although it's actually red, not orange) and he even looked for orange arms but had to settle for white ones (his second favorite color) since our Mr. Potato Head pack didn't come with orange arms. What a goose...a goose who LOVES the color orange!

Boys and Dollhouses

Last weekend we were at the Bates' house and the boys discovered this darling dollhouse. They were enthralled with all the little pieces and had quite a nice time playing with it. It was pretty cute. Who says little boys can't play with dollhouses?

Picture Perfect

So this is what happens when you set a two & a half-year-old and a one-year-old next to each other on a chair and say, "Hold still so Mommy can take a picture." Pretty funny. I was trying desperately to get a nice shot of them so I could show their Grandma just how cute they look in the new Hanalei Surf Co. t-shirts that she got for them. Oh well...at least she can get a picture of their silly personalities.