Back to School and Random Happenings

For the longest time Kayla had been nearly distraught over her lack of missing teeth.  All throughout her kindergarten year we would hear 'so and so lost a tooth!' 'when is my tooth going to be loose!' 'IT'S NOT FAIR!' and so on.  Well over the summer, while eating corn on the cob, her bottom tooth let out a little pop; and just like that ... it was ever so slightly wiggly.  I kid you not .... she wildly jumped out of her chair and cried little tears of joy.  It was infectious.  I cried too.  And Garrett will never admit it but I'm certain I saw his eyes moisten a bit.  Finally, after a month of wiggling, and with a little help from daddy, that tooth came out!  And with more tears .... mostly from me.  I don't think I'm ready to see those baby teeth go!     

We were all very excited to see what the tooth fair would bring that night!  Turns out, these days she leaves a note and has her own special coin!

A big project over the summer was a mahogany writing desk Garrett worked on.  This last move we pitched the corner desk, constructed mostly of particle board, we bought ten years ago from Office Max.  It needed to go.  A desk like that just wasn't meant to move from HI-CO-NC-AZ and then to MD!  That left our laptop sitting on the kitchen counter/bar, and THAT was no bueno.  So I put in my order and Garrett looked over dozens of plans and we settled on this one.   

I love it.  It's absolutely beautiful.  Little did we know this would end up being the most challenging project yet for Garrett.  To the layman, you think, a desk ... it seems simple enough.  But those legs, they had to be symmetrical and tapered exactly right.  stressful!  

And then he made his own pulls!

The entire front curves in ... which means the drawers all had to curve along with it.... tricky stuff! 

With the leftover wood from the desk Garrett made a couple of craftsman frames to hold a pair of vintage style maps.  

We glued the maps onto cork board and used black pushpins for overnight stays and white pushpins for meaningful day trips {not just 'stopped for a lunch pass throughs'}.    

The next project, I think, is going to be a buffet ... sideboard, whatever you want to call ..... just not a hutch! All our nice china, stemware, flatware, remain safely tucked away in boxes.  We neeeeed somewhere pretty to store 'em all in! 

On now to a little randomness....

Kayla has been clicking away with her camera...

Kitty, her trusted friend since she was about 9 months old

*Kayla photo*

group shot of a few other favorite friends...

*Kayla photo*

our little backyard pool..

*Kayla photo*

*Kayla photo*

I thought this one was pretty good!  Kayla saw this silly squirrel hanging on the tree and HAD to snap a shot!

*Kayla photo*

The ever sooooooo cute little bunnies that graze in our backyard...

*Kayla photo*

The kiddos made a little sweet meal for them...

*Kayla photo*

Before school started back up we squeezed in a few last minute fun activities to include:

Feeding the ducks ..... we should have brought more bread!

An outing to Bass Pro Shops where the kiddos got to feed the fish!

You might remember we attempted to take the kiddos to their first {minor league} baseball game only to get rained out back in May!  Second time was a charm for us!  We had so much fun.

It was glow stick night at the game....

and fireworks afterwards!  This was the first time the kiddos saw fireworks live and they loooooooved it!  Good memories.

figuring out her self-timer feature...

And lastly, we enjoyed a great afternoon bar-b-q along the water with our Sunday school class from church.

1st day of FIRST grade!

1st day of PRESCHOOL!

These kids!  Where is the time going?!  They both love their schools.  Gavin is going Tuesdays and Thursdays (for a total of 5 hours).  A little less than I would like but that seems to be the norm out here.