Loose tooth, starting school and the fair...

The biggest news in our house this week is that Oak has her first loose tooth! She was brushing her teeth before bed and started crying, I ran in to check on her and she said that her toothbrush hurt her tooth. I check, and sure enough she has a loose tooth. She went from crying to giggling. It was pretty cute.

Then wednesday was the first day of school for us. We started the day with our traditional pancakes. We have been doing this since Mac started going to preschool I think.

Then we did our traditional signs, something we have done every year also.

The kids helped me paint chalk board paint on this cupboard door to make it a sign.

This isn't what I had planned for school, but they really wanted to write stories. Mac didn't have the patience last year to write more than a couple of sentences. But he sat down and worked really hard on a story. Then through out the day he wanted to write more. This year we are trying these cute little tin pencil boxes to keep their pencils, glue and scissors in for our school day. They can only use the stuff in it for school and it gets put back in the their school crates with their curriculum when we are done with school. They loose pencils and ruin glue and wander off with scissors too  much and so I am hoping this helps.

It was also the first day for them going to the homeschool center that the kids are registered with. We carpool with our friends so this is Oak walking in with her friend. Her friend in the yellow is a year older than Oak. Oak is seriously a giant. 

I had one egg left in a carton and Oak claimed it as hers for the day. I told her she could if she kept it in the kitchen and if she threw it away at the end of the day. Me allowing this proved to be the wrong way to go. She became so attached that she threw quite the fit before bed when it had to be thrown away. Lots of sobs then anger and she threw it at the garbage can and made a huge mess. It was not pretty. I guess I won't be letting her do that again.

My MIL is awesome. She knew that we finished listening to these two books on CD and so she knew we wanted to watch the movies now and sent them to the kids. She's awesome like that.

Trying to be more prepared for our school day I am going to try to get up early and read my scriptures and prepare our daily lessons. 

Saturday was the Tulelake fair. It is the biggest fair close to us. And it is really just the right size. It isn't as small as the county fair here and it isn't as big as the county fair where we grew up so we both like the size of it alot. We love that there are free pony rides.

We kept running into our old Bishop's family at the fair. We probably ran into them five or more times. We also saw a ton of other people we knew, from our ward, Stake, homeschool, and the community. They fair also does a parade, so thats what we are doing here, waiting for the parade to start. 

When we got home from the fair, the kids got right to work on their imaginations and dress up. 

For the last couple of week the midgies have been BAD. It wasn't bearable to go outside. Getting into the car was crazy. So the kids just haven't played out side much in the last couple of weeks. But we noticed that the midgies are pretty much gone for the  most part. So I kicked the kids outside. They were making guns out of sticks. ug.

We also found a really great place for a hideout and we will start clearing it out and making it safe for the kids to play in. It's perfect. 

lots of yard playing and work and bees...

The sunsets through our family room window are pretty amazing. This was a beautiful peach sky.

Mac was having some tummy troubles so we were talking about good bacteria in yogurt and that he should eat some. So then we had to look them up to see what they look like. The kids were totally grossed out. 

Mac has been trying to earn and save some money to buy a lego set. He mowed the lawn by himself for the first time and made $5

Oak wanted to make a little money also and helped cut some branches.

Mac was a bit accident prone this week. He smashed and scraped his fingers in the heavy, self closing door that goes out to the garage. When he gets hurt he tends to hate the world and blame everyone but himself. It was hard not to laugh while comforting him while he is yelling, "I hate this house, I hate that door, I hate the whole world." A few days later he biffed it big time while running and has some nice skid marks on his chin, elbow and then hurt the same two fingers he had smashed a few days earlier. At first we thought he may have broken or jammed a finger because it turned blue and swelled. But the next morning it was fine and he could bend it. 

One of our favorite meals is enchiladas. I have found the perfect, simple recipe. I usually use green enchilada sauce but decided to use red to see if Mac was more willing to eat some. It was SO good. I don't think I will be doing it with green anymore. And Mac still didn't care for it much.

The midgies were bad this week. YUCK!

Oak got a fairy house book from her birth family for her birthday. The kids had a fun time one day making their own.

Love them.

They are getting better about going out and playing. This is their digging spot.

Climbing trees.

We invited some friends over for a playdate and the kids were so excited that they sat on the back of the couch and looked out the window watching and waiting for them.

We have pumpkins!!

When the kids are digging in the dirty, their feet look like this when they come in.

Being so silly.

A breakfast conversation with daddy...King Kong...Empire State Building...blimps...the Hindenburg disaster...a math equation to figure out how many people survived...the Titanic sinking...a gospel discussion...icebergs...perspective...empathy. It was so fun and interesting to listen too. Something I love about homeschooling is that learning can come from anywhere, anytime and lead anywhere and we can relate the gospel to it all when ever we feel the need.

We went to the park for National Honey Bee Day. The kids loved it. Playing a wildlife game.

Making a Mason Bee nest. 

Making a car with Home Depot.

They thought Oak had the best costume so she won a jar of honey.

When we got home from the bee event daddy pulled up videos of someone putting a hive on their land. We plan to do this at some point and the kids were fascinated.

He was hoping Beaver football started today.

My friend Emily was on her way home to Vegas when she texted me saying she would be coming through KF and wanted to stop by real quick. I loved it. I felt so good to see and hug and old friend.

While playing in the back yard, Oak found a bunch of potato bugs (she is a bug lover) and she put them all on her dress and kept saying she was their mother and she had to take care of them.

Oak playing with potato bugs in the dirt, Mac carving some wood with a pocket knife and daddy trying to fix a broken sprinkler pipe.

Mac wanted to earn some more money so daddy gave him a really heavy pick ax and told him to get a tree stump out. haha

Her favorite thing to do. Play in the dirt and make mud. She did this for an hour.

Yummy mud pie.

Then the kids played chicken with the sprinkler. It was the perfect end to a summer night. And Oak got mostly washed off.

dirty face!

We have always lived in neigborhoods with kids for the kids to play with. And they love that. So I was a bit worried about moving out to the country and not having that. But it has proven to be wonderful for their relationship. These two play so well together when they are outside. 

birthday, organizing, mud and yard work...

This is what my husband does with our kids before bed almost every single night. LOVE.

Found this drawing of Oak's. It says "Grandpa Dick (heart) love you (heart) Dick.

We finally got a humming bird feeder and a regular bird feeder. The humming bird feeder has been fun to watch. We need to find a better spot for the bird seed feeder.

Mac is really into making eggs lately.

Putting my four year old to bed, just so she can wake up and be FIVE years old.

Butterfly wings that brother got her.

She chose to go to the movie Minnions for her birthday activity. It was terrible by the way. I would not recommend it for little ones. There were several parts in it that I felt were not appropriate for little kids. It is really disgusting and frustrating that a good movie has to be ruined with those things. 

So Hubs and I have two closets in our bedroom. A small one and a big one. I decided that we could use the small closet in our bedroom as a coat and shoe closet. And to use the full size coat closet in the hallway, near the kitchen as a homeschool closet. Hubs built and installed me three shelves in it and I love it! So excited for all the space and to be able to shut the door on it and not see it every second of every day. All this stuff kinda took over our dining room in our townhouse before.

So a friend told me I should add avocado to our smoothies. I was skeptical, but decided to finally try it. My kids didn't even notice. Yeah for extra healthy in our smoothies!

So we had a sprinkler pipe break in our back yard and it made a nice mud hole for the kids to play in. They played in it for a good hour.

Muddy girl!

Grandma C got these Harry Potter glasses for Mac and we found him one morning drawing wearing them. So cute!.

We finally made it to the Farmers Market. We keep forgetting. We got some delicious tomatoes, some local honey and some homemade lemonade. And the kids got to play a little bingo game where they both won at the same time and both got to pick a prize out.

Then we headed to Home Depot for a few things and this is always where the kids end up.

We also had to make a stop at the Grange Co-op for a wheel barrow and almost left with this horse. It was a rescue and so sweet. We don't have the means to take care of one right now and I told Oak she can't get a horse until she works in a stable and learns to take care of one. Which we plan on doing at some point.

Daddy did get the kids some arrows for their bows. The kids had a blast.

Mac was good at getting his to hit the box.

He is wanting to earn money so badly and so he will start helping with the lawn mower. I got one row done and let go of the lever and we couldn't get the mower to work again. The engine keeps flooding or something. So he will try again this week.

I am thinking I am glad we got the wheel barrow instead of the horse.