Frog Hollow

 Well, we are down to only 1 frog- Fred.  We've had him since August 3rd.  He's now eating extra small live crickets, which I have to buy for him almost weekly.  We decided to make one last trip to Frog Hollow before Fall/Winter.  The boys had planned on getting 2 more frogs to bring home, but there wasn't a single frog to be found. No crawdad's either. But Piper did find a little field mouse.  Piper was just curious and playing with the mouse, but the boys stopped her.  Then they stood guard to protect the mouse while it recovered.  Eventually it scurried away. Jason tried to catch a fish.  We saw some huge fish swimming, but no luck catching anything. Kaiden played in the sand. Connor read his book on the boat. Then Connor and I stretched out to relax on the boat for a while.

Kaiden

We have another 2 wheel biker! We've tried to get Kaiden to ride his bike for a while now, but he was too short to reach the peddles or the ground. He's been riding his strider bike since he was about 2 years old and the tires are literally worn out. We were leaving to take Piper for a walk around the neighborhood and Kaiden went into the garage to grab his bike like usual, but instead of grabbing his strider he came out with his 2 wheel bike.  HE decided he was ready and after only a few attempts down our side walk he was riding it like a pro!  Within the hour he was not only riding it perfectly on the sidewalk, but riding through the grass too.  By the end of the day he was doing jumps (bunny hops) and turning tight corners and riding while standing up too.  First day riding and he didn't even have any big falls, no skinned up knees, nothing! He's finally tall enough to reach the ground and can put his foot down to catch himself if he does loose balance... although his balance is incredibly good after practicing on the strider for so long. I think Connor was a bit jealous.  It took him longer to master the 2-wheel bike, but he didn't have the strider to learn on either. Connor really didn't take interest in learning to ride until his best friend, Collin down the street started riding his (he was a year younger too). Kaiden's best friend, Landry is jealous too and now he's practicing riding his bike too... although he doesn't have a strider so his balance is way off still.

Connor with his little buddy, Isaiah (AKA Bo-baiah). Isaiah is Landry and Raheem's little 3 year old brother. Connor loves to hang out with him and he's so good with him. Bo-baiah has a fun personality too.

Grandma

 My mom spent a few days with us before flying out for Arizona. Kaiden loved having her here and talked her into playing a ton of games with him. Chess is one of his new favorite games, which grandma didn't know how to play. It was funny listening to my 6 year old explain how each piece works in chess. Kaiden is really good at remembering the rules and being able to think ahead to plan out moves. Connor is super good too.  Last year Connor would play chess with his friend, Tian if they had in-door recess. We don't even play chess very often with the boys, but they are both incredibly good.

My garden went crazy this year. I grew tons of huge zucchini.. more than I know what to do with. Tons of cherry tomatoes- I ended up canning some salsa. Plus I had a bunch of cucumbers that I canned into pickles. My green onions were amazingly huge. I'm going to miss being able to pick from my garden and sad when I have to start buying the small produce from the store again.

I made Kaiden a sign for his room. First attempt at making a sign.. I learned a lot and made some mistakes on this one. It says "Kaiden is the Flash" as in Flash Lightening.  He's fast, so we call him the Flash. 

Connor is now mowing the yard. I usually mow the front yard, dog kennel and perimeter, then Connor finishes and mows the rest of the backyard. 

We think Piper had her first wasp/hornet encounter. She loves to chase and try to catch butterflies. I'm thinking she ate a wasp/yellow jacket/hornet. We saw her chasing butterflies in the backyard and then she started acting weird.  We saw her laying down acting odd. I ran to the store to get some benadryl and shortly after she started swelling up. Her face and throat swelled up pretty good. We couldn't find any bites/stings anywhere on her body. After the benadryl, lots of snuggling and a good rest she was back to normal though. 

Last pictures are of Kaiden's Lego creation. He adores his big brother and loves to create Lego masterpieces just like Connor.  Last picture is what school life looks like this year.  Connor has a computer and desk in his room. He prefers to close the door and do his work in silence. He's very independent. I set Kaiden's computer and work stuff up on the end of the formal dinning room table. I usually sit with him while he works or get him set up and working on something while I zip around the house doing other things inbetween.

Curlew camping

 We spent 4 days camping at the Curlew campground.  The boys fished off the dock, we played outdoor and board games, water gun fights, rode bikes and scooters, watched a movie together, Connor decided to take up running and we enjoyed spending time with our camping neighbor Helen and Larry.  They were a very sweet couple next to us. The boys adored their cat, Wilson.  Wilson goes for walks on a leash and likes to lounge in a cat condo outside.  The also had a German short hair dog, Spinner.  We relaxed and enjoyed our time. Although late Saturday a large group of noisy campers showed up and drove Jason crazy with their kids running wild and noisy.  So, we opted to give up our hook-up site and move to a spot across the camp ground that was more secluded with no hook-ups just to get away from them.  Turns out the new spot was super quiet and there was hardly anyone over on that side, so we had the place almost to ourselves! On the way home we decided to stop by Grandma and Grandpa's for a visit.  That's when we found out our door knob to the RV had somehow jammed or locked up and Jason had to crawl through the bedroom window.  Once we got the door open it was fine though. Just a little comic relief to end our trip. My tomatoes are going crazy and I had a ton of ripe ones when I got home.