It's all full

I have been leaned on lately about updating my blog and I finally have time to sit down and do it.  Well, to my surprise, this blog is full.  Can you believe it?  And, Aunt Becky, we filled this blog in just 198 posts.  So our new blog will be www.thetallertrail.blogspot.com.  Wander on over and see what we are up to now.

Mom's birthday

On my Birthday, everyone was at school and work.  Therefore, I had lunch with a friend, went to Costco alone (and ate all the samples) and then spent the afternoon reading a book and relaxing.  Before dinner, I was treated to a show.

There were lots of headstands and attempted headstands.

And ballet moves.  Can you believe this was all set to music?

Then all my girls sang me happy birthday and let me eat a big bowl of ice cream for dinner.  YUM!

First Day of School!

It finally came!  The first day of school.  After tons of preparation of packing lunches, buying backpacks and picking out just the right outfit to wear, School was here!  And, in Annalise's case, glasses came with the new school year too.

Evie's first day of 3rd grade. Wow, time flies.

Our girls getting ready for the bus to come

Of course, the our other kids that live next door were part of the excitement.  This is the only year that they will all be on the same bus

And they are off. 

The last hurrah of summer

Summer came to an end all too quickly.  Well, not too quickly for mom.  The kids spent a lot of time fighting and no body wanted to go to the pool anymore.  Thank goodness Paigie and Taylor were around to play with.

 

Evie is working on a heathly snack badge for Brownies.  She made faces out of fruits and veggies for afternoon snack in the tree fort.

Someone was getting really excited for school to start.  She and all her kindergarten friends in the neighborhood had a party.

Complete with a blow up waterslide!  Super fun even though it was only 72 degrees!

And then all the kids rocked it out to our favorite family friendly dj, DJ Mama Mia.  Good times had by all.

The day before school started we decided to do a "dry run" to make sure that everyone would be able to get up at the appointed time and make it out the door before the school bus came.

Evie and Paige, old pros at this, participated.  With the school bus stop at our driveway, no one has missed the bus yet.

Cleveland for the Weekend

 

At the end of July, Aunt Laura and Uncle Jean Marc came from France to the US for a visit.  We drove up to Cleveland to see them while they stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Tallers.

The girls were able to collect their pottery that they painted during Grandma Taller Camp 2012.  Annalise made this  nice  owl.

And they Olympics were still going on so we kept a close eye on synchronized swimming and women's power lifting.

On Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa took the girls to Put in Bay while JIm and I traveled east to Pittsburgh to visit a new little baby in a new family.  I made him this hat in the spirit of the Olympics.  Go USA!

Uncle JM and Aunt Laura finally rolled in from their fishing trip.  Evie taught JM all about what she knows of pool in basement.

Aunt Laura played games and brought them French presents.  It was a great visit!

Tree Fort!

Today was the day!  We have been talking and planning for this all summer and now was the time!

Why is this guy so excited?  Well, for one, the temperature outside was only 80 degrees instead of 100 and that meant it was prime tree fort building weather!

Of course, we had to eat the reinforcement donuts before most of the actual work got started.  At this point, the only thing that was done was hauling the wood to the back yard and arguing the position of the tree to the fort.

Oh, and I had laid out the soaker hose for a day or two to soften up the concrete ground.  Remember this summer when it never rained?  The ground was a little tough, but Jim dug those post holes like a champ.

At this time we also discovered that the grapevine had produced a bunch of tasty grapes.  That takes care of snack for the day.

Our friend, Nick, was in town this particular weekend and staying at the Taller Hotel.  We let him work off his rent by holding up floor joist while Jim screwed the frame together.  He even talked one of his friends into being a helper too.  Nick can come visit anytime. 

Wait a second, get back to work Nick!  This fort has a long way to go!

Shoring up the support on the tree.

Well, it looks like it will be strong enough.  We all helped getting the decking up there

I spent a good hour screwing the boards in to make sure it's nice and safe for our kids.

After much discussion about what was considered safe, Jim and Evie placed the rails on the fort at a precise height of "less than Annalise's head".  We don't want anyone rolling off in all the fun.

A few more safty rails and the ladder and it was almost done.

Then we installed the pulley salvaged from Grandpa's neighbor's falling down barn.  A new life for that pulley!

Look carefully to see that Evie wrote "kids Clubhouse" with chalk on the fort.

Our ladder that Mr. Glenn helped to build.

And the finished fort ready for some fun.  Thanks to all who helped.

Reunited and the Olympic Opening Ceremonies

Finally, what seemed like months of being alone, ended.  Paigie and Taylor returned from the lake!  Our summer could resume with all kinds of neighbor fun.

And neighbor fun including making a box village in our front yard .  Who needs fancy toys?

If no fancy toys, how about fancy tomatoes?  Red Zebras.  Pretty things from the Master Gardner plant sale.

And who is that fantastic broadcaster in front of the Tower Bridge?  Costas!  That can only mean one thing--Olympics and a theme meal.


Of course, we partied with the neighbors.  This was Beth's contribution.  ENGLISH muffin pizzas!  Get it?

I went the traditional English food route.  That means brown and bland.  I made Cornish Pasties.  They were ok if you like your food brown and bland.  Fortunately, our English friend was over in London so I broke into their house and stole some brown sauce.  It added enough taste to make them digestable.

We let the girls watch the opening ceremonies until about H in the parade of nations.  Then sent them to bed.

Because out in the driveway was our big weekend project!  Stay tuned

The Seiberts come to visit

Ok, trying to get things caught up.  Bear with me.

 

 

We were invited to dinner at our neighbor's house.  Since they are from India, I made everyone dress up in their finest.

 

 

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This is probably the only time you will see them both dressed in their full Bengali dresses.  Too bad too because they are super cute.  I donned one of my saris.  There are not enough occasions for me to break out a sari.  I'm thinking Christmas Eve Mass may have a little Indian spice to it this year.

 

 

 

The Seiberts came to visit back in July.

This one is the one that doesn't run yet so most of the pictures are of her.

And she still lets a crazy aunt do baby fountains to her hair.

The one time they all were in one place.  Pizza and ice cream.

We gave old what's her face an oreo.  Best Mom ever!

Old C really loves her big sis.

And I made these soleless baby sandals that look like watermelon wedges for her feet.  She better grow up quick before we think of other embarassing things to do to her.

The middle of July

After the fourth, our summer shifted in to camp mode.  The week after the holiday, the girls went to Conner Prairie camp for the week.  I have no pictures of that as I was busy enjoying my alone time at Meijer, Costco, the gym and at Starbucks.

The girls did complete the summer reading program at the library and earned these crazy glasses.

Then it got hot.  Really really hot.  Our best friends, Paige and Taylor were up north at their family cabin in the UP so we had to come up with ways to amuse ourselves inside.    We decided to harness the power of the sun and make some crayon art on the driveway.  Did I mention it was hot?  We came out every half hour to check the progress and the 3 minutes we were outside resulted in an instant sweat.

This is the beginning.  We hot glued crayons onto a canvas.

And the power of the sun melted them in just 6 hours! 

On the yard front, we started harvesting from the garden.  I sliced open this pepper to find a happy face inside.  No Virgin Marys or Jesuses to be found yet.  But Have a nice day.

This was the sad state of the yard during the height of the drought.  Amazingly enough, most of it has come back now that the temperatures have dropped and we have received some rain.  Like I said, Jim, it was just dormant.  Glad we didn't spend too much time dragging hoses around like our neighbors. 

One day, we decided to make some matching skirts for the girls and Annalise's American Girl doll, Audrey.  They wore them to the pool.

Quiet afternooon at the pool.  Many times this summer, we headed down there only to have to leave because a thunderstorm was rumbling off in the distance and the pool was closed.  I think that happend at least 5 times without us getting so much as a sprinkle of rain.  So we had the diving board to ourselves.  The girls practiced their artistic dives.

One last breath before she hits the water.

And we taught Annalise to dive this summer.  By the end of the summer (before school started), she was getting pretty good. Better than her old mom.

Evie is a pro at diving.  Now she wants to learn to flip off the board.  I see a head wound in our future.

And while Evie was away at Girl Scout camp, Annalise had her very first sleepover.  The girls constructed an elaborate fort out of sheets and attempted to sleep in it. The circulation wasn't so great in there and they both ended up in a bed at 3 am.  But other than that, a complete success!