September

September flew by! School and soccer are in full swing and in one more week we leave for Lake Tahoe for our fall vacation. Woo hoo! Here's what we've been up to lately...

Abby is trying out her new bike trailer (she loves it)

Apples fresh from our tree (until Koty discovered how to eat them off the tree...urgh!)

Abby is a trooper at Justin's soccer games. She sticks close to us and has 

fun watching and playing with her books and toys we bring.

4th grade is all about California history in school. One of Justin's first field trips was an all day excursion in a local historical gold rush town. Here are Justin and Abby dressed a la 1850 (or in Abby's case 1977 as she is wearing my baby bonnet!).

Panning for gold (Justin declared he would have LOVED spending all day, day after day, doing that)

Justin wasn't going to make a rag doll at first but then got excited at making it for Abby instead. 

He's a kind, thoughtful, and adoring big brother.

 Our hens are laying more eggs than we can eat (finally), so I'm freezing a dozen here and there to use in the winter when they go on strike. Notice all the double yolks...

While Justin is in his workshops at school, Abby and I hang out at the playground or at the library. Her favorite thing to do is climb up onto this bench and color at the table. 

One of Justin's favorite workshops this year is "Building Things". Their first project was building a tool box from scratch. The school has a brand new printer that can etch designs into wood (and other materials) so Justin had fun using that feature.

Justin got a little goofy when I implored him to "Smile bigger!"