Thank you, Elisa!

We had a lovely visit with Elisa! The kids we so excited the first couple days they fought over who got to have her!

Thank you for coming to us in NY!

Colgate Football

We went to the Colgate Football game Saturday. It wasn't too cold, but we came prepared to sit on the benches doing nothing in 40 degrees.

Colgate won by a point. The kids were enticed by the free community day hotdogs and drinks.

Isaac heard the announcement that fans ( he asked what fans were) could come down to the field after the game, and he couldn't wait to see the clock start that 25 min of free time. He went right down and started running around the track like an athlete. We laughed when he stopped short at the tarp covering the area where the opposing team benches were.

5:45am

Caleb has been so faithful, waking himself up for seminary each day. Once a week the class meets online, and the other days he studies the lessons alone. He's doing a great job keeping up with seminary, accelerated courses at school, varsity cross country and soccer.

Josh has been dragging his feet doing homework after school and found that he prefers to get up with Caleb's alarm to finish his homework. The day starts early around here!

Firehouse breakfast

Isaac made this picture for our firefighters and showed as many as he came in contact with at the pancake breakfast. Then we hung it on their bulletin board.

We always look forward to pancake day. The whole community comes together to thank our volunteers. The cross country team ran from the school to the breakfast they were quite a sight in their maroon and white!

Caleb in the news

Fishing

After going out on a boat with a friend a couple times, Scott has caught the fishing bug. Over the weekend he couldn't get enough. Everyone wanted to be part of it, and we couldn't have had a more beautiful Columbus Day weekend.

Cleaning the fish

Isaac was such a sensitive boy when it came to cleaning (and killing) the fish. He stood near, saying goodbye, then, "he's dead," and he broke down. I had to hold him for a long time!

Of course, he then had to be in on the scaling, cutting, studying and dissecting, and eating. Lyd and Isaac were mesmerized by the heads, and we cut out the eyes.

There's no way we could slaughter our chickens after how difficult it was to say goodbye to these fish we'd only met!

Fruit trees

This summer we finally got around to buying some fruit trees. Two lonely pear trees have been weathering away in front of the garage waiting to be planted. Today we got one of them in!

Pumpkin carving

We went to the elementary art room to carve pumpkins for Rogers Animals of Halloween.

Lydia stuck to it and did all her cleaning out.

First day 2015

Here we go! A brand new chapter for the Larchars- all the kids in school! Two in elementary school, one in middle, one in high school.

Lydia has been prepared (like bag packed) for weeks! She left Isaac and I in the parking lot! Isaac has been excited and prepared and went right into his classroom and forgot to give me my hug and kiss he'd promised. Josh was stressed out waiting behind buses and traffic and leaving our house later than planned. Even though Caleb had a list of stops to make once he got to school, he kept reassuring us calmly that we were making memories.

They will all be fine! It's everyone's first day of school, and things are not going to move as smoothly as they will even a week from now.

My list for the day? Car wash, chickens, dishes, laundry, lead storytime, grind wheat, bake bread, dinner.... The list goes on. Who said Mom gets time off when the kids are all in school?

It's Show Time!

Lydia stars as Gracie Shinn. I'm a Pick a Little Lady. Josh and Caleb dance and sing to the Music Man's beat.

It has been a long rehearsal process, but this week has been exciting and tiring, and we are glad to be in production.

norwichtheatercompany.org

Next week we regroup again and enjoy our final two weeks of summer before school starts.

Eggs!

On Sunday Miss Fluffy laid her first egg. She's been laying one at mid day since. Josh followed her into the coop today and got to watch her drop it!

The first pic is Isaac finding the first egg. The second is Isaac making a nest for the poor chickens who have to lay eggs in the poop. The third pic is josh explaining the fluffing of feathers that preceded the laying of egg #4.

Blueberries

The kids got down to business picking blueberries today. I was impressed with their diligence. Caleb teased us all by showing us his full ice cream pail. After a while he revealed the upside down cool whip container that was displacing the berries, making his pail look full! What a stinker.

Beans

We had a long day of activity. It started with picking beans (of which I was primary laborer, despite the photos) and ended with ending the beans. The kids all pitched in there. The beans will sit until Monday to be canned.