Farewell to Summer

This was a pretty standard week for us, with school and work taking up most of our time, and a few things in between to keep us on our toes. 

Carver’s finally gotten into reading more. We’ve been working for some time on encouraging him to do things other than just want to be on the screen all the time, and he’s thankfully found a book series that he really likes, called Dragon Masters. They are short chapter books, and so he finishes about one a day when he sits down to read them. We hope that he keeps up the momentum and finds others to enjoy. 

Hakan is still having a grand time with his homework and school. He often sits down just to work on some craft project that he’s come up with. For example, he’s got a really good relationship with a neighbor, and he often paints or colors pictures for her to then hand-deliver. He also likes to make little things to surprise the rest of us. Earlier this week, out of the blue, he decided to do some chores so that he could earn a dollar, because he wanted to buy Carver a gift from the dollar store – just because.

Hakan really wanted to do something fun with water this weekend, so Kira helped them fill water balloons and play in the kiddie pool in the afternoon. It was in the low 80s, and those days are getting rarer and rarer, so we think this may be our last fling with the summer weather. We’re looking forward to the fall, though.

Merritt has been very into his sword lately. We’ve had these foam swords for a couple of years now, and the older boys played with them often, but nothing like Merritt does. Merritt is glued to his all day. He likes to stick it into the back of his shirt with the handle behind his head, and go about his business like that all day, or otherwise he’ll just hold it in one hand while doing whatever else. It’s quite adorable. Kira even found him holding it while asleep, like a Viking warrior would do.

Avey has been making her birthday plans, and decided that instead of cake, she wants me to make her a pie. She settled on a s’mores pie I made once, which is just chocolate pie with graham cracker crust, and marshmallow cream stirred into the pie filling. She’s also decided to get her ears pierced, so that’s been interesting researching. I called a jewelry place to see if they do it, and they recommended a tattoo parlor – I hadn’t even thought of that, but they said that a tattoo place is held to higher standards of sanitation, and they have the skill (doing all sorts of unimaginable piercings). We found a place and made an appointment for next weekend!

Kira and I have been busy with our usual obligations. I’ve felt less motivated to do house projects since school started, maybe because I’m using all of my energy there. For about 2 months now, I’ve noticed a neighbor’s driveway that has a nice pile of gravel. They put in a pool and used the gravel for a sort of foundation. I need some gravel for a foundation for the shed I want to eventually put in (and tear down the old one that is an eyesore). I decided to stop by and ask if they were looking to unload the gravel, and she was very nice and said that they were waiting to see if they needed more, but if not, they’d let me have it. So I started to prepare my spot more for the gravel. I need to level it out more and dig down a few inches so that the shed will be level with the ground. The boys were a “big help,” with Hakan and Merritt both taking turns using the tools I needed, standing right where I was trying to shovel, and spilling half of the dirt they were “helping” me move. Still, they had a good time, so I didn’t complain. It’ll take more work to have it ready, but at least I have a good idea of how long it will take.

Another pretty typical week is coming up, except that we’ll be celebrating Avey’s birthday on Saturday. We’ll have pictures of her pierced ears next time!

#Happenings