First day of school

Rebekah was oh-so-excited to start third grade yesterday.

As was Analee (in the first grade sense).

We've been looking forward to this day for a LOOOOONG time. You know those paper chain Christmas count-downs? My girls each had their one counting down to the first day of school.

And now poor Miri doesn't know what to do with herself during these long days. I thought she had somehow gotten past the "Mommy play ponies/Barbies/Polly Pockets with me for a couple of hours" stage, but it turns out that it's a seasonal thing.

Labor Day weekend

We go to to hunting camp ... a lot. It's kind of a Grover thing. So you faithful blog readers shouldn't be surprised to hear that this Labor Day weekend was spent in the great outdoors.

 Sometimes we eat a barrel of cheese balls at camp.

 And get really messy.

 And see how many we can stuff in our mouths at one time.

 And take pictures of all of it.

 Miriam "driving" the "motorcycle."

Andrea wearing Gwendolen and going for a walk to the quarry.

 Miriam "taking pictures" of me. She holds her hand over her eye and says, "Kuh-KUH!"

 Rebekah, Mack, Analee and Tav on our walk to the quarry. See those BB guns? When we get to our list of injuries, those will come into play.

Rebekah running through the quarry.

Shadow picture of Winnie strapped to my front.

 Watching for chipmunks so they can shoot them with the BB guns.

 Miriam on a ledge at the quarry. She was a little worried about the drop, as you can see from her face. She was never in danger of falling, though.

Ana "practicing for our hike" by climbing higher in the quarry.

 Bekah thought the way Winnie fell asleep in the Pack 'n Play in our tent was funny.

 Seth holding the squirrel pelt he harvested with his trusty bow.

Unfortunately, our holiday weekend included a list of mishaps and inconveniences. 

• On the walk back from the quarry, I got zinged across the back of both legs by an errant BB. One of the boys had reportedly shot straight at a rock, so it ricocheted and hit me. I don't have a picture of it because (1) no one wants to see the back of my pasty thighs and (2) I don't think it left a mark, although it stung like crazy for a little while.
• Also not pictured is the random nosebleed Analee had. That poor girl bore the brunt of the camp injuries, as you'll see below.
• Ana got burned on her neck by one of the boys who liked poking sticks in the fire and then waving them around to see the smoke rise off them. 

The burn on Ana's neck.

• A whole nest of hornets made daily visits to our campsite. They were buzzing around the food, around the water barrel and around us. By the time we left, the sting count was up to four: Grandpa Dennis, Uncle Jim, Miriam and Grandma Susan. After I went home with the girls, Seth got stung three times, as did Uncle Doug's dog Roscoe.

Miriam's hornet sting.

• I didn't see any of them buzzing around, but Analee's poor neck testified that some of those pesky gnats that bite around the nape of the neck were also visiting camp. Interestingly, Ana was the only one who got bit. 

Ana's neck. Although she was the sole gnat victim, she had at least five bites. 

And that concludes our injury list. On to happier times!

Miriam borrowed the Papworth's bow (or "bowanehwo," in Miri's words) and was practicing shooting it backwards. 

Seth pushing Winnie and Miriam in the stroller and Ana hunting for wildflowers while on a walk.

 First roasted marshmallow for this kid.

 Winnie getting the most of her 'mallow.

 Grandma Susan reading library books to Miriam and Analee next to the fire.

 Old Grandma brought her Nandy bird to camp with her. It often sits on her head like that. It's the cutest thing.

Zooing with Miriam

As a part of our new date system, Miriam and I got to go to the zoo a couple of weeks ago. We got there right when it opened at 9 a.m. (first ones through the gate!), and I'm glad we got there when we did. As we were waiting for the penguin feeding, we heard two gigantic claps of thunder, followed by a downpour. Since we had already been at the zoo for an hour, we had seen most of the animals by then. We followed up our zoo date with a milk shake from Arctic Circle.

 Miriam with a monkey. A gibbon maybe? 

 This mama wallaby and her joey were right inside the walk-through gate at the Australia area, but I wasn't quick enough with my camera to get the shot before she hopped over the low fence.

Obligatory picture by the lion statue.

 Obligatory picture by the tiger statue.

 Enjoying some Smarties in her nest.

 Obligatory picture by the giant chicken.

 Since it was special occasion, I figured a little puddle jumping wouldn't cause any harm.

 I think her sneakers are still drying out.

Good girls

Any parent knows that sometimes a quiet house means children are up to no good. You know, flushing-jewelry-down-the-toilet, putting-Mommy's-makeup-on-the-baby, finding-the-secret-stash-of-Christmas-presents kind of "no good."

And sometimes a quiet house means that your children are just being sweet, well behaved girls.

This is how I found all four of them one night while I was making dinner and the house seem quieter than usual.

 Rebekah playing with Gwendolen on the love seat in the living room.

Miriam and Analee looking at library books on the couch in the living room.

Wirkus reunion 2013

Sometimes I get bogged down and don't blog about happenings until they're a month in the past.

But (hallelujah!) school started today, which means I can do a little bit of catch-up on some of the things I've slacked on.

So on to the Wirkus reunion which took place August 10!

We met at our usual park in Ammon and enjoyed in the festivities, which included food, cousins, visiting, snow cones and pictures.

Analee playing with a foam bat somebody brought.

Grandma Scott feeding some of her snow cone to Winnie.

It turned her mouth blue.

Miriam is the friendliest 3-year-old on the planet. She sees most of these people once a year, yet she sits right down next to them and starts telling them her life story.

Caleb helping me make snow cones. I borrowed an idea from another reunion and brought our little snow cone maker to the reunion with six different flavors of syrup I had made the night before. I thought the little kids (and even the grownups) would enjoy the cold treats ... only to discover that our picnic shelter didn't have any electricity. Which is weird. Because the other picnic shelter at the same park DOES have electricity. So we hauled the cooler full of ice, the snow cone maker and the syrups down to the other one, and, like the Pied Piper, the children followed us and enjoyed their cold treats. Caleb was my right-hand man. He was in charge of putting more ice in and pressing the button to shave it.

Seth pushing Miriam on the swing.

Seth and Andrea. We like each other!

Seth gesticulating while Miriam sits on his lap and plays with his hat.

Gwendolen doing her spider monkey crawl through the pavilion. She doesn't like most surfaces touching her knees, so she gets up on her feet.

Grandma Scott talking to Rebekah and carrying a load of snow cones back up to our picnic shelter to share with the older family members who hadn't come down to the electrified shelter.

A group picture of the people who were there when we shot group pictures. Some people had left and came back later for a shot of their own.

To see more pictures, click here.