Eye Comparison

Most of our kids have brown eyes. I never knew brown could vary so much! Amelia inherited my green hazel eyes, the rest varying shades of brown. Everett's eyes are the most green, Phillip has golden flecks, Evelyn's are the darkest, and Josie's are a medium gray-brown. I am not so happy with the quality of the project above, but the kids were not willing to cooperate. Amelia was the biggest stinker because she did not want to be next to Phillip.

The air conditioner saga continues. We reveled in cool air bliss from Friday the 3rd until the next week. I noticed a high pitched squealing was coming from the fan motor, the air was running but the fan was not. I ran upstairs and turned the unit off and let it cool down for a few hours. I placed another "recall" service call for the new issues. Later I turned the unit on and ran back downstairs then outside. I found a long stick and gave the fan blades a hard shove. Phew, we hobbled through the next two days with this push and shove system. Friday the same guys showed up on my door stoop to repair the fan and motor this time. He said the motor was days away from working at all, I'm happy we avoided complete failure this time.

Phillip spent an entire hour at the piano figuring out a new song on the Hoffman Academy site. Phillip was soon plunking out the tune of Halloween Mouse complete with sharps and flats! We still really love his lessons, I'm undecided about renewing at this point. I think the boys would love actual piano lessons from me. Mia is excelling with her new teacher, actually practicing most afternoons.

The kids first full week of school went well. We are settling into the routine of homework, signing agendas, reading, and no electronics after school. Everett and I played Chutes and Ladders about 20 times this past week! Ha ha. Evelyn is doing well. She does have a hard time getting ready and eating breakfast before the school bus. Mornings are full of chaos this year. I decided to fore go hot school purchased lunches in lieu of home lunches. I have a few kinks to work out, like when to make lunches, and what to put in the lunches. Phillip and Evelyn came home most days with nothing eaten. Mia and Everett are efficient to make their own lunches with little to no help. Amelia is deep into a new series called Septimus Heap. I found the entire series for $20 at a consignment sale. The boys and I read a new Geronimo Stilton book every couple of days at bedtime.

I cashed in some birthday money for my yearly pedicure! The salon had a kid-sized chair just perfect for Miss Josie. She sat there for 45 minutes getting her own pedicure while licking a lollipop down to the paper stick. She was quite taken that the tech painted pretty flowers on her toes! We somehow lost her baby Skye inside the house. She loves carrying around that thing. Makes a pretty cute cuddle toy.

Friday Justin helped me drop off the van to get detailed at 7 am. I neglected to leave my keys with the van so that was interesting getting back there once the kids left for school. The van looks so amazing! I went from confetti dark gray back to a nice flat light gray. It still smells funny but I think by now that is how the van will smell. Debbie gave Josie and I a lift around 3 pm to fetch the van. Most detail jobs take 1-2 hours, our van took 4 hours. Ha ha ha. While the van got it's bath I went through the time consuming task of cleaning car seats.

Saturday Luis came over to repair a major leak in the sprinkler system. A few days later another sprinkler head burst. Seems like we are replacing the air conditioning and sprinkler system a part at a time. Justin worked on mowing the lawn. Our neighbor asked if he could borrow our mower. I let him borrow Justin as well! Justin and the boys went over and mowed his postage stamp lawn. The boys almost died, the sweat was killer. In spite of the exertion the boys earned $5 each! Phillip soon had grand plans to mow other folks lawns and earn more money. In the evening I had two mini sessions, one of baby Liberty with a water/strawberry bath and another of a couple expecting their first baby!

Sunday we had the Chandler Calls over for dinner. Laura made dinner for us all! I appreciate all her work in prepping so much to bring over. I went easy and made the chocolate chip cookies the kids begged for their snacks. Evelyn was spoiled early with a gift from the Calls. She got a fun hair chalk set from a show called Sunny Days. Soon she had colorful streaks in her hair to complement the pink hair from my fancy red hair shampoo. Phillip was delighted to get a fun candy card with money on it! Aunt Laura made a fun mathematical equation of 5+5-1=9 years old using real money. We love our cousins. Spenser helped me vote, lame I know. I'm so stuck in the child care rut that getting out is quite out my realm. I did not want to waste my feminine vote so asked him for help.