Monday Mugs - Fabulous Fall

 
I said in an earlier post that this would be a good place to visit come fall.

We recently had a week of extra glorious fall weather. The tree color was peaking. I knew it was now or never.



"Amy and Lani, get your hiking shoes on. We're going to St. Peter's Dome."

Big adolescent groan. "Do we have to?"

"Of course you have to. The trees will be glorious."

"But we just went in July and it's so far."

"No, it's not. It'll be worth it. I promise." (Seriously, I don't know what she's complaining about. She's young with boundless energy and good working knees. I'm the old person with creaky joints who's always the last one to the top.)

"But we'll get behind with our schoolwork."

"Don't worry about it. This is more important."  (What's wrong with this picture?)

It's so fun to be right. Beautiful sky, incredible trees, warm weather, amazing view. 

There's something soul satisfying about sitting on a warm rock on the side of a hill, high above a colorful valley on a Monday afternoon while everybody else is either at school or work. 

I'm linking up today with Heather at Oswald Cuties.

Hugging the Hairdresser

 

After not seeing her big brother for four months, 

one of the first things Lani did was "fix" Andrew's hair.

Just another way we Viks have cheap fun.

Kids These Days

Give them free reign with their birthday party 

and they make rainbow cupcake/cakes.

  

 

 Take a good look folks,

 as this is an original you won't see anywhere else. 

While waiting for a few guests to arrive Amy, Lani, and two friends dug through the dress-up clothes and went out in broad daylight dressed as a Mother (Amy), a Daughter (Lani), a Grandma in her nightgown,

and a high school graduate.

 

I don't know how to break it to them but Grandmas don't ride bikes in their nightgowns. Pajama pants maybe, but not nightgowns. 

 

They rollerbladed, 

Yes, I know this is blurry.

 Danced with the dog, 

Took silly pictures

And cool pictures. 

A good time was had by all 

and I'm thankful to be done with birthdays for awhile. 

The Most Popular Birthdate in America

Excerpts from a Yahoo online article today:

In the United States, the most popular birth date is Oct. 5, say online reports by a host of websites such as the factsite.com, 1800flowers.com, Wikipedia and even this report by a Washington NBC television affiliate. All are based on a single source, anybirthday.com, which claims to have searched a database of more than 135 million birth records.

In fact, says anybirthday.com, each year, an average of more than 12,500 babies are born on Oct. 5. As of 2001, they say, nearly a million Americans shared Oct. 5 as their birthday.

You might be thinking by now, "Ho Hum! So what?"
 

Well, it just so happens, that our very own Amy was born on the most popular birthdate in America. Amy's been having birthdays for 14 years now and I just learned this amazing bit of information. 

She entered our life on a peaceful autumn morning fifteen years ago. You can read about her Birth story here if you're interested. 

Amy over the years

3 years

5 years

6 years

7 years

9 years

Age 10 - She broke her wrist rollerblading

Age 13 at Andrew's wedding

14 years - At Horse Camp this past spring

Today, Oct 5 - A big 15 years old

She chose Fruit Loops (yuck!!!) for her birthday cereal and Keith took her out to lunch at an Italian restaurant. Christina baked her a Lemon Poppyseed Cake to take to Youth Group tonight. She's been chomping at the bit to get a Facebook account for the last two years which we let her do today. She's been on FB for eight hours and already has 50 friends.

Happy Birthday Amy

Hope you have a good 15th year.

P.S. The yahoo article said that nine out of 10 websites claimed Oct. 5 was the most popular birthdate. 

It also said this: "The study credited to Armitabh Chandra of Harvard, shows that not only is the most popular birth date in September, but the ten most popular birth dates are all in the month of September, with Sept. 16 being the actual most popular birthday in the U.S. based on a review of all births in the country between 1973 and 1999. According to the NYT report of Chandra's research, Oct. 5 ranks a paltry 79th in terms of most popular birthdays."

Choose what you want to believe. I'm voting for the 5th.  

So Not My Idea

There I was minding my own business listening to a friend share about the school her son would attend in the fall. Little did I know this innocent conversation would change my life.

Afterwards Anna (age 17), my quietest child, went online and looked up the school and asked if she could go there.

In the interest of having an open mind, I researched the school and agreed that yes, it was a great place. But I couldn't get past the word, "Boarding School."

Anna, my most easy-going child, was politely and respectfully persistent.

Anna has been homeschooled from the get go so I never had to do those tearful, heart-wrenching good-byes when children go off to kindergarten. With the oldest four graduated, my homeschool load had lightened substantially and it wasn't such a hard job anymore.

I said ,"No." If I didn't want to send her to a public school, why would I want to send her to boarding school? I half kiddingly growled at the friend who mentioned the school in the first place and told her, "Thanks a lot."

We visited the school last May and asked lots of questions and her Dad told her, "Yes." Aagh!!! I told him I wouldn't fight him on the issue but I wasn't happy about it.

On August 20, Anna, my cautious, timid child, began her semester at Conserve School in Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin.

I talked myself through the angst. Some parents have children serving their country in Afghanistan or Iraq. She's only two hours away.  Some parents have children in jail. Some parents don't know where their kids are. I really am blessed with a good kid who hasn't ever given me any trouble. With lots of prayer, comfort food, and phone calls, I could probably make it through a semester.

Conserve is a private semester High School, funded by an endowment from a deceased philanthropist.  The school focuses on environmental stewardship and hands-on outdoor study. It's located on a beautiful 1,200 acre piece of heaven in Northeast Wisconsin. The facilities are amazing and it truly is a great place to learn.

But I miss having her home.

I wondered how a sweet, quiet, shy, cautious, reserved person would do away from her big family for four months. She seems to be doing just fine.

 

 

 

 

 

We're all slightly jealous of the fun things she gets to do, but we've forgiven her for leaving us and look forward to her return. Five weeks down, nine more to go.

Saturday Scraps - Super Sisters

Have camera, have something to occupy an afternoon. 

There you have it. Cheap fun at its best. 

I'm linking up with Jennifer at Knees and Paws today for her meme Saturday Scraps.
Saturday Scraps is a blog hop to share scraps of life, memory or process.
It's a friendship quilt in the making.

Monday Mugs

I haven't done a Monday Mugs post for awhile now but this week's assignment is "Just one picture from last week."  Just one picture. I can do that. So without further ado, I present just one picture from last week. 

You might rightfully ask what this is. That, my friends, is a Tree Quilt, a project Anna did with a few classmates in her Earth Art class. I never would have thought to do that but I'm not artistic. I think it's cool but it seems like a lot of work just to have to leave it hanging it there.

You can check out other Monday Mugs at Oswald Cuties.