The month started very wet, and we found a few leaks in the basement.
With all the rain we were getting it's not surprising. That is our walkway covered in water and puddles in the yard.
We had a pretty good storm come through, they even had Eliza's school shelter in place because there was a tornado watch. Turns out there was a tornado in Detroit, so we were spared. But the boys went out and collected branches from the yard.
Evan found a frog in the yard while cleaning up.
When the kids have nothing to do on a rainy, they usually build forts. This is a two chamber reading fort.
Evan is showing the design. They even had a lantern between their spots to read by.
After fort building it was on to bowling in the house in the entry way.
So we figured out that the downspout that goes below the deck was not working, so this was our impromptu drain until we could pull up the deck boards to fix it. All of the water from the back half of the roof was going into the corner and into our basement.
We went to the basement to check if the quick fix by the deck was working and noticed our block windows on this side of the house looked like an aquarium. So we went over to that side of the house and pulled off the downspout. The downspout goes into the ground and we figured out the tree behind Mike sent a root down the underground drain and blocked it. So the downspout was clogged all the way up to where Mike is indicating. Now the downspout just goes into the yard which slopes towards the woods and away from the house.
This is our fix for under the deck. The elbow at the bottom broke, so Mike put a 4" hard pvc pipe there.
We had our first non-relative sleep over. Alex had his best bud Keaton over to spend the night. These two have been friends since 2nd grade when they met online during COVID.
We had our last boat adventure at the Douglass house for the year. As you can see Eliza was not up to swimming or anything in or on the water (she's in the blanket), but the boys had a awesome last hurrah for the summer.
We had our monthly game night with the Degen family. Evan and Eliza are showing Ian the Minds Eye book. (The pictures you have to look at super long and they make a 3D image and also a find it book.)
Michelle, my bestie, is smiling because she knows she's going to win Wingspan.
You can't really see it, but we made a RC course in our front yard for Evan to invite his friend over to drive RC cars. We made a few jumps and partitions.
This is our favorite waitress at Red Robin. We've known her for years and she is the nicest, warmest, beautiful inside and out lady. Her name is Kristina, if you are there be nice to her, she's amazing.
Taste testing poptarts at the library. The fall theme is breakfast foods. There are some interesting flavors out there. I liked the blueberry lemon, no one else did. The s'more one was a fan favorite.
Some pickings from the garden.
The eggs made a smile but after the kids looked at it, it turned into a scared face.
Evan went on a quick shopping trip with me, and look what he found. A GIANT bottle of pickles that had GIANT pickles in it. We had to get them with that face.
He was a happy boy, but our fridge got a lot smaller.
My dad came to stay with us for a few days. It was nice to have him hang out and talk with.
He enjoyed playing with Rosie, and Rosie enjoyed having someone play with her.
These orange/red zinnias remind me of my sister, because I stole the seeds from her plant when I visited her two years ago over the summer. The marigolds on the right are a nice match with them.
We toured the new elementary school that was built that none of my kids will go to. It's huge and has a two story slide inside, and this is Michigan made from Petoskey stones that hangs in the front office.
I got a one pound six oz tomato out of the garden. These are seeds from a Bulgarian man that passed away last year and got some seeds from one of his tomatoes and started my own this year. They taste amazing. I've even shared them with my Uncle out in Washington and he's had fun this year taking an adventure with me in growing them from seed.
Alex started playing in an orchestra this year, because he's not busy enough (eye roll), at the Hawk in Farmington. He's one of two trombones and the music is giving him a challenge, but he's up for it and so far so good. (he's in the last row, black hoodie, trombone in hand)
Evan and I went to an astronomy meet up one evening at Island Lake state park.
He got to pick up a meteorite named Yoda which was super heavy.
He got to see some cool model space rockets. Left is a US rocket, middle is a Russian, and right is SpaceX.
Alex helped make dinner one evening. We had Eggplant parmesan.
We had a Monday off for a Jewish holiday so we decided to go to Greenfield Village and invite our friends the Douglass's. Turns out the Village isn't open on Mondays this time of the year, so we headed to the museum. The kids were old enough that we let them wander while we went our own way and we had all the time in the world to look at EVERY ornament in the Hallmark ornament area. It was amazing.
Evan and Eliza built this log cabin out of Lincoln logs while we were there.
It had three levels.
Evan really wanted to go to the RC park on that Monday off, so I felt bad for him. After dinner we loaded up all the RC cars and headed to Novi. The kids had such a good time running the track.
Eliza went to the smaller track with our smaller RC car. She also had a good time. Mike and I froze, but enjoyed watching the kids having fun.
We headed to the library to make slime with Anna the best librarian. The kids don't really like slime, but they had a blast making it. They kept making me feel it... which I don't like slime. :)
Eliza made a horse face out of beads one morning.
Evan and Eliza got to use an apple peeler to help me make applesauce.
I can't believe I've never had them use it before.
I made a double batch of pretzel bites and we...
... headed to our church Oktoberfest. We were joined by our friends the Christman family. The boys and I gave yodeling a try, Evan won a pickle ornament for our Christmas tree that we are supposed to hide and find.
The boys made a nice picture
Alex and his friend also had fun.
We headed to Lansing after church to see Alex play in a Low Brass event that they held for young brass players. He spent the whole day with an MSU professor and learning two songs with other trombone players. He also really liked the campus which was really pretty. We were fortunate enough to have him get a ride there in the wee early morning (thank you Douglass family!), and Google got us off the freeway in time to avoid a giant backup on the freeway on the way home.
Oh my goodness the headaches we are having with the bus this year. We have had our time move up from 7:15 to 7:06, and then they were showing up 13min earlier (6:54am) than our pickup time so the boys were literally running out the door, then they merged routes but didn't' tell us, the boys missed the bus at the middle school so they walked home and I was freaking out calling the school because they weren't on the bus, their bus driver got fired, now they are getting on the bus a 6:47am, when their school is a mile and a half away and it starts at 8am. Every week and almost every day I am on the phone with the bus garage and I have the director on speed dial on my phone.
Eliza chilling out waiting for the bus to arrive.
A spider in my garden that has been getting me caught up in its web the last few months. It's huge.
I got a dehumidifier for Christmas a year or two ago, and I have only been using it for herbs. I decided to dehydrate tomatoes, and it worked great! At first they are like sun dried tomatoes then they become brittle. I plan on taking the brittle tomatoes and grinding them up in a powder to use as seasoning. I've also dehydrated the peppers from the garden and left over herbs from the store. Waste not want not.
