August 22

It rained this morning. Poured.

All morning, Lily kept looking out the window and saying, in her most worried tone, "Raining hard!" In the midst of all that rain, Chris drove out to our old home, which is now our rental property. (Doesn't that sound fancy? It's not. It's code for "we couldn't sell it, so we have to rent it out.") Our tenants have agreed to renew their lease, so Chris went out to sign the documents and do a quick walk-through. I certainly don't want to jinx things, but we feel quite blessed to have had such good tenants so far. God has definitely provided for us!

All of the rain came along with cooler weather, and I broke out some of Eli's 6-12 month winter clothes. Among his clothes was this onesie, which was a favorite of mine when Caleb was a baby.

Look at him sitting up in his crib! (No, Mom, he didn't do that on his own. I sat him up like that. But still.)

Here's a flashback to February, 2010, when Caleb wore the same shirt at the same age:

(Click the photo to go through to that blog post.)

They are totally different babies, aren't they? Look at all the hair Caleb had! And when we only had one baby, we were much better parents. Look at Chris reading to Caleb! Poor Eli gets mostly secondhand exposure to reading.

When Chris got home, we all had lunch, the kids went down for naps, and I went grocery shopping. I even managed a child-free trip to Target, which practically counts as a vacation.

While I was gone, Chris and Caleb baked chocolate zucchini bread.

I know. What?!? But they did. 

You see, a few months ago, Caleb learned about the parable of the sower at church. His teachers gave him a little bag with five different seeds in it, and he came home and promptly planted them in my garden. Miraculously, they all sprouted and the deer ignored them. We got a tomato plant, a sunflower, a cucumber plant, a pea vine, and a zucchini plant.

The deer just came through and mauled everything, but before they got to it Caleb managed to harvest two big fat zucchinis from the plant. We had one with dinner last night, and he turned the other into chocolate zucchini bread. The fact that Chris baked the bread with him, instead of me, is a testament to the awesomeness of Chris, as well as the awesomeness of Chris' mom, who raised a son who is capable of baking zucchini bread with his six-year-old. 

Thanks, Gayle. You did well, and I appreciate your work.

While I was shopping, Chris texted me these photos:

Their bread. (No, it's not undercooked. I thought the same thing. It's a grain-free recipe, so it does different things.)

That is one very proud boy.

They ended up making four loaves and one muffin; we will eat two of them tomorrow and I wrapped up two loaves for Caleb to take to his teachers at church tomorrow. He is really excited.

Also this afternoon, this happened: 

Lily discovered - and was eager to wear! - the parrot costume I made for her for last Halloween.

You know, the one she flat-out refused to wear last Halloween? She loves it now. Go figure.

Silly boy with dirty socks. His feet have started to stink lately. Maybe we need to work on changing socks more often.

This girl.

After dinner, we took a family trip to a nearby craft festival. I really want to get a "Mama Metal" necklace (a necklace that is made to be sturdy and safe for a baby to play with/tug on), and a local artisan was going to be at the festival, so I hopped on the chance to see her work.

It's a big festival, and it's always crowded, so Lily rode on Chris' back and Eli rode on mine. Our big kids walked. They were so cooperative that Chris decided we all needed ice cream. Except for me. I needed ice cream, but didn't get any. So it goes.

Caleb and Dais yare big enough now that they don't need to have cups for their cones. They are capable of eating ice cream cones without dropping them. I'm not sure when that happened, but they are growing up quickly!

At least this one is still a baby. Though I wish he'd outgrow the dairy sensitivity, because mama wants ice cream!