CROSS EYED

 Bridget recently learned how to cross her eyes.  She randomly did it one day while at the table and likes making us laugh.  Fortunately, I was able to get a video.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

 We officially started another year of school.  Alex is now at the middle school in 6th grade.  Shane is in 4th grade and Maggie in 1st.  Alex has to catch the bus between 6:45 and 7am.  I don't want her to walk in the dark alone (most of the school year is in the dark at that time of the morning) so I get up with her around 6am.  We get ready, have devotional for 20 or so minutes, pray, and head out the door.  When I get back from the bus stop, I get Shane and Maggie up by 7:20am, do devotional and pray with them, and send them out the door at 8am.  McKenzie missed the kids and kept asking when they would be home.  We all enjoyed traditional first-day-of-school cookies.

CEDAR POINT

 Another annual trip to Cedar Point in the books.  This year was significantly colder than years before.  We always get ice cream as we are leaving, and this year it was almost too cold for ice cream.  We were all shivering eating our ice cream and then hurried to the car to warm up.

STEPPING STONES

 I thought it would be fun and cute to make stepping stones.  We gathered some stones from a river and bought some colorful ones as well.  I found some molds, watched a couple videos online, and went for it.  I think they turned out so cute!  I can't wait to do it again.

HAIRCUTS

 It's time for back to school haircuts.  Kenzie's hair has grown in relatively even, so she hasn't needed a haircut until now.  She was very excited for her first cut.  Alex has been growing out her hair for a long time and wanted to donate it.  Both girls looked very cute after their haircuts.

RAT INFESTATION

 This year we had a rat infestation.  We didn't realize it until it was too late.  They ate all the corn and pinto beans.  They ate most of the tomatoes as well.  We tried several traps with no success.  Finally, Mike convinced me to get a pellet gun.  The first night we had it, we had fun calibrating the sight.  The very next day Mike shot 2 rats!  I even killed one a few days later.  We didn't see rats after that.  Hopefully, they don't come back.

SALSA VERDE

 Last year we had some tomatillo plants, but the tomatillos never turned green.  They would grow big and yellow and then fall off of the plant.  I was so bummed and thought that it was because they were lacking nutrients or water.  This year the same thing happened.  I decided to harvest them anyway and see how they tasted.  I figured we didn't lose anything in trying.  I cleaned them, broiled them in the oven with onions and garlic, and blended them.  It was the best salsa verde I've ever had!  I was so mad I didn't do it the year before.  We ended up with several large bowls of tomatillos and made a lot of salsa verde.  However, we ate all of the salsa and didn't leave any to jar.