Chestnuts roasting...

The chestnut tree out front is loaded down. It's so full that the branches are almost touching the ground. Last night was chilly...and we found about a dozen on the ground this morning. It has begun....

These things are HUGE! And spiky. Really spiky.

And there are thousands of them!

Anyone want to come pick these things up for us over the next few months?!?

Mouse in the house!

So...gage crawled into bed with me at 6am and started smothering my face so he could rub my earlobe (that's his comfort thing). Suddenly, he heard my phone chime for a text message, so he launched over me to grab it and yelled "mom you have a text!" Her it is:

Yes, it was savannah texting me from the iPad to say "mom, there's a mouse in my room".  Her room, of course, looks like a bomb went off. So, we followed the cats and started pulling things out from under her bed.  After a few minutes of searching, I said we would put out a mousetrap later. I went downstairs to make coffee and take pepper out.  Not long after, she came outside with a yellow  cup and a pair of kitchen tongs. Yep, she had caught the mouse, using the same technique I used to catch the last one. 

So, we walked down the road to a field to let the mouse free. I think we need a mouse trap. Where there's one, there's more! 

Paw paws

So, you know the old kids' song "way down yonder in the paw paw patch"? Well, paw paws are REAL! It turns out, they don't travel very well, so they are not sold in stores, and we have a paw paw orchard that is trying to bring the paw paw back. So, we have been very excited to taste our first paw paw, so we snatched them up at the farmers market.

It turns out that everyone except Savannah think that paw paws taste like poo poo. Seriously. Yuck. They are so mushy it seems like someone threw the fruit into the floor over and over until it turned to paste. But...low and behold...that's just how a paw paw should taste when it's ripe. Savannah may like them, but I say the paw paws should stay in the paw paw patch!

Football time!

Yesterday was a perfect day for a football game. We didn't have tickets for the game, but that didn't stop us from hanging out with friends at the tailgate. Here's Rufus the Ohio bobcat. 

and here's the real Rufus!

First day of school!

And...they are off to school again! They are both living their new school :-)

Big puppy

This crazy dog is not allowed on the couch, so here's how she improvises!

She's still a thief...

But, she's cute, so she gets away with a thing of two ;-)

County fair

We checked out the Athens county fair last month and had fun checking out all the animals.

We especially loved the goats. All the 4h kids were inviting S and G into the pens to meet their goats. In fact, we tried to play a joke on Adam and told him that we bought 2 goats at the livestock auction.

Well, he not only believed us, he was 

Super excited and told everyone he was with at a conference. The story went viral, so now everyone (including the dean of the college) believes that we have goats! Ha!

Kitchen sink pedicures :-)

Savannah wanted to do pedicures one day, but pepper kept trying to drink our foot-soaking water. So...we sat on the counter - each of us with our feet in the sink :-) 

Gage, however, wanted to get in on the foot-soaking action. So, First they tried not sharing a sink. But, ultimately I gave up my sink for him.

Happy birthday gage!

The The big number six!!! This year was all about mine craft! We had creepers, pigs, cows, and all the other mine craft accoutrements!

Summer in CT - 4

We also watched fireworks...

Gage laughed himself silly when Grammy took him for a ride on her "hot rod" carp!

Summer in CT - 3

We also visited the cows every day..

We Moved Savannah up to the big bike...and painted the old my little pony bike a nice blue color for gage!

Here's savannah testing out the big bike in the basement!

We drove Grandpas diggers..

Summer in CT - 2

Here's more of a quick recap..

We went to ikea, and savannah desperately wanted this runway.

We went to jimmies for lunch...

We hung out with our cousins...at the movies...

I'm the pool...

At the beach again

And for cookouts, more pool time, lake time, sparklers, etc!

Summer in CT - 1

We had a short trip this year, but managed to pack it full nonetheless!

We went to our favorite pizza place - Frank Pepe's. Their pizza is so good that Frank Sinatra used to have it brought in when he played in NYC or Boston, the saying goes...

Savannah - who doesn't drink soda EVER - tried both birch beer (my fave) and cream soda (Gage's fave) and was a huge fan. I still don't want her drinking soda regularly...but a few times a year at Pepe's is okay ;-)

We also made several trips to the beach. First, just the three of us..on a gorgeous day. We buried Gage

Walked the rocks

We went snail hunting, which is their favorite thing to do there..

We ate everything we brought plus ice cream 

And topped it off with a visit to the Meig's point nature center and a drive through the beautiful marshes. So so pretty.