The end of the apples

Last Monday was Labor Day, so we had a barbecue at the Plastows house. Sara was sick, so Alison stayed home with her, and Mike took the kids. The kids put on a talent show, and we watched them and talked

On Wednesday Home Depot emailed Mike to tell him his toilet had finally arrived, so Thursday morning he got it and during lunch he installed it. The toilet install went fairly well, but the weird type of rubber seal that we bought was hard to position, so it took a little bit longer than usual. It is nice to have three working toilets again.

This Friday was the first day of our new nature group. The group we've been with for years got just too big and the kids didn't have any friends there, so we started our own. There's a boy Timmy's age and it's within walking distance of the Dalyais so hopefully Marissa can always come, even if the rest of her family doesn't. All the kids had a very fun time this week, although Alison recognized a lot of things she needs to do differently; she's out of practice with packing for a day in the woods.

Sara decided that she wanted to play the drums, so Alison bought her a electronic drum set. It is pretty cool, and we have all been enjoying it. Perhaps we will form a ska band some day.

On Friday night the Popes came over and we talked about lots of things. The kids watched movies upstairs while we were talking.

Saturday night we had Catlin and Sal and kids over for a game night. We played Azul, Sprawlopolis, Splendor, and Win-Lose-Banana. The game night was a smashing success. They enjoyed our enchiladas and cookies and they brought over Red Vines. We live having game days with them.

It took us until Sunday afternoon to finish all of the apples that we got from the Plastows. All told we made 2.25 gallons of apple sauce and 2 gallons of apple chips. Gideon was the most helpful child when it came to apple processing.