I am pregnant and due in the middle of January. When talking about whether they wanted a brother or sister, the boys usually chose brother, and Simon solidified his preference when he realized that if it was a boy, there would be five "guys" in our family, and his favorite burger place here is called "Five Guys Burger." So we told them we could go there to celebrate if my 20-week ultrasound revealed a brother. But then we realized it actually could be a girl (although I scarcely dared to hope), so came up with the alternative of getting a treat at Dairy Queen if the ultrasound revealed a sister. So the ultrasound was last Tuesday, and here we are....


A girl! Hip hip hooray!

Last summer we chose a spot in the corner of the yard between two trees to be our compost pile ("area" might be a better term). We dumped kitchen scraps, yard trimmings, some grass clippings and leaves into it over the course of the year and turned it occasionally. At some point we must have dumped the "guts" of a pumpkin we carved or cooked because we got a surprise this Spring when a vigorous pumpkin vine started growing there and eventually set six pumpkins! We had to move our composting operations elsewhere, but loved watching our little pumpkins grow. I don't really have a lot of culinary or decorative uses for pumpkins at this point in the summer, but by the middle of August, most were completely orange, so we have harvested three and will get the others in the next week or two. They should store well for a couple of months in our basement. Dwayne's mom gave me the idea of etching the boys' names in them when the skins were still soft and green, so maybe you can see Stuart showing off his "STUART" pumpkin in the picture.


Stuart also has a tomato plant that has been ultra-productive this summer. On the day this picture was taken, we picked 82 of the little pear-shaped yellow tomatoes from his plant. It must know how much he loves it, so is happy to produce a bountiful supply of fresh snacking material each day for its little gardener.

Just because the pumpkins are in the picture, I'll include this one with this post. Simon has heard me and Dwayne talk about playing "Settlers of Catan" on occasion and convinced me to teach him the basics. He can keep track of the rules pretty well, Stuart is another story, and Daniel is the Destroyer of Catan, so basically it just boils down to a good exercise in patience for me. It is fun to have Simon learning to play games that are actually interesting to us, though.

Simon started Kindergarten a week or two ago. He goes in the afternoon, so we have to take him to school, and he rides the bus home. He seems to really enjoy school and has especially enjoyed getting to know our neighbor "girl friends" better, the younger of whom is in his class. I'm glad he has a little friend for recess and for the bus ride.

The boys have been enjoying their bikes a lot lately and are gradually allowing us to increase the wobble-factor on their training wheels. We went for a morning ride (for them, walk for us) near Potter's Covered Bridge in Noblesville. Stuart threw up for some reason right when we were unloading the car, but once that was taken care of, he had a great time on the paved trail on his bike. There are some swinging benches along the trail, and we stopped at a "beach" along the White River where Dwayne showed them how to skip stones.


Strange that the bikes didn't make it into any pictures!