Erik's project is scheduled to finish early November. I am very sad to be leaving here. We all are. Kansas City has been a good place for our family. But we are also looking forward to finally returning home to family and friends and living in a house for the first time. Bittersweet.

Here's Julia catching up on some light reading. Julia's hair is growing fast (in back). You can't really tell because it's so curly. Don't mention it to Alli though unless you want to see her evil side. She's very jealous and always asks me to cut J's hair.

We are trying to potty train Julia before we move into a house with carpet we actually care about. We've had a lot of accidents but overall she's taking to it pretty well. We call it "tinkle tinkle" but I've overheard her calling it "twinkle twinkle".

With this fabulous weather we've spent more time outside and I've discovered what a bug girl Allison is. She needs a backyard.

She cannot resist picking them up and tries to sneak them home to keep as pets. The other day at the park with their friend Wyatt the three of them dug up a nest of beetle larvae. They must have been playing for a half hour before Wyatt's mom and I went to see what was so interesting in the dirt. We found Wyatt and Allison each holding some kind of a large acorn and when they opened it up we saw 5 or 6 wriggling fat beetle larvae huddled together inside the nuts. There were more on the ground beside them.

We didn't think to take a picture but this is about what they looked like. Allison saw this picture and confirmed it, "Ya mom, it was gray on that side and had orange on the head. Yep, you're right."

What would we do without the nasty creatures?