A handful of gems from the week...

There were so many more, but I can't remember.

Out of the blue and in all seriousness, Nathan asked, "Mom, why can't we be in the circus?"

After dressing Bethie for church today, she said, "What a pretty dress. It is a dream come true."

Sarah was sitting on my bed with her feet on the box springs (imagine sitting on a desk with your feet up on the chair, leaning forward with elbows on knees). She said, "I feel like a teenager because I'm sitting like a teenager."

In other Sarah news, she has cut her own hair once again. When do kids grow out of this? She's actually not too bad at it. This time, she cut herself a few bangs. (Or, as they say in the Southern Hemisphere, she cut a small fringe.) When I asked why she did it, she said, "Emma told me if you want your hair long, you have to get it cut a lot." I then explained the meaning of trimmed. She really likes her new hair because the fringe--or bangs (I'm so bilingual!)--hangs strategically over her eye "like a teenager." And today she spent FOREVER in the bathroom. She came out with make-up on. Should 7-year-olds be able to apply mascara that well? I don't think so! She is so obsessed with being a teenager. Not a grown-up, a teenager. Luckily, my nieces, Jaycie and Alyssa, weren't allowed to wear make-up until they were 12, so I can have that precedent as a rule.

Ammon brought in a pumpkin from the garden. It technically belongs to the neighbors, but it chose to grow under the fence and in our yard. Ammon has been tending it all summer. He brought it in and said, "Time for pumpkin pie and a jack-o-lantern!" I should make him some pumpkin pie. But not with that pumpkin, of course.

I think that's enough for now.