Sunday, August 31, 2025

Back to School

It is a big year for us this school year because both Ev and Sam are at the high school! No more jr high carpool.

I went to the back to school event with Sam and we found all of his classrooms and met all of his teachers

Ev and Sam started school on August 13
The first day of school pics:




Sam was photobombing in the window in this one


Their school photos from picture day


Nora's first day wasn't until August 25, so Mike and I drove up to Logan with her on the 23rd and helped get her stuff moved

Mike put together the Ikea furniture

After moving and unpacking we had worked up quite an appetite and went out for a late lunch at Angie's

Nora finished hanging things up and arranging things the next day and sent me this cute picture of how her side of the room turned out. She is very excited to start her second year of college!

Coco's Birthday Party

 Our cute little Coco turned 3 years old this month - that is a very big deal for a rat! Nora wanted to throw her a cute strawberry themed birthday party since strawberries are one of her favorite treats. She found an idea for a rat-safe cake that is made from bread for the cake, plain Greek yogurt for the frosting, and decorated with strawberries. Nora also looked up a regular strawberries and cream cake recipe to make for the humans. We put on a white tablecloth with a black runner to look like her fur colors, and decorated with little strawberry cutouts and the rat magnets. Kate was able to join us too!

The matching cakes were so adorable


Nora and me with the birthday girl (wearing our rat shirts)

Coco with her birthday buddy (Mike and Coco both have August birthdays)



Time for her to dig in! She loved the cake



Getting a picture with Kate

We let Coco have paws on the table just this once since it was her birthday

Serving the cake for the humans - it was delicious! Nora did such a good job

Coco going back for more cake



Getting a picture with the Strawberry plate in the hutch
Happy birthday to our sweetest little Coco Bean!

July Misc.

 Here are a few more pictures from July:

Everyone loves to hold Oliver (except maybe Ev)



We have some hostas growing in the side yard where it is shady. One morning Mike heard the sound of a lot of spurting water, and found out that our neighbors next door had a broken sprinkler that was letting out a ton of water. The hosta plant on the other side of the fence from it got really huge from the extra watering lol

Cute little sleeping Coco

Ev and Sam found this...interesting...picture online and made it the wallpaper on my laptop

Continuing our family play-through of Monkey Island 2


We went on a family outing to Ikea to get a mirror for Sam and look at some things for Nora's dorm room. The kids get a kick out of all the room set-ups in the showroom




A pheasant got into our yard and I wouldn't let Dorie go outside because I didn't want her to scare it, so she was peeking out of the dog door to see what was going on


A cute little kitty we saw on a walk

Our adorable lil void

Ollz on the stairs

Juno and Max when we were packing for our trip - they always know something is up

Max found some kitty pictures that the kids drew

Juno's favorite entertainment this month was a toothbrush package in a box

Our treats we brought back from Austria and Germany

The handsome Young Sir

Poor Coco got a little owie on her back, and she kept scratching off the scab so it couldn't heal. We watched some online tutorials about making a rat sweater out of a small sock to keep her from being able to scratch at it. We tried several versions, but were never able to make one that she couldn't get off. She looked really cute and funny in them, though.





Mike has been doing some financial literacy lessons after Sunday dinners. Dorie was not paying attention

Monty drew this self portrait and I thought it was awesome

Sam with root beer in his stein

Coco loves hanging out with Nora


We took Coco to the vet to get some help with her little wound. She looks so cute in her carrier



One of the treatments the vet gave us was a sulphur bath. She was not a fan of this at all, and it made her slightly yellow and stinky (but she was still the sweetest lil Coco Bean)

She also got some oral meds

We made it to Monkey Island 3. I love how Dorie wants to be a part of it and has her paw on Ev's leg


I moved the location of the cat treats from the bathroom cupboard to the top of the bookcase, so this is where Juno goes now to ask for treats

Dorie and Oliver being curious where we are about to go

We continued our summer bowling practicing. They have so many "themes" you can pick for your screen that shows the scores, and it does a little animation after every turn that is dependent on how many pins you got

Our favorite one is called "vintage" because the pictures they use are pretty funny and a little random sometimes

We tried out "You Toons" once to shake things up. It has everyone take some pictures with different expressions, and then inserts them into silly animations

How Tubby asks for treats (and attention)

Tubby in his "hidey-hole" (which is just under the bed)

The kids were talking about how funny my old trip journal was, so Ev went and got it and brought it up to read to everyone at Sunday dinner

Sam demonstrating to me that as soon as he sits down on the patio at Sunday dinner, Fritz will come sit on his lap

Oliver doin' his thing

I went to pick something up at Walgreens, and I thought this headless horseman nutcracker there was pretty funny

The Wild S'more

Our book club read this month was "The Road Less Traveled"

Cute lil paws

Sleepy pup

May and June were so busy, Sam and Nora's birthday dinners got a bit postponed. We were able to do Sam's in July, and he picked sushi!

It makes me laugh every time I see Coco sleeping like this in a ball with her head tucked under. It looks uncomfortable to me, but it must feel good if you are a rat