(And for those of you who might find the spelling and punctuation a challenge, here is the translation:
Dear Mom,
Please can I mop the floor? I can do it when nobody is there. I know we have school, but I can do it when school is done.)
Yesterday we helped a friend who puts on a yearly children's arts festival. We were put in charge of bean bag tossing and the "pick a duck" activities, which were nicely within our abilities (our friend knows better than to put us in charge of something demanding artistic talent, like face painting). The day was warmish, and Ed got tired and went home, and the children discovered the dunk tank, but I persevered with my bean bags (the ducks really didn't require much supervision). It was fun, but today my thighs are complaining from all the bending over to retrieve bean bags they did yesterday.
Katie is making good progress with piano, and so is Travis.
.
We had a yardful of friends over for the fireworks, and everyone had a good time and nobody put an eye out with a sparkler (Ed's worry for the evening). And no one let Harry or Bo out (which was a good thing).
Hair is one of the areas where I mostly figure that the kids can have things their way, but his hair had gotten quite long and I do think it looks better now. Plus, he can see.Today we had Travis's and Katie's joint birthday party/picnic at Stone Mountain. After all the rain we had last week, I was a little apprehensive about the weather, but it was absolutely gorgeous. Blue skies, nice breeze, low-mid 80's. You just couldn't have asked for better. We made sandwiches (all sorts, on cute little dollar rolls -- Katie's "butter and bacon" ones were a surprise hit!), cake, chips, and grapes (token "healthy" food, you know!), and there was plenty, with just enough left over to nibble tonight. We are so lucky to have a great little group of friends, where all the kids get along and the moms do too! It was a wonderful day.
The breeze kept wanting to blow out the 18 candles on the cake (7 for Katie and 11 for Travis), but we kept them lit long enough for for birthday children to blow them out.
And Katie, going down sideways/backwards.
Today is a good day for me to remember that I hit the jackpot in the daddy department. I have the best daddy in the whole world, and my children also have the best daddy.
And this one is pretty funny too. They are eating cake, and Travis is about 8 months old.
And then we have him very mature, holding his little princess (who is about 7 months there).
I don't multi-task well. What with school planning and vacation Bible schools, blogging has been thrown into the same category with the laundry this past week or so. But now VBS is over, and here I am (and the laundry can pile in the basement for just a little longer, because this is more fun!).
There was a scavenger hunt for the children, and they all were given cameras to record their finds. Travis is taking a picture of the Tub of Mint he found (with my help).
And we went to Stone Mountain. The weather has finally gotten really "summery."
We decided to let Travis have another go at mowing (just in the back, and not around my cherry trees). He did a fine job, and did not run the mower up onto the porch even once.
The kids have been looking forward to the vacation Bible school at the church next door, and also the to another one at a church which some of our homeschooling friends attend. As it happened, both were this week -- one in the morning and the other in the evening. Because the evening VBS didn't get done 'til 9:00pm, I decided to give the children the week off school and just rest in the afternoons. The resting part didn't go quite as I'd planned, since the kids brought home friends every afternoon from the morning VBS (whose parents would then pick them up after our evening VBS -- Travis did win a $10 Walmart certificate for bringing the most guests), but they sure had a good week!
And then there is ice cream. Lots of ice cream.
And here is Ed, playing Apples to Apples with Katie and some of our guests. Ed is ready to get back to our normal routine.
A friend called me on Sunday afternoon and said she had more cherries on her tree than she would have time to pick and use, and would we like to come and pick some? Our cherry trees are tiny, and the birds have gotten nearly all the cherries, so this afternoon after school we headed over with our coffee cans. She wasn't kidding about the abundance of cherries! We filled our three cans, had a nice time visiting, and went home. I thought I'd have all the cherries pitted before dinner, but I didn't (not even close!). Still, I had nearly four cups, which is enough for a crumble, so that is what we had for dessert.
It was very tasty!
We made clay pots on Monday. It was part of our art program but fitted in well with history as well. Both of the kids, but especially Travis, have been doing really well with their school work lately. I don't know what brought about this increased dedication, but I am enjoying it immensely.
After more than a week of rain, the weather today has been beautiful! I asked the kids if they'd like to go hiking up to Wolf Rock, over at Stone Mountain. Of course, they didn't want to, but then I offered them ice cream and they thought it wasn't such a bad idea. Katie waded in this stream before we even started. She had wet feet & had to carry her wet socks the whole way, but she didn't complain.
Here Katie is seeing if she can slingshot her wet socks with this little tree. And Travis is thinking it would be cool if his sister went flying up into the air. They were both disappointed. Slingshot trees work so well in the cartoons!
The view from the top is marvelous.
They earned their ice cream.
