Monday, July 13, 2009

A Good Sign


Katie gave me this note today. I was so pleased that I didn't even point out the misspellings!


(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.)

(This is a picture from when my good girl was two, almost three. A good helper, but her notes were less intelligible then.)

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Summer Stuff

The lawn is mowed, the dog is washed, and now, as I wait for the cook to appear and begin dinner preparations (she never does materialize, but it is one of my favorite fantasies), I will catch up on my beloved blog!
Basically, it has just been the usual summer stuff. Swimming, picnics, parties. Pretty much one endless frolic involving lots of wet towels and ice cream sandwiches. I think the children are having a good summer. 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.
We are also continuing with school. Fair warning to my daddy -- there is a cat picture coming!

Katie is making good progress with piano, and so is Travis.

Last weekend was the big Fourth of July event at the park across the street. The parade was, according to a couple locals, the longest ever. It has oodles of old cars and beautiful shiny old tractors. Plus horses, rescue vehicles, and all the "usual" stuff ("Usual" in this case means some floats with many generations of a family on them, a few business cars & trucks, some motorcycles, and lots of the other things I mentioned. No marching bands or cheerleaders for us!) Across the street we had music of all sorts, a wide assortment of fair foods, and games.
Travis and Katie both acquitted themselves honorably in egg tossing, three legged racing, and potato sack racing. We are so proud.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).
The next day was Travis's birthday. All of his presents were just as wonderfully thrilling as he had anticipated, he loved his tuna noodle casserole dinner, and we even found enough candles to put on his chocolate pie. Sort of. We didn't actually have eleven candles, but we found an old "7" candle and four birthday candles, so that adds up to eleven. Travis didn't mind.
In one more week my not-quite-so-little-anymore boy will be going away to camp for a week. Pray for me! Some child at the VBS next door asked him if he were a girl, and after some thought Travis told me he would like a hair cut. Not too short, but Manly.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.

Monday, June 22, 2009

The Birthday Party Picnic

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.


Girls eating cake. Alex appears to be waiting for Something to come down the chimney.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.

Here is Travis sliding down the waterfall (starting from the halfway up point, because I am funny about heights). And Katie, going down sideways/backwards.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day!

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.

I don't explain these things; I just appreciate them.
First, we have my daddy (on the right) when he probably still thought girls had cooties. But isn't he a cutie?
And then, moving forward just a few years, he is holding me.
I like this picture because I do not have One Single gray hair here. I think my daddy is feeding me cereal, and my pediatrician was probably fine with this. I think he (Daddy) looks absurdly young to be a father, but I was asked three times last week if I am my children's grandmother, so my perspective on this may be skewed.
And finally, here is my daddy with my baby brother, preparing to launch a radio controlled sailboat. I include this partly because they are so sweet looking and partly to demonstrate to my children that we Did So have colored pictures when I was a child.
And moving on to Ed...
This picture of Ed makes me laugh. Yes, he is wearing a neck brace. Does he have the look of a young man who has learned that motorcycles are dangerous and has resolved to travel more carefully in the future? No, not to me either. I am just grateful that we didn't meet until we were both slightly less young and dumb.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).

Happy, happy Father's Day, to my daddy, And to my children's daddy! You guys are the best!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Now, Where Were We?

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!).

Last weekend our church met and had a picnic at the gorgeous farm of one of our members.

Isn't that a pretty place for a church service? The views were glorious in all directions, and the perennial gardens were amazing. (And our priest is front and center, in the shorts.)
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!

At the church next door, one of the "kick-off" activities is touring the community on a fire truck.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.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Tuesday

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.

*And yes, I do let her do school in her jammies!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Too Nice a Day to Work on School Plans

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.