Critters

Beck and his chicken, Persimmon.

 Rocky!

 The girls...I love when they root around in my compost because they mix it up just perfectly!!

 Olive...Quinn says she has the best facial features!  She is also the softest of our girls!

And Fern!!  That rabbit has a mind of her own.  

Lately.....

We got to see the Askews over the 4th weekend!!  Quinn and Ava have become penpals, so they were excited to spend some time together.  Quinn is hard-core into the letter writing, sending handfuls of letters (each with its own stamp and envelope!) every week.  I love seeing her enthusiasm about doing some writing!  

Beck and Rhett are pen pals, and Beck was excited to get a letter this week!

 These two have been all about putting on singing/dancing/jumping shows to The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkle, Purple People Eater, The Star Spangled Banner and April Come She Will (S&G).  They have several performances every day!  I love watching their creativity to fill the slow days of summer...they are always coming up with some type of pretend play and it makes my heart happy!

Matt and I got away downtown for a night as an early anniversary celebration.  We stayed at a new downtown hotel and ate some delicious Italian food + key lime pie, and breakfast tacos and a bit of leisurely shopping.  I love the chance to have a little getaway with my love!!

 

My little swimmers are really.good.swimmers!  They can both pick up rings off the bottom of the deep end, swim like little fishies, and are working on swimming long distances in 1 breath!!

 For summer school, we do lots of projecty-ness.  We've been doing an architecture study, focusing on Frank Lloyd Wright.  We are also listening to The Trumpet of the Swan, so we did some FLW-inspired painting while listening to our story. 

Q struggled a bit over the year with using a ruler to divide up her paper for Main lesson pages or calendars....but I watched her measure and draw straight lines with ease as she made her own idea for a Frank Lloyd Wright art glass painting....the concept of "breathing out" (ie: taking a small break from something challenging and then coming back to it) has proven to be so successful for her and it is immensely rewarding to watch her conquer a task she's struggled with.  One of the reasons I love our Waldorf curriculum--so many of the child-centric concepts are perfect for our girl.

 The library is always a favorite spot of ours to stock up on tons of audiobooks and a few regular books, too!  Quinn has kept the holds shelf full with her 15 allowed requests at all times!  I love that she finds joy in that!

 We've also been studying some geometry (particularly triangles) in conjunction with the FLW studies. 

 I got in a sewing mood, so I made a new pillow cover that Hazy enjoyed. 

 Quinn is also studying geometry terms in German with Opa!

 Beck and I had a little date on Friday.  We went to the Goodwill, to the store to buy batteries, and to Wendy's (all his request).  That boy's love language is batteries.  Lots of batteries.  :)

He also loves collecting eggs!

Summer afternoon cuddles with the cat...a rarity, so photo-worthy!

 He changes out our little calendar each month:

 Doing German homework:  (We are doing German, Music and French/Cooking over the summer, on a slightly more relaxed schedule around vacations, etc.) 

 Taking care of Fern:

Quinn taught Beck to fingerknit, and they happened upon some random yarn at Manna Saturday, so they both got right to work weaving away!  Tonight Beck and Matt were playing baseball outside, and Beck asked to come in and have Matt watch him fingerknit.  Matt asked him why he liked it so much and Beck said, "That's just the stage I am in."  :)

 Rocky visits make us all happy!

4th Of July

We had a pretty low-key 4th of July this year because it was pouring raining until about 5pm.  So we just enjoyed a relaxing day at home until Daddy got cabin fever and suggested going to Trader Joe's to browse a bit and then getting some Torchy's with the Merediths.  After all that fun, we came home and lit a few fireworks a friend had given us.  Quinn and I did some sparklers, and Beck was totally into blowing anything up possible.  :)  He was a crazy man and couldn't get enough fireworks.  

 Since it had rained all day, the weather was actually in the high 70's and cool enough to sit outside and drink a cup of tea!  My favorite treat from the day!!

 A sweet friend at church gave the kids 4th of July ink pens!

 Quinn and I made her shirt last year and her leggings this year!  She was the only festive one of our bunch this year....We didn't get to do the neighborhood parade/cookout/swim party, so I didn't even don any red, white and blue.

Sports Camp

This year was the kids' first time to do Sports Camp at church.  They loved every minute of it and it was such a great experience for us!  Quinn chose cheer as her sport (options were volleyball, cheer, football, baseball, or soccer).  About 2 weeks before camp started, she started putting cheerleading books on reserve at the library and reading them.  Melt my mama heart!  I love how that girl knows how to do research and is independent in collecting her books and studying through them!  She determined that cheerleaders need to drink a certain amount of water (through her studies in her books) and so she made herself a checklist for cups of water drank each day.  She also read about healthy eating plans, so she spent one day eating the recommended foods the book listed.  :)  She also learned several cheers from her books, so she was totally psyched for cheer camp. 

Beck has been all about baseball this spring and summer.  He asks us several times a day to throw him some pitches.  He started out the summer not being able to throw or catch or hit.  Now he's a mean hitter...he doesn't miss many wiffleballs pitched his way and even hits some over the fence!  He is really improving in his catching and throwing!  He is the cutest little left-handed baseball player I ever did see!  He has been tenacious about learning baseball this summer, and it is pretty adorable to watch!  So of course he chose baseball as his sport!  

One of the days was crazy hair and socks day.  Quinn wanted her buns each a different color, so I colored them for her with her hair chalks.  For Beck's hair, he was excited that he wouldn't really even have to do anything to it--it's already pretty crazy on its own!!  :)  I introduced him to mousse (which made him giggle like crazy!) and he adored putting it in his hair and making it wild and crazy.  Then I rubbed in orange paint and that extra-crazified it!  They looked pretty great!  

Besides learning their sports, they learned several great songs, learned a Bible lesson every day, brought homework that they did all on their own (!!!!!) to take back each day, and collected change to give to help bring Sports Camp to countries around the world where kids can't afford it.  Also, my favorite thing was that they learned a memory verse--they both memorized Hebrews 12:1-2.  I will have to get a video of them saying it, because it makes my heart so happy! 

The last night was coaches vs. campers.  Beck got a great line drive hit!  He was stinkin cute running the bases!  

 Here is his "team" huddled up listening to their great coach.

The cheerleaders had a cheer they performed on stage and a dance they did.  Quinn knew all her moves perfectly and was so good at both the dance and cheer!  We were so proud watching her, all business up there, doing her thing!!  

 On the last day we made cookies for the coaches.  Beck did the majority of measuring and mixing while Quinn was eating some lunch.  He was super independent in the measuring and mixing and I was so impressed at how far his baking skills have come!  And Quinn had the job of spooning out the cookies, which is a lot harder than it seems to get them spaced evenly and make them all the same size!  She concentrated and worked really hard at this part and the cookies turned out beautifully and delicious!  So fun to watch the kids develop in their cooking and baking!

Yeaaaa for Sports Camp!!!

New Kayaks!

Last summer when we were in Missouri at our lake house, Quinn tried kayaking for the first time and got pretty stinking good at it in just a few days.  She loved it and has been wanting to get kayaks ever since.  We've gone a couple times with friends and she enjoyed it so much!  So I had set away some money from photography jobs last year and dedicated it to the kayak fund.  We had been putting off buying them because we wanted to build a spot on the side of the garage for storing them....and of course that wasn't happening quickly!  A few weekends ago Matt got wild and crazy and cleaned out all the scrap wood and junk that was stored on the side of the garage (in the summer heat, no less...he's a beast!) and has started doing some thinking about the kayak/canoe racks he wants to build. We found a good deal on a used tandem sit-upon kayak on Craigslist and a single on sale at Academy, so we decided it was time to make kayaks happen!  We took them out the day we got them on Lake Woodlands.  Matt and the kids took the tandem and I had a fosterlove with me in the single because I like to live on the edge.  Paddling with a 10 month old between your legs is wild for sure!  :)  

 The kids loved every minute of it!  We saw some neat birds (I can't remember now which ones) and some baby ducks and the night was beautiful as the sun set over the water. 

 Of course Quinn was dying to take one for a spin on her own.  That girl is a boss on a kayak!  She was cruising all around the place!  She definitely has her daddy's paddling skills!

 I love Matt a little extra when he says yes to taking canoes or kayaks out, because it's mostly a whole lot of work for him.  He has to put the rack on the truck and do the majority of loading up and rounding up paddles and life jackets and ratchet straps, etc.  It's not a fun job when it is hot outside and excited, energetic children are trying to hurry you along, but he's a good sport about it because he knows we all love doing it....and I love that about him!!  And he's got major paddling skills, so I always want to be on his boat! 

 Hoping we'll have lots more kayak adventures in the days to come!!  Aren't my kids cute little paddlers???