Every summer for 7 years, I've had all of my kids participate in the library summer reading program and put all of their names into the same bucket for a bike drawing. I figured we increased our odds by all entering the same bucket instead of different buckets. This year it worked! Thora's name got pulled out of the bucket for the boys' medium size bike!
She didn't like it until I told her it's black like Black Widow. Not that she has to like it. It was a family effort. It'll be for everyone before her and then her when she's the right size.
Samson started drinking out of cups!
Smoothies are the best.
The day after we got home from Colorado, I started The Master Cleanse, which is 10 days of drinking a lemon juice-maple syrup-cayenne lemonade. Some do it for weight loss; I did it for a digestive cleanse. So I had low energy some evenings when the kids hit their peak energy, so Shad decided we'd go to the lake where he and I could sit and talk while the kids could play outside. We loved it so much we started doing it 3 or 4 days a week!
I saw The Beast! You know, Hercules from The Sandlot.
Saw this gem at the elementary school playground:
Now tell me how those kids are going to read the Braille all the way up there. And then tell me how they're going to help Sparky find anything.
Sam loved swinging with Shad.
It's always a fair to go 4-on-1 for tickles!
I was scraping paint off our porch roof trim one day when I heard lots of laughing come from the little two in the side yard. I stayed hidden to watch them, knowing they'd stop if they saw me. The magic spell always breaks when they see me and want me instead of each other.
Thora said she loved my 'polkanuts.' As in, polka dots crossed with coconuts.
Thora always knows how to kick back and get comfy.
Oh, this makes my heart sad. The kids went out into the yard one day and came running back to tell me that a cat was in our yard. I thought it'd be our neighbor's mangy cat, Mike, but when I went out to yell at the beast, it was instead this beautiful, well-groomed cat I had never seen before.
She was lovely! She came right over when I crouched and called her and she rubbed up against me and the kids. She not only let Samson pet her to his little heart's desire but she rubbed against him and soaked him up. She wasn't wearing a collar and was very thin, so I guessed that maybe she was one of the many strays around town.
I checked on facebook and got responses that she was a stray, so I set up to adopt her as an outdoor cat. I set up a bed, bought food for her, named her Isis (the Egyptian goddess of life and fertility) but then (jumping ahead in my picture timeline) we went camping one night and didn't see her the next day. And then we went to Colorado for a couple days, and we really never saw her again. A black stray cat showed up to enjoy the bowl of food I left out on the porch. I kept feeding the black cat til the bag of food I bought ran out.
Thora came downstairs from a nap with chocolate on her face.
Isn't this great?
We started having Poetry & Tea, introduced to us by Chris Clark. Because Chris is the best and has all the awesome homeschool ideas. We needed to meet each other sooner in life. (*side note: Chris and I did water aerobics together over the summer. That never made it into my other posts because there wasn't a picture)
Poetry & Tea is basically the Finer Things Club (The Office reference) for kids. Use nice tea cups, dress up if you want, spread a table cloth, have tea treats, and read some poems.
We've got Chicken Soup With Rice; Night-Night, Knight; Where the Sidewalk Ends; A Light in the Attic; Emily Dickenson; and Robert Frost.
We had our tea time with lunch, so our snacks were PB&J and cucumbers.
Ah, our last time seeing Isis! She loved her bed, her home on the porch, and Katie playing with her with a stick. So sad she disappeared!
