August 23

It was a hectic day today!

We had a birthday party in the morning, got home in time for lunch, Caleb had speech, then Special Time with Grandmother, then soccer practice for Caleb and at the same time, a photo session for me.

The birthday party was a swimming party, and I knew that I was taking a chance by taking all four kids to a pool party by myself. But since they have consistently done well in every pool they've been to, I thought it would be fine. I was wrong. The pool was much deeper than they were used to, only Coast Guard approved flotation devices were allowed, and they weren't allowed to play on the steps to the pool.

In other words, I had 1 capable swimmer and 3 who either had to sit on the edge of the pool or have my undivided attention. 3 kids and 1 mama = we had to leave. It was so disappointing for everyone, but the kids had really good attitudes about it. 

When we got home, I made them a special treat to compensate for the missed party. 

What I mean is, they basically ate Puppy Chow for lunch. Whatever.

Gayle dropped Caleb and Daisy off right on time, so Caleb had just enough time to change into his soccer clothes and eat a quick dinner. Then my mom came over to stay with the little ones while I had my photo shoot and Chris took Caleb to soccer.

Then it started raining, and my photo session was cancelled. Boo! But it meant that the hectic evening suddenly became a pleasant afternoon visit with my mom.

Also, she brought new crayons and nature journals for the kids! They were thrilled.

Eli was so excited to have crayons of his own!

Hi, sweet baby!

(He adamantly chose his shirt today. Funny kid.)

Lily woke up from her nap while Grandma was here, and when she woke I told her I had a surprise for her in the piano room. She ran in to find Grandma, and was so happy!

When she saw all of her new crayons, she was even happier.

This is a very happy little boy.

August 22

Our homeschool co-op doesn't start meeting until after Labor Day, but we started easing back into the school year today. The first big change: I started waking up earlier. Boo. But the mornings are much more pleasant when I'm up earlier, rather than later. Today, for example, I had time to read with Eli before our morning adventure. He is totally in to books now, especially ones about trucks and machines.

He brought this book to me (Mighty Movers) and when we got to this page, he patted the motorcycle and said, "Papa!"

He knows that Grandpa rides a motorcycle, and he thinks it's super cool.

Is it just me, or is he not a baby anymore? I'm issuing a decree that as long as he wears zip-up footie pajamas, he is still a baby.
He will be wearing footie pajamas when he is 18.

I've been doing a lot of planning and imagining about what our home school year will be like, and one of the things I really want to make a staple of each day is outdoor adventure time, with nature journaling. Today we got to join up with some other moms and kids for a hike through a local conservation area, which was so much fun! The area was surrounded by neighborhoods, but was still pretty woodsy, with mulch or dirt paths through forests. 

Perfect!

Blurry action shot, but you can tell that we were having fun.

There was just one weird part. 

When we got home, I asked Caleb and Daisy to spend time drawing the most interesting things they observed on our hike. Here is Caleb's summary:

He drew:

1. The sign at the entrance to the park.

2. A empty, broken sign that used to be a bulletin board.

3. A blue wildflower

4. A fallen tree with wild roots going everywhere

5. Orange fungi that looked like carrots wearing hats

6. A little hole at the base of a tree

7. The weird part. Can you figure it out?

There was a part where the path ran alongside a neighborhood, and all of the yards were fenced. One yard in particular had a wrought iron type fence, with little black spears. Inside the yard, there was a bush in front of the fence. Some poor young buck got into the yard, tried to leap over the bush to get out of the yard, and ended up getting impaled on the fence stake. 

By the time we happened upon it, the poor thing was recently deceased, and its head ran right across the path. It was pretty horrifying to see, but Caleb was fascinated. At first, I tried to keep him away from it, but then I realized that it's part of life, and so I let him get closer to examine it. It's not something any of us will forget soon.

We got home in time for lunch, but then I checked my email and saw that a bunch of homeschool workbooks that I had sent out for printing were ready, so we headed to the office store to quickly pick them up.

It was not a quick trip.

It was not an easy trip.

It was awful. 

We left 45 minutes later with out the workbooks and copies, and we were all hungry and tired. Plus, I was so angry and frustrated and annoyed that I was shaking. The rest of my day was a waste, but at least we had a great morning and I had book club in the evening. Hooray for that!

August 21

Did I mention that Chris is training for a half marathon? 

He is. 

He's about halfway through his training, and today he did a 9-mile run before church. He's so respectful about his training, and often chooses to get up and run before dawn so that he doesn't disrupt my routine. Today, though, I got up with the little ones at 6:30 because he was out running. I knew to expect him back at a certain time, so we all waited out on the front porch for his return.

Caleb was still asleep.

Even though it's August, it was surprisingly cool out, hence the blankets. But it was great weather for a 9-miler!

Eli was eating half a banana, stuck on a reusable popsicle stick (a morning favorite around here).

Lily was snuggling her baby and didn't want her picture taken.

They were so excited when Chris finally ran up the street!

Then we all ate breakfast and went to church and Costco. After church, my mom stopped by on her way home from her church. We sat on the porch and chatted while the little ones ran in the front yard, and it was lovely.

See? Sweet snuggles from my boy. I love him!

What I don't have pictures of is how funny Lily was. She plays Ring Around the Rosie while spinning around a street light in our yard, except she doesn't know the words. So for the part where it goes, "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!"

she sings,

"Package, package, we all fall down!"

and she calls the game "Package".

It is so funny!

August 20

All I have for today is this iPhone image of sweet Lily, perusing her Calico Critters catalog.

Auntie Grace gave Lily a set of critters for Christmas, and ignited the funniest little passion in our girl. She loved them!

Grace sent Lily another set or two for her birthday, and then Lily chose to use her birthday money to buy a triple bunk bed for her "babies". Each box comes with a little catalog, showing pictures of all the other sets. (Of course it does.)

Lately, it has been Lily's favorite reading material. She really wants a house for her babies now. Good thing it's only a few months until Christmas!

August 19

No pictures of the kids today; just a picture of a caterpillar.

Actually, how about a video first?

While I was getting ready to make dinner, Caleb called for me to come see what he had discovered. It was a caterpillar hanging from a thread  from our back door frame! It didn't look calm, though. It was frantically spinning and curling into a J-shape, almost like it was trying to form its chrysalis, but in a manic manner, while holding a gray clump.

 It was so bizarre that I posted the video to Facebook and asked friends for help. We determined that it had probably attached itself to the door frame, then fallen. The gray clump was what had initially attached to the door frame before it fell. Someone suggested using hot glue to attach the gray clump (which was attached to the caterpillar, but not a part of the caterpillar) to a stick and putting the stick in a more appropriate place. As I waited for my painfully slow hot glue gun to heat up, the poor little caterpillar it fell for real, onto the ground.

Caleb was initially very interested in the caterpillar situation, but at this point he grew so anxious that he had to go inside. Poor kid.

However, it was still dragging around the gray clump and I was afraid that it would have no energy left after all of its hard work, so I attempted to rescue it anyway.

My rescue attempt. No glue touched the actual caterpillar.

I thought I was doing a good deed, but apparently I wasn't. Eventually I became concerned that the poor guy would die thanks to my hot-glue fix, so I freed him. Be free, little caterpillar! I hope you grow into a beautiful butterfly!

August 16

I'm actually writing this on August 23, because I have slacked and not blogged or picked up my camera much for the past week. Oops. With school starting and all kinds of last-minute photography things popping up, I've just been busy. 

But I'll try to do better!

August 16, for example.

All three big kids needed to see the dentist, so I scheduled a 7 am dentist appointment. Normally, I am still in bed at 7 am, and around 7:30 Eli climbs back into my bed for his second nursing session of the morning. When he finishes, the girls usually join me for a snuggle, and we don't really get moving until close to 8. But today, I was up at 6 and we were out the door at 6:40. 

Why so early?

So that Chris could come, too. He stayed in the waiting room with Eli while I went back with the big kids. It was a perfect setup, and totally worth the loss of sleep! All three kids did great - no cavities, perfectly compliant, and the hygienist and dentist didn't bat an eye when I declined x-rays, fluoride, and sugar-free popsicles. Win!

Mandatory "Done with the Dentist" photo. Caleb doesn't look thrilled, does he?

But he was thrilled later, when I told him that we were going to see Jenny at work for breakfast. He's always up for a restaurant breakfast!

The kids were insane at Jenny's store, but luckily we were the only customers there. 

When we got home, we did an awesome science experiment. Actually, we started it yesterday, and finished it today.

This is Edward the Egg:

It was an egg from our friendly local chicken farmer, and we dropped it in a glass of vinegar yesterday afternoon. Gradually, the vinegar dissolved the hard shell until all that was left was the membrane enclosing the yolk. It felt like a really firm water balloon, and we could kind of see through it when we held it up to the light.

Pretty cool, huh?

Once everyone was done examining it, we took it outside and Caleb threw it down on the sidewalk with a mighty splat. 

It was just like an egg-filled water balloon.

Awesome.

August 15

Somehow, Do-Nothing Monday has morphed into "Do All the Grocery Shopping, and Maybe Take a Trip to the Library" Monday. Boo. But the kids are getting back in to the routine of going shopping with me, and starting to remember how to behave at the grocery store, so it's not so bad. Plus, it's good real-life experience for them. 

Lily put together an especially fabulous ensemble for the library and grocery stores. She wouldn't pose for a picture, so I had to snap this one of her as she walked away from me:

That's a sparkly, skirted leotard.

I learned later that she had shorts on, too, bunched up inside the leotard.

Shockingly pink dressy sandals with faded, too-big, stretched-out Hello, Kitty socks.

Unbrushed hair, with a stretchy headband creating that fancy pouf.

And her "Green Pinkie", a blanket from my childhood that she often pretends is her "'carf".

Goodness, I love this girl.

And my boy! My big boy! As we wrapped up at our last grocery store, I allowed each kiddo to choose a special apple as a reward for good behavior. (Don't think I'm too fabulous; they also had suckers at Trader Joe's.) It started because Caleb has been asking for days to get Golden Delicious apples. I don't like them, so instead I let each kid choose one of whatever variety they wanted. Caleb finally had his Golden Delicious apple, but he was only 1/3 through it when he said that he didn't want it anymore. He seemed really sad, so I pried a bit and found that it hurt his tooth. I took it from him and promised that when we got home, I'd cut it into slices for him.

When we got home, I didn't even have a chance to cut it up before he emerged into the kitchen with a bloody tissue in his mouth and a tooth in his hand.

Friends, my big boy has lost his second tooth!

This tooth-falling-out business has me all kinds of emotional. We worked so hard to get those teeth in in the first place - late nights, lots of gnawing, fussiness - and now they're just falling out, willy-nilly! And now he looks like a gap-toothed big boy, and I have to acknowledge that he is a SECOND GRADER. 

Not cool.

I may lose it when the top two fall out, but thankfully they don't seem to be loose yet.

I spent the afternoon working on our bookshelf project, and then Chris continued after dinner. They are now officially secured to the wall and to each other. Next comes trim, and then the filling of the shelves! (Trim may take a while, so the filling may come first.)

It's a good thing I spent naptime securing them to the wall, because Eli has decided they are fun to climb. Uh-oh.

He also thinks it's fun to stand in them. Lily agrees. However, now there are shelves in their spots. Eli tried several times to use the shelves as a ladder, so I will have to keep a close eye on him. At least I know they can't tip over!

These kiddos are so funny. They thought they were hot stuff, hanging out in the bookshelves! Chris took a picture with my phone, and Eli immediately ran over, demanding, "See? SEE???"

Only once he saw the picture on my phone was he satisfied.

When the shelves were all in place and they couldn't stand anymore, Eli and Lily each lay down on the bottom shelf. Eli declared, "BED!" and then said, "Night-night!"

Funny boy!

August 14

Billy came back over bright and early this morning to finish installing the can lights and some electrical outlets in our piano room. We headed off to church, and by the time we returned he was almost finished. After lunch, Chris took the big kids up to the YMCA (they went to big-kid childcare while he did speedwork on the treadmill, and then they all went swimming together) while I put the little ones down for naps and got to work building bookshelves.

Eli woke up before I was finished, though, and decided to "help".

So. That is the beginning of our wall of bookshelves. You can see two of the four new outlets Billy installed, and two of the six new can lights in that room. Eventually, the bookcases will be trimmed out and "built in", but we aren't quite there yet. I pushed this project forward because I realized that we need space to store all of our homeschooling stuff. For as much as Chris and I love books, the only bookshelves we have on our main floor are for kids books! Organization makes me happy, so I'm hopeful that once this is done I will be able to organize homeschooling materials here, and have a bright, airy room to sit and learn in!

Eli "helped" me with the screwdriver.

This baby. Does he kill you? He kills me.

I mean, really. He was so happy to be "helping"!

Later, Chris and the kids got home and Lily woke up from her nap. I had some hammering to do, and Caleb found a toy hammer so that Eli could help with that, too.

(I tried to tell him that he was using the wrong end of the hammer, but he didn't want to hear it. Let's not mention it.)

(Let's also not mention how weird my fingers look here. I promise I have all five of them on my left hand.)

I was so delighted and proud of Eli's hammering skills! Look, even Lily is standing in awe, watching.

I worked while Chris made dinner, and then Chris worked while I put the kids to bed, and I think the bookcases might be officially installed now? I'm afraid to ask. I still have some patching to do, and they need trim, and then I will need approximately 4,921 baskets and boxes to store things on them, but they must all match and they cannot be expensive, so I may never find them. Still, progress! Yay!

August 13

I don't remember what we did today, but I do know we went to the pool. 

Hi, Lily!

It was 89 degrees out, which turns out is much too cool for swimming in our shady neighborhood pool.

At least, that's what I thought. The kids didn't seem to mind, though.

Sweet baby! This is why I do what I do, and why I take eight million pictures each day. It's all worth it for one photo like the one above.

Eli loves the pool!

Daisy's jump. 

Lily thought about jumping, but wasn't feeling brave enough.

My husband is the best dad at the pool. All of the other parents are lounging in their chairs, sipping their beverages, trying their best to ignore their children. Chris, however, is in the water, playing , splashing, instigating adventures. He brings the fun!

And just because I don't have any pictures of Caleb from today, here's one that I took so that he could see the marks his goggles made under his eyes. They were actually Daisy's goggles, and perhaps a bit too tight!

August 12

Such a busy day today! We started with a visit to Chris' bank so that we could sign closing documents to refinance our mortgage. (Rates are so low right now that by refinancing, we can keep our payment the same and pay off the house sooner. Winning!) I did have to bring all four kiddos with me, though, which could have been awful. Thankfully, at his birthday party last night Max gave each of the kids a little Lego set. It was just the entertainment they needed while Chris and I signed documents!

The closing only took about thirty minutes, but then the kids spent another 15-20 minutes exploring Chris' office and saying hello to his co-workers. They love visiting him at work!

Then we headed to Amber's house for a short playdate, since we were already halfway there. I don't have any pictures, but there is some awesome construction work going on at her house that the children found highly entertaining. Man-sized holes, cement being poured... it was exciting stuff!

We made it home in time for some playtime and lunch. We in the middle of a house project that is going to turn one of our least-used rooms into one of the most awesome rooms in the house, and I am so excited. That means, though, that things in the house are a bit... jumbled and chaotic?... right now.

It also means that toys and play items that have previously been hidden have suddenly came to light, and I'm too distracted to fight them.

Enter Window Crayons.

My mom picked these up for us a year or two ago, and I love the concept. We have big, wide windows that are perfect for this! However, they are messy. Seriously messy, and cleanup is a beast. So I hid them away after a few uses, but Daisy found them a few days ago and finally wore me down enough that I allowed her to play with them.

I know. It looks totally fun, doesn't it? Too bad the cleanup is a disaster.

Eli wanted so badly to participate in the window drawing, but I just couldn't take the risk of him drawing all over everything. These "crayons" are more like grease pencils or oil pastels. Really messy.

But so much fun!

(Side  note: you can see a bit of our butterfly garden out there. It has been so rewarding this year - we have tons of butterflies, and even two or three hummingbirds that come several times a day. It's so much fun to watch!)

In the evening, Emily, Billy, and the boys came over for dinner while Billy worked on installing can lights in the front room. It's part of the project I mentioned, and it is going to be fabulous! Billy worked, Chris assisted, the kids played, and Emily and I chatted. Perfect!

Ha! Sweet Eli found an old computer keyboard and was typing away while the big kids watched a movie.

"Book? Book? Wread? Wap?"

Things I love:

Max dressed as Darth Vader.

Three sweet cousins.

The fact that they have a whole couch to sit on, but they are choosing to sit all snuggled together. 

I love these kids!