September 12

Today started out as just a normal Monday, until something very exciting happened.

Daisy showed me that she can read.

WHAT?!?! 

I know.

Really, this has been a long time coming. She's been ready since at least May, but she has been pretty resistant about actually trying to read something. Today, however, she decided she was ready, and SHE DID IT! (She's still pretty shy about it, so if you see her in real life you may not want to gush like I am doing now. She will balk like a skittish animal.)

This is her starting to read a book to me. I love that you can tell from the look in her eyes that she knows she's going to do something awesome.

Some of the book she had memorized, but when I made her slow down she could actually read individual words. She doesn't like being forced to sound out words, though, because she is afraid of being wrong. (She's definitely my child.)

It's a funny story.

See? BAM! WHAM!

And then she read three more books to me. 

My sweet girl with the books she read to me! I am so proud of her!

And of course I had to take a picture of Caleb doing some school. We read about Charlemagne today, so he colored a picture of a Viking longboat.

Story of the World selfie!

Also, I have to share this because it is disgusting and awful. Back in the spring, I sent Chris to the store to buy me plants for my garden. I asked for zucchini and squash, and he came back with a spaghetti squash plant. Not what I had in mind. But I planted it, and all summer long it yielded nothing. In the past few weeks, though, I have been watching one squash grow. It was finally ready, so I planned dinner tonight around this spaghetti squash. 

My preferred method is to bake spaghetti squashes whole, then cut them in half, scoop out the guts, and shred the spaghettis. After this one baked for an hour, I cut it open... and saw that giant white caterpillar in the center. At least it was dead.

The whole thing went in the trash, because I couldn't even.

Also, Caleb made this and asked me to photograph it. 

It's "Good Guy Island". Doesn't it look like it's floating in the ocean? He is really impressed with it. See how they're making the bad guy walk the white plank? Yep. Awesome.