The Toothless Wonder

Neil -Te has been waiting and waiting for his teeth to fall out. His brothers have lost their teeth. His cousins have lost their teeth. His friends have lost their teeth. Poor Neil-Te turned 7 last week, and still had all of his baby teeth. Yesterday, while eating a pear (not a ripe one, of course - He can never quite wait that extra day for them to be truly ripe!), he realized that he had lost his tooth - literally. It was nowhere to be found. Not in the pear. Not on the table. Not on the floor. Not in his clothes. Probably inside of him. He has the proud honor of having truly lost his tooth. (He actually was not thrilled about that and was sure that I needed to search his bowel movements. Luckily, I was able to show him on Facebook that the tooth fairy had still come to visit some of his friends who had only written notes. Thanks for that, friends!)

As he was getting ready for bed, he asked Daddy to wiggle his other tooth a couple of times. Daddy wiggled once, then once more, and proceeded to pull out the tooth. Much crying and screaming ensued. (I was fairly certain he had fallen off his bunk.) Apparently, he just didn't like the blood- no pain, no injuries, just a couple spots of blood that really freaked him out. Now, he has another tooth honor - the first of his brothers to lose two in one day!

Our Toothless Wonder is a happy man.

First Day

It has begun! Let the whirlwind begin!

BASH

We have gone camping with our college friends every summer for over 15 years. Last year was the first year without a Big Awesome Summer Happening. It appeared that there would be no BASH again this year, until two of our "social coordinators" decided to hold a Michigan Backyard BASH. One of the BASHer couples graciously hosted a smaller version of BASH in their backyard. They also hosted our family in their basement for the weekend. (We did a token night in the tent for the official BASH overnight, but happily retreated to the basement the next night because it was SOoo hot outside.)
The family that we stayed with have three boys - 7, 4, and 2. Our kids had so much fun with them. Here is a picture of the 7 boys feeding the geese and ducks. (Don't worry - despite this serene picture, they did give the birds a good chasing!)

Here are the BASHers who made it to the overnight. (The 2nd couple on from the left are the ones who hosted.)

BASH - the next generation!

This is the youngest BASHER - two weeks old! What a pleasure! Hubby was happy for me to get my "baby-fix," but really she just made me want one! (Until she cried and her mom reminded me of the sleep loss! ;-) )

SB2W

CoCo and Neil-Te had the opportunity to participate in Summer's Best Two Weeks, a Christian sports camp. This was CoCo's 3rd year, and Neil-Te's first. Neil-Te was in a new, half-day session called "Squad Zero." He had a great time and was especially excited to see his squad leader, Phil, every day. At the end of the week, Neil-Te was awarded the "Miles of Smiles" award (That's the paper plate award in the picture.). I always tell him that he has a magic smile; I think that he believes me now!
CoCo had a great time again. He is competitive by nature and loves all different types of sports. He especially enjoyed the gymnastic bar tricks (even earned a Super on bar (14 tricks, I think)!) and wrestling. He achieved his "overall small" this year. That is what the varsity letter in the picture is for. That means that he accomplished all of the events up to a certain skill level. He also received the Bible Award for his squad this year. Despite trying to comment on my feelings about that, I can't seem to express how much seeing him receive that award meant. May God continue to guide my children and may they always desire to serve him.

CoCo swimming during the swim meet.

CoCo doing a long jump.

Trying to cool off in the shade during the track meet. (Imagine running races when the temperature is in the mid-90's! I actually had to take the little guys-and my biggest- home early because they were getting so miserable.)
I think it's safe to say that for two of my boys, these were "Summer's Best Two Weeks!"

Hubby's Birthday

Another year older!

Bathroom - Almost Done!

The tiling is complete. We are just waiting for the grout to cure so that we can seal it. I also have to chose curtains. I had planned to use a safari one, but the bathroom is so pretty that I want to put a more grown-up one in there.
We kept the old vanity, medicine cabinet, lighting and linen closet. We just replaced the knobs, and hubby added a tiled backsplash. He's hugely disappointed that the old stuff takes away from the new look, but it saves a lot of money. (Besides, the vanity was the first thing he built for this house, and I'm sentimentally attached.) Oh, yeah, please admire my new toilet - so far, no plunging needed! I am a happy woman.

Summer Project Update

I did it. I asked him for a new toilet in the kids' bathroom. At some point in time, some toy or other object had gotten stuck in the toilet. Basically, I was tired of plunging. I also mentioned that maybe we should throw down some new linoleum since the glue under our current one was yellowing.

Yep... you guessed it - bathroom makeover time! Of course, he couldn't bear the idea of spending any time fixing the bathroom without "doing it right!" (I can't say that I lamented the loss of those shower tiles or the blue tub.) We all know that he really just wanted a project!

Hubby attempted one of those glazing kits to turn our tub white. After the 72 hour cure time, it chipped. I think hubby's venting his frustration in this picture! ;-)

Here's our brand new bathtub. I'm just hoping it can withstand the amount of dirt and sand that it will encounter!

Here's the lovely view of the outside of our house. Some people purchase garden accessories. Guess we just don't need them! (Think I could share some with my cousin at his housewarming party?)

Summer Updates

Since I've missed so much, here are some highlights.

Father's Day

Grandma's Birthday

First summer working full-time.

Playing with cousins and camping. (Unfortunately, I was negligent in picture-taking during our camping trips. This is the only event I managed to capture. I even missed fireworks on the fourth of July!)

SKUNKED!

Yup! You guessed it - Anni got sprayed last night! Ugh! We were letting her out before heading to bed, and I noticed her sneeze when she came inside (yes, INSIDE!). Then the stench hit like a brick. Luckily, she didn't make it onto any carpeting before I sent her right back outside, but the smell is still lingering despite multiple floor washings, disposal of area rugs, and open windows throughout the house. We bathed her last night, but the boys and I are going to bathe her a few more times today. Fun, fun, fun....

Problem Solving

My husband cracks me up. I find his quirky sense of humor funny in general, but I also find some of the things he does extremely amusing. He is by nature a problem-solver. Some of you know. The house was too small - add 800 square feet! He was tripping over the shoes in the entryway - add on to the front of the house to make a shoe closet! Not enough pantry space? Build another one! You get the idea. So... the cherry problem. We have several, BIG, TALL, beautiful cherry trees that are always loaded with delicious cherries that he longs to pick. Every year, he pulls down the bottom branches and picks as many as he can reach. This year, he came up with a better solution - the cherry-picker van!

Problem Solved!

(However, I think that he's really just picking the same branches that he picked a few years ago!)

Summer Reading

Another perk of homeschooling is extra "osmosis" learning. Neil-Te has been learning to read all year - practicing sight words, phonics... About a month ago, KiKi started begging to learn a letter every day. He learns his letter, practices writing it, then begs for a new one. The other day, He picked up this library book, What I See, and started to read it. It is one of those early reader books - highly repetitive; and I figured that he had just memorized it. You can just imagine my shock when he actually stopped here and there to sound out the words! Guess I had underestimated the power of osmosis!

Science Mishap

CoCo has been an avid rock collector for a few years, and my gardens are full of some really interesting and beautiful rocks. As he has gotten older, he has started to try to identify and experiment with some of his rocks. So when he picked up an igneous rock that was loaded with yellow and asked if he could boil it in some water to see what would happen, I said, "Sure!" Well, we boiled, the rock disintegrated into a million pieces, and the yellow was left behind in my pot and on my spoon. Unfortunately, this yellow stuff has adhered itself to my pot and spoon and refuses to budge. I tried reboiling, soap, vinegar, scraping... So, important lesson learned - stone soup needs a special pot reserved strictly for science experiments. It looks like I have one now if anyone needs a loan!(Wish I had taken a picture of the rock. It was too bright for sulfur, and we can't identify it despite lots of research. I'd be thrilled if anyone had any ideas.)

Elegant? Excited? Elated? Eighteen!

Though she plans to pretend that she is "sweet sixteen" this year, SS really turned eighteen today. She was a little disappointed that I don't let her have the day off of school on her birthday like the boys do, but such are the disadvantages of traditional school - the whole school just doesn't close for your birthday! However, she was pleasantly surprised to find that some of her friends had brought in a cake and a balloon, and her ESL teachers had given her cards and candy.

Here are the kids horsing around after SS opened her gifts.
SS decided that she wanted to go out for Chinese food for her birthday dinner. Rather than go to a traditional restaurant, she wanted to try a buffet. Oma and Opa and Grandma and Grandpa joined us for dinner, and we all had fun figuring out which animal we were. SS wasn't so thrilled to discover that she was a monkey, so she tried to trick her brothers into thinking that she was one of the more interesting animals - the tiger. (Actually my animal!)

The Dragon (the boys were soooo jealous!) and the Rabbit.

The Rat and the Boar. (Too funny!)

Here is our birthday girl with some cake. (I forgot to bring candles.) She was so stuffed that she couldn't eat any of it. Don't worry, there were lots of people to help her out!

Conversations with God

KiKi and I had the following conversation a few minutes ago after he had been sitting on the "throne"for a while.
KiKi: Mommy, I was just talking to God for a long time.
Me: Oh, did you have a lot of things to tell him?
KiKi: Yes. I told him that Satan is not my friend. Everyone else is my good friend, but not Satan. Now, stop listening and wipe my butt.

I guess that was back to basics of life after a brief spiritual moment.

Relaxed

Hubby was cuddling with the little two after dinner, taking a look at their new library books when I overheard the following conversation.
Daddy to Neil-Te: So, do you think you want to be a doctor or a lawyer when you grow up?
Neil-Te: (without any hesitation) No. I want to be just like you.
(Me: washing dishes, thinking, "Well, Neil-Te really does like computers.")
Daddy: What do you mean?
Neil-Te: I want to be a dad like you.
(Me: thinking, " how sweet is that?!")
Neil-Te: (continuing) You know, like that dad book I read. Where I can lay in a hammock and be laxed. A laxed dad. (relaxed)
(Me: thinking, "yep... laxed-until your kids flip you over or point the hose at you!)

Georgia Get-Away

When Mimi told me that she was taking me on a get-away weekend as my birthday gift this year, I was so excited that I barely processed, or cared, where we were going. I did feel a brief moment of surprise when she suggested Georgia, since Georgia never looks that interesting from I-95. Imagine my delight and surprise when when we drove into St. Mary's and saw this at the end of the main street!



Then we got to our fabulous, little vacation home, which was great on the inside, and even better on the front porch where we had a beautiful view of the marsh and a constant, refreshing breeze.

We took a ferry boat to Cumberland Island on our first full day. Mimi was so hoping that we would have the chance to see some of the wild horses. As soon as we got onto the island, this is what we saw.
We ate lunch with the ruins of Dungeness on one side and the marsh view on the other. Spectacular! We spent the rest of the day hiking on the trails and visiting the other historic sites. I could go on and on and load this up with pictures, but I'll spare you. Basically, the combination of history and the natural beauty on this island made every moment of our visit there a pleasure.

The day after Cumberland, we decided to tour St. Mary's. The town is quiet, quaint, and full of history. Here is a picture of the bikes my aunt let us use - loved mine!!! That is a closer view of the marshes behind Mimi.
We took a "doodlebug" tour during the afternoon, which was a tour around town in an over-sized golf cart. Our tour guide was funny and interesting and had grown up in St. Mary's. To our surprise, we had found many of the historic sites during our bike ride, but it was interesting to hear the stories connected with the different locations. Here is a picture of one of the historic churches.

We visited Jekyll Island on our last day. The contrast between this island and Cumberland was just amazing. The wealth and "club" atmosphere helped us to understand why Lucy Carnegie had worked so hard to ensure that Cumberland Island would not be over-developed and sold in parcels. On the other hand, it was fascinating to see and learn of the ways of some of the wealthiest Americans in the early 1900's.

This is one of the Jekyll Island "cottages" where we had our lunch. This is a U-shaped cottage, so there are two other sides that are equally impressive.

This is the "club" chapel, which I am posting a picture of because what I really want to post a picture of is the stained glass windows inside. The one that you can see from the front is a Tiffany, and there is another - even more spectacular- at the opposite side of the building. Unfortunately, they would not allow anyone to take pictures inside of the building.
To finish off a very long post, our Georgia get-away was relaxing, interesting and amazingly beautiful. Thanks for a wonderful trip, Mimi!

Out with the Yellow!

Last week was Spring Break for the local schools, so we decided to take off for 3 days also. With SS in "regular" school, we often find it easier to follow the school calendar. Kind of a bummer sometimes, but... Anyway, I decided to take care of some projects. When hubby added the pantry to the study, he had used a yellow paint which he thought matched the existing paint in the computer room. It didn't. My soft, soothing yellow was suddenly paired with the vibrant yellow that we used in the toy room. Rather than fixing the yellow since hubby doesn't like yellow paint anyway, I decided to carry the beige from the kitchen into the computer room in hopes that the rather random space would flow more smoothly. It does, and we just love it!

This is the view from the kitchen. I painted the area around the doorway in the kitchen too; it had been wallpapered in a periwinkle blue. The colors in the two rooms look different in this picture, but they are the same.


This is the view of the other side of the room. We painted the hallway area as well. (The paint color looks great with my sepia collage!) A and Co-Co helped with the painting project. A painted the corners, and Co-Co helped with the edging. They actually did a very good job, even though I was initially a little stressed about having them help.

One last picture to share right now. This one is of the snow that is currently falling - unbelievable!

Reason #736

Hubby and I have a little joke (though we're half-serious) about the reasons we homeschool. So here is reason #736 - school outside on a sunny day while listening to the birds, and a nice cup of coffee for mommy to enjoy while basking in the morning sunshine!