K5 here we come

I did not get a great picture of Streed on his first day of school. Believe it or not we were running late :) Not terribly late, we just wanted to be early. But here he is with his backpack and lunch bag.
I did not get much info out of him on how his co-op went so I was interested to see what he learned when we started on Tuesday. I asked if he knew about "The Lady of Shallot?" The are learning part 3 of Lord Alfred Tennyson's The Lady of Shallot. He said No. So I started quoting it. He jumped in and said, "Oh is that about the barley-sheaves?" He knew it already after one day. It goes, A bow-shot from her bower-eaves; He rode between the barley-sheaves... It is his favorite thing to say.

Here we are on day 1. Streed, Ella and I "do school" while Nate is sleeping. It works out perfectly for us. We do our normal morning routine which consists of whatever errands or fun things need to be done. Then we eat lunch, put Nate down and head to the table. By day 3 they were really tired. So, we took Friday off and have reviewed throughout the weekend.
I do not know what is so funny. As you can see her shirt says laugh. She hangs with us for a little while, answers most of Streed's questions and then she heads off to play computer games. She is my verbal learner. She picks up on things really quickly. Streed is going to be more visual. I think it will get easier for him once he can read. But he is really doing great.

small town--in all its glory

Last weekend the kids and I went with Chip to Northwest Arkansas for a work event. A volunteer department was having a festival as a fundraiser for their department.
I had no idea what to expect. I thought we were going to an indoor conference. I thought we would be there for a little while and then go do something fun in that part of the state like go on a little hike or something. I was delusional. 1) it was an outdoor festival; 2) we would not leave early; 3) who wants to go on a hike in July in the south? We got to the hotel on Friday night around 8. We had promised the kids they could swim in the indoor pool. We finally got everyone in bed around 10pm. The next morning we had donuts and headed to the festival around 10am on Saturday. It was HOT!!! There was a good bit of things to do for kids but they still got bored mid-day as they were now hot AND tired.
About this time the tune shifted. A 75ft aerial was extended over the streets of this sleepy downtown. Since we were first-timers to the "Centerton Days", we did not know what was going to happen next. Suddenly water was pumped from that truck onto the street offering much fun and relief from the heat and boredom.
For 5 hours Chip judged a competition between several departments. It was called a "firemen's muster". Some of the time he was judging he had a little help from one of his friends.

This is an example of one of the competitions. A hose was pumped full of water. The guys had to wrestle it, get it under control and fill up a 55 gallon drum with it. Actually the firefighter you see here is a woman, a tough woman.

Passing the time.

Even the firemen were getting tired by this time. I think Ella actually took this picture. It was pushing 8:00pm by this time. I guess they should be tired. They were working hard in full gear.

I took this picture and then sent a text to a friend saying: "I feel like I am in a movie. I am in a country downtown festival and a band is playing Sweet Home Alabama in the background."
We left at 8:45pm. Swung through Chick-fil-A for DINNER! And made it home to the apt by midnight. YeeHaw!

office art

I have decided to decorate my house with photos. It is cheap and I love a good picture! I have been looking on etsy and getting lots of good ideas. Here are some I took for Chip's office. There are a few more stations to go to so these are not the winners as of yet.

Year 2030?

We had to stop by a fire station the other day. The two older kids were asleep in the truck. So, Nate got some special treatment. He got to climb in a truck and wear a real helmet.
Chip is in love with this picture.

stinking cute

I was kissing the kids before I went to bed last night. They were asleep. As I was kissing on Ella's face I thought, "I love kissing on you because you are so squishy!" Then I kissed on Streed and thought, "I love kissing you because you are so sweet!" I then went to Nate's room. I kissed him and thought, "I love kissing you because you are so...stinking cute!" That was the only "S" word I could think of.

two weeks till school starts

I can honestly say I am excited. I attended my first homeschool meeting last night. I was way overwhelmed when I first got my curriculum notebook. Then, as one of the co-directors went through the notebook, parent responsibilities and what the kids would do while at the co-op I got really excited. I am already impressed with the level of organization and professionalism of this co-op. I know I have nothing else to compare it to but I can tell they know what they are doing. I can honestly say Streed is going to learn a lot this year, as are Ella and I as we learn right along with him.

Streed and Ella are so excited about starting school. They wanted to hear all about the meeting when I got back last night. Ella was cracking up when I was telling them what all Streed was going to learn. If I know Ella, she was really thinking, "Yeah right he's going to learn that!" I was spouting things off quickly to make them laugh. geo=earth thermos=heat helios=sun She was really getting a kick out of this and some history facts I was reading. They really do start learning greek root words in the K5 class because it helps with their vocabulary as they get older and begin encountering larger words.

I will give more details later. I got his math curriculum in the mail today. I am ordering his first LLBean book bag this week. My little buddy is growing up. He is quite the little man. He is so polite and considerate of others. Last night I went to the meeting by myself. As I observed those in the room I heard a child talking to his sister. He was probably 6. He said, "Hey, I want to introduce you to my new friends." It was so sweet. (No he was not socially awkward. He was a really cute kid. They all were!) I immediately thought, "Streed is going to meet some really neat kids and make some really good friends." I even saw and talked to one lady I met at the library a few months ago.
I was filled with much emotion while there: thanksgiving, sadness, excitement, disbelief, confusion, anxiety & peace

stone and a walk way

The stone is up and the driveway and walkway are poured. I was really nervous waiting for the stone. It was the first thing I picked out so I was anxious to see how it would look. I love it. I love that it matches the trim and is a contrast from the brick.

This random dog was following us all over the place today. It jumped in our neighbor's car, in our van and literally on top of my van hood and tried to climb the windshield. I have not seen dogs ever in this neighborhood. But, it is funny because several have been wandering around while the poor guys are pouring all the driveways. The dogs keep running right through it.

house: as of today

The moldings are all up and are being prepped for paint. Some actually were primed today. It is really coming together. Every time I go I get more and more excited.

This is my built-in for the dead space. It is a little different than I pictured but I was out of town when it was built. I think it will be really great though. I can totally see the bottom shelf housing some toys or special books in baskets. I like that there is space above it to decorate. Lots of potential.


Chip's office doors

obviously the mantle. several of the homes have really elaborate mantles. i asked her to make ours simple. i think it came out great!

just a pic so you could see over the windows.

the closet organizers are all in. these were a surprise. i was not expecting them at all but they are going to be so great. this will be the boys' closet. the rods are not in yet but each side of the middle organizer will have double rods. this was actually going to be Ella's room but the closet is perfect for two kids sharing a room.

Where have we been?

I realized tonight that I had literally forgotten about my blog. Here is a run down of the past 2 weeks.

We picked berries. It was for the birds. It was so stinking hot and most of the lower branches had been picked. Except for the pink/red berries--those were ripe for the picking according to Nate. And then once anyone got a few/30 in the bucket he would dump them out. We find ourselves saying often, "We will have a lot of fun stuff to do once the kids are older!" It was beautiful out there though.






We finished swim lessons at the YMCA. Streed really should have been in the older group but they are slightly by the book! Ella really did learn to swim but she is still not confident. The first day of the lessons I was not sure it was going to work. She screamed "MAMA" to the top of her lungs when the instructor tried to do anything. She finally warmed up by day 3. I snapped this first picture on the way to their last lesson. I LOVE IT!





We attended a 4th of July party hosted by the church we have been visiting. It was at someones house--complete with food, drinks, shuttle parking, face painting, pony rides and professional-grade fireworks.






Visiting family for a few days. It was hot but nice to be away relaxing. The kids loving seeing THEIR horse.



Vacationing with friends who are like family for a few days. Jill's neices were there so there were 6 kids under 6. The water was gorgeous. And the company was great.






We also visited two special families on our trek back from PCB to Little Rock. But, my memory card was full and I was actually over taking pictures by that point :) We just enjoyed catching up and let the kids play.