Savannah and Alan completed two weeks worth of swimming lessons the first and second weeks of June. These lessons were held in town at the local gym, in an indoor pool, and were Level I lessons. They started on Savannah's 6th birthday (June 1st), so it was a nice surprise for them both to do something new and different like that. They didn't miss any of the classes, LOVED every minute of them all, and both passed. The kids loved their instructor and their classmates (there was one other girl and one other boy). Savannah is ready to start Level II, and Alan technically could since he passes Level I, but both the instructor and I agreed that he's probably not quite ready for the next level. He loves the water and learned a lot, but he doesn't have quite the attention span to continue to Level II. So, by this fall or next spring, I'd like to put them both in Level II together.
Other than swimming lessons, Savannah's birthday was spent at home. My mom kept Katie Mae every day that we swam so she could nap, so Mama made Savannah's birthday cake while we were swimming, then I iced it and decorated it in the afternoon. My sister and her boyfriend (?), whom we hadn't met yet, came to have dinner with us. Then my parents, grandparents and brother came over for cake, ice cream, and presents. It was a nice, calm, laid back birthday. (just so you'll know, I just cropped, resized, and doctored 49 pictures that will be attached to this post or posts to come in the near future...i hope you enjoy). A quick note about the birthday cake...I don't really like using food coloring because it's so fake and bad for you. I got the idea to put beautiful Buttercups on Pooh for the yellow part, and use strawberries for the shirt. So, I trekked out across the neighbor's field, picking massive clumps of Buttercups. I had quite the beautiful bouquet. As I was decorating the cake (which I was SOO happy that it was looking SOO good), Amanda called. Being the wildlife guru that she is, I asked her, "Hey, are Buttercups edible?". I had planned on just each person pulling them off the cake as they ate, but maybe they were edible, and we could eat them! She says, "No! Actually they're poisonous. Let me look in my book. Yep, they cause stomach irritation." So, off came the Buttercups. We had to poison ourselves with yellow food coloring after all. Since I'd already iced the cake, I had to color some coconut to spread on it. I think it turned out fairly well, seeing as I hadn't prepared ahead of time by buying anything to decorate the cake with. I just used what I had on hand. (Ok, so maybe that wasn't such a quick note.)
The rest of the first week of June was spent running back and forth to swimming lessons. Zachary came up for the weekend to help Aaron rebuild a motor for his truck, and I hung around the house doing work. On Sunday, we went to a neighbor's 87th birthday party. We've known these people for the past 18 years, and they're one of the last old timer couples still around. I love talking to people like them because they have such cool stories about the old days.
After we finished swimming lessons the first part of the week, on Friday, we took a 40 minute drive down the mountain to meet 2 homeschooling mothers that we'd never met before. One of the ladies had some childrens books for sale that I was interested in seeing, and the other lady was going to test Savannah to assess what she has learned throughout the past year. She's not required to take a test at this age, but Aaron and I wanted to have the results for our own interest and records. I was very surprised and pleased with her results; she tested at the end of 1st grade for math, the middle of 2nd grade for spelling, and the end of 3rd grade for reading. I'm very encouraged, because with as sporadic as we schooled last year, she obviously learned from it. I'll have to give it some more thought and consideration, but I may try to start her in 2nd grade this fall. If I find that she is not ready, all I will have to do is order 1st grade curriculum for her, and then I'll have 2nd for when I need it!
Saturday was yet another busy day. Around 11 a.m., Mama, Savannah, Katie Mae, and I took the 1 1/2 hour drive to my Lynn's house to go to a baby shower that she was throwing for a friend. We decided to leave several hours early so we could hit yard sales along the way and stop in a few shops that seem to only be open on the weekend. We did come across quite a few yard sales, and found just a few things that were worth stopping for. We also stopped at a book store, that is really just the basement of an elderly lady's house. She has a collection of books that she sells, and the basement is a cluttered mess, but I found three books that I was SOOO excited to find, and I only paid $3 for them. Two of the books are very hard to find, written by Ralph Moody, a western author, and the other book was a book in the Little Jewel books series in which we already have over 15 of. I LOVE LOVE LOVE those books because the illustrations are beautiful, and they really teach good lessons about young children working and helping around the house. We, of course, ran out of time, even though we left four hours early. The baby shower was very fun, and Lynn did a spectacular job planning it. The decorations were beautiful, the games were fun, and the food was delicious. (Especially those cookies...wonder who made those... :) ) This picture was taken after the shower.
There was one very tragic part of the day, which really ruined the whole day for Savannah. Not twenty minutes after we left the house, Aaron texted me to say that he and Alan had just buried our kitten. Moments after we left, Aaron and Alan got in the car to run errands of their own. Even though they checked to make sure they saw the kitten before they backed out, she dashed under the car and got run over. Savannah was particularly attached to Marley, so it was a terrible blow to her. That's why she's so gloomy looking in the picture above. She doing better now, but all day, she was silently crying. I felt so bad for her.
On our way home, Mama dropped us off about 13 miles from our house where Alan and Aaron were at a truck pull. This local arena hosts rodeos, lawn mower races, truck pulls, wagon trains, and more throughout the summer. We go to their events at least a few times a summer, and we had a lot of fun. I hated that we had to go home before it was over, but the kids were tired by 10:30, so we had to go home.
On Sunday afternoon, after church, we stopped by my parent's neighboring property that had an open house (open property really hehe). My sisters and cousins and I grew up playing this property, and I have a lot of really, really fun memories of growing up in this field. Yeah, I know, it's just a piece of property, but we rode bikes up here, played on hay bales, grew a garden, went on endless walks and explorations, pick blackberries, walked in the snow, sang in the moonlight, played at the pond, and on and on. If I had $649,000 lying around, I would SOO buy this property. I love it. But anyway, I took some really cute pictures of Katie Mae while we were there. Oh, yeah! Katie started walking on June 10th, so there's a couple shots of her walking in the tobacco barn cabin that has been built on this property too. She still prefers to crawl, but she can walk if she is encouraged to walk.
After we went home and all took naps (there's nothing like a nap on a Sunday afternoon with the window open and the birds singing!), we drove about 4 miles away to a large creek that fords the road. There is no bridge, so you can just park on the side of the dirt road and play in the creek, because no one ever goes down the road, so you don't have to worry about traffic. Kallie, we are SO taking y'all over there when y'all come to see us next month. Aaron and I used to come over here in the good ole days before children and fish. We had such fun. This is the first time we've taken the kids. They LOVED it, even Katie. The water is SO cold, but she had a ball. The majority of the fish in this creek are very small (as you can see in the picture), but they are pretty easy to catch.
Yesterday, the kids and I drove to Amanda's house to spend the day with her. Her husband is out of town for two weeks, so we decided to go keep her company for a day. She surprised me by setting up a 90 minute massage for me at her mother-in-law's shanty just through the field from her house. It absolutely could not have been a better massage. Amanda kept the kids for me, of course, and her mother-in-law is a very, very good masseuse. It also was SOO nice because the shanty is in the middle of field out in the middle of nowhere, and in addition to the instrumental music that was playing in the background, the birds and crickets absolutely were gorgeous singing in the tall grass and woods. It couldn't have been more perfect. Thanks, Mandy! I loved it. Then, she fixed macaroni and cheese with fresh garden vegetables stirred in. I had three bowls of it. It was SO good and I was SOOO hungry. We had a relaxing day with her, walking through her garden, watching all her animals, and taking a walk through the woods. I always love going to her place. It's an escape from reality out in the middle of nowhere.
So that brings me up to today. It's cloudy and rainy today. The kids have played outside between rain showers, and I've sat here still in my apron from breakfast all morning. I have spent three hours on this, and Katie Mae is awake from her nap. It's lunch time and I haven't done anything, not even dishes. So I hope everyone enjoys this! I still have about 20 miscellaneous (I spelled that right without spell check! I'm so proud of myself!) pictures to post, but that will have to come later. Duty calls.
3 comments:
Hi there :) Thanks for stopping by and commenting :)
Actually, my camera is pretty nice (thanks to dear hubby for a lovely gift!), but I used a point-n-shoot for years and with a good editing program you can cover a multitude of cheap camera sins :) Before Ben gave me his Photoshop program (which I could never afford-- it's ridiculously expensive) I used a free, down-loadable program called Paint.net (google it, that's not the url, just the name of the program). It's almost identical to PS, and you can even find some cool actions to d/l just like with PS! I also used The Gimp (also free to d/l) but I like Pain.net better.
You should try them out! But don't ever say I didn't warn you, it can be super addictive!!
I must say, I am quite impressed with this post. I don't think I could even remember a weeks worth of happenings in such wonderful order and detail. :P
Well... I guess that just about covers it:) The dishes can always wait! As you can see, I'm still slacking on my blog. I loved all your pictures and all the great details in your writing. I grew up swimming in creeks, but haven't done it in years and I can't wait to feel that cool mountain water!
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