School is Coming...

Does summer seem to be flying by for anyone else?? I can hardly keep up. August is just a day a way. I can't believe it. We have had a very busy summer, and have a lot of busyness yet to come. So I have begun to think about school. I have been thinking about it all summer actually because it's quite a chunk of change we shell out to get everything we need for the year. (Much less than say a private Christian school, but a significant amount all at once nonetheless) So, I haven't ordered yet, but it's all tucked away ready to go in my "Sonlight shopping cart".
The start of school has always been one of my favorite times of year. By the end of summer I am so ready for the change. While I LOVE summer and all of the fun that comes with it, I find myself drained at the end of the season, what with the constant swimming, weeding, watering, cleaining up of the yard, staying up late, and the heat. Fall is the most welcome of changes! So school..... Who doesn't love the school supplies, new backpacks, new books and a brand new classroom full of potential for the rest of the year? Well I love it.
Having chosen to homeschool our kids I try really hard to recreate that for them. That's why I like to take a full summer vacation and not "school through the year" like some choose to do. Starting up a new school year is just too fun. In the spirit of that, I recently rearranged the school room in preparation for a new year and all our new books to come sometime later in August. This year Brendan will be a technical first grader, and Wyatt in preschool. We have lots of fun planned for this year! 4 weeks until school starts!!!

(I think the table is perfect over there in the sunniest corner! Might just get us through winter)

Snorkel Fun

Nothing better than a dollar from Nana, a Dollar Tree right down the road, and new snorkels! :)

Acorns

Every cusp of a new season the boys and I start looking for "signs" that it is coming. It really started toward the end of winter when we were desperate for any sign of spring we could find. So in February every little bud, nesting bird, leaf, anything green, we would shout out, "SIGN OF SPRING!!!!!" And so it has become a thing around here. Soon we were seeing lightening bugs, and warmer weather and late nights and vegetables/fruit to eat out of the garden and, you guessed it, "SIGN OF SUMMER!!!!!" Yesterday we discovered our first "sign of fall" (besides all the school supplies that have hit the shelves). We found acorns! We have one big oak tree, right on the side of our house and it is dropping acorns left and right. So now every morning we are going "acorn hunting" and repeating our favorite line, "Found a sign of fall. Found another one. Look! Sign of fall!!!" It's fun. I have to admit. And I love looking, I mean hunting, for acorns just about as much as the boys do.




We are still enjoying many signs of summer including veggies from the garden, weeds, humidity, thunder and lightening almost daily, A/C, and lots of swimming. Not to worry, fall is still a ways off!

Kid Quotes::Vol. 5

Wyatt: "Please pass the car-mi-jon cheese"


Wyatt: "Mom, did you use our Kids Crust Toothpaste?"


Brendan: "Wait up guys. I need to stop and smell these flowers first."


Just a couple one liners I didn't want to forget. :)

No More Secrets

I just hate having secrets. I've had this one for over a week now. I can never wait the weeks and weeks and weeks they say it takes for it to be "safe". The kids know, so it's only a matter of time before they spill the beans to everyone. I'm kind of surprised they didn't tell everyone at church last week!

So there you go! I've been obsessively thinking baby, feeling slightly out of sorts most of the time, and wanting to "nest" and get ready like no other.

Back into the throws of all things "baby"!!!

This, Most Afternoons

And sometimes this....

(and I wonder why they are eating me out of house and home!)

Several Posts in One

This is a post to make up for no posts for the past several days. The camera has been attached and taking lots of pictures, so let's get started, shall we?

First thing's first......
The bugs.
We woke up in the tent the other morning to see this monster's shadow greeting us at the door. He had shed his skin (or his skeleton..whatever) and was just sitting there right next to it. I was thinking he was waiting for his next skeleton to harden or something.
Nasty, but this is what they look like with their wings!


Phew! That's over.
Moving on...


I can't remember what this grumpy face was about, but there is more sad Brendan faces to come...just wait.


I made this apron, along with another one, and they are heading to the Shelton Farmer's Market with my mom this weekend.



On Sunday, the boys and I went for a walk on the River Trail. We hadn't been there since last fall (blog about that here) and we wanted to see the very swollen Schuylkill River after our big summer storm the other night.
Here are a couple pictures from November:


Here's how it looks now:



It's a lot darker in there with all that shade!

And then there was soccer camp. Not a lot to say about that except the boys didn't really want to participate. They had fun for about 2 mins and then they were done and wanted nothing to do with it except the snacks. Oh well. Oh, and you should know before looking at the pictures that it was crazy hair/hat night at soccer camp....so that will explain some of the pictures. :)








It's been a good week.