May 2016

The kids now do their own laundry. Micah has his own day, and Caleb and Abby work together since their clothes together make about one big load. :)

Ben went with the kids to Ohio over Mother's Day weekend.  Not going to lie... I was a little bit of a wreck when they left since I had a WHOLE DAY alone before I left with my friends for the beach.  (Pathetic, I know... it's just so WEIRD being busy all the time and then suddenly having a 5 day stretch ahead of me with no kids bugging me!)  Anyway, Ben worked a half day on Thursday, and I took the kids up to Charlotte so he could continue on to Ohio and I could switch cars with him.  I thought Caleb and Abby had been playing outside for about half an hour while I finished up some stuff in the house. When I came outside to tell them it was time to go, I found out they had been buckled in the van the whole time.  :)  They were just a little excited.

3rd year in a row that the Moms all got to go to the beach for Mother's Day weekend!  View from our room:

Those of us who arrived in time for dinner Friday evening.  (I'm taking the picture, and 3 more came later that night...)  Amanda is posing like this because in the picture from the men's retreat, all the guys are smiling except Seth (Amanda's husband) who thought they were doing a silly picture, so he looked like he was falling asleep.

Most of what the weekend consisted of:  (also, we took walks on the beach, watched a movie, read books, ate a lot... pretty much perfect weekend for a group of women!)

We decided to drive about 2 miles to dinner one night, but one van was parked too far away, so 11 of us crammed into one mini van.  2 people in the front, 3 people in the middle row, 3 people in the back row, and 2 people in the trunk (whose hands are poking up in this picture.) 

At Micah's babseball game, Abby and Caleb decided they wanted to go join some older kids who were playing football...

Day 180 of school!  Which means the last day of 3rd grade (Micah) and kindergarten (Caleb.)

Donuts to kick off the first day of "official summer vacation".  We actually only took off about two or three weeks, and then started doing school 2-3 days a week during the summer (except when we were traveling.)  It's just so hot here in the summer that it seems worth it to get some work out of the way so we can take off more time during the school year when it's nice out. 

Playing in the sand at Cherry Park:

If there's one commandment our church took seriously, it was "Be fruitful and multiply."  We have SO MANY kids at our church, and they just keep coming!  Baby Jenai and Joanna were born about a week apart.

This must have been "Pentecost Sunday" because they are wearing flames on their heads:

Abby attempted every means she could think of to reach the pink cookies on top of the fridge. :)

More of Caedmon:

One evening, we met some friends at Amelie's (a French bakery and coffee shop downtown.)  Abby set up a game at a table by herself, so Mike Jette walked over and said, "Can I play with you?"  He said she ducked her head and sighed and then said, "Fine." :)

Micah and his friend Camden:

Aunt Carrie and Lindsey Bucher are the only two grown women that Abby would voluntarily approach to snuggle with (besides me and Grandmas of course.)

Ben preached at the Greenville Vineyard (and their pastor came and spoke at our church), so we went down the day before to enjoy the downtown area.  I don't remember who this statue is of, but Caleb really wanted the telescope in his hands:

Downtown Greenville.  We actually ran into Seth and Amanda who were in Greenville for the weekend celebrating their university. :)  Of course, we can't do anything easy.... we all spent the night on fold-out couches in the basement of the pastor's house... and in the middle of the night, Abby woke up screaming saying her head hurt.  After she woke everyone up (including, I'm sure, the entire family we stayed with), she threw up and went back to sleep.  Traveling with Abby is so overrated.

We discovered Freedom Park in Charlotte.  One play area is dedicated to the Panthers, and it's a football obstacle course, including a place where you can time yourself  on a 40-yard dash.  Micah especially was in heaven.

End of baseball.  Abby making sure she gets a snack too. :)

My flowers starting to bloom more:

My tiny garden on the side of the garage.  I planted tomatoes, popcorn (brought back from New York by Mike Jette), strawberries, and some lettuce.  I'm really horrible at keeping up with a garden though, even when it's this little!

Back of the house.  My tiny hydranga bush is blooming this year!

Field Day with our CC friends:

I think they only one won game all season, but they still had fun!

Trying on helmets at Academy Sports:

A little party-just-because-the-weather-is-gorgeous:

Abby's friend from CC came to the party and brought some "gifts" for Abby.  This girl loves any little stuffed animal!

April 2016

Playing a game in class at church:

Trying to guess what's in the bag:

Most of our Wednesdays after Classical Conversations (CC) is over, we head to the library.  Then we often visit Ms. Nat (the widow whose house we fixed up for Both Hands).  Her birthday was in April (she says her birth certificate is wrong - they accidently put down April 18th, I believe... but she says it's April 8th)... so here the kids are making birthday cards at the library before we go visit her.

Abby watering some of the flowers that we planted at Ms. Nat's house:

Joshua got a baby sister!!  Our friends Arnold and Juanita were in the hospital for a few days since they had a C-section, so we got to keep Joshua during the days.  Our kids love him (and now his baby sister, Jenai, too) so much!  We went out to eat at Moe's one night:

Our weekly CC meetings were done April 13.  April is GORGEOUS in South Carolina, so one of the first things I did was work outside to clean out some of our wooded area and expand the flower bed in the front.  It was so nice being outside!

I made a little sitting area by the woods at the front of our house.  We're hoping to plant grass this fall.  You aren't supposed to really plant it in the spring here because the roots can't get deep enough before it gets HOT and a lot of it ends up burning up.

I bought these cute lanterns at Aldi to hang from shepherd's hooks in our back yard.  I just couldn't quite decide where to put them though, so after I rambled on and on about it to Ben (who I didn't think was actually listening), I finally said, "What do you think I should do with them?" and without a pause and without looking up from his computer, that smarty pants said, "It depends on which way the British are coming."

Grandma and Grandpa on their way back from Florida!

I caught Caleb drawing this one day.  His favorite part of the Easter story: when Jesus said, "Father, forgive them.  They don't know what they're doing."

Wood-burning lessons with Grandpa:

Playing checkers with Grandpa.  We were supposed to be at Micah's baseball game that night, but after we got there, Micah said his ear was really hurting, so we came home and put drops in it.  I did find out the next day then that he had a pretty bad ear infection.

Dominoes with Grandma:

Grandpa playing a "charades" game with Caleb and Abby.  (Not sure why the video is sideways):

Chocolate cupcakes at the Zieber's house:

We took a trip to the zoo in Columbia.  Abby loved the elephants.  Caleb loved the map.

The gorillas were so funny to watch.  This big guy was fast asleep right by the glass.  We said he looked like Daddy on the couch on Sunday afternoons. :)

Waiting in line for the carasole at the zoo:

Playing with stencils:

We thought Abby was getting pink eye.  Caleb prayed for her. :)

Micah was a "Memory Master" this year for the first time!  That means that he was able to recite ALL of his memory work for the whole year without a mistake.  (First, I tested him; then Ben tested him; then another tutor tested him; then our Director "spot tested" him.)  Here he is getting his award at the end of the year program with the other Memory Masters:

Our van was an absolute disaster, so I told Micah I would give him $8 to wash it and clean out the inside.  He did a better job than I ever have!  I gave him $10.  Of course, I think it took him at least 4 hours, so the hourly rate wasn't that good. :)

I almost decided to officially quit cleaning out our wooded area when I ran across this:  But this is the only snake I've seen at our house and I was digging through major brush, so I'm hoping he's all I'll ever see. :)

Babysitting our little buddy Caedmon.  My kids REALLY like babies.

Abby of course needed to check his growth:

These baby birds were in a tree right beside the trampoline at the perfect height for the kids to watch them.  Unfortunately, two eggs never hatched and a strong storm rocked the nest so much the other two fell out and died.   Abby didn't see the dead babies, so she decided they just "moved nests."

A few more things that happened in April (but I don't have pictures of): 

• Wayne Jacobson (co-author of "The Shack", "He Loves Me", and "So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore?") had dinner with us and some folks from the church... great conversation!  
• Come See Me Festival in Rock Hill.... I always think we'll go to more of the activities, but we at least went to the concert/fireworks.
• Had  a few birthday parties to go to, including at one of the nicer Chuckee Cheese's I've ever been to.  My kids were in heaven with 2 hours of unlimited game time.
• Ben went on a men's retreat with some guys from the church.  No agenda; they just hung out in a nice cabin off in the woods somewhere.