August 2016

We had to take the van to the shop, so kids all had to ride in the back of the car.  Now that we don't have to use big carseats, they fit... but Micah made it VERY clear that he is thankful for the van. :)

Babysitting our buddy Jenai (Josh's sister):

Playing airplane.  No idea why they have on their robes.  It's roasting!!!  Our air conditioner died 3 times in the month of August.  (The third time they figured out the real problem, finally.)

More visitors!  Val and Eric and boys came to visit the first weekend of August.  (Right after the A/C was fixed the first time, and they left a couple hours after it broke in the middle of the night again...)  Caleb LOVED playing with Samuel.  Between him and Elijah Anantharaman visiting, he realized this summer how nice it would be to have a friend his own age.  (I'm praying for a best friend for Caleb... most of the other boys are older or younger than him.)  He cried a little the night before Val and Eric left because he didn't want Samuel to go.   Most of our visitors came this summer because their kids were out of school and they were on their way to the beach,   But summer is the worst time to visit SC for sure because the only thing you can do outside is go swimming.  We took Val and Eric to the pool one afternoon, but we had only been in the water for about 5 minutes when it thundered and everyone had to get out.  Mostly we sat around and watched the Olympics which started that weekend.

Babysitting Caedmon (again)!  

Grandma came for a short visit while Grandpa was gone on a business trip.  Here she is playing Stratego with Caleb at Amelie's...

Abby has started watching for the mail truck and then walking down with a stool so she can reach into the mailbox. 

She just realized I was watching her, and she didn't like that.  She wanted to do it BY HERSELF WITH NO ONE LOOKING!...

Ben and his not-so-mini-me.

Somehow Ben got all the kids (including neighbors) to wash the vehicles one day...

Abby said, "Look, Mama, I drew a Walwus!"

Since we're studying the Middle Ages in school this year, we got a book from the library on some Medieval projects.  The kids made homemade trebuchets out of cereal boxes.  (Kind of like catapults.)  This kept them occupied for DAYS... 

 1st day of CC on August 24th...  (This was actually their 30th day of school for the year so far since I started counting school days at the end of May as soon as we were finished with the previous year's school.)  

Abby likes to think outside the box...

The whole group at CC:

My class... 6 very energetic, talkative boys and one girl who is a tomboy through and through!  All 4th and 5th grade.

Now that Micah is in 4th grade, he's started the afternoon part of CC called "Essentials of the English Language".  It's 45 minutes studying the parts of speech, grammar, and diagramming sentences.  Half an hour speed skills in math.  Then another 45 minutes focused on writing using the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).  He'll cycle through this information for 3 years (4th-6th grade.)  I was afraid he would hate it because he's so math-oriented... and because it's a lot of work during the week (vocabulary, spelling, memorizing charts, editing exercises, and writing short papers.)  But so far he actually loves it!  I think it really motivates him to work hard since he knows Mrs. Tina will be reading his papers, and he wants to know he can keep up with even the older kids in class. 

 Working on his "Key Word Outline" for the writing assignment... 

Taking baby for a walk in the shade during the heat of the day...  Don't you love our brown grass/dry dirt yard?  We had SO LITTLE rain this summer.  I only remember 2 days when it rained at all.

This is Abby's first year of participating in class at CC too.  (She's in Caleb's class.)  I don't push much with her at home during the week, but she still likes to do the memory work.  One of the first weeks at CC, the "hands-on-science experiment" involved putting a thermometer in the shade and another one in the sun. A couple days later, I noticed Abby outside like this.   She had put the thermometer in the sun and was watching it. :)  

Other fun things we did this month: 

August 5th - attended an opening ceremonies party at our friend Kyle and Audrey's house.  (I went with Caleb and Abby.  Ben and Micah went to Batesburg for a "revival meeting" with our friends the Futrells."  

August 27th - 2nd annual Vineyard party at Camp Canaan (The Jettes rent out the pool area, we all come with food and invite friends.)  This year when we got there, the camp had us scheduled for the following weekend somehow... but they scrambled and got us a lifeguard and we had the party anyway.  Even though it actually POURED rain at one point (go figure! it actually rained!), we could still swim most of the time because there wasn't thunder.)  The church gave the lifeguard a $100 tip for being willing to get called into work at the last minute and for sitting in the rain with a good attitude. :)

August 28th - a fun baby shower for our friends the Thompsons who were (unexpectedly) about to have their EIGHTH child  

And of course, there were lots of trips to the library, the pool, and a couple play dates with friends.