Finishing Off a Fun July~

Our dog Sadie loves golf cart rides and now she has been jumping up on the seat as if she is a person~

Look at the beautiful yard my amazing husband keeps!!!

We were SO blessed to get to spend the day with the boys while Savannah went to school for the day.
We actually stopped by Target for a little shopping, and they were all perfect~

Back in time for lunch~

There is nothing I love more than watching the boys busy in their space living their best life~

 Their new house is SO perfect, and we love going to visit.

The girls were all due haircuts, so we made appointments at this new salon in town~

BEFORE

 5 haircuts in and hour and half~

 Mimi came to be with us since she works a few buildings down~

 From long and stringy to fresh and healthy~

AFTER

 While we were at the salon, the boys were enjoying a sleepover with Aunt Susan~

 She spoils them, and they adore her... We ALL do!

The weekend brought a day with ALL the bigs.
We hung out by the pool, grilled, made ice cream,

 And went for a ride on the boat~

 We loved having Hayden with us too~

We also got to take care of our grand dog, Cabot~

 This photo of Rosie and Calla just made me smile all over.
Calla said, "Rosie, will you hold my hand?" :)

My mom and dad have a huge garden as you have already seen, and they are always gifting us wonderful vegetables~

This week after room time, I surprised the kids with a box of butterbeans the GOT to shell for dinner.
Seriously, they thought it was so awesome and ate every single one!!!

LOTS of Nature Going on Here~

The pool skimmer is one of the best nature catchers.

EK cleans it each morning, and today she found a sweet little salamander.

We named it Sally and took the morning to learn about them~

 Our art stories were information about salamanders~

THEN when we went to the pool for a swim, Evie opened the skimmer and a little green grass snake jumped out.
Everyone was afraid at first but I assured them this was a very pleasant snake
and they were allowed to hold it~

 They named him Pickle and we kept him all day~

 Once again it was nature books galore as EK taught us all there was to know~

 Dad came home to their excitement but he was too thrilled~

 Later in the week we made a list of nature items in The Salamander room and went off to find it all~

 There were lots of beautiful things found~

 But the best was all the tadpoles swimming around in the lake~

 We brought a container back to our house and we are watching the life cycle~

On Friday we watched Little Bear, backed cookies, and decorated with little green snakes~

LOTS of Nature and we're pretty happy about it!!!

Nature Walk Wednesday and Cook-a-Book Friday~ {All Mixed into One}

We visited Rosie on Wednesday (no photo :)

so missed our Nature Walk and decided we would combine it with our Cooking today.

Last night we had precious friends over for dinner (again no photo)

and they left delicious Asian snacks for us!

You know the really cool thing about kids is they don't care if the plan for the day

is planned to the T or off the cuff.

I spotted the snacks and decided we could take those with a juice box with a book

and take a walk to the lake~

(Good stretch, huh?)

I had everyone pack nature journals, pencil boxes, a nature book, and snack

then we were off down the path to the lake.

When we made it down to the bridge and I stopped them to take a pic,

one of the boys yelled, "A TURTLE!"

Can I just say that was God giving us a sweet creature of nature for the day!

EK scooped him up and I got that photo~

We continued down to the lake and out to sit on the dock!

We had our bible time~

and I brought some poetry books along~

 Reading every poem we could find about turtles and enjoying our yummy snacks~

Because we found the box turtle, 

I read from the nature books to them~

and they sketched/wrote about our new friend~

I had also grabbed a great book called All the Places to Love because of the beautiful illustrations
and as we read, we found a turtle just like our's~

It was the best of days and we were picked up in style~

Maybe combining these two days is really the best!!!

Certainly was today!!!

Looking forward to a great long weekend!

Sweet Moments from our Weekend~

Friday was exciting because we moved Rosie back home from college

{How can that be? First year almost in the books with only finals to go}

and she was immediately beckoned to lots and lots of book listening and reading~

These two were trying to make Holly some glasses from paper

and it dawned on me I still had Rosie's glasses from when she was tiny

so I popped the lens out... Holly has worn them for two days now~ :)

 On Saturday afternoon, LOOK who was walking around our house exploring~

 YES! BC and we loved having them all here for the night~

 Papa and BC... twins~

 After grilling dinner, we all took a boat ride~

 Today was church, pool, and more boating~

And even though Amelia wasn't home, 

she was here in heart and just look how beautiful she was going to her last Phi Mu formal~

{she graduates this summer after studying abroad... how can that be?}

LOVE you Mill and can't wait to have you home too!!!

Happy Earth Day~

Our morning was filled with learning inside...

EK wrote a piece about Mallards~

 The bitty girls got their work done again with smelly markers~

 The boys worked super hard on their word families~

 For Make Way for Ducklings today, we enjoyed a new DVD of Caldecott stories

and watched it together~

We even watched Ping and The Ugly Duckling!

After lunch, we headed out to do what every child wants to do on Earth Day!!!...

Go OUTSIDE~

{back down to the lake}

 We caught fish and tadpoles in nets, listened to another chapter in our two books~

The Burgess Bird Book and The Trumpet of the Swan (audible).

While listening, they drew Earth Day pictures and water colored with lake water~

 No place and nothing they would rather be doing~

A super Happy Earth Day!!!