Miss B's first day of school!

I don't care if she didn't actually go anywhere, we took first-day-of-school pictures anyway!! We figured that since August is such a hot, muggy stay-inside-a-lot month, we'd go ahead and knock out some of the required 180 days a little early! That way, we can take some guilt-free time off when guests come to stay, or we just want some time off. Ah, the beauty and flexibility of homeschool.

Our day, by the way, looked remarkably similar to every other day of our life: Bible reading and memorization, time outside, art, reading good books together, poetry, singing, gentle math games... I'm a big believer in letting kids be kids when they're 5 years old!

Her sibs, of course, want to be right where she is, doing whatever she's doing. Apparently when you're in Kindergarten, you've really arrived.

Vacation Report

We're home from Idaho! A quick week-in-review: Lots of...

quality time in airports

lap time with grandparents
best-friend-becoming with cousins competitive card games

amusing bowling moments

tasty concoctions when the kids took over the kitchen (with Aunt supervision, of course!)

new friends made and old friends visited

and, of course, many memories to hold us over until the next time! Thanks for having us out, Mom & Dad!

The best toy is a cardboard box

When I look at this box, I see trash to be collapsed and recycled. So far, my kids have seen

a boat

a car

the belly of a whale

a fiery furnace

an oven

a jail

a house

a badger cage

a tank

a fort

a helicopter

a straw, then stick, then brick, house

Tarzan's tree house

Don't you wish you had that much fun with the recycling?

No 'Bread and Jam for Frances'!

Now I don't know about you, but when I think of a badger, I get an image of a cute and cuddly children's storybook character. So when Dave came in from work and announced with a hint of alarm in his voice that we had a badger in the front yard, my first reaction was, "cool! Let's take the kids out to look!" which shows just how much I don't know about the local fauna. Apparently badgers are ferocious little devils who will defend themselves viciously, attacking much larger animals when they feel threatened.


This little guy was cuddled up by our front porch, making himself right at home, and causing the neighbors to gather a safe distance away and collectively bite their nails.

The local Animal Control dude had closed up shop for the day, so lucky for us, we have friends in interesting places. Dr. Dorsey (a vet) came out and captured our furry friend

and took him far away from our tasty little kiddos. (Apparently he's used to such things--just ask him about the time he got the call about a lion in a basement!)

Good thing I didn't spot the badger first and take the kiddos out to pet him... =)

We're Ba-ack!

Well, we're back in Kansas after spending a month in California. For those of you who missed us, here is the quick pictorial recap:

We stayed at Grandpa and Bado's, in my old bedroom (yes, all 6 of us fit quite nicely!)


where we did lots of visiting family,

learning to swim,

birthday celebrating,

reading with Bado,

and tree climbing.

We also saw lots of dear friends, were amazingly refreshed, and came back to Kansas with a new lease on life! We're still dealing with the post-vacation carnage in our house, and all the rain we've had has turned our yard into something of a jungle. Good thing we're refreshed!