Friday, August 30th

We had been planning to attend an afternoon of kickball fun with our SASCH group, however the day had promised to be sticky-hot in the afternoon and the kids were worn out from our full (and napless) Thursday.  Instead, I opted to skip the group activity and keep our light-schoolwork-day agenda.  It ended up being just what the kids needed - they had lots of down time, playing time and seemed to enjoy the schoolwork we did as we began a new facet of our fall curriculum.  For the late afternoon, Jim and I split up - he took Lincoln out for a daddy-date, while Gram, the girls, and I headed to the mall... to get Waverly's ears pierced!! 

Just after breakfast, I laid Waverly down in the living room for a bit of blanket time.  Lincoln laid down across from her and encouraged her along - he is anxious for her to crawl! (oh, if only he knew...)

Jim has been doing such a great job of working out every morning.  Before he leaves for the gym, he sometimes will take 5 or 10 minutes and "work out" with the kids - getting them to practice their karate moves, doing push ups, and lifting weights :-)  Lincoln is pretty sure he is awesomely strong.

We had our first SQUILT lesson.  SQUILT stands for Super Quiet UnInterrupted Listening Time, and will be used to introduce several musical concepts to the kids (dynamics, tempo, rhythm, etc.) while also helping them become familiar with several famous composers. 

We're beginning with the Baroque Era (the kids enjoyed learning the origin of "Baroque" as being bizarre, weird and different), and our first composer is Johann Pachelbel.

I spent quite a bit of time discussing terms and we would clap or snap different tempos and different dynamics.  Lincoln's favorite part was undoubtedly being able to shout "LOUD" and then whisper "soft," haha. We also watched a few clips of Mr. Gregg on Youtube, before quieting down and listening to two different versions of Pachelbel's Canon in D.

While they listened, they drew on their "Draw What You Hear" worksheets.  This is Scarlett's - she wrote (on the bottom) "I feel good" and "was slow, lawd [loud]."

The front of Lincoln's...

...and the back. I asked him why he drew what he did, and he got really defensive and replied, "Well, you SAID it was Canon in D!" Oh my goodness - what am I going to do with this kid?? I died laughing!  He painstakingly worked on drawing all of those D's so nicely!

Victoria's drawing.

Grammie graciously offered to take the kids out front to play for a while, and Scarlett took Salty out on the leash to get some good exercise.

Chalk time!

Victoria has a mild obsession with lady bugs :-)  She had Grammie and Lincoln digging through the fern leaves to find them for her so she could collect them in her cup.

Grammie and Waverly at the mall, ready to do the deed!

Gram was such a trooper - at first I asked her to be the one to hold Waverly so that I could take pictures.  Once we got there though, I was so relieved she was going to hold her for other reasons - namely, I'm not sure I could have gone through with it!!  But she was calm and cool under pressure :-)  The girls, casually sipping their Starbucks in the background, were anxious for Waverly, too!

Getting the dots drawn on her ears...

...and all done!  Such a good, sweet baby girl!  She cried for just a minute and was totally over it. They look so pretty :-)

One other reason we went to the mall was to try on several different types of clothes.  Before I start purchasing any fall pants, tops, etc., I wanted to get a feel for what sizes I would need to be hunting.  The girls did such a great job and tried on loads of things without complaint!  I decided I would let them each pick out *one* clothing item from the clearance area at Macy's - Victoria chose this dress ($4!) and Scarlett was ecstatic to choose a Rainbow Dash shirt ($7, from one of her favorite shows, My Little Pony).  Of course they had to have the tags off and wear the clothes out of the fitting room ;-)  Then Grammie bought each girl a new boo.  We had fun watching them spaz out over which one to select (and for Lincoln, too), and the clerk at the store was chuckling at them as well :-)

We grabbed dinner at the food court, and little miss fell fast asleep - it was an eventful afternoon for her!

Meanwhile, Jim and Lincoln were at Mountasia, zipping around the go-kart track!  Jim had a groupon for unlimited go-kart runs that expired soon, so he was happy to take Linc with him to enjoy the fun.  Jim said Linc really enjoyed it...for about four turns - then he was done :-p

Now miniature golf?  Definitely more his speed!

At home later that evening, everyone was tired and worn out but happy to be back together.  Lincoln proudly showed off the new, just-his-size baseball glove that Daddy had picked out for him after their Mountasia fun.  He loves it!