Saturday, August 31st - Nana's Birthday!

Saturday was a very laid back day, and I actually didn't take very many pictures at all!  Jim and I went out with Scarlett, Lincoln and Waverly to do a little bit of shopping, while Victoria chose to stay home with Nana and relax.  In the evening, we grilled out and had steaks for dinner in celebration of the anniversary of Nana turning 21! ;-)

Scarlett: Day 2 of her Rainbow Dash shirt :-)

Posing next to a Rainbow Dash sign, lol

Lincoln secured another (cheapo) Captain America shield since his mysteriously went missing (I'm pretty sure it lives over the fence in the woods behind our house now).

After a quick lunch out, we returned home and the kids took a nap before hanging out with Daddy a bit for the Notre Dame football game.  They all had on their Irish garb, and they thought it would be hilarious for the enormous bears to have jerseys, too!  Jim humored them by pulling out a couple of his old Bulls jerseys and (literally) wrestling them onto the bears :-)  Oh, the things parents do for their kids! haha

Saturday, August 17th - Aunt Kari's Surprise 50th Birthday Party!

The kids woke up very excited on Saturday morning - it was the day of Aunt Kari's 50th Surprise Birthday Party!!  In what was retrospectively a foolish decision, I had written "Aunt Kari Surprise Party" on the calendar several weeks ago because sometimes I forget that I have readers in the house :-p  Scarlett had quizzed me on it until I gave her the details, and she then promptly filled in the other kids.  Not only did I have to spend 3-4 weeks not letting them talk on the phone to Aunt Kari, but I also had to *not invite her to Victoria's birthday party* and act like that was no big thing (it is).  But while we all like Uncle Sid (Kari's husband), it is very out of character for him to plan/throw a party at all, let alone a surprise party, and I was NOT going to be the one who blew the surprise!

We had karate first thing in the morning - the kids loved the obstacle course that they got to do this day - and then we worked on our ongoing conversion of the Play Room into the Family Room.  It's looking so much better already!  Finally, it was time to get around and drive out to Aunt Kari's to join lots of other family and friends in the surprise fun :-)  It was really great at how genuinely surprised she was, and the kids loved yelling "surprise" and singing Happy Birthday to her!  Happy Half Century, Aunt Kari!  

Headed to karate :-)

Side Note: Lincoln (left) and Waverly (right) - I can't believe how much alike these two look, especially when I look back at photos of Lincoln at this age!

Our crew driving out to Dacula.

Meredith and Waverly :-)

Trying for a group photo - the girls had Lincoln in a vice grip...

...and then Victoria was trying to eat Scarlett's hand. 

Meredith, Mindy and Gram did a great job helping Sid get everything around - especially loved the purple themed cake and punch table.

I love these two pictures of Victoria and Lincoln, milling around, casually conversing while sipping from their punch cups :-)  They look so grown up.

Me and Nana-Mom :-)

These two were so silly and funny the entire evening. I'm not trying to assign blame, but it may have had something to do with the giant containers of m&ms and jelly beans that Aunt Kari has conveniently placed at kid height around the main floor of her house...

The birthday girl!

Aunt Kari, getting ready to blow out the candles on her cake - the *one* thing forgotten for the whole party was birthday candles.  Not to fear, they dug around and found a giant "2" and "1"... so she was really just celebrating the anniversary of her 21st birthday ;-)  

The kids were all hanging off of Aunt Susie, who had driven up from Palm Coast, FL just for the big event.  They love her!

A great evening - Jim walking Lincoln out to the van once it was time to head home.  Happy Birthday, Aunt Kari!  We hope you know how much we love you and how glad we are that you are in our lives :-)

Monday, August 12th - Victoria Turns 5!

Monday morning, Victoria woke up as a 5-year-old!  She was super excited and we all made sure to sing her Happy Birthday about a hundred times throughout the day :-)  All of the big birthday festivities had already taken place, so it was largely a typical school day with a birthday dinner of her choosing at the end.

We are using "Object Lessons for a Year" by David Claassen as our main Bible curriculum.  I love the strong, simple messaging, the impact the object lessons make, and the scripture tie-in.  This is our first week utilizing it and so far the kids eagerly rush to the table when it's Bible time :-)  Our first object lesson was about learning the importance of being rooted in Jesus.  First the kids took turns blowing around a flower that was cut off.  That flower rolled all over and was looking pretty beat up.

Secondly, they took turns blowing as hard as they could on the plant that was firmly rooted in the pot.  Not much happened - a little swaying, but the flower remained fully intact.  The kids had tons to say about the how and why and they easily grasped the correlation of how we are like the flowers.  If we have strong roots in Jesus, the wind of life may blow but we won't be overtaken.  Without Jesus, we are like the cut flower which is quickly ruined.

The girls drew pictures of what they learned and copied the message of "Be rooted in Jesus" into their Bible journals.  Lincoln has started getting frustrated when he can't do things as well as the girls, despite my reminders to him that he is, after all, only three.  But I think he often just mentally assigns himself to their age rank and thus feels badly when he cannot perform the same tasks in the same way.  So I decided that I would start giving him slightly different elements when we are doing certain schoolwork.  This time, I gave him a little flower to color, and we worked together to cut it out and then he glued it into his Bible journal.  I'd also printed out the message and he glued that in as well.  He was very pleased with the results and didn't feel the need to compare - yay!

We began our study on China by opening up our Little Passports package and locating the country on the map, looking at the flag, making observations about the country and playing with the chopsticks that came with this month's packet! :-)

Scarlett finished the last Olivia book that we had laying around; fortunately, we did make it to the bookstore and Scarlett selected an Amelia Bedelia chapter book to read through for her read-aloud time.

Teacher's Aid :-)

I had printed out several number and letter do-a-dot worksheets from Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler and Lincoln really enjoyed working on them with his dab paints.

Victoria was really eager to do some as well, so I gave her the letter ones.

Next, I got out our bin of magnetic items and a tray to let Lincoln play/experiment with those.  He did this for quite a long while!

Fruit snack review!  After our week off, I wanted the review card time to be less painful so we added a little sweet treat to the equation :-)

Victoria, working through her timeline cards and "teaching" them to Lincoln... on my bed.  The kids enjoy doing different school element in varying rooms of the house :-p  

The kids loved learning the CC Timeline last year, but the pacing was a little fast for them/me.  This year we are going through a little slower, and having actually purchased the cards this year, are able to visually place things in order as well.  They love for me to shuffle a few and see if they can lay them back out in the correct order.

Victoria received this American Heritage Doll accessory from Uncle Jeff - a horse for her doll to ride on.  She loves it!  But Scarlett adores it as well, and carries it around the house with her, setting up photo shoots so that she can take (then delete) dozens of pictures of the horse.

Victoria, showing off her latest masterpiece from a coloring book she received on her birthday!

 Victoria had told us since Saturday that she wanted her special birthday dinner to be at (remember, she can choose anywhere!)... IHOP. Haha :-)  She loves that place!  It was a lovely family dinner and even Gram and Nana joined us.  We all joked that we'd met our yearly quota of dining out together since this was the second time this month for this unusual occurrence!

Scarlett and Lincoln both ordered the chocolate smiley face pancake.

And Victoria had her favorite - chicken fingers and fruit :-)

On the way to IHOP the sky was quite a sight - sunny on one half and black storm clouds on the other and two beautiful rainbows!  This was the first time any of the kids had seen a real rainbow and they were mesmerized.  When we got home I took out the pain supplies and they all worked to recreate the rainbows we had seen (also saw another one on the way home).

My sweet Victoria on her first birthday...

...and now she is 5!  Love you, girl :-)

Saturday, August 10th - Victoria's 5th Birthday Party!

We had been slightly worried about the weather forecast for Victoria's 5th Birthday Bash on Saturday... however, no need to worry as the day dawned bright and hot.  Because of the threat of rain, we had held off on any outdoor party decorations to avoid anything being ruined; however, this meant we had a bit of set up to tackle before our friends arrived!  Nana graciously offered to take the three big kids out for breakfast and Jim and Uncle Jeff were able to get most everything handled.  They came home full, excited and eager to help with a couple last decorations.

As mentioned, Victoria had chosen a great theme: a Mexican (food) Monkey (decor) Easter Egg Hunt birthday party.  She had spent weeks drawing Easter bunnies and other such pictures and posting them all around the house!  I loved that she had such a distinct vision in her mind and so pleased that we were able to execute it :-)  The kids all had a wonderful time hunting for eggs (thanks Jim, Uncle Jeff and Stevens for hiding what probably seemed like 1,000 eggs!), then everyone changed for swimming.  After loads of watermelon (per request), chips & queso (per request), and sweet mint iced tea were consumed, it was time to gather, bless the food, and sing Happy Birthday to our sweet girl!  Lunch followed, and eventually cake and presents.  Several times Victoria grabbed me and said, "This was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!"  I'm so glad she had a fun time with her friends!  Thanks to all who joined :-)  I am sure that I will come back to this entry and update with additional photos taken by friends when I receive them.

Nana took the kids to McDonald's and they had a breakfast picnic in the van. 

Returning home, they were so thrilled to see the backyard looking festive :-)

Some of the eggs and baskets (Victoria has had this basic theme in mind since Easter and so we stocked up when everything was 90% clearance - win!).

The eggs were hidden in our back yard, side yard, and both ours and our neighbor's front yards.

The kids CLEARED our front yard pretty rapidly - I was amazed.  They were hunting for eggs like their lives depended on it, ha!

Scarlett loves to wear birthday hats :-)

See? On the move! Olivia found a good amount.

Camelia was quite serious - later I asked Victoria who had found the most, and without hesitation she said, "Camelia! Definitely." 

Lincoln - he was pretty hot and sweaty by the time all of the eggs had been found - actually ALL of the kids were. The weather app on my phone said the temperature was "87 degrees, feels like 99 degrees."  I can personally attest to that!

Perfect time to hop in our icy pool!  No one was complaining that it was "too cold" on this day ;-)  Sydney was enjoying swimming.

Elizabeth was enjoying herself in the pool, too!

Charlotte, taking a snack break.

"Watch dis, mommy..."

:-)

Her friends certainly blessed her with some great gifts that she loved!

A snapshot of the yard.

Lunchtime!  All the ladies were sitting at the two tables near the pool, enjoying the small respite offered by the shade and watching the kids, who had taken up residency in the pergola to eat their lunches.  So the men sat at the tiny, kids sized picnic table!  Papa would have been proud that this table he made could hold them all, lol.

Waverly had been outside for an hour or so, getting loved on by a couple different mom friends, but even in the shade I started to get worried that it was too hot as there was no breeze at all.  Thankfully, Nana was more than willing to take Waverly into her nice, cool room where she could hang out in comfort.

Happy 5th Birthday Party, Victoria!! I hope you know how much mommy and daddy truly love you, and how incredibly important you are to this family~