10:00 a.m. on a school day...

Math lesson...complete with breakfast.  In his pajamas.

And this kid is also doing his math!  Watching the Math-U-See DVD, also still in his pajamas.



This little one is all done with her schoolwork and is tooling around the house in her sunglasses and glass slippers.

Fun Evening

Yesterday, Heath and Shanna came over with their girls.  John and Heath took the kids to Shoals Creek for a couple of hours for some good ol' water play.  Our three plus Heath and Shanna's two had a blast.  Afterward they came back here for supper and more play.

Sara and Papa

three Princesses eating dinner

This was a play put on by the girls, but it looked more like a parade to the audience.


Cutey-pie

John channeling his inner princess??

Sophia and her daddy...she did not want to quit playing!

Shanna and Sara.  Sara became shy with her mama.

It's been so H-O-T

Really brutal weather.  High 90s and humidity that rivals Guangzhou in August.

Saturday John wanted to do the weed-eating on our yard.  Which does not sound so bad, but it's a whole acre.  I begged him to not do it, since spending the afternoon in the E.R. with him suffering from heat stroke  is not on my bucket list.

John lived through it, though, with quite a few breaks and lots of water.  Afterwards he took Luci down to the creek and cooled off.  The picture above shows Luci on the way home, sopping wet and content.

Beezus and Ramona

We are so excited about this movie! 

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Well, Luci and I are, anyway.  The boys don't care.  I've read two of the Ramona books to Luci and we're ready.

Luci even has her Ramona hair-do all set to go:

First Day of School

Early this morning... not that early, but if you ask Bryan, it was too early.

Last year...JT and Luci have really grown.  I think Bryan has slowed down some.




Bryan's first year--Kindergarten.  Ever since his Kindergarten year, we've measured the kids next to the hutch.

And the teacher.

De-Cluttering

I know, I am about 3 years behind in de-cluttering the kitchen counters.  And my purse.  And the van.  And...well, you get the idea.

I found a few scraps of paper with things written on them, stuff from our trip and some Luci-isms, that I don't remember if I shared before.  So here they are (maybe again):

Luci's newest song:

Rain, rain

Go away.

Come again some other time.

What she asked John about his trip to Afghanistan.  She finally got up her courage to ask him this:

Did they shoot you in the engineer?

print-zel:   pretzel to you and me.

4,346.9 miles:  The length of our entire trip from here to there (Boise) and back, and mommy did not go crazy!  (we are not counting that 50-mile stretch in Kansas)

Two:  the number of throwed rolls that JT caught at Lambert's.

Two-and-a-half:  the number of Ramona books that we've read so far, getting ready for the Beezus and Ramona movie opening on Friday. 

Three: how many kids in this world are my absolute favorites.

The View from the Swing

Catching Up

We had lightning hit our lines last Friday, and was not attended to by ATT until Wednesday.  So I am behind on posting.  

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Luci lost her first tooth!   Aww, my baby is growing up.  There's no stopping her progress now.

 And this Luci-ism:

You can tell we talk politics at our house.  Luci told me about this actress, "Angelina JoeLieberman."

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This comes under the heading of

Ewww!

a bail bondsman's vehicle here in town:

If you can't read what's on the window, here's what it says:

Don't let the soap drop.  Call us first.

Like I said, "EWWWW!"

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Happy Birthday, Bryan!!

Happy Birthday, Bryan!

You are one funny guy.

We are proud of you!!

Guess what Bryan did first thing on his birthday?

Happy Birthday, JT!

We love you!  

We are proud of you!

You are one funny young man.

Here is JT's birthday cake.  He requested an "Eskimo Pie" cake.  No ice cream involved!  But it tastes soooo good!

Rooster

That's my new nick-name for Luci.  She has woken me up between five and six a.m. every day for the past week.  She gets settled back down and goes back to sleep, but I end up wide-awake.

Like now.  She woke up at four a.m. today.  She's asleep.  I'm not.

YAWN.

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Some recent shots:

Luci's Simply Modest swimsuit finally wore out.   While we were in Idaho.  Since we had pools at every hotel, I had to replace the suit.  I found a cute little rash-guard type suit at the mall, but it had a skimpy bottom.  Just wearing it (and it was the correct size) showed too much backside.  I have a wedge, Mama! was the cry.

So, when we got home, I bought some pink (is there any other color, really?) swimsuit material and added the leggings (I made capri pants and sewed them inside the suit's bottom) and Luci wanted a skirt, which her other Simply Modest suits had.  Here are the results.  Please notice she is modeling the suit with her multiplication flash cards.  Too funny!

Here is the little jumper I made for the Fourth of July. 

And the Harding Swing, all complete!  I  love this.  What a great husband.

The Boys' Canoe Trip

John took the boys out on Shoals Creek Friday. It was a gorgeous day! There were very few people on the creek that day, as you can see from this video. You could be at just about any time in history--from early 1800's to 2010. They had lunch on this sand bar. There are houses all along the creek, but this is a lonely stretch. (John said he didn't know his hair looked so goofy, so apologies for that.)

Free Speech

This is just outside of Salina, Kansas, along I-70.    The billboard is next to an "adult superstore." 

The other side of the billboard.

Father's Day Weekend in Idaho

For the fourth time in 19 years, all of us siblings (there are 5 of us!) were together, with our parents, in Idaho.  We gathered for Father's Day to honor our Dad.  Here are some shots of the time we spent there:

John reenacting a scene from E.T.?  Or just being patient while Luci piles up every stuffed animal at Nana and Papa's house?

Papa getting some help from Luci and Laura, as they refill the squirrel feeder.  The temperature was chilly that day, only up to 60* at the time they were in the backyard.

Luci.

What Bryan and JT did most of the time.

Papa wearing his "Billy Ray Bob" hat, which was a stylish gift from his Alabama grandchildren.

Nana.  She looks great after a tough year.

Dad's medals from his time in the U.S. Air Force.  Really impressive!

Katie, Laura, Aunt Janet (hiding), JT and Luci at Vacation Bible School.  Mom and Dad's church rent space on Sunday so there is not a building to go to for VBS.  It was held in a park!  Next to the old Penitentiary!  The ladies put together a great picnic lunch of ham sandwich, chips, apples, natural fruit leather, cookies and bottled water.  We were only able to go on Monday.  It was a gorgeous day--and kind of cool.  Luci ended up wearing someone's hoodie sweatshirt. 

J.T.

The view from my seat.  We were right up in the foothills of the Boise Mountains.  There are houses mini-mansions on the top of the hill.  They have one of the best views in town.  Luci's class, preschool through K, were under that blue canopy.  The junior high and high schoolers are off to the left, out-of-scene.

Grades 1-6 at VBS

The adult class

The view I grew up with (5th grade, and junior high and high school, anyways).

On the way home--Devil's Slide in Utah.

Another really beautiful scene in Utah.  The amount of green was somewhat unusual.  I certainly remember brown hills and mountains while growing up.  So glad they've had lot of moisture this year.  Yes, that is snow!

And the view when I got home.  John made a Harding Swing for me for my birthday!  He made the stand for it from these directions here and bought the swing from Lowe's (I don't mind that variation at all).  I love this swing!

Favorite Photos Today

with Papa

and Nana

Bryan with Billy Ray hair


JT--my brothers told the staff at the Chinese restaurant that today is JT's birthday.  But it's not.  His birthday is  almost three weeks away.  The waitstaff came and sang Happy Birthday to JT!  Everyone loved it, and JT was a good sport.