July Fun

Fourth of July pop-its.

Ready for the fireworks show, sparklers and Whistling Peetes - which the kids hated and asked us to stop. We weren't adventurous enough to drag our baby out to the "big" fireworks show, so we did a few with the kids and then after they went to bed Ryan and I got up on the roof and enjoyed the local displays.

Swimming at the fountain park.  This is our big "pool" in town.  Kind of sad.

But great for little kids.

Hey!

We've been doing "school" at home weekdays this summer.  Just about 30 minutes each morning during Tori's morning nap.  It's been fun and added some much needed structure to our day.   We have a theme based around a "Letter of the Week".  I decided I wanted to keep a memory of what the kids did.  Here is Cassia, brought to you by the letter 'F' displaying her 'fan' that she made for craft Friday.

We hiked out on the Dungenous (sp?) spit a couple weekends ago.

We walked out had a picnic and then walked back.  The full length of the spit is 5-6 miles.  No we didn't make it that far with our little crew.

But Aunt Katie came with us.  Katie and Madsen enjoying their lunch.

The family on the beach...after the wind started to pick up.

On our way home for the Spit we saw a sign for U-pick strawberries and decided to give it a try.  They were amazing and well worth the money and 15 minutes we invested in picking.  We will probably find an excuse to go up that way (1 1/2 hours away) next year just to get some.

Showing some leg!

Termites!  Oh the joys of home ownership.  These little buggers cost us a fortune to get ride of, but luckily they didn't do too much damage to the house, except this one spot.

Cassia and Madsen started asking for bikes at the beginning of the summer, so we made them a deal that if they saved up some money we could get them bikes.  They got 25 cents per job and Cassia earned $15 and Madsen earned $5, which of course is the going rate for bikes.  Okay, so we supplemented a little, but they worked really hard to gets these bikes.  Now...to learn how to ride them.  Oh and don't let Madsen fool you, he really does like his bike.  Tori showing off her latest hand me down.

Letter 'G' and their 'G' geese.  They also learned a G poem, G song, and read lots of G books.

For some reason I just really like this picture.  This girl amazes me.  She has really taken off with her reading.  This evening in scripture study she read most of her verse without help including "according to their belief".  I am baffled at what to do with her in a year when she starts kindergarten.  Any suggestions?  She also loves to paint and play outside as much as possible.  She is really good and taking care of herself and helping the other kids with things when I need an extra hand.

H - hats and hearts (human, not shapes), and Hawaii.

Reading car magazines with Dad.

Our Tori is 6 months now.  Crazy!  She is measuring 84th percentile in height and weight at 17 lbs 15 ounces and 27 inches.  She's taken so well to table foods.  There really was only a couple days before she was eating like a pro. 

She is also sitting up.  Fewer falls every day.  She is still our happy girl although when she does cry she's serious about it!  Her new love is the swings.  She just smiles and laughs and doesn't want to get out.  It's made the park a lot more fun for her.

Madsen loves his trains.  He always asks for train books from the library and one of his favorite toys is a Thomas PEZ dispenser.  He is all 2 lately and keeps me running.  I never know what mischief this little "discover" is getting into.  One night when we was suppose to be sleeping he had all of the doll strollers (he and Cassia share a room) on his bed with his "friends" in them.  I really never know what I'm going to find when I go into his room when he's "going to sleep".  He also frequently changes pjs or just removes clothes entirely and comes running out.