Dog Days of Summer

Our local library has a summer reading program where children can earn prizes for reading during the summer.  For every 15 hours of reading, up to 45 hours, they can earn a book, coupons, and entries for a grand prize.  Lauren LOVES to read.  She is averaging at least 1 1/2 hours a day.  Right now her favorite reads are any book in the American Girls series and The Betsy Tacy series.
In addition to the summer reading program, each library has a summer schedule with at least one activity a week.  Every 3rd Monday our branch celebrates the Dog Days of Summer by reading to therapy dogs.  I thought that this would be something that Lauren would like to do so we went on Monday.  Not knowing what to expect, Lauren was a bit nervous.  She decided to read her newest Betsy Tacy book.  When she sat down by the dog "Killer" he immediately jumped on her.  She got scared and started to cry.  After a few minutes she calmed down and read to Killer for about 10 minutes.  I was surprised that she didn't enjoy it more than she did.  It will be interesting to see if Lauren want to go again next month.

Lauren, Killer, and Mr Thompson

Spring Saturdays

Our family does not have a normal family schedule.  Lee is at work most evening so there are very few family dinners.  He works really LONG hours on Fridays and Saturdays so we don't have a typical weekend.  For the first time in a long time my little people and I have something to look forward to Saturdays!  Since the pools opened in May we have been spending all day Saturday at my parents pool.  They have a nice pool with a beach entrance (great for Jonah), everyone brings food, and drinks are served at the Tiki Bar that my dad built.  All the neighbors are so friendly and welcoming.  Lauren has learned how to swim and is getting quite the tan.  Jonah has new arm floats that are amazing.  He is enjoying lots of time in the pool swimming around by himself.  I have been able to spend some time sitting along side the pool relaxing.  Saturdays have turned into a day to be excited about!  Here are a few pics that I have taken so far this season. 

Our first day at the pool this season.  Jonah was loving his "ga goos" 

Sissy liked her goggles too.

This pic was taken at our pool.  Lauren was explaining to Jonah "how to swim".

Lauren was amazed at how much lighter Jonah was in the water.

Lounging around

Jonah and PawPaw manning the Tiki Bar.  Jonah was enjoying his first taste of ice.

Guac anyone?

1st week of homeschooling

Well, I had all intentions of at least blogging weekly. As you can see from my last post, I may need to change that goal to yearly :) We started our first "official" week of kindergarden this week and it was crazy! Two unexpected trips to the doctors office, 6 hours of tech work on our computer, a dgl meeting, a starting the homeschool year party, and a sweet little baby that spent the week sick, crying and only wanting to be held by momma. Needless to say, the week has not gone as planned. In fact, not one day went as planned. I know that our schedule has be flexible. This week was definately a test in how flexible we can be. All and all it went okay. Here are a couple of pics from the first day.

J enjoying his morning class...Eating 101

On the first day of school my mom always took a picture of me and the boys in front of the door.

Lulu thought we needed a pic of her "thinking" on the first day of school

"Thinking" about math

Lulu taking her first spelling pretest. This girl has got great handwriting.

The lovely little things in life

This morning I woke up at about 7am after an extra crappy night of sleep. I stumbled out into the family room and was greeted, like always, by my sweet little daughter excited about whatever wonderful or not so wonderful thing we had in store for the day. I asked her to open all the blinds in the house and then take Sadie out to use the bathroom. I was trying to get 5 minutes of peace and quiet in so that I could wake up a bit. When she came in from letting the dog out she said in the happiest, sweetest little voice that she HAD to sweep the back porch because it was covered in leaves. I thought this was a great idea as this would give me another 5 minutes of peace and quiet :) After about 2 minutes of sweeping, I started to watch her. She had the biggest smile on her face and was so happy outside sweeping her little heart out in her totally mismatched outfit and hair assessories, not missing one leaf. At that moment I got tears in my eyes. I was overwhelmed with love for my sweet little girl. Thank you Lord for waking me up and not letting me miss this dee dah moment.