4th of July

We spent the majority of today down at my parents' house. We hardly ever get a day to just go and hang out leisurely with them, but today we could. It was really nice. My mom does a nice job of keeping color around their home despite the beastly hot temperatures we have in the summer.She set out a moving truck blanket and a bucket and gave the kids corn to shuck. Keep helping me with their work ethic, Mom! We ate out picnic on their back deck where their thermometer told us it was 102 degrees. Nice.
The children each made an American flag and we had a few recitations of patriotic poems we've been enjoying. Lest you think we overachieve, I did the recitations (not from memory!) while the kids waved their flags.
My mom purchased sparklers and Lydia & Philip were eager to use them. Despite it being 102 degrees, and despite it being daylight. Anyway, we brought a few boxes home to use later. Abigail stayed seated, manning the water bucket--where you drop your used sparklers!

Happy Independence Day!

Shepherd Boy

Simeon still has a binky. And a lambie. And yes, he's still in diapers. All things we need to get changed around here! He often likes to wear his lambie on his head and call himself a shepherd. That's one cute thing I'll miss about this phase, whenever it ends.

More for posterity post

This post is really more for posterity than anything else. We made this flour/salt clay map of the world and later added (in yarn) Magellan's route of circumnavigation. Pretty soon I'll be throwing it away, so if it is memorialized on the blog, I'll feel better. It also makes me feel good to know that now and again, I did something fun as the homeschool mom. The craft afternoons are few and far between in our house!