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!

A couple of random things

I thought it was time to start potty-training Simeon. I also thought it would be a good idea to do it the Monday after we got home from the beach, you know, the same Monday on which we started our new school year. I seem to have all the good ideas in bunches. NOT!!! So he spent a week of sitting on the potty for the morning. He never accomplished anything, not a single drop!! But he did manage to wet several carpets and a living room chair. I put him back in diapers and will wait a little longer. However, he consistently tells me when he's doing something and that he needs to be changed thereafter (so, now I'm using more diapers than less...rrrr). Philip really got into ironing a few days ago. He's using a real iron--but it's not plugged in! We have been over ironing safety rules in the event he ever finds a really hot iron.

Abigail is loving her Saxon math. It is right up her alley and she never complains about doing it. There are other things to complain about (jk).

Here's our little iron-man.

Father's Day

Kevin asked to celebrate Father's Day early by taking us to the Durham Bulls baseball game last Tuesday. We all had a lot of fun--the weather was perfect, we shared several requisite ballpark goodies (nachos, fried dough, cotton candy). Generally, they were all kind of like this: stuck on Kevin--which I guess is appropriate for a Father's Day celebration!

2011 OBX Family Reunion

17 adults, 15 children, 7 cars, 42 rolls of toilet paper, 7 pre-cooked dinners (for 32), pack n'plays, bathing suits, sunscreen, snacks...you get the idea. We throughly enjoyed our family reunion consisting of my parents (Fayetteville), my mom's sister (England), my mom's brother and sister-in-law (Wales), my cousin along with her husband and three children (Wales), my sister and her husband and 3 children (Fuquay), my brother and his pregnant wife and his 3 children (Florida), my brother and his wife and two boys (Hawaii), our good friends who are basically family (England) and us. It was some serious logistical planning as we needed to get people from airports, rent at least one car, get some people back to the airport (but not the entirely same group who came on planes), get some people back from the beach who came with parents but left without parents...you get that idea too. But we had lots of fun times and good memories. The children ranged in age from 13 down to 4 months, with a concentration in the 4-9 year old range! I have 142 pictures, so I'm only including 1 or 2. The rest are on Facebook, if you're interested!

Gareth is wearing a hat that Owen brought him from a missions trip to Peru, and Owen is wearing a hat Gareth brought him from Krygyzstan.

We put on a play about the book of Esther--written by Lydia and me. Here's the audience.

Here's the cast.

Here are some of the men getting into a rugby scrum!

Grovers and Groovers

Since I graduated from Grove City College, I'm a Grover, and last week we had the Groover experience. The Groover family (from our church) went to pick up one of their children from college (which happens to be Grove City College as well!) and asked if we'd watch some of their children for them. So we had an additional 9 year old, 8 year old and 4 year old for 5 days. We had a GREAT time. It was very fun, if not totally exhausting. Here are some pictures from our days together.We had a pretty "strict" schedule and lunchtime happened with the greatest regularity. If you're wondering about our unconventional table top, I smashed the glass one by accident, so now we have a plywood one. It is flat after a rain, and a little curved in hot weather! Unusual, eh!
The Groovers we had are all redheads. (They have 8 kids, 5 of whom are redheads!) But they all blended in quite nicely.
Here are the girls diligently working on their schoolwork. Our bonus room has been such a blessing. It doubled as their bedroom and is our usual schoolroom. Because of its multifunctions it required us to be diligent about picking things up. More diligent than when we don't have guests living in it! Maybe I should do this more often!
And after school, each afternoon there were wonderful playtimes. Lots of digging for worms, playing cowboys, searching through the woods and general running around. Lots of fun!

Dad's Birthday

I completely forgot that I had these photos on my camera and so I hadn't blogged because I had forgotten. Okay, does that tell you a little of my brain overload these days!

My dad turned 69 on May 1st. We celebrated on the Saturday before down at my parents' house. My youngest brother, Gareth, was in NC (from Hawaii) doing some training before his next deployment, so that made it extra special (but sad because his family wasn't with him).

My mom set up a volleyball net in her front yard, which attracted some little neighborhood children as well ;0)
My dad is doing remarkably well for being 69 and having been an insulin-dependent diabetic for 50 years. He serves as an assistant to the Pastor in a PCA church, and regularly preaches elsewhere filling pulpits and preaching conferences. He preached one last October in PA with Sinclair Ferguson. I'm proud of my dad ;0)
My sister's family came as well (absent my sister), so her husband is featured relaxing in the deck chair.