bird family

A few days ago Jimmy discovered this sweet little bird family in the tree by our front door. Within a matter of days they went from a squeaky-chirping little bunch like this:



to full-fledged little birds learning to fly. This poor little fellow could see and hear his mama sitting up on our roof and he tried his hardest to fly up to her. It was all I could do not to give him a boost (and I was kind of annoyed with her for letting him struggle so much in the face of danger; the danger being five of my kids, along with some neighbors, cheering him on). Eventually we tore ourselves away, hoping that some privacy would bring the two of them back together.


We love our bird families and look forward to seeing who comes to visit next.

It's not summer till Ash is here

This year marked summer #9 that Ashleigh came to stay with us. True, her visits have gotten shorter than in the beginning when her little girl self would move right on in for a month. And true, it's been several summers since I used to have to force her to bathe (by refusing to french braid her hair until she washed it). But the one thing that is the same is how summer just wouldn't be summer without some time with Ashleigh. 

There was one difference this year though. Every year from the beginning, I would always choose some sort of craft or project to work on together while she was with us. One summer is was a quilt for her room, another summer was scrapbooking, and yet another summer had the two of us learning new recipes together and her cooking whole meals for us. This summer? She chose the craft, she bought the supplies and she did the teaching. With Caroline. I just snapped pictures and tried not to cry as I watched it all come full circle. 

We love our Ash and have told her every year that she better not ever be too cool to come start the summer for us. Caroline said it best when she said, "Well, she's my girl." Indeed she is. 









It's working!

We're actually growing things! For anyone who has been to our home you likely know that growing things (besides children) hasn't exactly been our strongest suit. But this garden? It's actually growing. And we're even eating things out of it. Amazing! (and delicious)

  




Run babies, run!

The Greenville Track club holds a track meet for all ages every Tuesday evening in the summer. Now that our kids have the running bug its become a highlight of our week to get out and run together. Travis prefers the one mile and ran an impressive 7.20 a few weeks ago. I have not been brave enough to time my fastest mile but I'm pretty sure he's got me beat. Sam does well with distance but likes to get out there and bust it up in the shorter lengths, the 800m being his favorite at the moment. Caroline wants to run whatever length she can talk someone into running with her, and Ben and Jack are all over the 5 and under 50m run, the "dad relay" and the long jump. Jimmy gets out there every once in a while and shows that he's still got it, while I tried my hand at sprinting and was able to confirm that I, in fact,  do not. : ) For now, three slow miles and I get along real well.














Father's Day

This year on Father's Day we celebrated our dad. We went to Table Rock State Park and went on a really long hike. We stopped at a tree on the path and ate snacks in the middle of our hike. We climbed trees and took pictures and then started on our way back. We jumped from big rocks to big rocks on our way back, and then we went home. During the afternoon we watched a movie with dad (sometimes he fell asleep but not the whole time).
We gave him his present the day before because we couldn't wait any longer! Me and mom gave him a Blu-ray player and Travis and Sam got him the three Lord of the Rings movies on Blu-ray. He loved his presents.
We like to celebrate our dad because he's awesome.  He takes me on dates and plays games with all of us. Sometimes when he comes home from work he brings us treats. He's really handsome and I love that he's a godly man. We all really love our dad.

love,
Caroline




Summer School

For the past few weeks Emma and Caroline have hosted their younger siblings (and a few little cousins) in a Friday morning summer school. They prepare a theme and have a craft, some books and a few games to go along with it. They are great teachers, which is not nearly as surprising as the fact that the younger kids are pretty great students. Anything that keeps Jack out of trouble for a solid hour earns an A+ in my book. I see a lot of summer school in his future....


















Who would win?

When Travis was a tiny little guy trying to figure out the way of the world, he would always ask us a different variation of the same question. Who would win between.... Superman or Spiderman? A triceratops or an allosaurus? A mountain lion or a bobcat? A hyena or a dingo? It was a sweet memory that had begun to fade until Ben brought it back to life this week. These days hardly a minute goes by without me needing to defend my position that a t-rex would win against a lion. Because you see, it's not enough to just spout off an opinion. Oh, no, this boy wants facts. And proof. And a You-Tube video if you can find one. 

So while GaGa and Grandpa spent a couple of days with us on their way through town Ben made good use of Grandpa's couch time. Thankfully there are more than a few bored young men in the world who enjoy making claymation videos of velociraptors fighting diplosauruses. And those videos are all the proof Ben needs.