Birthday Survey at NINE

It may shock you to know, as it shocks me, that my sweet boy turns NINE this weekend.  I don't have much to say about that because my brain cannot compute it just yet.  While I gather some words to comment on the milestone, allow me to offer our annual Birthday Survey.  THIS year, I let the boy fill it out on his own and I think I love the change because it captures his handwriting (and spellings :S) in the time capsule of sweet deets these days. :}

Crushing

I have a crush on these pigtails, this game, that sky. 

Good day!

Taa Daa a la Anna: Homemade Soaps

Throw Back Field Trip

Noah and I joined some friends yesterday for a small-scale field trip refreshing our memories of a throw-back unit from last year by visiting a throw-back structure from history ...the Ancient Greek temple for Athena, the goddess of war - The Parthenon.

First we played at Centennial Park before crossing the lawn for our tour.

It's impressive that this Nashville replica is built to scale with the original.

Including the giant statue of Athena.

Our tour guide did a good job of skipping the more adult conversation points and keeping it brief and kid friendly as we moved from exhibit to exhibit inside.  Too bad I couldn't take pics of anything downstairs. :S

She even {almost} got us the through all the talking points without the kiddos snickering at the naked people in the art exhibits and statues.  Ha!  Noah's favorite part was seeing Athena up close with all the war scenes (aka - friezes) in her decor ...

and getting to spend four times our admission price on a souvenir Centaur action figure from the gift shop. :}

Just Because

Just because I have actual down time this weekend, last night included, while Josh worked late and I hung out in the driveway with my baby while she played basketball with her brother and rode bikes in the cul-de-sac and used her umbrella as a weapon against him and STILL ended up squalling in defeat.

Isn't she lovely?

She also took a frisbee to the face and squalled over that one, too.  Playtime with Anna is riddled with highs and lows.  It's why I can't stop giggling.  And that makes her fightin' mad.  She does NOT like to be laughed at.  Which poses a problem for Noah and me when we play Sorry with her and she loses for more than three turns in a row.  She goes from lovely to looney in 2 seconds flat and we roll in laughter and she starts shouting and kicking and quitting. She can't even stand it when we laugh at things in her baby videos... so you know it gets dramatic around here when Noah pulls up the one of her crawling on the furniture and faceplanting when she falls. It's so funny. 

She found out at the school nurse's office this week that she has giant tonsils and she is proud to join the ranks of impressive tonsil owners with her momma and Aunt Emily.

 

In other Anna news, she reads SO WELL.  I just have to brag a little.  Her teacher assigns her books at level 2.9.  Second grade, month 9, y'all.  She ROCKS READING.  It's so fluent and expressive and easy.  It has all come so naturally to her.  I humbly thank the Lord for that fact after I struggle through an AGONIZING hour helping her classmates work to decode little 4 words-a-page readers every month. Learning to read is hard work, I see it.  I don't know how Anna skipped that hard stage, but I am so glad she did.  She is one quick and smart cookie.  I am pretty sure she is gonna rock my homeschool world in the fall and do NOTHING like Noah and I are already used to doing it. 

Whenever we travel and the beds are silly little double beds, Josh and I always split up and sleep with one kid each.  It's one of my favorite things - Getting to lay next to this sleeping beauty.  Just to be still and watch her sleep ... and wake up to her stealing the covers or scooting up tight in my back and then my having to push her sleepy weight back to her side.

 But seriously, she is so lovely. Even in her ratty hair, boogery nose, t-shirt and jeans, dirt under her nails, scrawny little legs, and, heaven-help-us, that boney bootie she points at us to toot in our direction.  Not counting THAT last detail, I just adore her and the things that occur to her and move her.  I stare at her and wonder what she is becoming and marvel that she is mine and that I get so many precious hours in life to enjoy her.

What a great Saturday morning to have nothing to do but babble on about my sweet Anna.
Just because.

Anchored Enrichment Field Day

Noah has enjoyed another year being a part of the Anchored Enrichment co-op which wrapped up today with its annual Field Day (not counting an awards ceremony in a couple weeks).  The sun shone down on us all basking in the light and cool 65 degree air.  It doesn't get any more glorious than that!  See here some of the fun from this year's competition...

 

Such great company!  Thankful for Anchored and the sweet teachers that run it.

Excited for Anna to join the group at last in the fall!

Thoughtful

Got this in the mail yesterday from Shanna, Erick and Aiden's mom.  I really appreciate her heart and thought to shoot this over to us. ♥  Means a lot to me.

Whirlwind Weekend

The boys were here in March, then there was Easter weekend, then we were out of town the following weekend, so that makes this past weekend our first sane weekend in a loooooooooong time ... and it was still packed with busyness which sapped it of the aforementioned sanity. Ha!

BUT, who needs sanity when you have blessing upon blessing?  Busy though the weekend was, it was busy with goodness and all things I humbly thank the Lord for - time to regroup and catch up, family, friends, gorgeous weather, and fun!

First, taking care of much catch-up stuff and tasks at home.  We moved more of class stuff out of Noah's room and hung more things in the classroom.  Josh started a repair on a towel bar Noah yanked out of the wall last week.  I got checkbook stuff underway and {started} to catch up on blogging.  Josh was able to finally mow our jungle of a yard for the first time this season. (True story - it was so bad while we were gone because Josh had NO time to tame it before we left that our neighbor mowed the front for us, bless him.  Good thing he has a nifty new fancy mower and he said it was actually fun to have more turf to play with his new toy on.  Ha!)  Anyway, back to yard stuff, it got mowed and some other yard stuff got done, too.  Josh framed out more space for the swing set/tree house area.

And he and the kids weeded the raised bed for tomatoes to come and hoed up a patch next to the fence for Anna's chosen flower for the summer, sunflowers.

She was not a fan of the "stinky" dirt that Josh bought for her to lay out, but she soldiered on through the chore.

And heartily watered her newly-planted seeds.   Let the germinating begin!

We also got our new shoe shelf assembled and love how it hides the crazy so well.  No more open shelf of sloppily thrown together shoe stash.  Open/Shut.  It's a beautiful thing.

That afternoon, Noah had pics taken with his baseball team and then waited around for his first game that night.  We missed the real first one when we were out of town, and the second one was rained out upon our return, so this third try was the charm .... and even more so because the boys won big!  :)

Josh makes a great Dugout Dad every year, but this year he has been helping at practices as well so he was roped into wearing a team jersey and hat.  Looks good on him!

And it makes me giggle because it is a real milestone.  He was dead-set against volunteering for coach or assistant coach for years, but has slowly inched closer and closer to taking on more responsibility with every season. Finally crossed the line ... albeit unofficially ... this year.  :}

The game started late and then ran late.  We didn't all get home til just before 9 ... which made for a tired family getting out the door to church yesterday.  But there was no rest for the weary because we had GTP meets to do on the way home.  And then I had to hustle to the grocery on my way to a baby shower several of us pulled together for a friend. 

Here's a shot of the guest of honor and those of us who coordinated it ... though Karla was our real shower-planning leader. :)

My job, besides beverages and last minute set-up, was to come up with a sentimental gift idea for the shower guests to contribute to for baby's nursery.  I decided on a magnet board for everyone to write a verse or prayer that was related to the nursery's sheep theme.  It turned out so sweetly when all was said and done.  No, I didn't make it and was so glad to not have to though I did pin some ideas in the event that Hobby Lobby wouldn't pull through for me. :}  I did make the magnets though.  Ha!

While I was doing the shower thing, Josh and the kids made their long-anticipated way to Lego KidsFest in Nashville with those underwhelming tickets we surprised the kids with at Easter. :}  As the date approached, and more and more buddies talked about going to the event, Noah, especially, apologized for not appreciating the tickets at first.  He and Anna were so excited to finally go this weekend... especially after seeing everyone else's pics from Friday's and Saturday's shows.

Some shots Josh's managed to get while making the rounds there...

This one is really special to them because we are currently listening to The Hobbit on audiobook in order to be able to watch the first of the movies on Noah's birthday.  This, in case you don't already know, is Smaug from that book.

Tiles they made and affixed to a display.  Poor Noah didn't space well and his name just came out No.  Josh did the face.  Anna, showing them up in a big way, created that sea serpent!

Another display ... with vAnna (ha!) showing us her contribution.

Taking care of some business with a Lord Business photo op.

Apparently, this was some sort of Lego pizza race.

Check out the USA map behind them FULLLLLL of Lego structures built during the three-day event. 

Somewhere in that finished product are Noah's and Anna's creations, too. 

More bricks!

Some team building competition.  Noah tells me the challenge was to build a brick structure that could hold the most weight.  They only managed 5 lbs in the allotted time.  Another team's build was able to support FIFTY pounds.  WOW!

It's not a complete Lego event without Emmett!  Everything is officially awesome now.

Someone tell Anna that Vader isn't exactly a hide-within-the-folds-of-my-cape kinda guy!

I was surprised to hear how engrossed Noah and Anna were at a book station.  Love it!

And this shot, in particular, is my favorite. Judging by the girl, they clearly had a roaring good time.

And that concludes our whirlwind weekend recap.  Next weekend promises to be more chill.  Thank goodness!