School's Out For Summer!

The weather is BEAUTIFUL here! We decided to finish up school a couple days early for a few reasons:

1) After doing some math and reading assessments (online) with Russell, it's been determined that he's reading at a 4.8 reading level (that's 4th grade) and he's memorized 100% of his addition facts and most of his subtraction facts as well.
2) The public schools here got out today, so we wanted to get out a little earlier than them ;)
3) Did I mention the weather is beautiful?

So we invited all of our homeschool friends to an end-of-school party at a park in our neighborhood! It was a brunch party from 9:30-11 am, with donut holes, bananas, apricots, and bagels brought for refreshments. We had the best time.

Congrats on the last day of school! They all worked very hard and learned a lot this year!

I got some pencils at the dollar store and added these little tags. I never want the kids to feel left out or "less than" because they are homeschoolers, so I like making things like this :)

This is typical Paige!

So glad to have so many sweet homeschooling friends!

It was a wonderful day! Happy summer!

Grandmother

My beloved grandmother passed away on Monday night.

I gathered my kids to tell them on Tuesday morning. I was crying.

Immediately, Meredith's eyes lit up. "Mom! Now she can be with her husband!"
Russell piped up, "I bet she'll get to meet King David!"

They knew just what to say to make me smile.

This is what I wrote on Facebook. (I can't say any more or I'll never stop crying.):

For three and a half years, we had the privilege of living down the street from my grandmother. We saw her almost every week. She took me to get pedicures when I was 8 months pregnant. She chased my toddlers around her living room (yes, chased, at 91-92 years old). She took us to Chick-Fil-A when Jason worked late. And so much more.
Her motto was, "Everyone needs a friend, so be one" (written in her college yearbook." Everyone who met her loved her. People would see my maiden name and ask if I was related to her. I was always proud to say yes.
Words can't describe how I'll miss her. This picture is how I'll remember her. Love you, Grandmother.

S'more Fun!

Beautiful weather = time for s'mores with friends!

(That is one of Paige's "cheese" faces) :)

Taken by Russell:

Sorry sweetheart, no s'mores for you!

(Another "cheese face" - girl is so silly!)

Excited for many more warm nights! We live for the summer up here :)

Jump Around

Everyone in this house loves the trampoline!

Daphne had her first experience this week:

She's a big fan! 

Short (fun) family visits

We were so happy to have Aunt Jill, Uncle Ken, and my parents in town last week! The visits were too short, but fun all the same.

Jill and Ken came into town on Friday and stayed through Sunday afternoon. They joined us for our regular Friday pizza and movie night. It was "The Lorax" this time. Paige really loved Uncle Ken and made sure he was included in everything :)

Mimi and Pops joined us on Saturday (right after we got our new desktop computer for the kids!) So Meredith showed Pops her email:

Daphne and Mimi played:

Candyland happened:

Mimi joined us for school on Monday. Daphne is not exempt from school; she gets read-alouds and Mimi was our guest reader :)

I don't believe I've mentioned on here our Kid Days, so I will interject: Each of our children have a special day that is "theirs" each week. (Russell = Monday, Meredith = Tuesday, Paige = Wednesday, and Daphne will have Thursday.) They get to pick the TV shows watched (we watch 2 shows per day), the music played in the car, sometimes snacks or where we go as a fun activity. It gives them a little ownership and cuts down on arguments. On their Kid Day, they also stay up 30 minutes extra with Mom and Dad.

 Since Russell's Kid Day happened while Pops and Mimi were here, he got special time with all the adults. His activity for those 30 minutes is ALWAYS Lego building - here are the boys building:

And before they left, Mimi somehow got nearly all of them (Daphne was sleeping) on her lap and they were singing and laughing - so cute!

We had the best time! Can't believe it will be 6 months before we see them again :( but it was so lovely for them to be here.

Daphne's Dedication Reception

And after the dedication was the lunch reception/party!

We had oven-baked ham and cheese Hawaiian roll sandwiches, cocktail weenies in sauce, olive balls, veggie straws, carrots and hummus, grapes, and cupcakes. We made simple decorations also. I didn't want to do anything too difficult because a) it was my Mother's Day and b) we would be hosting the party right after church (so no time to prepare before guests came).

Our pastor came too, which we appreciated.

Paige and Valerie are friends from Puggles (the toddler Awana club) at church.

Russell and Darren are good church buddies also - they stayed in Russell's room building Lego creations for most of the party :)

We had such a great time! Thanks to all for coming!

Daphne's Dedication Day

As we've done with all of our children as babies, we dedicated Daphne at church last Sunday. It was a sweet time of sharing our intention of raising her up to follow Jesus, in conjunction with our church.

Unlike the other kids, Daphne was not dedicated at Westover (our church in Greensboro), but at Grace Pointe Church in Naperville. She's also the only one to be dedicated on Mother's Day.

We were SO thankful to have my Aunt Jill and Uncle Ken and my parents join us for this special weekend!

Daphne now holds the honor of being our only child to cry on stage at her dedication. We tried to hand her to Pastor Derek, but she wasn't having it. She was fine when he handed her back to me (and I gave her her paci!)

The other three did great on stage - I think they were a bit frozen with stage fright ;)

Jason read the verse we chose for Daphne, 2 Timothy 2:22, "So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."

The sermon afterward was lovely, and then we invited a few friends and our family over for a reception - to come in the next post :) 

It's always an honor and a blessing to entrust our church with the responsibility of helping us to raise a child to know Jesus. We're thankful for a wonderful church here to help us point Daphne upward.