Guess who won first place at this year's Raingutter Regatta? (sorry, I wasn't there so Matt had the camera)

Go Team Stecher!

The Primary did a great job with this activity though. Everyone had a great time Pirating around. Sammy even came home with a certificate complete with pictures!

Tea Time

So we've started having tea time every day. It's turning out to be a really nice afternoon ritual. The kids always come in wanting their "after quiet time snack" and I dreaded it every day because 1-we often don't have lots of snack food around and for at least half the month we're low on fruit and 2-I'm pretty worn out by 3-4pm. So this helps with many issues. They get their snack, I get a hassle free teaching time to cover one of my favorite subjects-the arts. M-Music/composer study
T-Visual Arts/artist study
W-Poetry
Th-Shakespeare
F-Folk Songs and Hymns
So far we've done it 3 weeks I think. Oh, the other nice thing is that (2 things in fact) the kids get a chance to practice their manners(who wouldn't be polite to have a slice of that tart!?) and Sennia's post nap meal has to happen then so teaching during that is primo~!

Early morning Temple trip

This handsome boy went to his first homeschool Temple trip. He enjoys the Temple so much. He's loving choir too. Could've knocked me over to hear him talk about the fun he's having singing and DANCING to some of the fun music they're doing. From Singing in the Rain to Blue Suede Shoes and Beauty and the Beast to Funky Town. Yep. Funny note: Sennia sings Funky Town.

Mr. 4

If I ever see a 4 yr old cuter. . . He's the ultimate in 4 yr old little boys. Our family still adores him and we LOVED celebrating his birthday.

He steals our heart with comments like "Isn't Sennia the cutest thing in the whole world.

Matt only got to join us for a little while. I was glad that he was able to give the much anticipated tools to Brig. Afterall, "baby raccoon has lots of tools" so why shouldn't Brigham.

These pictures are from a hummingbird festival we attended. Brig really wanted the zoo but Matt's unexpected work stuff and his forgetting his phone sent us in the wrong direction. It was a lot of fun. There were activities for the kids. In this last picture they're watching the tagged and weighed humming birds be released.

For his birthday he really wanted everyone to dress up as aliens. So we made masks.

And his favorite food happens to be sushi so I obliged and made an enormous number of rolls; 12 or 14 or something. First time that day I was ok that Matt wasn't there:)

Ballet Begins

Taking Alena to get fitted for new ballet shoes and then to her first class with Ms. Ana was so fun for me. I love being able to give her his. She love ballet so much. Ms. Ana is a pretty amazing teacher. Alena's only sadness is that there aren't any little girls her age in her class. I think that her ballet skills will benefit tremendously from this semester with Ms. Ana though.

Bring on the Science

This was our first class at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Eli and Luke are dissecting sheeps eyeballs. 

Sam did fun weather experiments!

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And Alena studies physical Africa and even petted a cockroach!

I got to explore the museum(including the awesome new Egyptian exhibit) with my littles! It was so so much fun. As Alena said, the only bad part was that it ended.

Teenager in the House

All his friends came for party games, like catching M&M's,

Get to know you games,

the favorite Ware-wolf.

And a little flour tower.

I LOVE having these boys over! '

Highlights from the week

Samuel got a boat-load of belt loops and pins at his pack meeting. He has also earned his Wolf and many arrow points but I guess they didn't realize that he needed them. End of of the summer is always award heavy.

I knew when he was little that farming was in Eli's blood. I made him stop pestering his occupied brothers this evening and find his own pursuit of happiness and this is what he decided. His daddy who is supposed to be having a date night with me couldn't help lending a hand. I frequently find the botany book lying around. He spent the morning setting mint leaves to dry in a paper bag

Luke has been absolutely obsessed this week with conquering the cube. He's done it several times with the help of the computer and has the lingo down. No doubt by the end of this week he'll be an official expert.

My little Mama brought me a "bub" she swept up all by herself. She was very serious about it and flushed "dee bub".

Sir. Samuel the Confident

Meet our 'Knight of Freedom'. Sam is part of an exciting club called 'The Knights of Freedom'. His knighting ceremony happened recently and I was so excited for him. His virtue for the year is confidence. It's perfect. I hope he has a fantastic year.