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Sewing in Earnest

After Elizabeth and I made a new dress for Betsy with the new sewing machine, we got ambitious.  We decided to making matching outfits for Lizzie and Betsy using the ever-reliable Sweet Little Dress pattern.  The big girl one came together well during naptime yesterday.  Since I made her zig-zag all her seams to finish them, it took longer than she liked, she did get impatient by the end.  I ended up sewing the neck casing and threading the elastic through, as she couldn’t do that on her own.  We’ll be stuck at home tomorrow while the van is in the shop, so we’re hoping to make Betsy’s (and some pants for both of them!) then!

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first dress b

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Gamers 2.0

Forgot to put up these pictures of Geneva and Tommy gaming last week.  They pulled out most of our big kid games; Tommy taught her Catan Junior (mostly on his own with a few explanations from me), and she picked it up right away (with no parental help).  Unfortunately for Tommy, she also picked up his love of Coco cards and beat him with his own tricks!  I love that we have another generation of Euro Gamers on our hands…

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We went over to Malibu on Friday morning and did a beach day.  The kids played in the sand, found crabs and “special rocks,” and most excitingly, saw a pod of dolphins swimming really close!  For perspective, that’s Cisco with the big girls in the lower right corner.  And those are two dolphins right next to the surfers.

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They swam around and even jumped!

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Geneva and Tommy were definitely the boldest kids.  They loved playing tag with the tide!

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The Francisco’s Visit

I just love when our kids love our friends’ kids.

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And we still like hanging out, even after 14 years…

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Last Day of First Grade!

Since the Franciscos are coming this afternoon, we’re making today our official last day of school.  We finished most of our books a couple weeks ago but have been finishing up the math book and working on Mark 5.  We have 8 verses left, so we agreed to keep doing memory work over the summer, but it won’t be official “school” work.  Tommy asked to go to the Reagan Library to celebrate the start of summer vacation!

Last math worksheet of the school year.  Much rejoicing!

Last math worksheet of the school year. Much rejoicing!

Can you tell this guy is ready for summer break?

Can you tell this guy is ready for summer break?

Baseball exhibit at the Reagan Library

Baseball exhibit at the Reagan Library

Our curriculum this year (with Tommy’s assessments of each):

Bible–CBS Romans study (GREAT!  Can’t wait to study Mark, Job, and Philippians in the fall!)

Bible–memorizing Mark (good)

Math–Saxon 2 (Liked it, especially doing bar graphs)

Language Arts–Writing With Ease 1 (Used to be his favorite subject, liked the story days [narration exercises])

Language Arts–First Language Lessons 1 (Really fun, especially memorizing “The Goops”)

French–Little Pim, Mango Connect, Duolingo (liked doing it with Lizzie)

Anatomy–made a human body model and watched Bill Nye videos (Tommy’s favorite)

Geography–hand-me-down workbook (always enjoyed)

Typing–BBC Dance Mat Typing program (liked being in level 3 by the end!)

Fine Arts–Composer Studies, Concerts, Art Trek Fridays, books from the library (all fun)

 

Favorite part of school: anatomy

Least favorite part of school: Writing With Ease (on copywork days)

 

Most looking forward to next year: Veritas Press history!

I do read to the kids, too.

Derek stole my camera last night to prove that I do read to the kids, too!

bedtime reading

Duplo Baby

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Janie has a favorite place to play.

Bunk Beds!

Once Susie’s toddler bed broke a few weeks ago, we decided it was time to take the plunge to bunk beds.  Tommy isn’t as scared of heights anymore and has been asking for more privacy, and the girls want a snuggle buddy every night, anyway, so we were ready!  The bed came yesterday, and both girls promptly begged to nap in it.  Things are still way too silly at night time, but all in all, it’s been a big hit.

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The girls will be sharing the double bed on the bottom, and Tommy gets the twin on top.

Janie at 14 months

Janie turned 14 months old today!  Here are a couple more pictures of her Janie Loo Hoo hairdo, which she actually keeps in until naptime…

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Just the past week has been huge in terms of development–she is standing for 20+ seconds and took a couple of steps Friday and up to 6 steps several times on Saturday!  Obviously there’s a huge cheering squad every time.  She pushes the shopping cart all around the house now, too.

She’s been super picky about eating with all the sickness of late, but at least she’s starting to do more signing of “more,” “all done,” and “please,” which helps a ton.  And she’s babbling all the time.  Today Derek went to work so late (for him) that all four kids were awake to see him leave.  The three big kids waved and said, “Bye-bye, Daddy!” and then suddenly Janie was waving and saying “Ba-ba Da-da!”

She loves climbing around all the toys outside, getting into the kids’ new bunk bed (pictures of that forthcoming), and playing duplos with her siblings.  She’s super interactive, excited about books, special clothes, and nectarines (her new favorite food).  She’s working on her 8th tooth.  Our little Jane-bug isn’t so little anymore!

Elizabeth’s 5 year stats

Elizabeth visited Dr. Vallance today for her 5 year check-up.  It was a great visit in reminding me of several things I need to think about (including eczema, talking about physical limits with strangers, and trying chewing gum to stop the finger sucking habit), and Elizabeth very bravely endured a TB test and two shots!  (Much better than last year, when it literally took three of us to hold her down for her shots!)

This is the only picture of Elizabeth I have from the past few days, but it perfectly sums up her personality, snuggling with blankie 2.0 and amusedly watching her siblings' antics.

This is the only picture of Elizabeth I have from the past few days, but it perfectly sums up her personality, snuggling with blankie 2.0 and amusedly watching her siblings’ antics.

Elizabeth’s Stats:

Height: 43.5 inches (72%) (Tommy was 44.5 inches)

Weight: 43.6 lbs (74%) (Tommy was 47.8 lbs)

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