Sun, Fun, Food, and Fellowship

We had a wonderful time with friends and church family last Sunday as we hosted a pool party for our adult Sunday school class.  After church everyone met at our house, bringing salads, casseroles, desserts, and all manner of tasty treats!  Jay was the official hot-dog burner, and we all had a blessed time of sharing a few hours together outside of Sunday school and church activity schedules.  It was fun and refreshing!

The children filled the pool.  I think my kids, who are so used to just being the two or three of them in the pool, were a little overwhelmed with the crowd!  They are not used to public pools or even high pool traffic at the base pool.  They had other kids to play games with, show off  for, and chase in the water.

Even the pastor got in on the action!  He loves kids, and really seems to enjoy playing with them a little more enthusiastically than Jay or myself do.  He had them lined up to get tossed in the deep end, and then somehow, when my back was turned, the older kids became a living tower in my pool!

The younger children were able to spend some time before lunch playing with Legos and Littlest Pet Shop toys. Our family was delighted to be able to host this fun afternoon, and we look forward to doing it again soon!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

It's not every day someone in your family has a birthday, and it's even more special when that birthday is a new decade. Today we celebrated Dad's 70th birthday, and the kids and I made a trip to South Caroline to crash the party! Mom knew we were coming, but we didn't tell Dad. Just showed up on the doorstep and ruined his plans for peace and quiet for the rest of the day. I don't think he really minded!

We went to dinner at a local restaurant called The Mustard Seed and enjoyed a lovely meal with friends Barb and Ron. Then we all headed back to the house for dessert.

My sister Paige had told me she was planning on having a cake delivered (sure wish she and my brother could have been there!) and she asked me to get 70 candles to put on the cake. Mom was going to put "7" and "0" candles on the cake, but we felt like this birthday called for the real thing. So I got a BIG box of candles, gave the kids some handsful, and we covered the top of that cake!

The cake was a marvelous layered coconut-cream cheese cake...just heavenly. It was huge, though, and I think the eight of us present only ate a little over a quarter of it. It was at least 12 layers high and oh, so rich! The entire cake weighed well over 10 pounds, I'm sure!

Anyway, Dad, aka, Grandpa, had to huff and puff to blow out this challenging number of candles. But his first blow took out all but three of them. Not a bad start. He managed to get the last three with a couple more blows.

The kids made handmade gifts, and after dinner Grandpa got a phone call from my brother's son Hayden. I think Grandpa felt very loved tonight.

Katie Mei is never one to let a party get by her! I should probably be embarassed to even show this photo, but she thought the wine glass was hers and she made a big show of it. This kid's going to be our problem child when she's older, I think.

We all enjoyed a glass of wine (except for the kids, I promise!) and a delicious piece of cake (yes, the kids did eat cake...and plenty of it!). It was the most wonderful evening, and I'm so glad we were able to be with Dad on his big day.

Happy Birthday, Dad! We hope is was a special day for you, and that you found it memorable. Even if we did tucker you out and you went to bed shortly after the kids!

Love,

Pet

The Good Life

Contrary to how it might appear on my blog, we're not always dashing off to kids' sports, the zoo or the aquarium, doing school work, and accomplishing scheduled activities around here. We do have our share of down time when we just hang out and don't really accomplish much at all. I'm going to make sure I share some of that on this blog, so in the future my kids can't say I was always a task master!

Here are a few snippets of life around here....

A couple weeks ago Katie Mei noticed the cat's ball was stuck behind the 'fridge. It really bothered her that it was stuck there and she wanted to get it out. She tried with her short little arms for a bit, but couldn't reach it. Since I was in the kitchen getting dinner started, I offered her one of my long wooden spoons. She thought that was great and gave it a try. Apparently, she had a hard time seeing the ball behind there because she got up and announced she needed her peeg (pink) sunna gwasses, and off she ran. She came back with the appropriate attire for cat toy rescue, and set herself to work.

There was a bit of a struggle, and she had to get down on her belly to get a really good advantage on the ball.

She must have been doing something right, because Dusty came by to encourage her and check on her progress.

In the end, she never did get the ball out, and it still sits there because I pretty much forgot about it. When she finally gave up, she went to put the spoon back in the drawer and I told her it was dirty and needed to go in the sink. However, she had already gotten a glimpse of all my other wooden spoons in the drawer and she started exploring. She found my short bamboo spoon and snatched it up, saying "This is a leedle spoon, Just Like ME!!! I want to play wif it!" (She loves to compare herself to other little things for some reason.) She then started to walk out of the kitchen with my small spoon. I told her she needed to put it back in the drawer because I needed it for cooking, but she continued to walk out of the kitchen saying over her shoulder "Mom, you need to share!" Well, at least I know she's putting in to practice what we try to teach her about playing nice.

Last week we had one of many thunderstorms in the early evening. Since the temperature outside had cooled off and felt so nice, I decided to go outside for a few moments of quiet, solitary relaxation. Never one to let Mommy spend too much time alone, Katie Mei followed me out. Since it was still raining but no longer really a storm, I gave in and said "yes" when she asked if she could go out from under the porch into the rain. She was already in her "nighnow" (night gown), but I figured it wasn't that much trouble to change when she was done playing.

As you can see from the photo, she had an absolute blast! I had to grab my camera and get a couple pictures of that wonderfully lit up face!

Well, upon hearing Katie Mei's squeals of delight, Merrilee soon followed in her night gown and asked if she could also go out in the rain. I had to say yes again.

And of course, two is always followed by three, so I ended up with three screaming, jumping, splashing, wet kids and no quiet time for myself, afterall. But it was fun and they were all brimming with laughter and joy. It was quite worth it. Who knew rain could be so much fun?

They dropped their wet clothes at the door and went back upstairs to dry off and put on clean jammies. Everyone was happy and sleep came quickly.

This weekend we had another couple of very mild, beautiful days and I let the kids get in the pool. The water had cooled off considerably, so it was a bit of a shock to get wet. Katie Mei wasn't feeling perfectly well (we've all had a summer cold for the past week), so for the first time since we've lived here, she said she "no" when asked if she wanted to swim. This was perfectly fine with me, because I really didn't want to get in the water, either. So she and I sat on the porch while the other two kids swam. It was just the perfect afternoon to sit and read a magazine, watch Katie Mei play with Jacob's plastic animals, and supervise the older kids in the pool.

Did you know dinosaurs, their skeletons, zebras, and horses all enjoy a community bowl of lawn weeds every now and then?

Camels seem to like to get in on the action, too.

But they're messy eaters, and when they're done someone must clean up their scraps. I had just the right girl to do it! (And you can never start them too young on learning how to handle a broom and dustpan!)

Merrilee and Jacob had a fun half-hour swim before the next round of thunderstorms headed our way, but it was enough to give everyone a little R and R, and then get ready for dinner.

That's it in a nutshell. We work, we chill out, we swim, and we play. I hope the water in the pool doesn't get too much cooler, though, or we'll be down to only three out of the four. I'm not ready for fall to step in quite yet!

Theresa needs our prayers

Do you remember my post last August regarding the three little girls with CHD who needed families? All three girls have been adopted, and you can read their stories here. However, today I learned that Liu Fang, now named Theresa, is not doing well.

Her family is asking for prayer for her. The family's blog is http://ourplacecalledhome.blogspot.com/ . Theresa recently had a heart cath done, and to quote their blog, "The results of the cath. were very bad. Nothing can be done, the Doctors just want to keep her comfortable with medicines. She could have a stroke or heart attack at any time.Thank you everyone for all of your prayers and words of encouragement." You can view the interview with Fox news here.

So I ask that you please lift up this family, and this dear three-year old, before the Lord. It is so hard to hear the words that "the results of the cath were bad" and know that our own daughter could have been in the very same position. Any of us who step out in faith and adopt a child with severe heart disease know the risks, but it's never enough to prepare you to hear difficult news. Theresa's condition is such that she may not even be eligible for a heart transplant. They are asking for a miracle.

Please pray. Thank you.

Love,

Petrie

Back ta Educatin' my Young'uns

Yes, it's finally that time of year when we pull out the table and chairs, sharpen our pencils, open up our books, and bring out the glue sticks again. We have started school. We originally planned to start on August 1, but that attempt was thwarted by some attitude issues and plain old lack of preparation. So after one day of a false start, we gave it a week and started again on August 8. That's just one more benefit of not being stuck on the county government's schedule in the public school system. You're not ready until you're ready!

Katie Mei fell asleep at my feet and Merrilee was mad at her math book on the first day of school. So much for getting a head start!

Katie Mei has really grown in maturity over the summer and she's been doing a great job of taking on some more academic pursuits this year. She is still occupying some of her time with games and puzzles, but she's been able to work in some preschool workbooks and do some activities that require more skill than I knew she was capable of. It's nice to be surprised when she can tackle those tasks I didn't know she was ready for. I'm not going to push it, but I have a little inkling that she might possibly be ready for Kindergarten next fall. She'll probably start reading next summer, since she's already asking me how to spell words and I can sound out the word and she can tell me what letters are required.

Picking out objects that are the same.

Building a copy of my pattern of blocks. We took her up to five blocks and she didn't miss a beat.
Busy work...sometimes it keeps her busy and sometimes it doesn't work!

Cutting and gluing~ two of her absolute favorite things to do! And she's cutting on straight lines perfectly now.

Merrilee is excited to be learning history and science from a new perspective this year. She's had three years of early American history with Pilgrims and Squanto, and this year she's able to move ahead and learn more world geography, map skills, and profiles of prominent Americans. Her science is also moving into physical science this year. Our first chapter was on simple machines and she's really enjoyed it. I have been blessed to find out that Georgia Public Broadcasting allows homeschoolers to sign up for streaming video of all their materials. It is free, and gives me access to their archives of all their educational video material. So the documentaries, children's programs, and other stuff you'd see on a PBS station are mine to use in our homeschool. It's really awesome, and I am thrilled to be able to let an interesting, age-appropriate video entertain and teach all three of my kids about simple machines. If you remember how fun it was to have a movie in the classroom in elementary school, the same excitement happens in homeschool. The kids just love it! Thank you GPB! We're already looking forward to our videos about ancient civilizations like Mesopotamia and Egypt. This is going to be a fun school year.

First science lab demonstrating pushing and pulling forces.

My view of the world during school. Glass of ice water, handy dry erase marker, lesson plan book, teacher's guide to the subject at hand, and one somewhat willing student.

Jacob has had to go back and review quite a bit of his math. Last year he breezed through the Kindergarten math book and I started him on the first grade book. But after a few weeks of it I could tell we were getting into territory he wasn't ready for, so we quit. This year I have started back at the beginning of the first grade book and quickly sped through all that he was comfortable doing, and we're almost back to where we left off. I have found that he really needs to spend a little more time working through concepts until he's really solid in them. Review really helps him. Merrilee hated review once she learned something and she always needs to move on quickly. It doesn't mean she grasps the concepts any faster than Jacob, but he really needs to soak in them more than she did before he's ready for new stuff. I just cannot imagine how their grades and ability to retain information would differ if they were in a classroom setting; one just cannot teach different kids the same way.

So we've now got three weeks (and one day) under our belts and are almost ready to turn in our first month's attendance to the Lee County Department of Education. Sixteen days down and 164 to go! Woo Hoo! Bring it on!

P.S. I know there are a lot of sentences ending in prepositions here. I am not in the mood to go back and fix my grammatical errors. Live with it. Just rest in knowing I had a really high GPA in English, and I recognize my mistakes, and I promise not to pass them down to my children. :-)

Patrick's Visit

I know, I'm late again! I told Patrick I'd have a blog post about his visit a couple weeks ago, and I STILL haven't gotten it done. The draft has been sitting in cyberspace for over two weeks. Where does the time go?!

So let's just jump right in. Patrick's birthday was in June. I failed to send him a gift, so upon his visit, I made sure we had a fun little birthday party for him. It wasn't really anything spectacular, but a party is a party, right?

My kids just adore Cousin Patrick, so having a party to celebrate his 15th birthday was great fun for them. Merrilee and I got a yummy chocolate cake, decorated the dining room, and tried to make a bit of a surprise out of it. But who can really hide anything from a 15 year old? But even if he wasn't surprised, the smile on his face was fabulous! It was such a joy to celebrate a birthday with this kid.

We got him some cool sunglasses, and they certainly gave him an air of coolness. Not a bad lookin' young man, eh?

The birthday party was fun, but I think he really enjoyed the pool. He spent a lot of time at my folks house this summer and got to use their community pool, but it doesn't have a very deep deep end. Our pool is deep enough for a diving board, so he got to try one out for the first time. He was a little hesitant at first, but with just enough jeering and taunting by his Aunt Petrie, he took the plunge!

Not to let anyone show her up, Merrilee also did some diving board tricks.

And in typical Katie Mei fasion, she also had to get in on the action.

It didn't take too many jumps, or too many belly flops, before Patrick was flying through the air. I think he had a great time; I know we sure did!

Thanks for sharing some of your summer with us, Kiddo! We're looking forward to having you come back again.

Love,

Aunt Petrie