Andrew turns 14!

Andrew celebrated his 14th birthday a few weeks ago! It was a "low-key" year with a simple family dinner but Andrew got to have all his favorite foods and enjoy some family time. Here he is with his requested apple cobbler for dessert:

There were presents, of course. These centered on soccer (practice equipment) and needed clothing.

Andrew was very happy to get boxed mac-n-cheese for dinner! It seems each child likes to request that at some point during their birthday!

Andrew is loving being a high school student and it is fun to enjoy his enthusiasm. :) And now just about 10 days until we have our next birthday around here!

Laura's 6th Birthday

Late last month Laura turned 6 years old!

As with most children, she was absolutely excited about her birthday.

She requested blueberry pancakes for breakfast. She's always loved blueberries.

She's also extremely fond of emoji's and had been wanting one of these pillows for a long time!

I found her this antique desk at an auction I went to and she loves it! It sits next to Michael's desk and she has it all filled with her little pens and papers and things. So cute!

Laura wanted to go out to lunch for her birthday so she and I went to Cracker Barrel together.

Two little friends came for some cake and tea in the afternoon. My rule is big parties are only for certain special birthdays (5, 10, 13, 16 years). Somehow birthdays still turn into multiple day events even with that limitation.

The very happy birthday girl.

On Friday another friend was here to play and Grandma came to take Laura to spend the night at her house! Laura was very excited about having her own overnight!

She and Grandma went to see a movie together.

And then they ate dinner at Grandma's house.

And picked some flowers in the garden:

On Sunday cousin John got to come for another birthday celebration (along with half the boys from church, well, it seemed that way.....):

The two cousins had a lot of fun together!!!

John had carefully made a lovely card and was helping Laura to read it.

Then there were presents to open including this lovely dress made by Auntie C!

And then came a very fun present -- pompom makers!

Everyone got in on the action!!!!

And they all got in on the cake action too!

Laura has continued to enjoy the pompom maker very much!

And now birthday time is over and it is on to being 6!

End of the School Year

We've been on summer vacation for a few weeks now which is always a welcome break! But there are a few things I want to document for the end of our school year.

Laura began learning to read and write this year! She loves school! It is so fun to have her for a student. It is strange to have such a "grown up" person as the "baby" in the family. No more preschooler around.

Laura loved her spring Sunday school class! Here she is with some of her classmates in their Pharaoh headpieces!

Rachel completed her first year of high school and is so excited not to be a freshman anymore! Tennis was a great sport choice for the spring. She had wonderful coaches who were so helpful, kind, and self-sacrificing. Rachel is looking forward to the next school year and to continuing on with her golf and tennis sports.

Rachel also plays violin in the school orchestra. They have three concerts a year.

Here she is at the spring concert:

Tennis awards banquet:

The spring piano recital marks another year of music lessons.

The four older children have been taking lessons this past year.

This was Andrew's last recital as he is no longer going to pursue piano. But, Laura is going to take his place! She can't wait!

Our favorite is always the final song with all the students playing with their teacher.

Another of Laura's big accomplishments for the year was learning to knit. She is SO excited that she can do this on her own. :)

James continues to spend most of his free time making leather creations, various pieces of armor from cardboard, leather, wood, etc., or drawing:

This is his patchwork cape:

Our last day of school adventure was a trip to Terre Haute for a picnic and then a visit to the CANDLES Holocaust museum.

It was the perfect way to end our studies of World War II. The highlight of the visit was listening to Eva Kor tell her experiences of surviving Auschwitz and Dr. Mendele's twin experiments.

We could hardly believe the kids sat with rapt attention for two hours listening! It is such a gripping story.

Andrew completed 7th grade using Connections Academy -- an online school which he does at home. He enjoyed the year very much. His last day of school was marked by getting a soda at the gas station while running errands with me. (It was the best we could do!!!)

We had three different ending dates for school for our three different methods of schooling. Rachel finished last. She was treated to her favorite drink: a Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino.

The other educational pursuit of the spring has been soccer -- the four youngest kids participating! They all love it!

This boy is heading into 6th grade this coming year -- that means Middle School!

This was Laura's first year for soccer and she LOVES it!!! I'm still a little worried watching her run around in the heat. She is very determined and refuses to rest.

So I guess we'll have a lot of years of soccer ahead of us! And it is a joy to see that she is able to handle this amount of activity.

Now I see that we have only six weeks left until all this school stuff starts over again for another year! Phew! For all the work that it is, I am so grateful for the variety of schooling options we have and for how things are working out. I do love spending time with the kids around their studies (wouldn't it be ideal to have a cook and housekeeper to do everything else?).

Bit and Pieces

Life seems more full right now with the children busy with school, lessons, music, and soon sports. I am finding myself simplifying and pulling back from some of my various pursuits to concentrate more on what needs to be done and then recuperating from it. :) I think I'm even taking fewer pictures, which I may need to rectify since I do like to have a record of the children's activities.

I love winter sunsets. Perhaps they are my favorite. They inspire me the most to paint (which hasn't been happening). Just look at those colors!

Laura, of her own accord, has developed her own style of "fancy writing"! Yes! This bodes well for the future. :) I love this child's awareness of beauty.

I often struggle with what to cook and eat, despite my careful menu planning. I think it is the dietary constraints and the energy it takes to cook a good meal. Once in awhile a real treat shows up -- like this leg of lamb we were gifted. Wow was it good! And the leftovers made a most incredible shepherd's pie.

Tea still brings lots of bright spots in my week. I have plenty to post about when I have a chance....

I see this view a lot! Laura waits for her breakfast and lunch in this pose and then this is also the view I see when we shop together as she hangs onto the front of the cart. I love shopping with Laura and I will really miss it when she is too big to come along.

The kids had fun putting these cookies together last weekend.

This has been the view out back all week until today when the temperature reached 54F! Wow. Our windows are open and we all got outside today.

Homeschool has been going well. I love studying history with the kids and reading aloud books to them. This year we have an entire half wall dedicated to a timeline and as we learn things in history (1800's-present) we paste them up. We've also been pasting up photos of our ancestors so we can talk about where they were and what was going on when they were living. We briefly studied the American Civil War this week and the kids loved getting out the sash and bits and pieces from Great-Great-Great-Grandpa Clark's civil war uniform. This brings history alive!

Well, it's time for me to wind down our week and get things settled for tomorrow.