a few summer projects

The day after the last day of school, a Friday, Terry and I were standing around looking for something to do. We started out playing with the cat and dog using the string that was still in the yard from when he used it to estimate the shape of the patio we were redoing.

Since he didn't come up with anything to do and the man needs stuff to do, I provided him with a project - flower boxes. He had just got all this wood from a closing wood mill for free and that's all we needed. We measured our old baskets that a friend had given me, enlarged the size, and got to work. 

Meanwhile I went shopping for some new shoes for Ezra since his others were completely shot. He loves them.

Here is the box next to the old basket.

Time to drill holes in the bottom. 

It was rather cute how both of them wanted to help.

They also wanted to do the painting too. I indulged them a little but took over pretty quick, so we could eat at some point that day. 

Done! 

We came inside for dinner and found the kitty snuggled up in Samuel's shoe box in the closet. 😂

I made the kids some dinner and then Terry and I went on a double date with Paul and Jana. They were late due to the crazy storm that rolled through. The gap was so flooded! We've had a pretty wet June, thank the Lord for that.

The following day was Saturday May 19 and was the final day my Urgent Care clinic was open on Saturdays. I worked half the day, relieving Kathy, who took it upon herself to make sure we celebrated with sparkling cider.

She also made everyone hats since it was the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. I meant to take a selfie with everyone in their hats but we had patients or something like that. 😛

The following day, Sunday, were some graduation receptions I believe. When we got home we finished up our flower box project by lining the bottoms with landscaping fabric.

There they are!

Then we poured some dirt in them.

We were done except for actually planting stuff in them, which I did the next day. I planted zinnias and when they sprouted the following week, I realized I had put them in the wrong place, in the front of the box. I should have put them in the back since they'd grow tall and I wanted to buy petunias for the front. So I moved them all. I moved like 30 or 40 little baby zinnias. I thought they would be fine but they've been so stunted ever since. Or that's due to the copious amounts of rain we had. 

In any case, I bought some Nicotianas to take their place. I planted those in 2015 and they grew up huge in the bed. Hopefully they'll do something in the box. I've had bad luck the last couple years.

We had apple blossoms again this year! Yay applies!

Samuel, Ezra, and I are still eating gluten free. I discovered these Katz gluten free donuts at Family Fare. Score! 

They are amazing.

Lilacs! I love lilacs!

Another project I worked on as soon as school was done was to make dinners for our trip to the Red Lodge, Montana cabin that would come in just over a week. Here are my oven baked chimichangas.

Since we were going to leave Luna and the cat with my folks while we were in Montana, I asked dad if he thought it was a good idea to shave her. It was getting warm out so he said we should do it. He very kindly brought me the dog clippers he'd had over there from the last time he clipped Bo so I could get right to work. I had less than a week to get everything ready for our vacation!

I seriously considered taking her to a groomer since she did not do well at all the last time I trimmed her in July. But I decided to go for it again.  

She actually did pretty well until I turned off the clippers to let them cool. She would not let me continue after that so I had to finish her legs with scissors. 

Not too bad! I needed the clippers for her ears so I waited another couple days and then it was no problem. 

The morning after her haircut it rained. It actually rained the night before too. However, the fur that I wasn't able to clean up got all wet and looked like a dead animal. Ha! 

last day of school 2017/2018!

Since we started a week late last year, our school year extended a week later into May than any of us wanted to go. I was doing well all year long not getting worn out, but the last few weeks were trying. I just wanted a break. So did the kids too of course but we made it!

We finished Thursday, May 17. This was what Samuel looked like most the year, working away at that little coffee table for about an hour.

Kids hard at work and Luna waiting patiently like she did everyday. 

Another vantage point.

Noah and Evie would take solitary turns in his room to go over Latin cards (look at that huge pile she's got!) and to read. I like Trouncer's expression. He always "had to" be in there with them and he quiet enjoyed the snuggling. The kids would walk around the house looking for the cat before they'd settle to do their work in there. 😂 Now that it's summer Trouncer stays outside pretty much all the time.

 Chin up Evie, you're almost done! But uh oh, that book in front of her reminds me that we were supposed to finish it. We haven't. A break just feels too good.

Noah finished his Latin too.

🙈🙉🙊😱

I take pictures of all their narrations, summarie,s and book reports every year and it makes me feel like, "Yeah, we did accomplish something this year." This is one of Evie's summaries from Beowulf from the beginning of the year. We read about the the Middle Ages this year.

We would have full size pages too. Both sides would generally be completely full since she's summarize whatever reading we did every day. 

That's all her work.

This is the first page of Samuel's sentences from the beginning of the year...

...and unfortunately it appears that his handwriting got worse, not better. Uh oh. But his reading did improve, and that's much more important. Math comes more naturally to him I'd say.

That's all his work from the past two years, though not much is actually from Kindergarten. 

Noah had a ton! I think he grew a lot in his writing this year. 

There are the calendars that I used to track everything we did (they're double sided). Those also made me feel accomplished.

The kids finished school pretty quick that day and then waited upstairs for me while I put things away and took a few pictures. They were reading! Even Samuel was reading to Ezra! 💙

Evie the reader.

Noah the reader. My kids like to read. What else is there to do? 

Time for last day of school pictures!

Ezra is incapable of standing normally. 

One more.

This is what everyone looked like on the first day of school back on August 28, 2017. Ezra is wearing that red shirt of Samuel's now, though it is a little big. I had to retire all of Ezra's stuff from last summer. Noah outgrew practically all of his old shorts and his jeans he did twice! 

Noah especially has grown a ton. He just keeps stretching. 

Evie decided she doesn't want to cut her hair short this summer.

Cute little Samuel.

My wee little Dwidge Dwidgie, Ezra. 

I asked Samuel to remake some of the reading he was doing with Ezra. He really has come a long way. He has more to go and I have a feeling Ezra will catch up pretty quickly.