Mornings

Nothing like a good game of "Kings in the Corner" to get the day started right.  Thankfully, this morning's round did not include any fighting or yelling.  

Siblings

The beauty of being the little sister is that you often don't notice your big brother's scowl...you are just thrilled to be with him.  :)

Summer Happenings

II, for one, can't believe the summer is more than half gone.  Our days have been filled with swimming and schooling, rain and gardening, friends and family.  

That picture is the whole crew on our way to EmmaKook's graduation.  

The boys are really enjoying swimming.  As is typical of those two, they each have their strokes that they are good at and the strokes at which each one is best are different from the ones of their brother.  Josiah has made a lot of Improvement on his freestyle, while Micah's best stroke is the breast stroke.  

This was taken before their first meet.  Josiah said it was "humiliating" to pose for a picture.  

While the boys are at their swimming practices, Audra, Emilia, and I have gotten to have a lot of girl time. Typically, we read books or paint nails. What more could you ask for some girl time?  :)

We've had a lot of rain this summer And there are pros and cons to that. On the bright side the plants have gotten lots of water and the children have gotten to play in the rain which is always fun! On the downside we've been cooped up in the house a lot.  Not so fun with four kids!  

Because of all the rain, it took about 3 tries for us to get to do our yearly 4th of July celebration with the family.  Every time we would plan to do it, it would rain and we would have to try again another time because you can't shoot fireworks in the rain!  We did get to have a game night with everyone and last night we finally got to shoot our fireworks, too!  

Audra wearing some of our props for "The Great Dalmuti."

Micah cast in the role of the greater peon.  

John being silly...what a perfect opportunity!

We had waited so long for the fireworks that Emilia needed to pick the perfect outfit for the occasion: 

Here are all of the kids lined up for the fireworks fun! My kids, Karen's kids, Luke, and Sydney all had a blast watching the fireworks.  :)

After the fireworks were done, the boys continued the celebration by playing some basketball under a full moon.

Here's a fun little story about Emilia: 

Last weekend we were having a lazy morning around the house when Emilia came up to John and said, "Hey, Daddy. You want me to beat you up?"  John said, "If you start beating, I'll start tickling". Sweet little Emilia narrowed her eyes, hunched her shoulders and in her most serious voice said, "Bring it."  

This was the result: 

Hope you guys are enjoying your summer too!

It's True

It's true that love is blind.  My little fashionista drew a picture of me today.  This is how she sees me:

This is how I actually look

Aside from the childish drawing, the lack of color in my normal appearance doesn't seem to affect her mental image of me as a colorful person...with curly hair...wearing a dress...and lipstick.  I'm not sure about those orange eyes, but I do say that I love Tennessee so much that I bleed orange, so maybe my eyes are just bloodshot (tired, maybe?) and that's why they look orange.

Love makes all the difference.   :)

Under the Rainbow

Here is Audra's latest artwork.  It is a self-portrait, standing under a rainbow.  

Personally, I love how she draws in everyone's forehead.  'Cause if you don't scribble something there then you don't really have a forehead...or something. 

Mud Pies

I discovered that I can post to the blog from my phone. And not only that, but I can also use this speech to text feature so all I have to do is speak out these words and my phone will turn it into the post for me. How wonderful is that?

Since I have discovered how easy this can be, I'm trying to catch the rest of you up with what I have been posting on Facebook lately. For instance, one day last week the boys decided to make mud in one of our flowerbeds.  I'm not sure what it is about boys and dirt, but they sure do seem to attract one another! (Although to be fair, Emilia joined in the fun quite quickly.)

It wasn't long after adding the water that the boys were into the mud up to their elbows, laughing and playing and having a good old time. While I wasn't a fan of all the mess, the three of them played out in that mud for at least four hours that day--with no fighting. Which makes the mess all worth it!

Even Stuffed Animals Need Quiet Time

One day last week, the girls must have been working their stuffed animals particularly hard because they all got lined up for quiet time.  All the stuffed animals and the little girl who was running around all day, "naked in (her) pannies."