Spidey---10 months!

Aaaannnnnndd...He's Off! 

Well, almost. Spidey will stand alone, walk quickly along walls and couches, and even walk holding onto something like a broom. 

But take away the supports...

...and down he goes. 

Monkey.
'S'okay. I love him and all his thumbsucking cuteness:

Birthday Boy!

Happy Seventh Birthday Giant!
Giant came to our family 7 years ago. He is a source of great joy and general silliness. He has grown to be kind hearted, inventive, and full of humour. We celebrated his birth today.

He started the day with designing and decorating his Adventurer's Cake:



He got to spend a little time playing in the barn with the new kitties:


The boys engaged in some pre-party water balloon silliness:






Welcome Adventurers! 

Adventurer’s Quest #1Find ingredients to create food for the Adventurer’s Feast!Spider web. Red Ant. Blue rock.Purple flower. Prickly seed.  Open pine cone. Grass seed. Flying insect. Prickly weed. A chewed leaf. Something fuzzy.Cattail reed.Needed for Adventure: Cooking Pot. 


Looks Yummy, No?


Adventurer’s Quest #2Capture the Wild Beast.A Wild Beast has been terrorizing the villagers. It has six legs, vicious mandibles, and emits ear piercing sounds at night. They will reward you with crunchy, salty, fried potatoes for your Adventurer’s Feast.Needed: 
Beast container. 




Adventurer’s Quest #3Cross the Pirahna Infested River  to fetch the prized sweet orange root for the Adventurer’s Feast.Needed: Floating logs

They feasted!

Hungry Adventures:


Adventurer’s Quest #4Shipwrecked. Pirates have attacked your Adventuring Ship. As long as you can keep afloat, you might be able to best them and get their treasures. (Might find a dragon’s egg in the hoard, depending on time)Needed: Several small chair like life boats. (Start with enough for 1 per 2 children)
They spun a bottle of water from the Adventurer's ship to choose presents to unwrap.

The Adventurer's cake was set alight:
And ate cake in a tree. Like good adventurers should:

Ready for Winter

Winter is approaching, sending tendrils of cold out in the early morning. We respond by stocking the woodpile:

I'm so grateful for many hardworking hands:

Country Fair

We went to our first Country Fair put on by our country ward.

It was fantastic!

There was a farmer's market, where people brought donated baking and garden produce to sell. 

There was all manner of yummy food.

Games galore.

Face painting (my boys loved their snakes):

Fun for all

Best story of the night? Giant spent a good hour writing his name down on each and every sheet for the 20 or so candy jars at the candy jar guessing game. He was positive he was going to win. So was Ettin, who had also guessed on several jars. At the very end of the night, after almost all the jars had been read out and Ettin was in tears since he didn't get "his" jar, Giant's name was called as winner of a great big jar of skittles. Sweet! I thought to myself. I love skittles! But then our thoughts turned to the littler brothers. They had gone off with their daddy for a potty break before Giant's name was called. So I was coaching Giant on ways to help everyone feel happy and how to share (to which he kept saying, "I know, mom, I know."). Then a couple of kids came up to him with two candy jars, one which just happened to be Ettin's choice of choices, and asked if Giant would trade the skittles for it. He was just so excited to give Ettin the jar of candy Ettin had been so sad that he didn't win. 

I seriously love these boys! 

Party at the Creek

We went off to play with a bunch of friends for FHE tonight! Hot Dogs, Watermelon, S'mores, and a creek. Who could ask for anything more?!

They were climbing the banks:

Playing in rocks:

Splashing in water while the horses looked on above the ridge:

Hanging out with good buddies:

 And enjoying the view:

Picnic at the park

Another dose of sunshine brought us to the park again. We ate a yummy picnic of fresh zucchini muffins, and then soaked up the vitamin D!

Four boys are much less wild when they are outside.

I love that the big boys are getting big enough to want to (and to actually be able to) help the little ones:

"Double Shot"

Ettin on the climbing wall...

 ...with Spidey watching closely.

A Totem of Boys!

Why I Homeschool...

Part I:

For moments like this:

These three boys "should" be in school right now, at this very moment, on a beautiful September morning. Grade 2, kindergarten, maybe preschool. 

But I look at them, hard at work playing, and I am confident that they are in the right place, right now.

Part II

Not stressing about getting kids on a bus on time early in the morning. You know what we did early in the morning? Snuggled up on the couch:

Read some stories:

 Yup, in our jammies. I believe that's the proper dress code for homeschoolers, isn't it?