Auntie Christy visits!

 My roommate from college visited for 4 days from Ohio and was such a help.  Nate is back at work and we are on the mend!  You would not believe how much she did while she was here.  I tried to come up with a list.  Some of my college friends wanted to see photos of her visit so here are a few!

- mow the lawn

- weed my vegetable and flower garden

- carry the vaccum up and down three flights of stairs A LOT

- move furniture up and down stairs

- refinish 4 pieces of furniture

- BIG shop at Wal Mart with kids

- put kids to bed and read with them

- made dinners

- did dishes

- baked with kids

- took older kids on walks

- made sure I was drinking

- made sure I was not wearing clothing too baggy

- made sure Nate was resting flat

I feel so blessed to have friends like her that would drop everything and her own 3 kids to come and visit!  Thank you Christy!!

National Aquarium

On our first day of NO SCHOOL we met some friends and we went downtown to the National Aquarium for a program that they held for children.  I learned a lot about Steve Irwin's death!  Did you know that the Stingray didn't actually fly out of the water and stab him?  It actually was being held in front of him and the prong from the sting ray went into his heart and he pulled it out???!!  We saw some sting rays close up and the prong is so little - about 3 inches.

We saw the baby alligators.

 We also looked at a lot of shark teeth and touched some neat artifacts.

 This is an illegal product in the US but is often smuggled to our country.  The kids loved looking at it -Shark Fin SOUP!

 National Aquarium Day!  Very fun.

Last Days of School

I am a little behind!  Nate has not been feeling well and HE is on bedrest!  Really, he is.  I have my roommate from college here to help us function around here for a little bit.  She leaves today and has been such a help.  To give you an idea of how he is doing... he actually LET CHRISTY MOW THE LAWN!

On the last day of school, both girls had a class party.  Here we were praying with Rita's class to finish up the year.  Her teacher is in the pink.

This is the Hawaiian party we did for Grace's sweet class.  I made the pom poms on the ceiling.

Grace and her favorite teacher ever!

Grace and her assistant teacher.

And this is our last day of school tradition... Banana Splits for breakfast! 

I was sad to have their school years come to a close!  Sam will be in kindergarten next year and we will have a new baby.  It will be a lot of changes and I will miss the schedule we had.  But despite the challenges, summer has been really fun so far.  I will post more soon!

Barnstorming!

We spent time together on Saturday touring some historic barns in Maryland.  It was called a Barnstormer Tour and the idea was that you tour 10 historic barns, observe the architecture while also observing many artists painting pictures of the barns.  If you can stay until 5 pm, they auction off the paintings at an art show.  It was really fun to do with the kids - we had a picnic lunch and did a little shopping for a new dresser for the baby.

Many of the barns were built around the Civil War time.  It is amazing how well built they were!!

 This was our favorite... it wasn't an old barn but it was an alpaca farm.  The alpacas were so funny to interact with - very timid animals.  We were able to feed them, pet them and meet the alpaca farmer.  Apparently you don't get allergies from alpaca yarn versus regular wool.  It also doesn't smell bad like wool.

 This barn is used as a conference center.  It would be an awesome location for a retreat or getaway or wedding.  Such a pretty area as you can see by the background.

 This is the cellar of the barn above where they stored cheeses and other perishable food items when it was so hot outside.  We have been reading the Little House on the Prairie series (book 3 right now) so the kids knew all about these cellars.  It was surprisingly very cool on a hot day.

 To the right of Ellen, you can see how they are supporting the basement of the barn so it will last for many more years.  

2nd Grade Book Report

 Can you tell who this 2nd grader is for her book report today?

 

Date Knight with Sam