His Favorite Place

This is my grandson, Asher. He likes to come to my house to get a coke and a snack -- which I always give him. The other day my daughter did a little video of him. She asked him, "Where is your favorite place to visit." I was watching it and since my daughter always tells me how much he likes to come over, and how he always says before his nap that he wants to get up and go to Nana's house, I knew he was going to say -- "Nana's house!" But, no he did not. He says, "Wegmans." Wegmans. Not Nana's house, but a grocery store. In my defense, he did say it was because he liked to see the lobsters and I guess I can't compete with that. 

The Look

Somebody is not very happy with her brother - - that look!

The Garden

I planted a garden in the spring and it is finally producing flowers. Bethany and Piper wanted to pick some to put in the house so I went out with them to make sure they didn't cut every single flower and to also get pictures. Problem with my garden is that, first of all, after I planted it it rained and rained and rained. I think the seeds just went every which way cause the flowers are not where I put them. I don't really line anything up but I had planted the climbing flowers like four o'clocks and morning glories near a trellis or deck to climb up but they obviously got washed all over as my garden is covered with climbing plants wrapping around all the other plants and going everywhere. I am also fairly lazy when it comes to gardening, and though I love my garden and flowers I tend to not weed very often -- if at all -- so it is really rather a mess. I actually started not to put the pictures up as it shows what disarray the garden is actually in, but then decided I really didn't care. You can see vines climbing all over and mixed in everywhere -- actually they pretty much hide the weeds that are also growing. 

The girls picked lots of flowers and had a nice bunch to take inside and brighten up our kitchen. 

Summer

All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer -- one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going -- one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.   L.M. Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams  

Oh, how Bethany loves to go to her brother's house and swing on the swing he made -- such joy. 

Solar Prints and Nature Journals

We made solar prints for the first time and the kids had fun, but the prints didn't turn out as well as we thought they would. They were ok, but I'm sure next time they will look better. They were interesting to make and it was so fast from start to finish. I think we were just not careful enough as we laid everything out and didn't make sure all the leaves and sticks were pressed down well. 

Then we spent a little time in nature journals drawing different wild flowers and medicinal plants. We try to keep up with the nature journals even if we are not taking a walk. Sometimes the kids just draw from our front porch or copy plants or animals out of one of our guide books after we finish our nature study. 

What We Are Reading

We finished Because of Winn-Dixie then went on to read Stuart Little by E. B. White -  which was a very fast read. Then we read Summer Days With the Treelo Triplets by Mary M. Landis, and now we are reading The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White. I have never read this book and so far we all like it. Looks like it is basically going to be about a swan that was born without a voice and how he and his family deal with it. We haven't actually read enough of this book to know exactly what direction it is going in, but so far it seems to be focusing on Louis -- a baby swan born with no voice. 

My pictures today have nothing to do with reading or anything we have done this week. I saw a few pictures of Asher and Evelyn (grandkids) last night as I was going through pictures on my computer, and knew I needed to post them. When my grandkids come to visit they always seem to want to eat. Evelyn is barely in the door and is asking for ice cream or cereal -- must be her two favorites. I think I also must give out more ice cream than her dad. Asher is having some watermelon at my kitchen table and I thought he looked so adorable. It is nice to have my grandkids come visit and also nice that I still have my younger kids at home that love to play with them. 

Jack

My grandson, Jack, feeding the ducks. He really liked going out back to see them when he was here. Maybe his mom and dad should get him one.

Our 4th of July

I'm just going to post some pictures from our 4th tonight. We had a nice evening and most of the family was here -- a few had to work. Katie came but got called back to work as she was on call. The kids had a lot of fun and I had fun watching them run around together. 

My daughter, Megan, from Louisiana was here with her three kids. Her son, Jack, is two and has never been around his cousins or all those aunts and uncles he has, but he seemed to have fun with them. 

Zola holding one of Megan's twins -- Penny. They left to go back home today and we will probably not see them for quite awhile. 

We turned on the sprinklers for a little while and the kids couldn't stay out of the water. They also found the hose.