Nine boys.  Three dads.  Three hours.  Two birthdays celebrated.  Serious fun!

Cross the Line Outdoor Adventure

Friends, a MAX ride, Beaver baseball and fireworks on a perfect summer evening = fun memories made.

On a side note…of the 47 days from nearly the end of June into the beginning of August, we were either gone and/or had house guests for 32 of them!  It was a fun, full summer!  I hope to share more of that soon.

I seem to have forgotten how to update this blog o’ mine.  And I’ve been putting off a post about the 4th because I haven’t posted my June 30 reading post yet (and not because there are a lot of books to report, unfortunately).  And things must. go. in. order.  Oh well!

Our 4th really started on the 3rd, when our hometown parade was held.  This is one of the largest parades in the state (2 hours long) and probably has at least 10,000 spectators.  I thought this group looked amazing and deserved their own collage!

Of course there was a lot of red, white and blue!  The guy second down on the left was on a unicycle.  He rode past me and then ran back, leaned over and stuck his face right in front of my camera!  I was so startled I barely got a focused shot taken before he was off again.  The guy in the top right is our mayor.  (I know this because it said so on his car.)  One of my favorite parade entries was a group called The Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers.  They were impressive!  And loud!  You could feel the drumming in your chest.

There were also high school marching bands, horses, business advertisements, political groups, gymnasts and karate kids, church groups, firemen, tractors, a giant shopping cart, and Red Hat Society ladies dressed in hilarious T-shirts that made them look like they were swim suit models.

On the night of the 4th, we continued what seems to be a tradition now…street fireworks and sparklers with some neighbors in the cul-de-sac.  This year was even more fun as we have a new family next door.  I still want to try shooting the big kind of fireworks someday, but for now, these are fun.  Didn’t Seth do a good job writing a backwards S for me? 

This is turning out to be one VERY full month.  Right now, Summer is trying to make up for showing up so late.  It’s hot!!!  But I’ll try not to complain too much.  Stay cool and have a grand July!

Looking back at Junes of the past…

– 2009 –

– 2008 –

– 2007 –

– 2006 –

(a peek into my home…we’d lived here for 3 months)

– 2005 –

(June ‘05…my first month to own a digital camera)

(nothing was beyond the scope of my new found “art”)

– 2004 –

(I actually don’t know what month these scanned photos were taken…)

– 2003 –

(month??)

– 2002 –

June 2001…I was 7 months pregnant.  Sometimes it’s hard to remember what life was like back then, pre-kid.

In an attempt to read more and remember what I’ve read, I’m planning to do monthly, reading-round-up posts where I share what books I’ve finished that month and a few thoughts about them.  This will include books I’ve read for myself and books I’ve read to/with Ethan.

Books I’ve finished in May…

The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver – 543 pages I didn’t plan to read this book, but Seth brought it home from the library and was busy reading other things (and struggled to get into this one), so I picked it up.  In a nutshell, it wasn’t my favorite.  I had a difficult time really believing the characters could have been real.  It was set in the Congo and covered about 30 years, beginning in 1959.  If anything, I became more interested in African history, but the characters were difficult for me to really grasp.  The chapters are written from the point of view of five women:  the wife and four daughters of a somewhat self-proclaimed Baptist missionary.  Sometimes I would set the book down and when I picked it up again, I couldn’t remember whose voice I was reading and I wished the names were printed on the tops of the pages.  They were usually distinctive, but I still think it would have been helpful.  The family depicted a rather depressing missionary outlook and experience.  The father was a piece of work, to put it nicely.  Maybe because I know some truly wonderful missionary families, I found Mr. Price to just be unbelievable.  This book just left me feeling kinda blah.

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Read to/with Ethan…

The Littles, by John Peterson – 80 pages I remember reading and enjoying some of these books when I was a kid, so on a recent library trip, I picked this one up for fun.  I’m trying to find something that will pique Ethan’s interest in reading for himself!  (Sigh…)  He can read.  He still doesn’t want to read.  He did enjoy this story of miniature people (with tails) that live in the walls of a home and are met with some challenging circumstances.

Carolina’s Courage, by Elizabeth Yates – 131 pages This is the fictional story of a family who loaded up a covered wagon, left their home and farm and friends in New Hampshire, and headed for the rich farmland of Nebraska.  They didn’t travel in a wagon train but covered most of the miles by themselves.  The story especially follows Carolina, a little girl who has a pivotal encounter with an Indian girl.  This is a well-written story and gives kids an idea of what it would have been like to start over in a new place, far from anything or anyone familiar.

Buffalo Bill, by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire – 40 pages This is another beautifully illustrated biography for kids from the d’Aulaires.  What an adventurous life Buffalo Bill had!  Before he was twelve, he had a job with a wagon train, and then later came the Pony Express, and then 40 years with his Wild West Show.  What an interesting time in American history.  What an amazing sight it must have been to see the plains covered with buffalo!

Back at the beginning of this year, I knew these spring months would be a whirlwind of activity for us, and I was not wrong.  Between swim practices and swim meets, baseball practices and games, AWANA, choir and softball for Seth, birthday parties, dentist appointments, oh…and homeschooling, I feel constantly behind and in a state of perpetual shock about the fact that it’s nearly the end of March April May!  (And I think run-on sentences are best at relaying the feelings caused by a crazy schedule which, around here at least, often leads to mountains of laundry, dirty floors, an empty fridge, a messy car, a yard that needs mowing and weeding, and any number of other unfinished projects which can lead to feelings of inadequacy and guilt causing moments of meltdown in addition to laughter and the occasional shoulder shrug.)

In the midst of all of this, I mentioned to a friend (in a rare real-life encounter) that I feel like I’m in a season of isolation.  But, apparently I’ve not been isolated enough because I received notice for my first jury duty call.  For next week, on our 16th anniversary.  Fun.  Oh well, I’m not really expecting to be chosen, although it might be interesting.

Here are some high-lights of the past few weeks:

• April 6 marked my second year with this blog.  I made a post that day, but it didn’t occur to me until later to notice the date.  When I have big blank spaces in my blogging calendar (as in recent weeks) it makes me wonder why I bother, but I hope that someday it will still be interesting for our family to look back on.
• A favorite photo from April…these apple blossoms seemed to show up about three weeks earlier than they have in past years.

• At a local swim meet last month, Ethan won the high-point award for the 8 and Under Boys.  For each placement (1st, 2nd, 3rd), points are given, and Ethan accumulated the most points and was given a cool trophy that lights up.  They also handed out leis to the heat winners…

• Spring flowers at a favorite market…

• While out of town for a swim meet, we were able to meet and visit with Heidi (of Mt. Hope Chronicles) and her wonderful family!  We had such a great time and now I don’t feel like I need to qualify her as a “blogging friend.”  :)  Thank you for hosting us, Heidi!

• A snap of Ethan in the backyard…

• We had our annual awards banquet for the swim team a few weeks ago and afterward I grabbed a shot of Ethan with a couple of the big boys.  The guy on the right is one of 12 graduating seniors, 11 of whom are going to swim in college, while one has chosen the rowing team instead.  The guy on the left is a junior and was chosen as one of four men to represent the USA at the 1st Youth Olympics to be held in Singapore this summer.  How cool is that?  He lives in our neighborhood and Ethan is very impressed by him!

• Baseball is back in business…at least when it’s not raining!  Ethan’s been doing some pitching, which is more nerve wracking for me to watch than a swim race.  At his last game, he pitched two innings, struck out six (and walked a couple), and hit a single and a grand slam!  I think he was on cloud 11 or so!

• We have another mower in the house.  When did that happen???

• I won!  I won!  I won a drawing from Tammy at Garden Glimpses!  Thank you so much for this abundant basket of garden and home goodies!  What a sweet gift to receive in the mail!

• At last weekend’s swim meet, each age group swam the same six races and then they added up the times for each swimmer and ranked them according to accumulated time.  They awarded trophies of graduating sizes from 1st -12th and Ethan got 2nd!

• While on the subject of swimming, I wanted to record a dream I had the other night.  Before going to bed, I had just read that Ethan will be swimming a 200m freestyle at a meet next month.  He’s never raced a 200 before.  That night I dreamed that he was so anxious about swimming this race that he insisted on wearing a life jacket…and it took him 17 minutes!  (For perspective, it will most likely take less than 4 minutes.)  In reality, he’s fine with the idea of swimming this race; his mom, on the other hand, may be having some anxiety.  :)  Although I’m not sure why…he swims for 1hr 15min, 4 times a week.  I think he can do it!

• On Monday, we took a grand field trip that has been on the calendar for months.  We, along with 50+ other homeschoolers, rode the Amtrak to Seattle in the morning, spent 5 hours in the city and rode back home in the evening.  The trip up took 3 3/4 hours and the trip back took 4 hours.  (Admittedly, the last two hours of the trip home were long ones, and a group of 5 or 6 little boys wound themselves up like only a group of tired little boys can!  But we made it in one piece!)  Our group had two adjacent train cars to ourselves (thankfully!), and everyone had a great time.   Once in the city, we were free to do whatever we wanted.  Seth had arranged for us to take a tour of Safeco Field (where the Mariners play), so we did that first, and then spent some time at Pike Street Market.  The weather could not have been more perfect, which was a big blessing.  We wish America had a terrific train system that could take us all over the country because train travel is great!  We began at Portland’s Union Station…

Portland to Seattle via Amtrak, Safeco Field, Link lightrail

Pike Street Market, Crepe de France, original Starbucks, King Street Station

Well, that’s a bit of our life packed into one long blog post!  Maybe I’ll learn to spread things out a bit over the summer!

In an attempt to read more and remember what I’ve read, I’m planning to do monthly, reading-round-up posts where I share what books I’ve finished that month and a few thoughts about them.  This will include books I’ve read for myself and books I’ve read to/with Ethan.

Books I’ve finished in April…as you can see, April was a meager month for reading ‘round here.  I think this is related to the calendar being about the fullest it has ever been for this family.  May isn’t much different, but I’m hoping to squeeze in a bit more reading.

An Absence so Great, by Jane Kirkpatrick – 380 pages This is the second book in a two-book series.  I wasn’t so sure I was even going to read this one after I was disappointed in the first one.  I’ve enjoyed many of Jane Kirkpatrick’s titles (mostly historical fiction), but I honestly think both of these books could have been combined into one better book.  The main character is actually the author’s grandmother, and she was a photographer when women photographers were rare.  This second book has more story and carried my interest better than the first one, and I find the facts fascinating as they are based on actual people, but I think I just wished for something different…for the character and from the story.

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Read aloud to Ethan…

The Star-Spangled Banner, illustrated by Peter Spier – 49 pages I love this book.  It breaks down our national anthem into phrases and matches them with beautiful illustrations, giving you an idea of what it may have looked like when Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the words.  The pictures make the song come alive and give the words visual meaning.  At the back of the book, there is a photo of the actual four-stanza poem, along with a map of the battle and details surrounding the battle and how Key came to be in the position of witnessing it.  This book carries great respect for our flag and all for which it stands.

Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder – 372 pages The Little House books were some of my favorites when I was young, so I was happy to read this one to Ethan.  However, my boy prefers more action, mystery and adventure than this book provides.  Narrations of seasonal farm work and the occasional break from it just weren’t his favorite.  I think he was afraid I was acquiring ideas on how to make him work harder…’cause those farmer folks?  They worked!  Hard!  Nearly every day!  And then on Sundays, the kids had to be still and quiet.  And no talking at the dinner table, ever.  Yep…I think Ethan was glad this story wasn’t about his life, and he didn’t particularly like thinking about it much.  Oh well, I enjoyed reading it again!

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Viewed with Ethan…

Liberty’s Kids – Complete series on DVD (6 discs) Our history curriculum this year is an overview of US history, so when I learned about this DVD series I thought it would be a fun addition to our studies.  We borrowed the first disc from the library, and Ethan loved them so we went ahead and bought the set.  I believe he’s seen them all at least twice now and some episodes even more.  They cover the time leading up to the writing of the Declaration of Independence, through the victory over the British and Washington’s inauguration as the first President.  The stories are quite well done, entertaining and educational, with introductions to many larger-than-life characters.