Spencer's B-Day Dinner

 Since we will be traveling on his actual birthday, we decided to hold Spencer's birthday dinner with the Andersons a few days early.  He picked Kobe's Japaneses Steakhouse and Grill as his restaurant of choice, and the experience did not disappoint.

The boys especially liked the part where their dinner erupted into flames. (Not to mention the little squeeze toy they used to put out the flames--but that's too inappropriate to mention here!)

It was a pretty fun night, and culminated with Spencer getting to open one of his birthday presents early--a brand new bike.  We have a few presents that are small enough to pack in our suitcase and take on the trip, but Spencer will have to wait until we get home to open the majority of his gifts.  Since that's kind of a bummer--he got his bike early, much to his delight!  

One more week Spence and you'll be official!  The countdown is on!

Father's Day BBQ

Since we recently acquired a dining room table, as well as a lovely set of patio furniture, we decided to host a little Father's Day BBQ in honor of Nick's special day.  We invited three other couples to come, for a total of 24 people.  (That's right, if you did the math-- that's eight adults and sixteen children.  We were outnumbered two to one!)  Even though we technically have seating now for 24 people, we opted to eat in shifts.  The kids ate first inside the house.  Then we sent them all downstairs to play while the adults enjoyed a quieter afternoon on the new patio furniture.  Nick stoked up a little fire in the outdoor fireplace and we all pretended there weren't sixteen little miniatures of us running around unattended inside.  It was delightful!  We snapped this picture of the kids eating,

 but somehow managed to come away without a picture of the adults outside.  It's a shame, because we had all the cushions and new outdoor serving-ware displayed in it's full glory.  Oh well, maybe next time!  Happy Father's Day boys!

Backyardagans

After months of negotiating with several different landscapers, Nick finally just threw up his hands and decided to landscape the bulk of our acre lot on his own.  I was a little against the idea to begin with, mostly because I know how time consuming yard projects can be, but after watching the boys having so much fun on the Bobcat, and getting the best ab work-out of my life by single-highhandedly unloading every single one of the landscape bricks, I decided the time and energy might be worth all the savings.  

It will definitely be a work in progress for a while, but the walls and dirt work got done this week, and I did convince Nick to hire out the sprinklers and cement curbing.  Once those go in, Nick will get to go crazy with plants--his life dream--and then we'll negotiate again on whether to seed or sod. I can already tell we're going to go the bulk of this year without a yard, yet again, but after all of the dramas building our house, I've decided it's better to have low or no expectations than to constantly be angry.  Let's face it, nobody in this town can get their act together and deliver on time, but that's just part of the Bismarck Boom.  Cry as you might, it won't go away.  At least this time the control is in our hands. And though the landscapers we did sub out are probably suffering for someone else's sins, there is no way on the planet they are getting a final payment from me until all of their work is done and done right!

Harmon Lake and Counting our Blessings

Ever since the Andersons closed on their new home a few weeks ago, our eight children have become practically inseparable.  We are currently the closest houses to each other on the street--the four houses that will someday be in between us are yet to be built--and the kids think they have died and gone to heaven.  Actually, I think the adults feel the same way too.  Everyday, right after breakfast, all the kids gather outside and play. It's wonderful, and for the first time in my life, I simply sit in an empty house and wonder what to do.  That is, if I'm not sitting on the front porch talking to Jill while they play.  It's so crazy to actually have adult neighbors we know.  You know, ones you can walk out and chat with over picking up the mail, or sit on the porch with while the kids ride bikes, or borrow an egg from--every day of the week.  We've moved so much that I feel like we really haven't gotten that opportunity much.  We'll certainly get it here though, and I'm glad the Andersons will be at the top of our street party list.

As part of their move and our new inseparability complex, we also frequently have lunch and/or dinner together, and it seems like our family home evenings tend to meld more often than not.   A few days ago, for instance, was a pretty typical day in the life.  We got together and took dutch oven dinners out to Harmon Lake for our FHE.  The kids swam, kayaked, played on the playground, and ate. 

The adults, on the other hand, mostly just ate and watched.  We did do a fair bit of talking as well, and the conversation of the day seemed to be one of reminiscing.  Who would have thought when we met Pete and Jill nine years ago that we'd have near identical families and follow each other all over the country?  Who would have thought we'd be next door neighbors and spend the rest of forever being more like family than friends.  Its crazy!  And a blessing. It's one of those things that is a constant reminder to me of the tender mercies of the Lord.  He weaves our lives into a complex tapestry, and every now and then he blesses us with friends whose tapestry overlaps ours.  I guess I can't say what the future holds, but for now, our lives are intertwined and I'll count it a great blessing as long as it lasts!

An Unexpected Journey

Do you ever have days that seem near flawless?  Days that you wish you could simply live over and over again?  This week, I had just such a day.  

I had told the kids, some time back, that we would go and explore the cooley behind our house and see if we could find some tadpoles for our "Life Cycle of a Frog" unit.  (p.s. Cooley is the North Dakota term for creekbed/ravine.) The time for the outing; however, never seemed to materialize. After all, who has hours to go wander in a giant mud puddle, not to mention hours to clean up the children and clothing and bathtubs when you're done?  I sure didn't feel like I did.  Until, that is, my perfect day arrived.

 It was a beautiful summer day--not to hot, but not too cold.  When I opened my eyes early that morning, there was a gentle breeze blowing through my open window. I sat up in bed, and was greeted by the view of the surrounding hills and valleys.  In that moment, as I breathed in the morning air, the cooley called out to me.  It beckoned me back to my childhood, when I used to wander the creekbeds alone dreaming up all sorts of magical lands and turning my hands and face purple as I perched high in some wild mulberry tree.  There would be no mulberry trees to climb on this adventure, but I suddenly wanted to give my kids a taste of that world--A world that I knew would be inaccessible to them  without an adult for some years to come.  As those thoughts and memories washed over me, I knew that I had to drop everything I had on my plate that day and just go. 

After a quick morning prayer, I woke the kids up one by one, carried them into my bed, and let them in on my decision. This day would be the day I would finally keep good on my promise!

The kids were ecstatic, and after eating breakfast and putting on our play clothes, we set off, Hobbit style, on an unexpected journey of our own.

It began on the hills behind our house, 

and continued through the swampy creek bottoms. 

When we reached the drainage pipe under the road--the very one I had threatened my kids life over if they ever went through--my inner child got the better of me.  We crept through the dark tunnel,

and soon emerged in a magical land of our very own.  At first, the tree cover made the path ahead seem dark and frightening. We joined hands and faced the fire swamps and rodents of unusual size together.  (We just rented the Princess Bride.) Then, when we came out into the light of day again,  our peace and light-heartedness were quickly and easily restored.  Here, in the quiet of the early afternoon, there were crystal pools to swim in, wild flowers to pick, and dreams to dream out loud to one another as we watched the grain fields waving in the wind. 

It was the perfect day!  There were no tadpoles to speak of, but memories enough to compensate!

We concluded the outing by playing in the hose for hours until all of the dirt and grime was washed away. Several of the neighbors who had witnessed our descent into the cooley earlier in the day, smiled and waved as they watched us de-grime.  There seemed to be something about the kids and I laughing and dancing on the driveway, with the hose water sprinkling down on us, that caught their attention for a moment.  One man in particular seemed mesmerized by the scene.  It was as though he was driving by and waving in slow motion. I could almost see his thoughts of childhood reflected on his face as he passed.  It was a look I will never forget.  One that will hopefully stand as a reminder to me of what really matters in life.  It isn't the hustle and bustle of life that makes us really happy.  It's the little moments of friendship and love.  The small sacrifices that reap great rewards!   

National Symbols

Well, we kicked off Emma and Mason's science curriculum a little while ago, and it's finally time to do the same with history.  Science began with making our classification binders; history begins with a look at our national symbols.

  I like going over symbols of America with the kids before we get into our chronological study of American History.  I feel like it gives the kids a sense of patriotism and pride, which id soemthing that is very important in our home school.  Consequently, even though we're technically out of school for the summer, just as we did with Madison and Spencer, we kicked off our national symbols unit on Flag Day, and will continue to go over them through the Fourth of July.  It's a great way to get ready for Independence Day, and seeing as how we just got home from Washington D.C., and we will be in New York City in another two weeks, it's a pretty perfect time to cover national monuments, buildings, landmarks, and other symbols!  

Of all the activities we do during this unit, the two that the kids seem to 

like and remember the very best are these:

1. Home School Flag Making

 Since Maddi and Spencer sewed the flag of the 13 original colonies, Emma and Mason chose the flag from the War of 1812 which inspired our National Anthem.  They were particularly excited to make this flag since they just saw it  in the American History Smithsonian.  This flag has 15 stripes and 15 stars, which, I might add, the kids placed on the flag in their own arrangement rather than making it exactly like the actual flag that was flying over Fort McHenry.  They also voted to leave the flag whole, though we did have a long discussion over whether to burn the edges of the flag and put some bullet holes through it.

 2. National Treasure Bingo

As we study each national symbol, monument, or building, the kids get a little picture of the symbol to place on a Bingo card.  When the kids' Bingo cards are complete, we have a family movie night and watch both National Treasure Disney movies.  The kids play National Treasure Bingo off the movies and have a great time reminiscing as they do.  I think we'll shoot to have our movie night after we get home from New York though.  This timing will be nice because our last national symbol to cover is Mount Rushmore, and we'll be off for our Mt. Rushmore camping trip the week after we return from New York.

Fili and Kili Live

                                             ......compliments of Mason and EmmaLee

                                 

A Table

 Hallelujah!  We now have a table too!! We're moving up in the world!

 We'll be getting another new table since they dropped this one on the install and dented a corner, not to mention chipped one of the tiles on our floor, but nevertheless, we'll keep this one until then.   It might actually be somewhat of a blessing because we'll get to test drive this one without too much stress.  I should be annoyed, but the truth is, I'm just happy when anything arrives.  And I love it!  I Love it!  I LOVE it!  I had the runner and table decor all ready to go on it and it's just the way I pictured it!  

The Piano Arrived!

Too bad you can't hear it playing through the picture!  It's wonderful!   And every day since it arrived I've had it play to me as I make dinner, clean up dinner, and clear out the dishwasher.  It somehow makes the tasks seem so much more elegant that way.  Funny how that works......

Front Door Casing...

At last!

Patio Furniture

 Well, we are now at four months and counting, and we are still waiting for all of our furniture to arrive.   As I said in another post, we have received our bar stools.  Everything else, however,  is still at large.  It is making me into somewhat of a crazy person--more so than I already am! In fact, since I know that I can always count on Pottery Barn to deliver in ten days or less, in one moment of sheer craziness, I decided to give up waiting on indoor furniture and instead just splurge on outdoor furniture.  I bought a dining table and chairs that extends to seat up to ten.  I bought an outdoor sofa and a couple of end tables.  And I bought a serving hutch.  Here they are in all their splendor:

 

The custom sunbrella couch cushions, seat cushions, and decorative pillows are still a week out, but I had to celebrate the rest nonetheless.  I should put it all inside so we actually have a nice place to sit and eat, but since the weather here is beautiful in the summer, we'll just sit and eat outside instead.