Handmade is the best!

Ali was the lucky recipient of this darling handmade doll. Grandma worked very hard to give her this for her birthday, and it is very much loved and appreciated!

Homeschool Projects

Eli's curriculum for kindergarten includes some really fun projects, and I've been trying to remember to take as many pictures as I can to chronicle his year. The first two pictures are of the kids gathering leaves for a leaf printing project. They chose some pretty leaves from our poplar and sassafras trees, painted the backs of the leaves, and then pressed the painted sides down on paper. Then they lifted the leaves off of the paper. The result is really pretty. The bottom picture is of Elijah practicing his lowercase letters in shaving cream. Very fun!

A message for Sydney from Eli!

We'll be thinking of you tomorrow on your first day of school! We're proud of you!

Cup O' Dirt

Trouble Times Two

Greenhouse Pictures

Here are some pictures that Elijah took on the Greenhouse field trip.

First Schoolday picture

Elijah has officially started his homeschooling program for Kindergarten. For his first day of school, we went on a field trip with our homeschool group to the I.U. Greenhouse. He and the other kids had a great time. We all learned a lot and were allowed to linger for as long as we liked. After the tour, we went for Chinese food on campus and then we took this picture beside the fountain in front of the music library. It was a great day.

Tea Time

A good friend of ours got Ali this sweet little tea set for her birthday. She and Elijah have been having parties on the back porch.

Eli giving a great Tarzan yell...

Birthday Girl!

Birthday Dinner

Alexandra turns two next Wednesday, and my mom and Art are in Bloomington for a few days. Tonight we all went to Farm, a new restaurant on the square, for gourmet pizzas. Elijah was as excited over her birthday dinner as she was. She specifically requested green cake, so I made an ice cream pie out of mint ice cream. We got her a little pink trike for her gift. We may be in trouble, because as soon as she got used to pedalling, she put one hand in the air and said, "One hand! Crazy!" Yikes.

Eli's first baseball lesson

This one's for you, Asher!

Bad, bad blogger

Yikes! I hadn't realized that it had been so long since I updated this blog. The warm, sunny summer weather has us outside most of the time (I'm sure the dust bunnies under the beds would be a great illustration). It will take me a few posts to catch up, but this summer has been a great one so far. We've been able to spend some time with family, plant a killer veggie garden, and spend time with our our new Boxer puppy. The fellow in the picture a couple of posts ago had to leave us when his owner showed up to claim him two weeks after he went missing (sniff, sniff). We fell in love with the breed, and my sweet hubby brought me this little beauty for my 32nd birthday. Her name is Ivy...

Elijah and Ali have been working on lots of great projects--painting, cooking, mud pies, the creation of costumes like this wizard outfit. And here's Ali with a "popple-stick" that she made out of apple juice and strawberries.

Boys Hard at Work

New Addition?

This handsome fellow showed up at our house a few days ago and seems to have been abandoned by his owner. Looks like he came to the right spot, as he fits right in and is very well-behaved. What a face!

Big Bro and Little Sis

Good Friends

Building the Clubhouse

He's 5!

Happy Birthday, Elijah!
Eli had his Big 5 Birthday this past week. We planned a special day for him, including presents, dinner with his good friend Jenna, and shopping for supplies for his much-awaited treehouse/clubhouse that we started building that evening. It's so hard to believe that he's five already, and even harder to remember life without him.

Catching Up

I haven't had a chance to update my blog during the past couple of weeks. Here's what's been happening around here:

*A great visit from my nephew, Ryan and his friend, Kiley. They were on Spring Break from college and decided to spend part of their vacation with us. It was great to have them, and Elijah loved playing guitar with his cousin.

*Easter egg hunting!

*Our foster dog, Juno, who is here to recover from heartworm treatment, is now better and ready to be adopted.

*Elijah's working on learning to sound out words, which makes him really proud. He's also totally obsessed with anything science-related, which is lots of fun for us, too.

*Alex is putting a few words together. Her most famous recent combination of words was "Yuck. Poo-poo. Bad." This was when she saw a Taquito sitting on the table. Not one for junk food, apparently.

Happy Spring!

Coloring Easter eggs...
Little Monkey

Tucking Midnight into her blanket for storytime with Dad