The BIA

Today Baylee asked Zach and Drew to play dolls with her...and they actually agreed!  Baylee was ecstatic.  She got out her little doll stroller and blankets, her baby bottle and favorite baby, and she got ready to have a wonderful time with her brothers.  Then she saw what they had in mind.

While she was gathering her paraphernalia, Zach and Drew were tying up one of her other little dolls, "Travis," with a karate belt and lowering him down through the upstairs airvent.  Drew told Baylee that Travis was now part of the "BIA" and was on a top secret mission to steal information from our computer.  Meanwhile, Zach had set the scene downstairs and was snapping pictures with our digital camera.  Here's the mission being carried out:

The baby spy is being lowered into position.

Almost there!

He made it!  Now to type in the secret code and escape back up through the airvent undetected.

And the funny thing is, Baylee was totally okay with all this.  While the boys continued with their shenanigans, she happily fed and changed the baby she had chosen and called encouraging comments to the members of the spy team.  Do you get the feeling that she's very used to having only brothers?

I'm a proud mom.

All year our kids have been going to a Wednesday evening club at church called "Righteous Runners."  At the end-of-year awards picnic, Baylee won two trophies.  One was for "4/K Child with Most Verses Learned" and the other was for "4/K Child with Most Points."  Zach also came away with something.  He got a medal that says "4th Grade Friendship Award."  I'm proud of those two!

I'm also proud of Drew.  He didn't get a medal or trophy this year, but his teacher made sure to let me know the night he showed all the other 2nd grade boys in his class how to do this:

That's got to be worth something, don't you think?  LOL

They all had fun and learned a lot about God, and they're already looking forward to going back in the fall.

Reading and Writing

Here's a couple of my favorite things from the last few days of homeschooling:

We make reading for pleasure a part of every school day.  Here Zach is kicked back on the couch, enjoying a book about Amish kids.  I love that he's propping the book up with his bare foot.  LOL  That's homeschooling at our house at its finest.

My other favorite thing is a little writing assignment the boys did.  They had to finish the thought, "Quick!  I need a bandage!  Here's what happened."

Drew (2nd grade) wrote:

I was running in the house.  I had to go to the med senter.  I had to get stiches.  The doctor put soap on my cut.  The doctor put fishing hooks threw my cut.  I was the best payshint there.  Then I got to go to the church sleepover.

Zach (4th grade) wrote:

Just yesterday I learned how to flip my board one whole revolution.  About a half an hour later when I had practiced some, I jumped over the back porch and tried to do one, but it landed backward and I almost broke my foot.


By the way, I got that idea for a writing topic from a new book I bought called Daily Writing Prompts, by Carol Simpson.  I'm going to have them do one each weekday through the summer, just to stay in practice.

I just realized...

That I don't have a picture of Mike and me on here yet.  Here's me:

And here's Mike.  He's such a wonderful husband and father.  Not only do I love him...I like him!  He's strong and caring, funny and kind.  He does a beautiful job of leading our home. 

It's not every day that you meet a super hero.

Today Baylee kept calling me Sue.  "Sue?  Sue? Are you in the basement?  Sue, look at this!"  Finally I asked her why she was calling me by name.  "Oh!" she answered.  "Do you want me to call you 'Miss Sue' instead?  Hi, Miss Sue!"

"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of 'Mom.'"

"I can't call you 'Mom!'" she laughed.  "You're not my mom!"

"Uhh...okay.  Who are you again?"

"I'm Lava Girl!"

"Ahh...I see.  Well, in that case, nice to meet you Lava Girl.  Make yourself at home."