Birthday Dash

We celebrated Maddy's 15th birthday. She chose key lime pie. Notice the jean quilt that Barry made her for her birthday. 

Mindy had her first cross country meet on Thursday. She did a great job! Notice Ben running next to her.

This was Maddy running a cross country meet on Saturday. She wants me to tell you that she was sick at this meet and that is why she is looking so sad. Watching a cross country meet is way different than watching a softball game. For softball you bring a chair and sit for a couple of hours, maybe even bring food to eat. At the cross country meets you watch the start, then run to another spot on the course to cheer, then run to another spot to cheer, then run to a spot 600 yards from the finish and tell her to sprint, then as soon as she passes, you sprint to the finish line to watch her cross the finish line. Next time I'll bring a jogging suit! The meet was in Spokane so we drove her there and stopped at the DMV on her to get her drivers permit. She is very excited to be taking drivers Ed in October.

Have a great week!

First Day of Real School

This was our second week for doing schoolwork, but our first week for "the extra's". This includes piano lessons, guitar club for Mackensey and Makayla, and Thursdays at the elementary school. They look forward to these outside activities. At the end of our first week of school Ben asked me when we were going to start school. I told him we had already started school and had been doing it all week. "NO, I mean REAL school." So here is a picture to prove that we started REAL school this week. If you magnify the picture you can read what Mindy's t-shirt says, "Bratty and cute, but I'm worth it." She got a lot of comments from others on her t-shirt. She told me that one boy, after reading her t-shirt said, "That is so true." She responded, "You think I'm cute?" I don't remember what he said after that but he was a little tongue tied. I imagined what he was thinking, though: "Sheesh, I tell a girl she's a brat and she takes it as a compliment!"

We gave Maddy breakfast in bed this morning. She turns 15 in Wednesday, but with Seminary we opted to do breakfast on a day when we have more time in the morning. Maddy has been busy this week with 2 cross country meets. She is really excited because her coach chose her to be on the varsity team and she got a nicer uniform than she would have being JV. She has done well preparing all summer (running in 90 degree weather) to be ready for cross country. She is enjoying being on the team. Mindy has also joined cross country and has her first meet this week.

Have a great week.

Week at a Glance

We spent our last day of summer break (labor day) canoeing on the river that runs around Chewelah. Barry took Kensey and Ben and Mari for five miles (the river flows north). Benjamin attempted to fish while they paddled, but the canoe was going too fast for the worm on the hook to sink. I met them at the halfway point and hopped in the canoe with Maddy, Mindy and Makayla. We paddled for 4 miles where Barry and the others joined us and we went fishing after taking the canoe out of the river. It was a nice day. The canoe is a lake canoe, a bit big for such a narrow river. We did a lot of zig zagging.

This picture was taken on Saturday at a community party to celebrate the 110 years of our local newspaper being in operation. We played games, went on a hayride to the museum, toured the museum, and had hot dogs and cake. We also cleaned the church on Saturday, and Barry and I went to the adult session of conference in the evening up in Colville. 

The week that occurred in between these two pictures was our first week of school. It went very well. I was nervous because some of the curriculum I chose to switch to this year has a lot more one-on-one time with me, and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to do it all with everyone. Come to find out it takes less time to do a lesson one-on-one than to give them a worksheet to do on there own and have to keep them on long enough to finish it! Live and learn. Mindy is now going in for 6th grade band. She plays the clarinet. Maddy is doing Band and Woodshop. Next week we will add Kayla and Kensey going in for guitar once a week as well as piano lessons for all once a week. It will be busy but satisfying.

Picking Plums

Our plum tree did well this year. The plums are right at Marianne's level. She picks and eats about 3-4 plums every morning while we are feeding and watering the chickens.

Needless to say she has been very "regular" all week!

This is the artwork on the lawn at the high school. They repainted it this year so it is bright and shiny. We were a few minutes early to pick up Maddy from Cross Country practice so I asked the kids if they wanted to play here or at the park. They opted for the high school. Mackensey's friend is with her. Maddy decided to join the cross country team this year and has been practicing running all summer. There are only 7 girls on the team, so the coach was excited to see another join the team. Cross country is the only sport 6th graders can do, so Mindy is going to give it a go. Her practice starts this week.

Peek a boo!

We took picnic lunch to the lake on Mondy for an early FHE.

The kids had fun jumping off the dock and floating with the inner tubes. 

Barry and Maddy hang out.

I got my haircut yesterday.

The new me.

We bought a boat!

Last weekend when we were packing to go to the lake for our ward campout, we called our friend up to see if we could borrow his canoe again. He had offered it last year and we were glad that we had borrowed it because we were able to fill it with camping supplies (sleeping bags, tent, etc), tie down the supplies so they wouldn't fall out, then flip the canoe upside down and strap it to the top of our minivan. It was like a car topper, only bigger. As it was we had the van filled with food and clothes (and us), so it was nice to have the canoe to fill all the other camping gear. When we picked up the canoe our friend told us that his neighbor was selling a 17ft aluminum canoe for $200. We took the hint (was he tired of us always borrowing his canoe?) and bought ourselves a canoe. We priced it first and comparable canoes on craigslist were going for over $800. Car toppers would be over $500, and it wouldn't be very fun to paddle those in a lake.

Everyone had to take turns with the different poses.

We ordered real paddles from Walmart.com, but Marianne is modeling a plastic paddle we found washed up on shore at the lake last weekend. The lake was low and we founds several things. Makalya found a nice red cap. 

Everyone had the opportunity this summer to use their spending money to buy a container of ice-cream of their choosing. For the older kids it coincided with a friend sleeping over, so their ice-cream didn't last too long. This week it was Ben and Marianne's turn to buy their ice-cream. Here they are diving in! 

For the past two years, a field of sunflowers was planted on the side of the highway halfway from Chewelah to Spokane. I wanted to take pictues of the kids in front of the flowers, but missed my chance last year. This year I never made it down with the kids on other business, so I set aside a morning for the purpose of picture taking. Imagine my disapointment after driving 30 minutes and finding that I was too late again!

We found a few sunflowers still in bloom.

OK, these were all of the pictures I took this week. We have one more week before school starts, hope it is a fun one!  

Miniature Frogs

This picture was taken at the Chewelah Creek, next to the Lutheran Church. The kids participated in "Lutherhaven" a bible day camp there at the beginning of the week. It was from 9am to 3pm, with a preschool from 9am to noon. My kids went to the Catholic "VBS" bible daycamp a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I thought it was a good way for them to see their friends from school over the summer and make new friends. I thought we'd give it a try this year. I was surprised that Marianne went without too much of a fuss. She actually enjoyed it more than the older kids. I think it was just a long day for them. I really enjoyed my "week off" and got around to a lot of projects that are put off due to homeschooling and taking care of six children all the time.

Our ward campout was this weekend. We went on Thursday and returned on Saturday. The campground was on a lake and the kids enjoyed swimming. They went swimming three times on Friday.

We saw dozens of these little frogs. The kids had fun catching them. At night there were bullfrogs the size of a small fist. We weren't sure if these little frogs were just the bullfrogs babies, or another species all together. The bullfrogs only came out at night, so I didn't get a picture of them. They wimpered like little puppies when caught. We did hear normal croaking in the mornings, however.

Marianne holds a "miniature frog". 

Mindy poses in the hole that they dug.

We camped 2 miles south of the ferry, so we went across for a fun outing. There is no bridge across, so you drive your cars on the ferry which runs on the half hour. 

This is the ferry we went on. The other side has cellphone reception, but where we were camping we were "unplugged".

The ferry ride was about 5 minutes long.

Maddy read alot this weekend.

Digging the hole.

Marianne wrapped up to keep warm. It was a cool, overcast weekend. All in all, a successful campout.

Summer Activities

Barry and Avery at Salt Lake Temple for Gerald and Sharon Thomason's sealing.

Avery was trying out Barry's brother Jon's camera and took this picture.

Jon took this picture of the temple with his camera.

Gunny sack races at ward activity. See the camel in the background?

Benjamin lost his tooth this week. 

Beautiful flowers and a beautiful girl.

Go Mindy!

Marshmallow shooting game.

Barry's baby pig has a saddle and a jockey, ready to race. 

Hand games.

Barry helped at the archery station.

Ready, Set, Go!

Having a fun summer!