What a sweetie, eh?

3, 2, 1…Jump!

They were playing make believe here…”Ahhh…we’ve washed up on a deserted island!”

Just so you know, they did not want to go on this “Keep Off” lifeguards chair.  I made them.  I thought It’d make a cute picture.

I love this on of Elijah and his good friend Navinah Riley.  Chivalrous, that Elijah is.

This might just be my favorite picture ever!

Noah, running from mischief, probably.

Elijah’s foot.  In case you’re wondering, this is also the size of one of my feet.

Awww…Elliekins.   Wow, can you believe she’s almost 11 months old?

The Fam.  Five out of seven are actually looking at the camera.  Not bad.

Anyhow, summer continues to be lovely.  The boys just finished up two weeks of swimming lessons.  They rocked it and I got some great pictures of them and everyone by the pool, but those will have to wait till next week.  Tomorrow I’ll be getting us packed up for a very spontaneous trip down to IHOP in Kansas City.  We couldn’t pass up some free lodging that was offered to us and the chance to eat Chick-fil-A.  Yum!

See you next week…probably 5 pounds heavier.

So, it’s just dawned on me that as a homeschooling mom, my perspective on summer vacation will be entirely different from that of a mom whose children go to school.  Right now, I really do feel like I’m on vacation.  It’s been so lovely to have noting to do but be a housekeeper and mummy and not a schoolmarm!   I could really get used to this.  :-)

Dave and I are committed, though, to homeschool through the next school year.  Yes, it takes a lot – A LOT – out of us, but we’re loving the connectedness (is that a word?) that we feel as a family.  It’s worth it.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to blog more about this sometime. Hopefully being the key word.  I can’t make any promises…I have five kids y’all!

I have tons of photo’s waiting to be shared too.  Right now they’re stuck on my camera (almost 1000 of ‘em!).  Our computer died a while ago, and Dave’s laptop is in serious danger of crashing if I upload anymore onto it. But never fear, Dave has ordered us a new MacMini and it should be here soon, so stay tuned.

P.S.  Going to Fort Snelling tomorrow, a local living history museum.  Excited!

Swinging.  So much fun.

That’s paint on Phoebe’s face, by the way.  We – that’d be me with all five kids in tow, my first real outing alone with all of them. (!) I’m very proud of myself – had a lovely excursion to the Minnesota Children’s Museum yesterday, and face painting was one of the many fun things that we did.  Phoebe and Noah came home looking like Native American war heroes and Elijah and Zeke like baseball players.

As soon as the snow cleared this spring Zeke started practicing the wiggling maneuver used to propel himself on his RIPSTIK.  He soon found out that it wasn’t as easy as it looked.  He fell…a lot.  But he kept at it.  And fell a lot more.  His elbows took the brunt of most of his collisions with the sidewalk.  Ouch.  Me?  I would have given up.

But finally – like overnight – Zeke figured it out!  Now he’s cruising all over campus.  I love this picture of him doing a U-turn and the concentration evident in the tongue curl.

Of course, it simply would not do for Zeke to have a skill that Elijah didn’t have, so now Elijah is determined to figure out the RIPSTIK too…

Boys…everything’s a competition.

Now could all three of you look at the camera?  Just once.  And smile…or at least not look weird.  Please?

Not gonna happen.

Well, I’m no Rachael Ray, but I love to cook.  And bake.  And be inventive with food. And be artistic with food.  Living with five rather picky eaters (well…I guess Ellie isn’t picky…yet ) has squelched all of this a bit; having peace at the supper table has trumped being adventurous with food for this season of life.

However, last evening we had this delectable treat for dessert, and it was a winner…

Oh my.  Who knew how easy it was to actually make shortcakes?  It’s so easy!   You must try…

1/3 cup of shortening
2 cups flour
2 T sugar
3 t baking powder
1 t salt
3/4 cup milk

Heat oven to 450.  Cut shortening into flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl until mixture looks like fine crumbs.  Stir in milk until just blended.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface.  Gently smooth into a ball.  Knead 20 – 25 times.  Roll 1/2 inch thick.  Cut with knife into 6 wedges.  Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 10 – 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Split shortcakes horizontally in half while hot.  Spread butter on split sides. Fill with strawberries; replace tops.  Top with strawberries and sweetened whipped cream.

(The baking and enjoying of these shortcakes was bittersweet, though, I must say.  I used my last bit of Canadian baking powder in them. Would any of my Canadian readers like to send a care package?)

What better place is there to watch a game of football catch anyways?

Yes, school…let me explain.  For the past couple of months Noah has had the privilege of attending a Christian Montessori preschool (for free!). There is a training centre right here on the college campus, and recently they invited children between the ages of 3-6 to attend.  It’s a beautiful thing. The students in the training centre have real, live children to “train” on, and my kids are learning about everything from geography to prayer to sewing. (Yes…sewing!)

So…now that Phoebe is three and potty-trained she can go with Noah! How cool is that?  She was so excited today, and it was so cute to watch them walk over together.  It’s literally a stones throw away from our front door, too.  Well… depends on who’s throwing the stone, I guess.