7 Quicktakes Friday- Any Part of May that I Didn't Cover in Another Post....

.....plus the these first few days of June......

1. Reading

We read a lot around here.  Kayla's reading chapter books.  Currently I am reading a St. Martin de Porres chapter book aloud to the girls.  Chris and I are reading The Imitation of Christ together.  Chris is reading a World War II novel by Jeff Shaara.  You've seen my book list so have an idea of what else I'm reading.  And we go to the library at least once a week to find new titles for the girls to devour.  

You better believe we are stoked to jump on board with the summer reading program at the library in a week or so!!

2.  Sophie Can Use a Spoon...

...mostly properly.  She looked like she could be ready the last couple weeks, so I let her try.  And she's pretty darn good at it.  Not much mess for mom to clean up.  WIN with that accidental perfect timing for "spoon training". 

                            

Yeah, yeah.  The video doesn't show her greatest work.  But you she's got form and she does actually get more on the spoon than this video shows.  She just doesn't perform as well under pressure, I guess.

 

3. Lilacs and Family Walks

I love lilacs.  We used to have wild bushes of them that grew in the empty lot behind our house growing up.  In addition, we had a bush or two that grew in our yard.  And I grew up in Spokane where lilacs are "the" thing.  There's a lilac parade and everything each year.  So....when I say I love lilacs, I mean it.  They bring back wonderful memories and their scent is delicious.  They grow well here in CO apparently, because lots of people have them.  I want a bush SO BAD, but we're renting, so I'm trying to be patient.  But I totally stop and unashamedly smell and admire any that I see on our evening family walks.  Give me all the lilacs!  Mmmmmm!

The girls picked up on my habits...

4. School is Out

Well technically according to the Charter School we go through, we have one more day (Monday), but Kayla has been done with most of her school books since the end of April/beginning of May, and we finished Math last week, so this week was our "fun week" of lots of extra hands-on experiments and projects and we're DONE!!  I officially graduated her from First Grade to Second Grade today.  To celebrate, we had a "field day" and went to a local park with a water feature and had a picnic afterwards.  Yay, Kayla!  We're proud of you, baby!

card games to promote math skills

Her second semester goal for school was to learn how to tie her shoes.  We only ever use shoes with shoelaces when we hike, so it hasn't been much of a priority, but she made it her goal, and she conquered it.  

Making a stethoscope to hear our heartbeats!

Elise is interested in school too (just in time to start Kindergarten in the fall) and is making leaps and bounds in copying her letters.  

5. Exploring Local Parks and Meeting New Friends

In the last few weeks, we have visited several different parks in our area and set up a few playdates.  I'm part of a Denver Catholic moms group as well as the Blessed Is She group where I've been able to connect with many other moms locally.  Can't wait to meet up with more, but here's a few pictures I snagged of the girls exploring some fun new parks.  

 

                         

 


6.  Sophie at Bat

One of Sophie's many favorite outdoor activities recently is "playing" Tee-ball.  It's cute. 

                           

 I snagged this for free on Craigslist to keep her a from running out in the street constantly while her sisters ride bikes.  She plays for awhile before she wants out so she can ride her little bike and then play tee ball and eventually play her little game of "Make Mom and Dad Chase Her Out into the Street".   I daresay I would have paid $15 or $20 to get the thing just to keep from having to constantly haul the preggo self into the street when she makes a run for it.  Oh, this age.  They are so mischievous.  

7. Flower/Herb Garden

I can't get my lilacs yet, but we did do some planting of a little flower and veggie and herb garden.  The girls were thrilled to help pick out flowers and veggies to grow in our little plots.  

 

Kayla wanted to buy some of those little fawn statues for the girls desperately.  Sorry, sweetie....they are cute, though.   There was also a doe that she wanted to get for me....

 

Elise really wanted to buy that moose for Chris.  Deer for all the girls, and a HUGE moose for Dad.  Lol.  

March and April Quicktake Updates

1. On case you were wondering why I've been a bit scattered AND way behind in my blogging, it's because I am in the middle of the second of two long scoring sessions.  You remember that job I have where I read the (often terrible) high school essays?  Yep, I've been doing that about 30 hours each week for the last couple months in addition to the normal busy going on around here.  Me=crazy with a side of pretty darn tired.  But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (otherwise known as the end of April!)

2.  Chris has plans to brew several batches of beer in the next couple months.  He'd been holding off because we thought/hoped we'd be moving to a place with at least one more bedroom in February....or March...or April...........but God's plan is different and we are rolling with it.  I'm waiting patiently by going through the place and getting rid of a ton of stuff.  I think I got close to 30 bags of stuff out of here during Lent.  Chris is waiting patiently by just going ahead and brewing his beers.  Today he brewed the first of the batches with his new propane burner.  It took a lot less time and it took some of the mess outside.  :)

3.  We have been having lovely temps in the 70's and up into the 80's, so we've been at the beach almost every weekend for some amount of time the last few weeks.  

This was a day at Newport Beach (our first time there) with some friends.  Fun was had by all!

4.  This happened.  Errr, happens a lot.  

Don't ask.  

5. Last month we finally decided to try out essential oils.  Several of my friends use them and talk about how great they are, so we decided to give them a try.  We got to test them out right away because the entire family got sick with every thing under the sun (colds, coughs, runny noses, vomiting, sore throat, gunky eyes....) right before the starter kit arrived on our door step.  The girls love "The Egg" as they refer to the diffuser.  Their favorites are the lemon and citrus oil blends.  Chris is even getting into it, coming up with great blends to diffuse at night in our room after the girls have their turn with "The Egg".  We will probably need another diffuser soon, one for each bedroom.  :)

6. The girls recently helped Auntie Agnes plant her spring garden.  

 

Clearly everyone had a blast.  

7. Sophie has a new trick-- sucking her thumb.  

It's adorable.  Here she is with her godfather (mine too!)

And just because, here is a lovely sunset we saw at my godfather's house recently when they had us over for dinner.  

God, the master artist.  

7 Quicktakes Friday...on Saturday - Oct 12

Wow, I'm not doing well with the quicktakes recently....oh well! Here goes!

1.

I am working on this because it is one of the best and truest quotes ever. Totally nailed it, St. Francis de Sales.

2. Mulch update. Chris accentuated the already existing, but overgrown and covered up yard edge in the back. Then we added mulch to the backyard and it looks great.

When we moved in, the back yard was a jungle. The first pictures below are part way through pruning back the jungle. And the last pictures are how it looks now!! It is so exciting to see the change PLUS know that we did it ourselves.




3. You can see from the pictures above that we are in the beginning stages of growing some new grass in the backyard as well. When these pictures were taken a few days ago, Chris had only planted the new grass seed to the back half (hence the section where there's some green in the pictures). Yesterday he planted seed in the rest of the yard. In a few weeks, we'll post some updates that should be much greener in the grass area. :) For now keep focusing on the lovely, new mulch.

4. We had a little dip in the weather temperatures and had a few days that really felt crisp and cool like autumn. And though the cool temperatures have continued in the overnight hours, the days have warmed back up to the 80's again, so our roses are all bursting in bloom again. Oh, how I love roses.


5. But lest we think that fall has actually fled, the leaves are changing colors here too. This tree in our front yard is my favorite display of colored foliage on our property. It's still in the beginnings of color change, too, so it will just continue to get more and more gorgeous. ah....fall! Love this season. Vibrant colors, shorts and flip flops by day, jeans and boots by night, lingering flowers, apples and pumpkins galore.....what's not to love?


6. I am still mourning the complete failure of our pumpkin and zucchini plants to produce, but finally our cherry tomatoes have made their debut. We pick about 4-5 ripe tomatoes most days, and we also have some green peppers growing! After an entire summer of that plant doing next to nothing, we have three little peppers growing. The biggest growing success in our green, green garden this year was the basil though. We got a lot of pesto out of those plants, and continue to get more. :)


7. Ava wore this outfit which Kayla referred to as her "pear picking outfit" the other day. Cute, cute, cute!!! I can't get enough of this adorable little sweetheart. Nothing warms my heart quite like our children with their goofy grins and bubbly giggles.