Swwet Summer Traditions

Oh, it's July Fourth!! Take a look back at photos from the past three years. (I only did the last three because that marks the years of me owning a digital camera!!) There were so many great memories not captured on film.

Look at how these kids have grown!

I wish could get the photos on here from the years when the people who are carrying babies around were only teenagers (or younger!) themselves!!

Thank you Wickstrums for beginning (and continuing) this favorite tradition - the best part of every summer.

Thimble Summer

Oh my goodness. So we all think every baby is amazing. And it's true. Every baby is amazing.

Here's how our Little Finnian is amazing. I felt as if I almost watched her grow up today. While watching campers today she tugged me close to her and looked at me and said, "Hi!" She really did! She tried spaghetti tonight, from my fork. She loved it. She waves at will now. She was crawling all over with her belly up - which looks so different from her patented army crawl. She was pulling to her knees with the greatest of ease. Then she pulled to standing. She thinks she is so cool now.

She even tried Gatorade today! (Daddy likes to share!) And this week she has tried fresh-from-the-farm apricots, plums and raspberries. She especially enjoyed the apricots although she did not refuse any fruit!

. . . . . Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

HappyFather's Day!!

oops - this entry looks too jumbled and I put my copy in the wrong place. Yikes!! I need some lessons!

Check out this adorable table. Hooray for Craig's List!!

Uh, doesn't Mosely look like an orphan child here?

That makes me laugh!

Please send food!

The Dangerous Book For Boys

About Bergen Hawkeye . . .

I love the way he loves Piper Finnian. Every day at lunch Bergen asks, "May I sit beside Little Munch?" When Finn so much as breathes differently, he sighs and says, in a raptured state, "Isn't she so cute?" When she crawls across the floor he immediately crashes down beside her, sticks his right thumb in his mouth and places his left finger on his belly button and just observes her. He constantly wishes to share his Cheerios and cheese with Piper. Sitting in their car seats beside one another, he caresses her tiny arm and comments about how sweet and soft she is.

Bergen loves music. He sings all day long. Usually the Beatles. Loudly. He loves "Yellow Submarine", "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "Hey Bulldog" and "All Together Now". My personal favorite is his version of "Nowhere Man." The best lyric is this . . . "He's a real nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere pants...." He also loves "Blessed Be the Name of The Lord" but he sings it as, "This could be the name of the Lord, this could be your name." And at Sunday School last week he came out announcing he had learned a new song. When asked to perform, he obliged. "God is no fun!" he sang. Hmmm. Maybe we should visit another church!

Someday

Piper Finnian is changing every day. She makes hilarious faces now. Riley's favorite Little Munch face is her "game face". Piper scrunches up her cheeks and nose and makes quick breathing noises. It' s much cuter than it sounds. The other kids call this her "guinea face". I don't know how they misunderstood that one.

She laughs hysterically hard any time a sibling falls on the floor. Which is more often than you might think.

She loves pulling every item out of any storage container within grasp. Some of her current favorite people are Jody and Jamal - Look Up friends. London says she likes Jody because he "has some hair but not a lot of hair, like her!"

Recently Finn tried watermelon for the first time - tried it with full fist and open mouth, dripping red stickiness down her chin, her shirt, her booster seat. (We were outside. I have learned a thing or two after five children.) I joked about how much she loved it. London said, in the great Wickstrum tradition, "Piper should marry watermelon! " And then London had a short, simple ceremony and . . . ta-da . . . Piper Finnian Willow and Watermelon were united forever!

Me, Myself & I

These three kids have their own language. And it is often accompanied by a song. Or songs. One particular favorite song is a little number which they have created. They sing it whenever we are waiting in line at a store or when they have been promised some amazing surprise and they are giddy with excitement and anticipation. It is always delivered in the same format, in the same tune, with arms slung around one another and a lot of rocking back and forth. It sounds a little something like this . . . (at the top of their lungs) "We are friends! We are friends! We are friends!"

Runny Babbit

So I have a story to tell and it's too late to call any of my favorite blog readers. (You three people know who you are!)

Ahem.

Tonight I ventured into unfamiliar territory. The homeschool co-op that I signed up for in the fall held a year-end celebration/new members social at a member's house. Riley really wanted to go. Mentally, I wanted to encourage her desire to meet other homeschooled friends. I knew I needed to begin to connect with like-minded families. Physically, I was just really tired. And meeting complete strangers is difficult. With five young children. Without Kevin. Who had to work.

The evening was full of highs and lows. Watching Mosely discover that she can jump higher than she ever imagined possible on a trampoline was a good thing. Her face glowed. She was in kid-wonderland. Adorable. Seeing two-week old baby goats again was a treat. I missed our little herd. Witnessing Bergen explode in terror as the mother goat ate the taco off his plate sitting in his lap was less fun. Spending the rest of the meal guarding a blanket full of kids eating food coveted by a huge goat was no picnic either. (tee hee) Later I watched the same stinkin' goat open my bag (yes, open my bag), reach into that bag and grab my wallet in its mouth! This would have been funny if it was happening on America's Funniest Home Videos.

After eating dinner alone I realized I would have to be proactive to meet anyone. (And I know how that is - so it's all good.) I carried my Personal Conversation Starter, also known as my youngest daughter, and joined a group of moms-already-in-progress. Actually, I met a really neat mother of five who loves Charlotte Mason style homeschooling as well. That was fun to chat about that. Oh, it's fun to chat about anything intelligently when I can pull it off.

London forged new ground herself. I overheard her say to a little girl, "Would you like to play with me?" Next thing you know, the girls are best buds. When I told London her playmate was also four she replied, "Yeah, I know. She's my new friend. "

Mosley and Bergen were mesmerized by baby chickens and spent a beautiful half hour or more peering at the chicks on squatted legs. Then they jumped on the trampoline together. The whole evening. They were best friends for a night.

When I was ready to go I couldn't locate Riley among the myriad of teens. I checked the trampoline, the oversized ball soccer game, the batting cage, the goat pen, the s'mores fire pit, the cargo net, the tree fort. Half an hour passed. I was carrying Piper in my arms. She was tired and wiggling to see every animal and every flame. Bergen was clinging with filthy hands to my skirt, smelling of rotten diaper. Mosely was telling me how she loved hot flames to cook marshmallows and how she loved hot marshmallows and she loved all things hot and why, oh why, wouldn't I let her cook her own marshmallow next to all the hot things she so adored. I looked some more. I loaded up four hot and sweaty kids well past their bedtime into an overstuffed Suburban that had not been cleaned out from our endless drive home from Ohio. Ah, the zipline - I forgot to walk the extra steps to the zipline. And that's where Riley was. The zipline. (Yeah, this was a home designed for kids!)

I stepped up to the Suburban, desperate for home, anxious to go to the bathroom after four hours of waiting. (It's next to impossible to use the bathroom when I take the kids out alone. But that's another story.) I want to give into whining like my children so often do. (What's the big benefit of maturity anyway?) I sigh, struggling to look happy for Riley who has clearly enjoyed a stellar evening. Mosely and Bergen are crying for more water in their cups. I hear London explaining to them, "Hey guys, it's no big deal. We can have water soon. Listen, we have ICE CUBES!! All we have to do to get water is ......... WAIT!"

I guess you could say a lot about the evening. But mostly, I guess it looked a little bit like . . . life.