Rachael & Thomas went to camp together this year. This was Rachael's 3rd year and Thomas's 1st. They both had an amazing time! It was actually cold on a few days - very different from the hot, hot weather of past years. They're already planning next year's camp!
Ronnie (Jeff's dad) found his outdoor cat playing with this injured moth. It was HUGE! (Unfortunately, these pictures don't accurately reflect its size.) Since he was coming up today for a visit, he thought Rachael would enjoy seeing it and trying to identify it. She took these pictures and started researching. From the information she retrieved, our best guess is that it's a Polyphemus moth.
I didn't get home until late Saturday evening, but Jeff had let the kids stay up and had bought cake & ice cream to celebrate my birthday! Rachael even convinced him to let her put all 35 candles on the cake (can you say FIRE HAZARD?!?!?!)
I'm so thankful for such an amazing husband & two awesome kids!
Also, here's Rachael's new haircut. My mom took her to the mall to get it cut. It took two hours to complete and probably cost WAY more money than I would have spent, but THANKS MOM!!!!! It looks really cute! (My mom also watched my kids while I went to the convention, which meant that Jeff & I even got a couple of nights to ourselves before I left! WOOHOO!!!!)
At Gracie's 11th birthday party, Darla snapped this picture of the girls displaying their decorated mini cakes. The photo also highlights the fact that my daughter is a GIANT!!!!
We do birthdays big at our house, but we do parties in lieu of gifts. After the pool party, we went to the local pizza place for a pizza party. With my mom, step-sister, and most of our co-op friends, we pretty much filled the back half of the restaurant. (it's such a shame that we homeschoolers are so unsocialized!) By that evening, we were all exhausted.
Seven giggling girls, one little brother, and a cookout for s'mores.... the perfect recipe for a sleepover! Friday, 1/23, Rachael had the girls over for a slumber party. There was a lot of food, a lot of pranks, and tons of fun!
Thomas brought a bunch of fabric scraps over so Rachael & he could make clothes for the dog. Here is the birthday hat that they came up with. Poor, poor, puppy. Can't you just see the humiliation?!?!
Rachael does a lot of the cooking around here (her choice!) She's actually an amazing cook - much better than myself. She recently decided to create a new recipe. She stuffed manicotti noodles with ham and cream cheese, poured a marinara sauce over them, covered them with cheese and baked them. It was interesting, but unfortunately, in a bad way. This is the first of her creations that turned out less than stellar. Oh well, a lesson learned!
Today was a gorgeous day! 68 degrees in December?!? I used the time to clean out the van. We had all of the presents from the grandparents' houses plus all of the trash from hauling co-op kids around. I scrubbed, vacuumed, and cleaned for hours. I also got rid of the trash from Christmas and tried to straighten and organize the house and garage a little bit. Rachael broke out her geology set that she received from Jeff's parents. It was really cool! You had to dig through the clay to find fossils and rocks, then clean, identify and make notations in a journal about each find. Nick was still recuperating from his cold. He still isn't eating much.
Here is Rachael's new room. She loves her new Moroccan canopy. The bottom picture is Rachael's solution to our lack of an angel on our tree. We have one somewhere, but couldn't find it amidst the boxes. She made this one from tissues and wrapping paper!
Today was Rachael's piano recital. Since the keyboard was one of the first items that we packed up, I was concerned about her preparedness. She's practiced like crazy this past couple of days, and performed wonderfully! After the recital, we went out to eat with Diana, Andy, & Ross. (Thomas was staying with his grandma.)
On a separate note, her friend, Gracie, had appendicitis and had to have her appendix removed this evening. We missed her at the recital, but are happy to report that she's doing well.
(I apologize for the shaky camera work. Nick was hanging on my arm!)
Name: Amy Home: Indiana, United States About Me: I am a Homeschool Mom of 2 awesome children. This is my attempt at Project 365 - to chronicle our world through daily photos... See my complete profile
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