What we've been up to this summer. . .

After Cash's birthday he was really excited to start Kindergarten and since I had already ordered most of the curriculum for the next year I decided to use his enthusiasm and start school again.  There wasn't much of a break for the older kids (about a couple of weeks while I planned the year out) so they weren't thrilled by the prospect, but I'm the boss so who cares what they think!  Bwahahaha!  Just kidding, they were fine.  They actually do much better when we have a scheduled day - especially Ryley.  He turns into a little monster if he doesn't have some direction.  We usually don't start school until after lunch anyway so they have the morning to play and go outside before it gets too hot.  By the afternoon it's way too hot to go outside so if we're going to be stuck inside we might as well do something productive!  So we've been doing lots of school and I haven't taken many pictures but I did take this one while they were doing an experiment with Cash for his science. 

They were having paper races.  It was lots of fun and super easy!

See, they're having plenty of time off from school - AKA plenty of opportunities for me to gather future blackmailing pictures.  I don't remember why Cash was dressed up like this, but it sure is funny!

Ryley wanted a picture all by himself this day too but he refused to smile.  He's turning into such a handsome young man!

Brianne and I had a private lesson on the art of bread making from my mom and ever since I've been making at least one batch (about 4 loaves) a week.  Quite proud of myself actually.  :)

Father's Day rolled around and the kids and I had fun making a big huge candy filled card/game for Daddy.

We sure do love him!

Ryley got to experience his first Twilight Camp at the end of June!  This was seriously the most excited I have ever seen him for something.  Way better than Christmas even.  I'm pretty sure this week was the best week of his life.    His hat is covered in swaps.  Each of the boy makes some little trinket (Ryley's was a foam tomahawk -that no one wanted!  Crazy!) and then they get to trade throughout the week with other boys.  We still have a huge bag of his unwanted tomahawks.  I'm saving them for next year.  Maybe I'll have Ryley put some red puff paint on the blade to make it look bloody and more appealing to little boys?  He also decorated his bucket all by himself and he's holding a yo-yo that he made in the above picture.

Daddy decided to do some demolition to the house one morning before he left for work and had the kids help him.

I guess Josh finally got tired of hearing me complain about the lack of a pantry in this house.  We do have some cabinets and shelves in the laundry room but it just isn't very much room.  I had been telling him for quite some time that there is room under the stairs and we should try and access it.  So we knocked out the back wall of the closet that is just in front of that space and he finally built me a pantry.  He did all the demo and framing and then had one of his guys come in and wire it and install two lights, a light switch and an outlet on one day; one of his guys come and sheetrock it the next day; another one of his guys come and tile it on another day; and Josh did all the rest of the work.  He painted it all, planned out the shelving, installed all the shelving, painted all the shelving and did an AMAZING job!  It is my favorite room in the house right now.  :)  I haven't taken an after shot yet because it's kind of a weird angle but I do have this picture of right after the sheetrock was installed.  It is so much bigger than what we had before.  I can fit food storage, appliances and now I can even got to Costco and stock up on things like TP and paper towels and other bulky things that I couldn't get before because we had no place to store them.  We lost the only coat closet in the house but honestly, we hardly ever used it for our coats anyway.  It mostly just stored the vacuum and coats that we never wear.  So I donated all the coats and hung up the few that we do wear in our other closets and the vacuum still fits perfectly in the new pantry.  It is a thing of beauty and makes mama so happy. 

We spent the 4th of July with Granny and Pops.  We had dinner together, went swimming, and then Josh and the kids blew up some stuff on their back porch.   The kids had lots of fun with sparklers and the little popping things (I can't remember the real name!) and then they had fun watching Daddy go light something at the end of the sidewalk and then run like crazy.  Sawyer slept through the whole thing.  Swimming really wiped him out!

I've added art to our curriculum this year and we've been having fun learning some new techniques.  Here are some pictures I took of the kids using watercolor crayons.   

They were supposed to think of a day or an experience that made them really happy and draw that.  Ryley chose making his yo-yo at Twilight Camp.  Cash chose meeting his friend Jeremy at Twilight Camp.  The back story on that:  The family got to go up to Twilight Camp on the last night and watch some skits and see everything.  Cash ended up tipping his chair over and getting a bloody lip and had to go over to the First Aid Station.  While he was there a boy, Jeremy, came over and asked him if he wanted to swap (Cash and Maddie also made some swap hats to take that night.)  This little boy will never know how much he means to Cash.  He was so sweet and traded several of his swaps for just one of Cash's.  Cash still talks about his friend, Jeremy, and getting to go to Twilight Camp when he's eight and playing with Jeremy there.  I didn't get a final picture of Maddie because her masterpiece was taking much longer than the boys'.  :)

One of Cash's friends wanted to have breakfast at the park for his birthday so we were all invited!  His mom made super yummy cinnamon rolls and the kids played and played before it got too hot.  It was such a good idea and a fun little party! 

I don't know why Cash looks so unhappy in the above picture.  He really had a great time and loved those cinnamon rolls.  He probably ate 4!

Well, that's probably enough for one post.  I've got Maddie's birthday, Grandma's birthday and a special FHE still to come but I wanted to get somewhat caught up on things before we head off to Colorado next week!