August Already?

Oy! Who said it could be August already? As a side note, it gives me great pleasure to note that time is passing quickly...that always means life it good. :-)

Well, we have been doing our introduction to school since, um, whenever I said I was going to start. I have done pretty well doing it five days a week, but I have deviated from my original 'two short times a day' and have gone to just one longer time a day. We all like this better. Right now, we are just working on getting Em to stay seated and engaged throughout the hour and to stop saying, "I can't." This means changing activities often and always having at least one fun thing to just play with while K finishes up her extra activity. This day was to try to show K the difference between lower case 'b' and 'd'. So we did dinosaurs and bones. I found the little dinosaur lands at the dollar store and it was a big hit. Em LOVES dinosaurs.

The difference between the two girls?  K got out a piece of paper, made another dinosaur land and then put her extra stickers on it.  Em had to be told to go ahead and put her stickers on the backdrop...the response?  "Mom!!!!!  The dinosaurs are fighting!"  (Use your best tone of annoyed disbelief that someone would interrupt such an occasion).

We start real school with our friends on Wednesday and that means homework and other ideas to keep us rolling on the rest of the days.  I am looking forward to getting it all started up again!

On another note, we emptied our banks this week.  We have had a chore chart for a long while now and I have made them save their money.  But this week, we went to the toy store.  The big toy store!  (Ok, clearly Em still had some birthday money left over...)  Em's t-rex has 'fiery eyes' and walks and roars by remote control.  She is thrilled, even if she runs from it when it walks.  :-)

K managed to buy herself an entire safari park for forty percent less than Em spent on the t-rex...I really tried hard to talk Em out of that toy.  It was to no avail.  How did I get two who make up their minds and it is over?  Dad!

I guess this should be up with the school stuff...the day we did turtles.  Following instructions on how to make play-doh turtles - I must have prayed for patience that morning because boy was it tested!

What K thinks a hammock is used for.  She climbs on everything, all the time.  Yes, I have re-enrolled her in gymnastics.

We introduced our neighbors to the Home Depot projects.

I looked outside to see the girls full-on wrestling.  I hid out of sight for as long as I could so as not to interrupt but eventually, one was crying - usually Em because of the glasses.  When I asked if they were having fun wrestling, I was informed that it was not wrestling but a game called "attack".  It is called this because they each start in their corners and then attack each other.

See?  What did I say about real moves?  I think this one has a name.

In the end, they sprawled out in exhaustion.

And then started to wrestle again, for the camera.

One of the things that happens when you become a parent is that you think your children are the most adorable things to hit the planet, dirty face and all.  Sometimes you just sit staring at them, marveling at their beauty.  Seriously, it's such a strong feeling, it hurts.  Anyway, I am gonna guess this was one of the moods M was in when he took messy face pics of the girls watching something.

Ah, my pretty girls, learning to be rough and tough and kind and compassionate all at the same time.  It's an interesting lot to teach life but we do our best!  As Tony Horton says, "Do your best and forget the rest."  I like to think, "Do your best and leave the rest to God.  He's always got your back."

God Bless!!