I know!

All right, this time I have legitimate excuses for getting so far behind. First of all, my memory disk in my camera just decided one day to go into a rebellion. Not only did it refuse to take pictures, it refused to download pictures. So, I really just lost one week of pictures and then the last bit has just been crazy! So, these are what pictures I could get off the camera and now it has a new memory card.

This is just K 'venturing out in the rain' last week. We had what I am calling monsoon rains almost every day for a little over a week straight. The sky would be blue and then early afternoon, massive clouds would form to our east, the wind would get roaring and then a downpour. It would be done in short order and then the blue sky would pop out again. Strange, but very fun as well.  Reminded me of the summer I lived in Fort Collins, Colorado.

My second excuse is that we are headed out on one of our big family vacations...the three weeker...so loads of preparations have been going into leaving. After a wonderful summer but anticipating the change of weather by the time we get back, I decided to empty the pool and clear out the backyard.  We used some of the water to clean Sammy.

This is not that day, but it matches the pool theme.  :-)

The girls kept jumping in and out as it emptied.  K giving you her best impression of, "Ahhh!  Look how low the water is!"

The nerd in me not only stared at this for a long time, but took a picture with the intent of sharing it with you.  This grass grew under 1000 gallons of water with no sun.  Yes, so did my green slime, but that came up with a broom.  Nature is amazing!

We also took our last trip to the zoo.  At least that is our intent.  While there, we finally admitted to ourselves we are just not 'zoo people' and really do not enjoy ourselves at all.  Walking for hours on end in the heat, pushing a giant stroller up and down hills, surrounded by crowds of other people, to maybe catch a glance of a leopard's tail or look at a lion laying on the ground is just not our idea of fun.

Then you add visually impaired Emily to the mix and now that she is old enough, she just says, "Mom, I can't see it. (Pause) When are we going to go pway on the pwayground?" She really does try to see the animals but some of the things that I think are most visible are still a negative for her and her vision.  The other day, we had a beautiful rainbow streaking across the sky and we sat out there for probably ten minutes trying to get Em to see it but she could not.  I was so sad!  I kept beating back the thought that she might go through her life and never see a real rainbow and instead told God He was going to have to make one heck of a rainbow someday so she could see it.

Anyway, I tried to explain my disdain of the zoo to my friends and they do not understand. But they also do not like to go camping, where you can walk for less time, in the trees and shade, with no one around and end up at a waterfall or a vista that overlooks miles of land, all while seeing wildlife (thankfully not lions or leopards) along the way, and I don't understand that, so we are even.  Anyway, I digress again.  Back at the zoo for our last wonderful visit.

When we left the zoo we had an hour to kill before we met my cousin for dinner so we decided to go to the art district of balboa park (which is right next to the zoo).  The very ground you walk on is painted and the girls were in heaven.  With no one there, they ran free over the entire place.  It was such a cute area that I think we may have to visit again when all the shops are open.  Our budding artist (K) would love it.

It really was the kind of hot day where you let your kids play in a public fountain...at least Dad does and you don't stop them.

Well, with october rolling around, dress up outfits are in abundance so we have now added to the kitty soft paws attire.  K has been asking for a sword for a very long time so she was pretty happy when I came home from the dollar store with a sword and a 'real' cape (I made the other one out of my t-shirt).

Oh yeah, and gloves.

It has been my turn to teach and we are learning about the body for this unit of school.  To say I am having a blast might be an understatement.  We learned all about our skeleton and digestive system on the first day.  I am always amazed at how much these kids can learn.  They are only four, I know, so I don't expect them to remember all the big words, but I introduced them to them to see what they do with them, and honestly, K uses most of them in her language now.

I wasn't sure how much Em was getting out of it but then we were showing Daddy our skeleton and Em said, "Daddy, dat's your cwanium (cranium)," and pointed right at the skull.  Yipee!  I think some of the joy of teaching them at this age is that everything is a bonus.  They don't have to learn it right now (which was always the pressure teaching high school - it was always do or die there and always another test they had to pass).  But these guys are just having fun doing exploratory learning, they feel smart, and I know that when they see this stuff later in life, they will already have a memory pathway on which to place the information and they will learn it that much more quickly when they really need it.

This was day two.  I know it is hard to see but that is the blood's pathway.  There is a heart up near K and some lungs.  I made the kids start in the heart, go to the lungs, ask for oxygen (coins) and then head back to the heart in order to run around the body giving the oxygen to the hands and feet.  It was fun.

There is my heart.  It took me an entire day to decide to make it a heart shape instead of real, but I did it.  :-)  K is holding the treasure box we made for our trip but then we decided to use to hold the oxygen coins for school as well.

Our heart suncatchers.

I have still been doing school with the girls on my own as well, but those are the pictures I lost.  Emily is still thriving in the calm environment.  I can even see a marked difference between when it is just us and when we have all four girls together.  With the others around, she acts like a three-year-old.  When it is just us, she pays attention and really tries to do everything right.  It makes me feel like we are finally doing what is right for Em and that makes my heart glad.

Oh yeah, I have the girls making banana bread now.  They love banana bread and since we have to use K's special 'eggs', we make it extra special with chocolate chips too.

K seems to be constantly doing things and asking me to take pictures.  Most get deleted but this was cute.

K is in to a lot of new things these days.  She loves to teach Emily anything Em will let her (writing in this case).  She loves to sing songs out loud when they come on the radio.  Her favorite right now is "Dents in my fendah (fender)" by Francesca Batistelli.  She can almost sing the whole song.  She draws the most amazing pictures, with great detail.  She will be a better artist than I am by the time she is six.  She loves to learn and can read an amazing amount of words already.  As long as the words use the first vowel sound (most common) and are no more than four letters long, she can pretty much read it.  When we went to meet my cousin after the zoo, we stopped at Jack in the Box first to get the girls some nuggets.  She looked at the cup she was drinking from, started sounding out the letters and then looked up at me and said, "Jack. That says Jack!"  I was pleasantly surprised and then asked her if she could read the rest.  She did.  Such a smart little girl!  Today she brought me a picture and said, "Look Mom, I made you a stop sign."  I looked and sure enough it says 'STOP' right on it.

Oh Em!

On a visit from Nana and Poppy.

Well, we leave tomorrow.  I have managed to organize the packing for a trip that will involve four different locations and doing everything from camping to sunday church into the back of my pilot.  I am pretty proud of myself, particularly since there are several things that although necessary, will only be used once.  Please pray for our safety!  God Bless!