What I want to be

by #3, I think his favorite letter is D because included in the things we wants to be when he grows up are: A dinosaur, donkey, or now a dolphin. I'm thinking maybe he will work with the animals instead of being an animal but he insists "No I will BE a dolphin!" Yesterday he was showing me how he could swim like a dolphin in the pool.

Car has been repaired and now needs to be picked up. It sports a new starter and battery.

Most of these pictures have been stuck in my camera for the last week so I thought I'd let them out;)

updated:
#1 & 2 found these scooters by the dumpster a couple weeks ago. So exciting as this was to be gifts for them this year. I bought some elbow and knee pads yesterday as #1 has many many owies from falling. They are quite the stunt devils, #2 must have a bit more coordination because she is not as scratched up as #1 but believe me she's probably the more darish of the two.
We watched some boats leave as RIMPAC kicked off last Monday. I think we saw 2 destroyers and two subs. We watched some leave at the channel by the park and then watched some more leave by the beach, where we cooled off in the water for a bit.
When #3 saw the first sub leave he says "Bye Daddy". So I guess he really knows that daddy works on those but silly boy-doesn't he think we'd give him more notice when daddy leaves!

The last pictures are from the park up the street. We walked to it the other day-good sweat equity in the exercise!

Keeping busy this week. We have VBS at night and this weekend is an Anniversary Celebration at our church. We are also working with one car again as are 'new' car is not starting. This is James last week of school for the semester. We have another birthday on the horizon-the big number 8!

I'm not sure if I mentioned but we are tying to grow an edible garden again. We have 2 upside down tomato plants. Bought a strawberry jar and have about 6 plants in that. Lots of lettuce growing and trying to get some cucumbers and squash(or eggplant-think we mixed up on that one) to grow vertical.

Public School like adoption

I've run across this guy a couple times. What he talks about intrigues me. There are many other videos on youtube as well.

John Taylor Gatto

and I just found his website.

Double Free Books!!

Who likes to get free books?? Usborne is once again offering Double Free Books go to www.good2read.com and start making your wish list! I know I'm working on mine:)
I've been thinking of our back to learning plans(although really learning never stops). We are going to stay with My Father's World. I just love how it's all put together yet easy to tweak if needed. I really love Math*U*See, I've been learning right along with #1 and he's only 8! #1 is really interested in learning to write in cursive so we are going with that and we're looking into Abeka for language arts for him.
So if you are looking for books to supplement your child's learning-now is a great time to be adding to your collection:D Be sure to check out the specials if you don't wish to get them free, at least you can get a discount!

Who does she look like?

This is what I thought to myself as I looked closely at my daughter. She looks like my sister, no....she looks like me. It was so funny, I was looking at her face closely(which is another post for some other time) and I came upon this discovery. It just made think back to when my children were first born and you just stare in awe of what the Lord has gifted you with. What has been growing inside your womb for 9 months. What a wonderful creation and once again I'm struck with the fact that we are entrusted to raise and love and nurture this person. Such an awesome responsibility.
btw if you look closely you can see that she has a sprinkling of freckles:)

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I lost my thought so lets go on to the next photo.

Don't you love the expression. He's helping water the plants but keeps getting frustrated with the hose. His hands are a little to small to easily spray the water. He had figured it out and I ran for the camera(and shut the front door as he was a bit wild with water) but when I came back his hand had slipped again and instead of helping I snapped a picture.
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Sheela found a new place to nap.


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#3 said something about this plant today. I can't remember what the exact comment was but he called it a weed. I took offense. What do you think?

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Here's is the perfect cure

for a headache, Go to the beach!! No really it worked wonders for me! I'm so sorry that the camera decided to stay on my dresser at home. The water was blue and the day was lovely. We went to the 'rough' beach because James thought our favorite spot would be too crowded today. Surf was up as we bounced/floated/were thrown around among the waves. #4 fell asleep on the way there(it was just down the street but he thinks he doesn't need naps this week, so as soon as the car started he was gone) and we were able to transfer him to the blanket on the beach for awhile. When he woke up he pointed to the water and said something to the effect of let's go! He amazed daddy with his floating ability(dad hasn't got to go swimming with us since he found this new talent). We saw turtles in the water, little crabs on the beach and came home with a lot of sand on our bodies!

I just finished installing quicken on my computer. After the big oops I made this month, I figured it was a good idea. Just a FYI for you, if you have a bill set up as an automatic payment you really don't need to pay it online too! *slaps forehead* Yes so I paid one bill twice which made 3 others bounce *ouch*

another fun day of shopping

I had a doctors appointment this morning and James was able to stay home with the little ones so was able to go to my appointment and grocery shopping all by myself. It was fun!! I managed to wow the cashier and baggers with my savings(I honestly didn't feel I did that well but was excited with what I did come away with) on the way to the car I told my bagger to check out the grocery game and gave her a quick talk about it. My favorite savings today was a package of cheese(16 slices) and 3 cans of nuts(11.5oz each) I only spent 30 cents on each of those items!! The cheese coupon was from the paper, you can still find the nuts online(planters) The nuts were $3 off if you bought 3 items(from certain brands-excluding single serve) someone clued me in to the fact that you could buy packets of kool aid. The nuts cost$3(so free with coupon) the koolaid was 10 cents a packet!! Now we don't drink kool aid but someone else suggested making play dough with it-so we'll be making a lot of good smelling play dough this year:)
Honestly, I am having so much fun with this coupon savings thing;)

We lost the trade winds over the weekend so it's been super hot and humid, thus not much posted lately. Too hot to do too much. The jelly fish were here over the weekend too, I think they said over 2,000 on Saturday-lots of people stung. Makes me hurt to think of it.
We had a fun day for the children at church on Saturday. Last year our theme was Fun in the Son So this was like a little mini VBS kinda thing to get the word out about this years program. They got to sing songs, hear about the word, make some projects and play some water games(and it turned out to be a great morning to do that!)
Monday the older kids went down the road to play with another church group. It's at a park so me and the younger ones were able to get some time to play together while the others did there thing. I thought for sure that #4 would be nice and ready for a nap when we got home but it still took him awhile to fall asleep.
Well, there is a quick update for those that want to be in the know:D