There isn’t much to say about the cold and rainy day we had today. Baby E and I attended church with my mom and sister this morning and we came back to the new house. I snuck in a nap, a game of monopoly, an a trip to the grocery store before we headed home.

We did make progress on our homeschooling curriculum and ideas and we are starting to narrow down the approach that we want to take. Even though Tim and I were both homeschooled (back in the day) there have been so many changes and advancements in materials that it can be challenging to sift through it all.

The kids have two more weeks of school and I have four more weeks of work. This is getting real, folks!! I’m so excited!!

The kids attended their second Home Depot activity this morning. They had so much fun at the last one that I had signed them up immediately for today. This morning’s activity was making and decorating model cars. When they got home this afternoon they couldn’t wait to show me their newest creations. 🙂

While they were out, Baby E and I got to spend some extra time together.

We were sitting on the front porch as the storm came through this evening. We saw the distant flashes as they peeked around the house. The wind started to pick up and the sky grew darker and darker. After a spell, the rain started to drip and finally it came down in droves, drenching the edges of the porch and sending us inside.

When we were little we lived in an old farm house that had a stereotypical front porch. We would spend our summer evenings sitting on the porch watching the cars pass and the storms come through. We were always ready to jump inside if there was a clap of thunder that seemed just a little too close.

What I remember most about those evenings, besides the storms, was the peaceful calm of sitting on the porch with the entire family. There would be moments of silence as we watched the fireflies dance in the yard in front of us. We’d watch the bugs swarm around the nearby streetlight. We’d listen to the crickets as they chirped in the nearby fields.

I’m thirty years removed from those summer evening, but nothing makes me happier than spending the evening sitting on the front porch with the people I hold dearest in the world.

You can’t really tell from this picture, but Big E was pretty upset when I picked them up this evening. Nothing was going well for him, and honestly he was pretty cranky. The thing is, Big E was very, very tired! Today was Field Day.

The kids have been talking about field day for weeks. Last night C kept mentioning how excited she was and she compared it to Christmas or Thanksgiving. It was much easier to get them out of bed this morning when I reminded them what day it was. We made sure they were prepped with sunblock, comfortable tennis shoes, and a bottle of water. The kids had no idea that Tim took off work today for the express purpose of going to Field Day to see them.

In previous years, field day was just a few hours long, but this year they decided to do it for the entire day- from 8:40am until 2:30pm with an hour break in the middle for lunch. That’s a long time for young kids to be on the run, but they had so much fun. Tim took a bunch of pictures and videos.

We all met up at the ice cream shop for an ice cream dinner this evening and I got to hear about all the different activities and challenges that the kids got to do. They were dirty and had been sweating all day, and they were very exhausted. We got home, worked on homework, took baths, and they headed to bed.

I remember always enjoying field day as a child. It’s great to see that schools have carried on that tradition. The kids are already trying to work on a plan to have a homeschool field day next year. 🙂

When I picked the kids up and told them we were meeting up with some cousins at the park, they couldn’t be happier. With our move only about five weeks away, I’m trying to squeeze in as much cousin time as possible. They ate pizza and then ran themselves rugged for a couple of hours. It was a perfect evening!

We had a spur of the moment playdate this evening. There is a boy that Big E met in his class and they became fast friends. When I told the kids where we were going after I picked them up, they all let out a loud screech. I’m thankful for the friends I get to make through the friendships of my children. 🙂

There are three settings on the new toy Jeep. Slow, fast, and reverse. The big kids have mastered them all and they’ve been driving up and down the driveway, chasing each other and practicing their drifting. Baby E is taking a little longer to get the hang of it. He gets very serious behind the wheel, and while he is having fun, he is definitely still getting used to the idea of driving it. He switched it into the high gear this afternoon and couldn’t figure out how to (or that he even needed to) take his foot of the gas and slammed right into the side of the house. Thankfully the thing has a top speed of about 4 mph, so he didn’t get hurt or damage anything, but after that he decided he was done for awhile. 😂

The boys got haircut today and all the kids decorated cookies with Naona this evening.

A yard sale find this morning resulted in loads of fun this afternoon. ❤️

I can count on one hand the number of times I have gone out with friends in the past year. It hardly ever happens, so I was very excited to go out this evening with a group of some of my dearest friends. We had a lovely dinner followed by a scavenger hunt at Target and a stop for ice cream on the way home!