Sorry for the Silence!

Yes, we did make it back alive from Family Camp! (and count ourselves lucky to do so without being involved in any emergency trips to the hospital – it was a bad camp for emergencies!) Since then we’ve been busy doing lovely summery sorts of things. Barbecueing, playing tennis, weeding (a little), going for walks with the kids, and spending time with friends.\par
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I’m trying to do school with the kids 2-3 days a week, which I thought would be easy, but so far has proved a challenge, due to the utter ease involved in filling up one’s calendar with more enjoyable things!\par
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I babysat my brother-in-law Tuesday through Wednesday, which all of the children greatly enjoyed. We went to the spray park one afternoon, and the library, McDonalds and another neighborhood park the next.\par
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Monica is getting cuter all of the time. She’s quite steady on her feet now, and is tackling verbal challenges. Her dad got her to say, “Cute-ti-pie!” the other day and she’s also starting to nod and shake her head – although she’s still a little confused about which means what. She’s been getting especially tender toward her brothers – running to give Ezra a hug when he’s hurt – then affectionately whacking him on the head.\par
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I found Judah a new bike at a garage sale last week, on our way home from strawberry picking. It didn’t come with traning wheels and after a little initial defeatist thinking on his part, “I’ll never be able to rid it *sigh*” he really got going and now he delights in showing anybody how fast he can go up and down our little dead-end road. I’m really starting to appreciate our location more and more these days as our barely-trafficked street provides such a lovely area for riding bikes, pulling wagons, and pushing dumptrucks. Monica would like to go out to play with her brothers all day, but alas, a 5 year old, however responsible for his age, is not old enough to babysit a 1 year old unattended! For now, when he asks, “Can I take the baby out on the grass?” I have to answer a reluctant, “No, sorry, you’re not old enough.” \par
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Well, enough chatter. I should go accomplish something before the 4th of July weekend truly arrives!