Summer

When we arrived back home it felt like a ghost town.  So many people had already moved.  Others were on vacation including M- and C-.  Bohdin and Nyla settled down into a nice routine of playing with each other.  They were sick that first week back with a fever, headache, and sore throat.  It took over a week to cycle through all of the kids.  In between we attended the Scottish festival. 



We also went to the Deanna Rose Farmstead which is pretty fun.  The goats liked Nyla's dress.  This wasn't the only goat that tried eating it.  Nyla wanted to go see the rabbits because ever since seeing all of the rabbits in Colorado she has became even more enamored with them. 



Last week M- and C- came home so the kids have spent hours each day playing with them.  Summer camps have also started.  Bohdin had golf last week and Nyla had science.  Cora wanted me to take her to Mickey camp or Dora camp.  When I told her there was no such camp she decided we would make it at home.  I didn't follow up on that suggestion but it was a great one.  Swim also started last week.  There is a kid in Bohdin's class that shouldn't be in that level so he is holding the whole class back.  Nothing can be done though.  There is only one other student in Nyla's class and he was out one day so she had a private lesson.  Her teacher had Nyla pretending to be a mermaid and Nyla fell in love.  Now she loves swim lessons and her teacher.  They'll finish up swim lessons this week.  They probably won't do it in July because it interferes with other things but I'll have to take a look at it again. 


I never posted a picture of the bird Bohdin made me for Mother's Day.  On the right is the basket that Nyla made at school. 

Our garden is growing and demands attention.  I took the kids once last week to help weed.  Cora ran "out of power"  before we even started.  Nyla complained about something and Bohdin puttered around a little bit.  We went back this weekend and I didn't even try to make the girls help.  They stayed in the car playing and doing art.  So far we've eaten swiss chard, beets, and lettuce from the garden.  We should have our first squash this week. 



I took the kids to Kansas City this weekend to see the Boxcar Children.  I didn't check the weekend show times assuming it would be the same as weekday.  It wasn't.  The only show was at 2pm instead of 10am so we had hours to kill.  We walked over to the Crown Center and stopped at Kaleidoscope which is run by Hallmark.  It's a free large art area.  I wasn't sure Bohdin would have fun since he doesn't always enjoy doing art but even he had fun.  We ate lunch and then went to the science museum for a while.  Cora did pretty well for the play.  She was good for at least an hour.  Bohdin and Nyla enjoyed it despite major changes from the book.  It was a fun day. 

I'm teaching Nyla to sew using a book I bought.  She had some trouble and there were some tears but she is a determined girl and she kept trying.  Her first day she learned to thread a needle, tie a knot, a running stitch, and a whip stitch.  Then she made the yellow bag below.  I helped her with the straps because she really really wanted to do that on the sewing machine.  She pressed the foot while I helped guide it.  C- came over later and Nyla tried to teach her to sew.  She practiced her whip stitch again this morning. 






This is the art Nyla made while Buddy and I were weeding the garden.  It says "I am in jail."