Cruising through the summer

Our summer is moving right along. After our trip to the beach over the 4th, we packed up and headed to the mountains for five days. Katie had a half-week camp up there and we wanted out of the heat.

We all had a great time hanging around the in-laws' cabin. They had trails all over the mountain to walk and explore. My MIL has a butterfly garden that enthralled Emily and Robbie.

We just had to keep reminding them to not catch the butterflies. The butterflies were so fat and slow that Robbie could even get his hands around them.

The first two days we were there the weather was very nice, but the next two (while Katie was at camp) it rained. We ended up being rained out of our day trip to visit the waterfalls in the area. Instead, I took Mary into Boone to see 'Eclipse'. It has been a long time since I have seen a movie in the theater. We really enjoyed the opportunity to spend some quiet time together.

The big news out of the trip is that Robbie was potty trained. We had started a day or so before the trip. I realized that as long as Robbie was allowed to choose to wear diapers he would keep choosing the diapers, but when we were out of diapers he used the potty just fine. So, the diapers disappeared ;-). We didn't have the first problem with him. He even made it dry through the 3+ hour drive home (with one pit stop).

He is getting to be such a big boy and is really very easy.

We came back home last Wednesday. Thursday we got busy with one of our summer projects. Last summer when we moved Mary out of the girls' bedroom we promised Katie and Emily that we would redo their room. Well it took awhile to find the time and money, but we managed to scrounge around and find enough pieces of furniture and helpers so that on Thursday we gave them a new room.

Here is the picture I took shortly after we moved the furniture back. We still had not had the chance to hang pictures on the wall or get Katie's new comforter. But, it is about the cleanest picture I have of the room.

We moved the two girls out of a bunk bed and took out the play table that had become nothing but a roosting spot for clutter. Katie and Emily settled on this 'Apple Green', they LOVED it. But, it is kind of bright. To bring down the intensity of the color, we also painted all the wood furniture white.
Here is a picture after more decorating has been done, and has a bit more of that lived in look. Emily is loving having the desk in the room. I don't know how many reams of paper she has gone through making her drawings. But, next on my list to buy is a wastepaper basket.

Here are the four of them enjoying Katie's space. I lifted her bed up a little to put storage under the bed.

Now that we have finished that project we will again re-visit Mary's room. The loft bed isn't working as well as we thought it would. This weekend a friend of DH's gave us a twin bed frame. We are going to take out the loft and just put a twin in the room. Mary wants to add large pillows around the bed to make a 'sofa' bed.

In between household projects and traveling we are managing to find time for school. I officially started to keep track of days today for the new school year. The girls are still working on Time4Learning for Language Arts, Katie and Emily are using Math Mammoth and Mary is finishing Teaching Textbooks 5 that she started in the Spring. Mary is starting French and Katie is working on her typing skills with a SpongeBob Program. Mary has started her study of 1900-1930 US History. Katie is still trying to decide what topic she wants to study to kick off the new year.

Emily has been taking off on her reading. She is finding a lot of the 1st grade materials pretty easy already, which is saying something since most of her pre-K year was hit or miss depending on her mood. Now, if we could just get her writing...

Robbie is just being a great 3 1/2 year old. Potty training is the huge developmental achievement. He will spend hours letting me read to him if I could, and don't let him anywhere near tools. If something stands still long enough he will try to take it apart.

I can't believe it is already getting to end of July. The summer does seem to flying by...I can't wait for the cooler Fall weather.

Peace,

Amy