Sunday Chess

We broke out Lolo's chess board again yesterday and actually played chess instead of checkers. Well, I say we but technically Austin played against the older two girls while the rest of us watched off and on. They did pretty well considering they have not played in a very long time!

School time!

School is in full swing again here. We actually started on Austin's birthday, the 15th, but I chose to start half-time our first week to give us all a chance to ease into it. That was a great decision. Both the kids and I felt successful without being overwhelmed. And we still had some end of summer things going on that week, so it worked out great.

This is regular school life around here. Poor Allia trying to divide decimals (my LEAST favorite thing to do in math, and I mostly enjoy math) while two little ones bang Do-A-Dots on pages next to her. Boy do we need a bigger school room and table. But that project is on hold after getting a bid that came in way over what we estimated. :/ Guess we will just make due for another year!

Lito visit!

We had a surprise visit from Lito yesterday, and everyone really enjoyed seeing him! Sebastian was practically glued to his side. Lito hadn't been to mass yet, and I was so proud of Mariana and Gloria for going with him to evening mass even though we had been in the morning. Sweet girls!

 Some games of checkers on Lolo's board (we didn't quite have time for chess!).

 His buddy found him again!

Steak Sauce

Anastasia really likes steak sauce, so much so that even when we have burgers she eats hers cut up with a fork, dipped in steak sauce. Austin grilled burgers tonight, but there were a mere few drops left in the bottle. Anastasia insisted that she could not eat a bite of her dinner without steak sauce. I jokingly told her she would have to go knocking on neighbors' doors to see if anyone had some. Well, we all finished dinner, and as we were cleaning up we realized she was missing. We sent Allia and Gloria to find her, and sure enough she was walking down the street!!! They asked her where she had been and she plainly answered, "Knocking on doors to find some steak sauce." We had the biggest laugh...I almost lost my dinner I laughed so hard! I can hardly believe she actually did it. She is one determined girl. I will watch my jokes from now on. ;)

If you saw this picture at your door, would you have given her some steak sauce?

Park Time :0

We have had many days of clouds and scattered rain showers this week. So for this time of year, it is strangely (but refreshingly!!!) cool outside. We went to the park for a bit before dinner yesterday. It was so funny to see the little ones so excited. We haven't been to the park in months!

 Anastasia is really good at pumping herself on the swing now!!! Yay! Stephen is still working on it, so he was happy to give the others pushes, especially little Superman.

4-H Banquet

To round out their first year in 4-H, we attended the annual banquet. It was long and a little boring, but worth it. The meal was yummy, and both girls were recognized for turning in record books. Hopefully we can get a little more involved this year now that we have a better idea of how things go! But overall, I think it was a great first year. They learned a lot, met lots of new people and are excited about getting more involved.

"Summer Fun Day"

The older girls sort of tentatively planned a summer fun day with their friends back in June, but both our families had such busy summers that we were just finally able to make it happen!
We started with Kids Bowl Free at Grand Station (and a few video games too!).

Pawpaw was there bowling with his Senior league and came to give us some pointers after he finished.

The younger lane

 The older lane

 We all went to lunch at Chick Fil A when we finished there. Then I went home to let the little ones nap (and me too :p ) while our friend took everyone ice skating and then back to their house to play. Then we all met up for daily mass. What a perfect day!

4-H Cake Show

This was our first year in 4-H, and therefore our first cake show. But we heard a lot about it and had many tips from some of our friends who have lots of experience. We baked 10 cakes total (5 for the show and 5 to cut slices out of for the judges). It was quite a whirlwind. The girls did a great job baking and decorating with only a little help from me.

Allia made the cross cake pictured above, which she entered in the decorated cakes category (that one is fierce competition, we found out!). She also made a dairy, egg and nut free spice cake for the "refined cakes" division (which is basically the allergy friendly category where you include the recipe with the cake). Mariana made two cookie cakes. She decorated one with a 4-H theme (another tough category!) and entered the other in the refined cakes division. Gloria is a "Clover Kid" and made an Amaretto cake to enter. There are no categories for the clover kids, so they all compete against each other.
Gloria won 2nd place in Clover kids! She was so excited!

 The auctioneer calls the child's name and briefly describes the cake. The child stands there looking nervous but smiling while the buyers bid. Gloria's cake sold for a very nice price!

 

 Mariana won 2nd place in the refined cakes for her big cookie cake. (that was the category with the least competition, so we may just make all our cakes in that one next year!!!).

We didn't get to stay until the end because it was going pretty long, and our girls were finished with their cakes. So Gloria had to hug her sweet friend who was still waiting to show her pie. Pies were the second to last category to auction, so I was really glad we decided not to do a pie!

The girls are already looking forward to next year!

Swimming

Our summer activities have finally died down. Now it is time to tackle some long overdue projects (like cleaning out the school room and a few closets!) and have lots of friend and swim time before school starts!
One of the girls had a friend over for the day, so I took everyone to the pool in the morning before the heat was too unbearable. I really can't handle it these days!

This guy loves jumping in the water!