Just some things I want to remember:
Philip, you LOVE the outdoors. You always want to go out and stay out. When you are big enough you will be outside exploring our two acres everyday, only coming in for meals if I make you. You'd do that now except you'd eat the cat food, take a bath in the mud puddles and venture much farther than is safe. So you'll have to tolerate coming inside every once in awhile- at least until next summer!
Samuel, you're reading, reading, reading and I love it. You can read anything we give you. Unfortunately most books at your ability level are above what's appropriate for you so you're stuck reading Arthur chapter books and Cam Jansen for now. Luckily you like them a lot and we throw in some Boxcar Children and things like
Mr. Popper's Penguins to keep things a little more interesting. Before I know it you'll be ready for Narnia and
A Wrinkle in Time, two of my favorites.
Thomas, you are at an in between stage this year. Can't quite read on your own, a little to timid to go outside on your own (mostly thanks to the neighbors' huge horse-dog who keeps visiting), but too exuberant to be just looking at pictures or inside all the time. You love us all enormously but love to push our buttons too. We need to find you something that is totally your own thing...
Julia, you are trying to get what you want, when you want it all the time right now. You throw fits at the drop of a hat and stop them just as fast when I tell you fits won't get you what you want. My favorite things you do right now are: make the Sign of the Cross with water from puddles in parking lots, tell Daddy his shirt is on backwards
every time he puts on a T-shirt with a picture on the back, say "I forgive you too" after you've apologized for being naughty and someone tells you "I forgive you" and insist that you have a sister.
We followed geometric instructions to draw these trucks which I thought turned out really cute. The top right is the example, top left mine, bottom left Thomas, bottom right Samuel. Jeremy is concerned that Samuel's truck is a F150 which is a Ford and also that it says "CAT" (as in Caterpillar the brand) on it.
When the kids and I (okay, mostly me) were going crazy staying inside because of the rain, we suited up in jackets, boot and hats and went outside anyway!
We made homemade yogurt which was actually not hard at all. It involves about 5 minutes of work and 8 hours of waiting. You end up with half a gallon of plain yogurt, so far we've flavored some of ours vanilla and froze it which was yummy and added blended strawberries to some for smoothies which was tasty too. 
Yesterday when it was 8o some degrees we made these sponge balls and had a great water fight with them. Unfortunately I didn't get out the sunscreen and everyone's shoulders got a little too much sun.
Yay summer!
Philip joined the ranks of kids who have fallen asleep in the highchair and modeled Grandma Irene's wigs (although not at the same time).
We started our summer projects. We were discovering how much salt it takes to float an egg this particular day. First the boys made predictions in their project notebooks and then drew pictures and recorded the results. (By the way I keep a Word document of all my project ideas, instructions and links, if you want a copy I can email it to you.)
Samuel got a little muddy out in the field
and inspired a water fight.
And after a few too many slams in the wind, the bottom of our door busted out. Unfortunately it's a weird size so we're going to have to special order it. The kids love to slide in and out the hole though. Philip likes to sit and look out for awhile then, (when he thinks I'm not looking?) back out too. He was basking in the sun after all the rain in this picture.
Here's to staying sane this summer!
watched training for the day, (they were practicing Humvee roll overs so the gun is foam)
had MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) for lunch, spent some time with their employees, did some shooting at the rifle range, and flew back. 
Jeremy forgot to get a picture of him and Jeff together but that's Jeff above with the foam gun. Jeremy really enjoyed himself! Please pray for Jeff and his unit's safety.
Philip's ears have cleared up (hooray!) but he still has fluid in his inner ear. The doctor said it can take a couple weeks after getting rid of an ear infection for all the fluid to drain so we'll check again in a month. If it's still there we'll have to consider tubes but since this is the only ear infection Philip has ever had the doctor is leaning toward it was just a hard-to-get-rid-of infection and that the fluid will be gone. Here's praying!
M: Julia, do you want socks or are you going barefoot today?
