Singing Praise!

Oh!  My heart.  Evangeline sang in church again with Kyle this year.  They sang By the Mark, a folk spiritual.  Her version was inspired by Gillian Welsh.  Evangeline has such a soulful voice.  My heart was bursting with all the feels.  These pictures were taken one night the week before she sang in church.  They both had a flawless performance.  I am in awe of both of their abilities to not let nerves shake them.  I certainly do not have that gift.  

 

And this.....this was the icing on the cake.  After the service Jed decided to sing his version of the same song for the people that hadn't filed out of the sanctuary yet.  Jed knew it by heart having listened to Evangeline practice all summer.  The choir director turned on the mic and he sang all three verses.  Oh. My. Word.  Their are no words.....

 

A New School Year

The end of summer break has come and with it brings a new year for our little girl.  Fourth grade!  She was excited to get back in the swing of things.  She missed her friends.  The play date with her best friend, Hannah the Friday before school started really added to the excitement to get back to school.  I'm so happy she loves school.  Her teacher this year is Mrs. Landrus.  I think they are going to be an excellent fit.  I have known her teacher for a number of years.  I had her daughter in class and we have even had her daughter over to play a few times.  It's going to be a good year.

Evangeline picked out her first day of school outfit.  She is very opinionated about what she wears and how she wears her hair, which is great, but can also be the source of some stressful mornings around here.  She has been so responsible so far this school year in the mornings.  She stays focused on her tasks and is ready before me most days.  We will see if it holds up.  :)

 

She always brings her teacher a little surprise on the first day of school.  This year she brought Mrs. Landrus some cute pencils, pens and a notepad.  She also included the sweetest note.  Her first week of school was great.  She was disappointed the weekend came so fast.

 

And look at what my dear sweet mother sent me on my first day of school!  It sure did bring a smile to my face...

 

The Last Little Bit

It's been such an awesome summer.  I don't think there was a whole lot we set out to do that didn't get done (except bread Monday...Evangeline and I had lofty goals of making fresh baked bread every Monday...there's always next summer.  We also didn't get our sleepover with Dad in at the farm.  Gonna have to make that happen soon too.)  I'm going to miss summer vacation so much, but maybe it will be nice to have a little routine again...for a week or so at least.  What I miss most of course is all the time I get to spend with my kids.  The day sure go fast when we are back at school.

 

I may have mentioned this before, but if there is one thing at all that I've done right as a mother it's been the amount of reading I've done with my children.  I think it has everything to do with the children's literature class I took right before getting pregnant with Evangeline where I was reminded of all the various ways reading to children impacts them in such a multitude of positive ways.  We read read read.  Even on our busiest days Kyle and I read to the kids at the very least before bed every night.  Both of the children look forward to being read to, even Evangeline at 9 years old.  Evangeline is always reading.  Yeah, at least I got that right :) 

 

Did I talk about our nook yet?  If I'm repeating myself it's only because I'm so happy with it.  We said goodbye to a kitchen desk and hello to a coat/shoe area.  This has been the summer of organization for me.  I've brought so much order to much needed areas of the house.  

 

In that last week of summer we squeezed in a visit to Dad's house, dentist appointments and a play date with Hannah.  I promised Evangeline all summer that we could have Hannah over to play.  We were so busy, but by golly, I made good on my word on the very last day of summer break...whew!  That was close! 

Hannah stayed for around 5 hours so her mother could do some errands in Terre Haute.  The girls had such a wonderful time together.  They spent most of the day in the play house.  It poured down rain for a good deal of the time and they had so much fun getting "stuck" in the playhouse due to the heavy rain fall.  They came in at one point to pack a basket of lunch to carry back to the little house.  It was precious.  After Hannah left Evangeline told me that they had a dance party, played café with their lunch and took turns serving each other and played lots and lots of board games.  They are the sweetest girls at the sweetest age.  

 

Little FFA

Papa and Karen decided to give Jed his big birthday present a few before his birthday party.  Papa came over to help Kyle fix a few things and they also put the tractor together.  (Jed has no pants on because I've been potty training him and he had a pull up on for the first time.  I told him we could go out and swing.  He was proud of that pull up and was wanting to forgo the pants.)  Kyle and Papa brought the tractor around back while Jed was on the swing.  He said, "that's for me?"  he wasn't really sure what to think about it.  He then said, "this is fun wearing underwear, pooping in the potty, getting a jellybean and getting a surprise."  (For the record, there was been no pooping in the potty going on whatsoever since the first time.)  He was so excited about the tractor though.  It was so funny to watch him get the hang of it.  He would lurch down on the peddle and go forward like one foot then take his foot off immediately not quite knowing what to do. 

It also has a FM radio on it.  We tuned it to the country station to add to the effect. 

 

He got pretty good at driving it in a big circle. 

 

We had to pull him out of the landscape a time or two....

 

He loves the trailer bed!  He immediately hopped off to look for sticks to put in the back.  He also ransacked the garage looking for anything he could call a "tool" to put into the back. 

 

Let's just say there is really nothing cuter than this big guy just a'crusing around on his tractor. 

Party Time

The kids had their joint birthday party on the Saturday in between their birthdays.  What a lovely day it was.  The weather was beautiful, not too hot.  The big kids had a blast playing in the play house.  Jed had so much fun with Cale.  They all enjoyed swimming.

Jed and Evangeline got spoiled with many wonderful gifts.  Papa and Karen always like to have a list of ideas the kids would like to have their birthdays.  This was Evangeline's list:

 

Jed got lots of fun surprises too! 

 

This next picture just cracks me up because I snapped it just as Evagneline opened her Tic-Tacs and set them down next to her.  Jed picked them right up and said, "can I have one?".  Her face after he utters those words is a face I see often.  A pinch of annoyance mixed with a dash of amuse.  

She had to set him straight as to whose Tic-Tacs they were, but she did promise he could have one.

  

Just when we thought they were all done, Jed opened up a Big Wheel from Aunt Wanda.  

 

I picked up a package of Avenger party masks at a yard sale and they were a hit!  That's Cale under that Hulk mask.

 

Jed was slightly nervous when I popped in the room with a Hulk mask on saying, "Hulk smash!"  He immediately instructed me to take it off.  After he realized it was just his silly mother under a make he absolutely delighted with them.  He wore his Thor mask for a really long time.  He even played with his toys in it.  It was so funny.  

Just look at those muscles!



 

 

 

Jed had fun checking out his new drill kit.  The boy loves tools.  

We also tried out the new walkie-talkie set in the play house.  I see us getting lots of use out of those. 

 

What a lovely day spent celebrating our two little loves.