Day 176: Violin

I haven't played my violin since I moved to Portland more than eight years ago, and I stopped playing regularly when I was expecting Daniel eleven years ago, so it was very sweet to unpack my instrument this week and play with a group of wonderful musicians for our church service in the park this morning.

Day 175: Fun Run in the rain

There were lots of great photos taken today at the annual Camp Fire Fun Run but since I ran 13 laps of the track myself (and survived!), I did not grab the camera until the very end to get a picture of Johnny and Anna recovering from their great half an hour of running.

Day 174: Mother-Daughter Pedicures

Now I know it is summer - Anna and I have pretty toes!

Day 173: Homemade Lemonade

We had eleven organic lemons in our box of fruit and vegetables so the kids and I zested and squeezed and made the best lemonade we have ever tasted.

Day 172: Boomwhacker sticks

Anna is attending music camp with her wonderful piano teacher this week. At the end of each morning, the kids work on amazing rhythms with these colorful boomwhackers, which are tuned percussion sticks.

Day 171: A letter to his big brother

Johnny, Anna and Noah sat down today to write letters to Daniel so that, hopefully, they will arrive before camp ends. Here is Noah's letter - the longest he has ever written. He also drew a pretty good-looking cat on the back.

Day 170: Off to camp

Daniel is first up among our kids to go away to Trout Creek Bible Camp this summer. I drove him there this morning and for the first time in all the years we have taken our kids to camp, it was pouring with rain when we arrived. The first task of camp is to divide up into cabins and this took place in the gym because of the rain. Here are Daniel and his seven friends from church all linking arms in the hope that they could all be in the same cabin group. Their prayer was answered - now we are praying that they have a wonderful friendship building and faith-building week together.

Day 169: Having the neighbors over

We LOVE our neighbors and we really enjoy getting together with a number of families from our neighborhood every month or so for a pot luck supper and games. Today the kids all played outside while the parents had a fun game of Taboo.

Day 168: Finally...

Johnny has been attending Trout Creek Bible Camp since he was about to enter second grade. Now, finally, he is old enough to ride the zipline at the camp. He was thrilled to get the opportunity at the camp Open House today.

Day 167: Up too late...

David is out of town until tomorrow and so Noah stayed up listening to me read to his older siblings instead of being put to bed by his daddy, The older three are still transfixed by "Watership Down" but poor Noah couldn't keep his eyes open and fell asleep on the couch..

Day 166: Olympics

Thank you to my wonderful brother and sister-in-law for sending the kids these great water bottles so we can share in the London Olympic celebrations from afar!

Day 165: Rose

First day of our summer vacation and we were so busy with fun activities that the only picture I took today was this rose in our front yard.

Day 164: Graduation

Noah graduated from preschool today - a bittersweet moment. Here he is with his beloved preschool teacher (who also taught Johnny and Anna when they were at preschool), getting ready for the graduation ceremony.

Day 163: Last day of school eve

The children spent the evening before the last day of the school year writing thank you notes to their teachers. Johnny used these notecards I bought in London last summer. I love them - but they also make me feel a little sad that we are not traveling to England this year.

Day 162: Best part of the day

I have loved reading to my kids every night every since they were babies, but it just gets more and more enjoyable. One particularly wonderful aspect is suggesting a book to the three older ones that they are initially utterly skeptical about ("Rabbits? Really?") and then seeing them become as completely gripped by the story as I was at their age.

Day 161: Escape artist

Maybe he should be called Harry Houdini and not Harry Potter. Despite our best efforts to keep him inside, Harry is determined to get out of the house and start exploring the world. This morning he chased a squirrel up a tree and took his time over climbing back down again.

Day 160: National Junior Honors Society

To be quite honest, I didn't realize the NJHS meeting we attended last night was going to be a formal induction ceremony, so I didn't take my camera. The morning after, I took a picture of the paperwork to  commemorate the event.

Day 159: Last day of swimming lessons

Getting to use the water slide at the community center is an exciting treat at the end of every session of swimming lessons.

Day 158: Family walk

All of our friends, it seemed, were at the Junior Floral Parade this afternoon, but our piano lesson schedule kept us from participating. It was a beautiful afternoon, so we took advantage of the sunshine and went for a lovely walk around Glendoveer Golf Course.

Day 157: Speech

Here is Anna's end-of-first-grade speech. The assignment was to prepare at least three sentences on a hero in your life (the only parameter being that it should be a real person, not a fictional character "like Spiderman").

Day 156: Oregon strawberries

Oregonians, I have discovered, feel very passionate abut certain things and one of them is the Oregon strawberry. Oregonians tolerate Californian strawberries but when strawberry season arrives in the Northwest, no one questions the superiority of the Oregon berry. We have a small berry patch in our yard and it is Noah's job to check it each day and pick the deliciously sweet, ripe strawberries before the birds get to them.

Day 155: Jubilee celebrations

I am bending my own rules today. We have been following the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in England with great interest and pride - but we have not organized any events ourselves to mark the occasion. So in honor of the Diamond Jubilee, I scanned in a photo of Johnny taken at the Golden Jubilee celebrations in our village ten years ago. Long live the Queen! 

Day 154: Finding his niche

Johnny has been playing soccer for years but as he has moved into the position of goal keeper these past couple of seasons, he has really found his soccer calling. He made a number of excellent saves during this final game of the season, against an older and more experienced team. Although the Spartans lost 3-1, several people were kind enough to call him the MVP.

Day 153: Tryon Creek again

A couple of weeks after accompanying Daniel's class on a field trip to Tryon Creek State Park, I was very  pleased to be able to return with Anna's class. Here are Anna and her two best school friends learning about the Western Red Cedar.

Day 152: Spring Music Program

It is almost the end of the school year and our calendar is full of concerts and performances. Tonight was Noah's school's music program. As well as singing, Noah's preschool class performed a very cute number with lummi sticks.

Day 151: A growing friendship

I wouldn't claim that these two are best buddies just yet but they are certainly increasingly tolerant of each other and were enjoying a nap in the sun together this afternoon.

Day 150: Anna's garden

I have been focusing on vegetables in our garden but Anna has been growing the most beautiful flowers.