Year 2, Day 216: Where did summer go?

Seriously, the weather was gorgeous today! It was a perfect 70 degrees with blue skies and strong breeze.  It definitely reminded us of PEI.  Actually, it reminded me of PEI.  The kids just complained that they were cold.  Guys, this is NOT cold!  It's beautiful! And I'm so glad I decided to go to one of the homeschool group's park day in Greenwood.  There were two playgrounds, one for 2-5 yr olds and one for older kids.  Lots of nice swings and a splash pad!  I'm glad I grabbed the swimsuit last minute because at least Keturah enjoyed the water.  Abishai wanted to get in the water, too, so I got him dressed but he barely got wet.  I quickly put a diaper back on (he was in a swimsuit without a swim diaper, ssshhh, they don't like that at the splash pads) because all he talked about were the "pwaygowns" (aka playgrounds.)  And we finally got him to go down some slides today!  Yeah!  The pictures will tell more of the story.

Then we stopped in at the new Kroger that just opened at Southport and Franklin.  I was told there was going to be a special bus and activities there from 8-3 like they had yesterday, but nope, not there.  Whoops!  Anyway, we ran into Gary and Leah who were also checking it out and doing a little shopping.  In fact, they had lunch there!  And they bumped into many people from church of course.  The store is not laid out exactly the same as the Thompson and Emerson one but it's stocked the same.  The kids had a great time eating all the samples while I grabbed a couple of things like my meat and more milk for them.  And then I made the mistake of letting them see the toy aisle which is much smaller than the Thompson location.  I let them pick out a cheap toy but it took forever!

Then it was a quick stop to see Daddy to show off their toys.  After that, I let Justin go into the library by himself to pick up his library books that were redelivered to the right library.  Well, the librarian must of asked him why they were delivered to this branch and such, because next thing I know, he comes out and tells me she wants me to come in and change our address.  I had completely forgotten to change our address on our library cards, so fine, I went in and did that.  Meanwhile, Abishai played on the tractor and Keturah picked out another stack of books.  The librarian was very kind, was a bit older but knew the lingo of the younger generation and complimented me on how much a gentleman Justin was.  Score!

This means we didn't get home until way past Abishai's naptime.  Which is fine.  He went down for his nap without any issues.  I'm sure he was hungry though because we had a light picnic lunch at the park and the samples from Kroger.  And when we went to Gary and Leah's for supper, he scarfed down a ton of food!  In fact, he found his plate at the table and brought it over to the food before we could even pray!  Well, ok then!  Eat up little guy because you can still fit into a 12 month bathing suit shorts and an 18 month long sleeved shirt at the age of 2 1/2.  He's so little, just like Justin was!

We received some more goodies from a friend of Leah's and Keturah went quickly to work filling this photo album with all kinds of stuff!  Perfect!  She put cards and printed pictures and cut out pictures and lots of fun things!  I think she saved one album for her Joanna Grace doll's amazing vacation adventure!

I DID unbox a few books today!  I told myself that just because it's already 3:30pm, I am NOT going to waste another day!  Even if I just undid one box, it would be one less brown box!  And guess what?  I found some things that I didn't need!  Yeah!  But this book is special.  When my parents passed away, I carefully went through whatever books they hadn't already given me and kept anything that was written in by any of my family members.  There were many newer and current books, but there were very few very old books from my parents college years and before that.  So, when I pulled out this book, I was thrilled!

It looks like this belonged to my great grandfather, Paul E. Howell.  My grandfather was David Howell, and he was born in 1925.  But this book's copyright was in 1888 and 1902.  But it might have also been used by my grandfather because this letter is postmarked 1967.  I know my grandfather was very, very smart, and I believe he was a professor of chemistry and math at some college nearby.  He was very, very introverted as well.  But this envelope says Needham Apothecary Corp, so maybe he worked at a drug company? I'm sure my aunt Katie can verify that.  I don't know much else about my grandfather, who he was, how he grew up, etc.  I wish I did. 

Check out these handwritten problems or notes!  This is a college Algebra book! Benaiah was thrilled when I showed him and will be bringing in the book (not the notes or envelope) into his math teacher next week to show her.  Sweet! But these notes are actually written on the back of what looks to be a typed out receipt of some kind for all kinds of things, so I'm thinking these notes were my grandfather.  And now that I'm thinking about it, maybe the receipt came in this envelope?  Or not because the paper is too wide and their is no address or name on the paper that would show through the envelope's window.  But, pretty cool! 

Algebra!

This book is over 100 years old!  It could easily be in a museum!

Ta da!  This is what Jared was hanging last night at 11pm! He is going to tweak it so it doesn't sag in the middle but Keturah loved it!

It takes all of us to wake up the teenager who stays up too late at night.  I can't believe these two beasts fit on this little bed together! And yes, those are original Finding Nemo sheets from like 12 years ago!  And a Transformers blanket!

On my Facebook feed today, this picture of a 5 year old Justin popped up!  I'm not sure where he was or why he isn't smiling.  But, you can see that his hair is a bit lighter here than it currently is.

And then, you can compare 5 yr old Justin to 2 1/2 yr old Abishai and see the similarities!  Aw, Justin's mini me!  But I took this picture to show that Abishai can still wear the shirt that Aunt Shauna bought him two years ago!  I put long sleeve and long pants on him this morning because it was cool out and I didn't want him bitten by bugs.  It had warmed up by the time we got to the playground, but I made sure he was still comfortable and he was.

From this angle, this part of the playground looks like a climbing wall that is close to the ground.  Well, it's an optical illusion because it's not angled so far down and it's actually about 5 ft above the ground!  But Abishai navigated it well.

Yes, Justin insisted to get into this parent/child swing as the baby!  He may be taller, but he can still squish down to a being a little guy.

Something is wrong in this picture!  Keturah is the big kid and Justin is the little kid.  Remember, this swing has a rigid apparatus where the parent swing moves the baby swing at the same time.  Cool concept!

See, it's high off the ground! He wasn't scared, but I was!  He liked sliding down it when he came back that way instead of going down the big slides (which he didn't eventually slide down).

I was up on the playground, and Justin was climbing all crazy like.  Way to go!

Snack break!  Abishai is so calm and knows how to sit and eat (at least some of the time).

Ta da! He did it!  And we took a video for Daddy where he says, "Daddy, watch this!"  He understood what I meant when I said, "I'm going to take a video for Daddy!"

Frizzy hair!

Keturah also did a ton of hanging, working on her grips for gymnastics.

She did make it all the way across!

Snack break for the big ones!

Splash pad!  This one is activated by someone getting close to the sensor in a pole I found.

Big kids' playgrund!

It's kind of sad when they have to put a lock on the toilet paper rolls.

Cute swimming baby in his 12 month shorts!  Plus, he's just so pale!  And I forgot the sunscreen.  And the good camera.

The kids that did come were much younger than Justin, but wanted to watched Justin and have him notice them.  Awwww.....Justin took it in stride and did his best to put on a good show!

And yes, he got throw both elements.

Brand new, 2 day old Kroger in the 'hood!

YEAST doughnuts! I could just bottle up that smell and sniff it all the time.  Yummies for the kiddies!  And there were several maple topped ones!  Jealous!

Cherry pie!

Cheese sample on a stick!

Fruit bar!  After that, I told the kids not to be greedy and eat all the samples!

Way too many choices for the car enthusiasts!  Abishai ended up with a red truck and a red car!  Justin got a lime green Lambroghini and a Batmobile looking one.  Keturah got some styrofaom type of modeling clay type stuff.  Benaiah was working at Grandparents' house, so he didn't get one.  I did get him a doughnut though!

Nice sign!

Boston creme!

Maple long john.

Justin said this reminded him of the logo and colors of the Rocket local hockey team in PEI.  Aww,....speaking of, I did try to look up if the Tim Horton's had been built yet on the westside and I couldn't find an update.  I will only cheat on my diet with a real Tim's maple cream doughnut!

This is only half of my personal completed and not completed stash of Bible study guides, methods.  I will be purging some of these as well.

"Daddy, neigh niegh!"  This was after 15 minutes of Jared making piggy noises on Abishai and rough housing him on the bed.  We knew Abishai was tired when he laughed hysterically when Jared took A's blankie and put it on his head and then his shoulder and laid his head n it.  Abishai also tickled Jared's ears while playing neigh neigh and laughed and laughed about it.  This kid goes all in when he plays!  I'm just glad he knows that he is tired and goes to sleep without issue most of the time.  Vacation will be a good time to test that theory!  (P.S. Socks is barking at the commotion in this pic).

 P.S. I'm definitely sore from the little bit of exercising I'm doing from the program I purchased.  I'm either very, very weak or these are killer moves! (or both!)  Tomorrow I'm going to rest easy after I go shopping by myself for vacation AFTER a book study on Classical Education.  Yeah!