Warning -- I have about a million pictures to share in this post. This post was originally titled "The Past Six Weeks" and my last post was in April, so that shows you how long I've been working on/procrastinating on getting pictures together. Eventually, I'll get caught up. There also might be a video or two in here that may or may not work. Sorry if it doesn't, I'll work on it. :o/ That being said, here we go with Part One, and I have no idea how many more part there are. :o)
SarahMae. Asleep. Half-standing. :o)
Random series of photos we took at a restaurant. I remember she was asking me for something, ("Please?!"), but I can't remember what. I'm sure I said yes.
SarahMae couldn't be left out. :o)
Shiloh and I went on an amphibian walk at a local state park. She had a total blast. They had an introductory lecture and we got to hike the grounds. It was fun. Not really my thing, but definitely Shiloh's. :o)
They found a yellow-spotted salamander in the pond.
Leading the hike back. She had her walking stick and was explaining everything on the way. :o)
Family hike at a new conservation area in our county. It was really beautiful!
My goofs. :o)
Shiloh was teaching SarahMae how to ride a scooter. I love this picture. :o)
I made some banana muffins for breakfast one morning and they must have been good, because the girls tried to eat the paper!
More food yumminess, and i'm just bragging at this point. One of their favorites that I've made recently is almond bread with tomatoes, cucumbers and avocadoes.
Princesses!
The Magic House had a new Magic School Bus exhibit. Shiloh was way excited, she loves the Magic School Bus! She wanted to take her friend Katelyn.
They got to be a weather forecaster, she really liked this part.
Climbing the bean stalk!
This may have been SarahMae's favorite part -- she looooved the bubble room!
Rick took these and hey didn't transfer well to my phone, but you get the idea. :o)
And we can't visit the Magic House without visiting the Attic Tea Room. :o)
Also one of Sarah's favorites, playing with the sand. :o)
Friends. :o)
Slushies afterwards. Love those smiles!
At the zoo, Shiloh wanted to give the hiking backpack a try. I picked it up at a sale for a dollar, and it's not that comfortable for us, but SarahMae likes it. :o)
Taking advantage of educational opportunities wherever we can -- she's copying the endangerment levels the plaques show for each animal, ranging from "common" to "extinct." We researched them at home later.
SarahMae loved the carousel!
Look at that sweetness. :o)
In the butterfly garden.
Striking a pose. :o)
She always finds time to stop and smell the flowers.
After ballet, snack and a back rub from Daddy. Spoiled!
Back to the zoo for a Nana/Papa visit!
More face paint when Katelyn came over to play for the afternoon.
At a homeschool class with the Conservation Department later that same day, insisting she still wear her face paint. It was a GPS class where they used their GPS trackers to find different objects of historical significance around the Missouri History Museum.
Waiting for Daddy. I love these pictures. :o)
Homeschool Day at a local French historical community, the Bolduc Museum. They learned about arrows and shooting in the lecture, then got to try and shoot one themselves.
Mid-shot. Shiloh was the first one to pop the balloon in the target! After learning that her friend Gracie now has a bow, her goal in life is to own a bow of her own. She's saved half the money already!
"I can't believe I really got it!" she's saying. (They had just put up new balloons.)
Going again. :o)
No bows for SarahMae, but she had fun playing in the yard. :o)
They let the kids play in the Indian wigwam they were building, made authentically and with period tools!
Literally the only shade in the whole yard! Shiloh, Gracie and Katelyn having lunch. :o)
Random SarahMae cuteness.
School time. Learning about the classifications of living things, we're starting with the Animal Kingdom and learning about Arthropods. She wanted -- seriously, i didn't assign this! -- to draw out the differences between an insect and an arachnid. :o)
This is Sam. He's a baby bunny. Sam has a story. Ruby found him in a corner of the yard and kept scratching at the door, then when I let her outside, she'd go and bark at it. I was afraid it was something dead, but as I looked, I saw that it was quite alive, but pretty injured. Apparently, Ruby had tried to move it, and in doing so, had pulled off its ear and cut its skin in a few places. It looked in bad shape. He was just a day or so old it seemed, and I really wasn't sure he was going to make it. I tried to hide him from Shiloh, but once I saw that he was still alive, I couldn't bring myself to do anything else but try and save it. So, I brought him in, and called a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, part of the MO Dpt of Conservation, which just so happens to be less than five minutes from our house. They wouldn't open til later that evening, so in the meantime, Shiloh found a box for it, filled it with paper towels and rags, held the box and sang to the rabbit. And also named him Sam. I was very honest with her that Sam was in bad shape and may not make it. Her response? She prayed for Sam. :o) Later that evening, we took him to the Rehab Center and they said that they were quite confident that he would make a full recovery and offered to let us come by and see him in a week or so. After a few days, Shiloh didn't mention him anymore, so I left it at that, but it caused quite a stir in our house. :o)
At an American Heritage Girls event. Shiloh and her friends Karlee and Gracie.
At the Missouri Botanical Gardens. It. Was. BEAUTIFUL. I had never been, and it was beyond lovely. Open paths for walking/running and flowers everywhere? It may have been Shiloh's dream come true and she kept thanking me for taking her there. :o)
These were her favorite by far -- an entire wall of bright pink azaleas!
At the historic home of Henry Shaw, who built the park. 80% of all the books and furnishings in the house were his from the 1800s! Shiloh kept saying "I'm standing in history right now!!" Of course, when I took this picture, she was more interested in the effects of the central air vent on her shirt. :o)
We had gone with friends -- this is Ethan, SarahMae and Shiloh. Cute!
In the Japanese area. SarahMae loved the grass and sands.
Feeding the (ginormous!!) koi fish.
Hello!
SarahMae is OBSESSED with water. Any perceived water (real or imagined) is grounds for yelling exclamations at the top of her lungs and stopping everything else.
All the kids that were with us that day crossing a little stream on stepping stones. I'm not sure why, I just love this picture!
The maze! That's Shiloh in the middle with her arms up.
Aaaand, SarahMae found a fountain in the maze. :o)
And had lots to say about it. :o)
The kiddos -- SarahMae, Shiloh, Katelyn, Ethan, William, Tyler and Brenden. Really good group of kids. :o)
Friends again. :o)
Family Night at the Science Center. Shiloh's wearing her adventure hat. :o)
Mother's Day, also Baby Dedication (finally!) for SarahMae. :o)
Um... chocolate?
School outside in the back yard.
Distracted by an inchworm. :o)
Rick took this and his phone always distorts pictures when he send them to me, but you get the idea. She was supposed to be asleep, but we went in her room a few hours later and this is what we saw. :o)
At Soulard Market. Shiloh wore her settler's bonnet and I'm sure people thought we were Amish.
Grant's Farm for the day. It was sooooo hot, but the girls found way to cool off....
Picnic at the park afterwards...
Shiloh singing with the Children's Choir for their spring musical. :o)
AWANAS Sparky's Award Ceremony (sorry, the end of the "school" year brought all the ceremonies/recitals/events for Shiloh). Since we unwisely started Shiloh a year early in Sparks, she's now finished with the Sparks program and is a year ahead. We'll be taking a year off this next year until she catches up with her friends and can go into the next level with AWANAS T&T. She earned a plaque for finishing her whole book and all the extra credit books besides. She has a really fantastic memory, that's over 150 verses!
Another end-of-the-year celebration -- American Heritage Girls' Red, White and Blue celebration. They have a "Dad and Daughter" cake making contest in various categories. Shiloh strangely chose to enter the "Tallest" category. So, here we are. :o)
Her group was also to memorize a Bible verse, decorate a posterboard and recite it at the ceremony.
That's a tall cake!
She won. She was also the only entry, but she was excited just the same. :o)
Shiloh and Rick went on a camping trip Memorial Day weekend. SarahMae and I were initially supposed to go also, but with all of the aforementioned activities with Shiloh, SarahMae was feeling a bit neglected, and her behavior showed it. :o) So, I opted to stay home with her and have some one-on-one time. It was awesome, and, amazingly (!) her behavior improved. :o)
We took a trip to the park and had some ice cream.
Bath time!
She was singing me a song. :o)
This was cute. I went to get her dressed for bed, took a pic because she was being cute, and then....
...she was wearing a tutu underneath!! I have no idea how long she'd been that way, but it made me laugh knowing that at some point that evening, she had snuck into her room, quickly put her tutu on under her clothes, and then unsassumingly came back out as though nothing had happened. Hah!
Then, she did some ballet. She LOVES ballet. I have NO idea where she could have picked that up... ;o)
Outside play time. :o)
And then she was a sickie with a cold the next day, curled up on the couch
watching her "ballet" (Angelina Ballerina on Netflix).
Rick didn't take many pictures, but my friend Jessica who was there with her family (two other families went), took these. I love them!
At some point in the following week or so, at the zoo again. It seems we love the zoo.This time, visiting the sea lions.
She saw a baby bird hiding in the bushes. Turns out, it must have been one that just got "escorted" out of a nearby nest, b/c about a second later, a mama bird came swooping down and attacked Rick's head. :o)
On the train!
At Bailey's for lunch, not without Shelby, of course. :o)
At the dentist -- no cavities again! yay!
Playing outside with the hose. :o)
Cuteness from Daddy's camera. :o)
We got SarahMae a wooden play kitchen for her first birthday. I made felt food to go with it. It really was fun to make, and they turned out so cute! Pita bread, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, orange slices, peanut butter/ketchy/jam blobs, sugar cookies, pancakes, pasta and eggs. :o)
Birthday girl! Scrambled eggs with grape jam!
Happy Birthday!
The next morning!
Nana and Papa presents!
Playing with the kitchen later that day. Thankfully, she loves it!
Screen capture from a video on my phone -- blowing out the candles on her birthday cake. :o)
I found this list in Shiloh's room of things she wanted to do during quiet time, reproduced here with her permission. ;o) It appears she's learning my list-making habit. It reads "1. Brush hair. 2. Tell stories. 3. Make a silly face. (I love that one!) 4. Sing a song. 5. Rest. (The goal of quiet time, mind you, although she feels it ranks number five in importance.) 6. Play games. 7. Science. 8. Pick up shoes and clothes. (Admirable, if not actually achieved.) 9. Legos. 10. Make bed. 11. Relax. (One
would be exhausted after all this!) 12. Legos. (Again, as it appears she wasn't able to check it off the first time.)" Seriously, I love this.
Shiloh's garden -- she planted it as a service project, to donate the food to a local food pantry. It's been awhile since I've taken a picture, and I need to, but this is the day she planted it. :o)
She's smelling the cucumber roots -- the roots themselves smell like cucumber!
Cute feet!
Sisters. I love them.
One day, while we were outside watering the garden, it was suuuuuper hot, and I thought they might enjoy being watered as well. They did. :o)
Random -- she was singing. :o)
Also random -- I was cooking dinner and she pretended that she was part of a group of Africans who didn't know about Jesus. Then, she asked me, "a stranger in this land," if I would tell her about Jesus, and when I did, she became a Christian. Then, she grabbed one of Rick's Bibles and proceeded to witness to her group of friends until they all believed in Jesus as well.
That's all for Part One -- if you have stamina enough for it, stay tuned for Part Two! I'm sure if I try, I can catch you up on almost every day of our lives since we saw you last!
