7 - a week of simple celebrations

Nathaniel turned 7 last week and I am not quite sure how it happened. We have had such a busy few weeks that it kind of snuck up on us. We had an extended week of simple celebrations to make the birthday special.

 On the Saturday  before his birthday Nathaniel had a friend sleepover and we went roller skating. This was his requested activity. He loves to roller skate. So that is what we did.

The Sunday before his birthday we had cake with our small group to celebrate. Because they are like family to us. Birthday boy was totally happy with recycled figures from older brothers cake from years ago and some Star Wars shapes. We had icecream too,obviously.

Wednesday was his actual birthday. We had pizza and icecream and I totally forgot to get the annual birthday picture! I am clearly a failure as a mother. We may try to get one this weekend....

Sunday we had a Rapier family celebration of Nathaniel and Brenda's birthdays. We had a good afternoon eating, hanging out, and enjoying each other. Nathaniel got a set of super-soaker water guns so all was well with the world.

This boy is something else. He is enthusiastic and generous. He has learned and grown so much this year. He seems so grown up and mature and yet he still needs his daily cuddle time and wants to sit in my lap. Happy Birthday, monkey! We can't imagine life without you!

Another School Year Begins

Y'all - we just started our 5th year of home school two weeks ago. What?!  It seems like just yesterday we decided to keep Jeremiah at home for Kindergarten and we embarked on our adventure of learning together. Here we are now with a 4th grader and a 2nd grader.
There are some significant changes this year. First, it is our first year doing two completely separate Cores. I tried to do that last year but it didn't last, not because it was hard but because Nathaniel seemed interested in what Jeremiah was learning so I just went with it. This year though I could feel that it was time for Nathaniel to have his own Core. So this year Nathaniel is doing Sonlight Core B: Creation through the Fall of Rome and Jeremiah is doing Core E: American History Year 2.
Second, Jeremiah is doing two classes at Hilger Higher Learning this year (Science and Creative Writing) and doing much more work independently. This has been an adjustment. I kind of miss the daily block of one-on-one time that we used to have together.
I think we have a good routine down. I spend most of our school time working with Nathaniel. He has some independent work but we work together reading good books, looking at maps, doing Language Arts. Jeremiah works at his desk in his room. He does his history readers, math, and his Science and Creative Writing homework on his own. If he needs help or has a question he asks me. When he is done I talk with him about what he did and I look through his binder to make sure he is getting a grasp of what he is learning. We still do one of the history Read-Alouds together because I just can't give up that time together.
Every year I am more aware of how fast time is going. We only have 2 years until Jeremiah is in Middle School. Seriously. So this year I really want to savor our time together. I want our morning school hours to be time that we enjoy being together. Time that builds our relationship.

Summer Ends

It has been a busy, fun summer. We spent most of June watching World Cup soccer, swimming, and having people over (to watch soccer). Aaron decked out the house in orange and we kept the decorations up for the whole month. It was a really fun World Cup to watch with lots of really great games, surprises, and drama. We were very proud of the Dutch team and how well they did. HUP HOLLAND!

 Cousins watching a movie while the adults watched soccer.

 

 Nathaniel ready to cheer for U.S.A!

On the day of the first Dutch game I told Nathaniel we were all going to wear orange shirts. He asked me, "Why?" "Because Holland is playing their first World Cup game today." I replied. He looked at me and said, "Well, I'm not Dutch." Sometimes it is really strange to be a Third Culture Kid raising kids who are very, very American. 

Aaron wrapped up the work for his Education Specialist degree. He worked really hard and I am really proud of him. His official graduation day was July 26. We didn't actually go to the ceremony but we got a nice shiny degree in the mail. The boys and I were unfortunately not able to be here for the final presentation of his research project because we were in Florida for my Grandpa's memorial service. He lost his battle to cancer in June and we were able to go down and spend some time with my Grandma, parents, and other family members. It was good to catch up with some family that I haven't seen in years. 

July of course brought camp! This was Jeremiah's 3rd year at camp and Nathaniel's 1st. He was so excited to finally be able to go. He talked about it for weeks and was constantly asking Jeremiah to explain how things at camp worked. Which of course Jeremiah was happy to do. They had a great week.

First day of camp. 

 The obligatory 1st day/1st time at camp picture.

 Having fun singing "Pharaoh, Pharaoh"

 All the boys. 

July also brought VBS. I was the director again and while it was a lot of work I can say that this was the smoothest, easiest VBS yet. We had lots of volunteers, so many happy kids, and so much fun! Even though VBS is week is tiring it never fails to nourish my soul. One evening I stood at the back of our sanctuary with goosebumps and tears in my eyes as I listened to a room full of children sing at the top of their lungs, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus or Lord."
This year our theme was space so on dress up day Nathaniel was Luke Skywalker and Jeremiah was Boba Fett. Aaron helped them with their costumes and I think they turned out great!

So now our summer is officially over. We started back to school this week and Aaron is back at work. It really was a good summer full of good things.