This first week of Summer has been awesome. June hadn't started summer school yet, so we had everyone at home. I'll take it. We still had kids in and out. Ivory is doing Color Guard so she is gone quite a bit and Pearl has Gold Team, so she has morning practices, but we have still had plenty of time to play.
The big new thing this Summer is weekly art themes. I'm very excited for this and hope the girls put some effort into it. We even invited the Call's to be part of it and Camie joined us the first week. On Sunday we got all our art out and Dad judged. There are a few awards, but nothing big. It is more recognition than prizes. (Which is essential since we will have so many weeks of art. Maybe we'll have some bigger prizes at the end? It is still a work in progress.)
This week's Theme was Origami.
Some of the girls frequently fold things, but origami was new to many of us. It is hard! We all managed to make recognizable things. Look, Camie and I made identical dragons. Well, they are different colors.
Camie also made this awesome Yoda. I think she gets extra credit points because she used regular paper instead of origami paper. That makes it even harder.
June made this incredible snail. So cute.
Daisy made several things. She is a big paper folder. This is my favorite thing she made. Look how she put the crab in the sand...
And here are some of her throwing stars, a flower, and a Siamese cat.
Robyn worked really hard on her unicorn. I like the picture she took with the pink background.
Pearl made some really fun things. She made a penguin (that she claims is an owl), a butterfly, and a school of fish.
Ivory made the most interactive piece. Her magic circle could be turned inside out. It was awesome.
It was fun because Cael and Eli came in to view the art after we beat them soundly in Spikeball. (Yes, I have to mention that. Twice. June and I beat them 2 out of 3 games!) Here are Cael and Eli hiding from Danja since they have been told to come home so many times. Lucky for them, she just came to play with us, not to steal them away.
I think we'll let the boys judge sometime, but for now, Tyler was our judge. We have four awards:
Most Creative
Best Fit - meaning it fits the theme the best. This is a little tricky for origami since they obviously all fit the theme.
Judge's Favorite
Something About It - That's for the art that makes you look back at it several times.
Here are our winners this week.
Even though the art show was amazing, it wasn't the highlight of the week. For sure, the most exciting thing for our family was adding a new addition. Meet Nova.
This last couple of weeks had Dad finishing the fence and our carpets being cleaned which means we were basically ready to house another quadruped. Robyn found the classifieds and was busy trying to pick out the right friend for us. While she was gone at Youth Conference we found Nova. She is a sweet dog.
She is a heeler/collie mix. She is a year old and is mostly trained. Unlike other dogs we have had, she can fetch. The girls already love to play with her.
She is a medium sized dog. This is new for us because we've never had a dog that can reach the counters. We are learning to scoot food towards the middle of the table so it doesn't disappear. Daisy had her ice cream sampled multiple times by Nova.
Nova seems to like everyone but she does have a favorite; Tyler. This is good. As much as my kids love a dog, Tyler may love her the most. Certainly, he will take the most time to train and work with her. He already takes her for a morning walk and I think they will have a beautiful relationship.
Other weekly things we are doing are a movie, treat, and stitching club. This week we watched Lady and the Tramp, which was perfect before getting a new dog. In stitching club, we are reading Daddy Long Legs, which the girls seem to be enjoying.
For our treat, we made Strawberry Rhubarb Dump Cake. It was fairly easy and super delicious. Here are June and Daisy cutting rhubarb and hulling strawberries.
The finished product was golden, warm, and perfect with vanilla ice cream. I don't think my kids have tried a lot of rhubarb before. Everyone loved it except Pearl.
And that folks, was week one of Summer. We have a lot of fun things planned. Mostly, I'm just grateful to have this time with my kids. Summers make me happy.
Cute dog - but a lot bigger than Moxie was. Bigger than April and Pip too, as far as that goes. Dad says you should send Nova to us so he can "indoctrinate" her. Heaven only knows what horrible things he would teach her. I advise against it. I look forward to meeting her someday.
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