Pergoooooooooooolllllllllllllaaaaaaa

Rhymes with the Ricola commercial. This was a summer of building. In addition to building a pergola at our house; we finished off the tree house at the cabin; but that is the subject of another post.

Karen had a vision of what this thing should look like, so she sketched it out; we went to buy wood and I put it up; during the week that all the kids were with Melinda & Julie. Amazing what can be accomplished when there is a little time to focus.

Here are the results - still a bit of a work in progress - we are experimenting with wood treatments, and eventually want to get either some lattice or vines or something to shade the west side and top a little bit; but it is up, functional and no wind will knock this thing over!

The Grand Finale

The last one to officially start up was David. He is at First Discoveries pre-school run by Eaglebrook Church. He had a great first day; second day was full of tears on the front end - but quickly turned around - and now he says he is excited to go. From the pics you would think that he owns the place - but even for a four year old - going off on a new adventure can be scary. Yellow boo-boo has been with him when needed.

Another First Day of School

This week - Daniel and Andrew started their HIGH SCHOOL years. I absolutely cannot believe that my first two children are starting high school.

They are at a homeschool coop, so are taking core classes at the coop: algebra, physical science, study skills, history, piano and grammar and composition - so they are going to be busy; but busy hands are happy hands - and we want them to be very happy.

You can see from their faces - they are happy about school and also even happier to have their picture taken on the front porch @ 7:30 in the morning by their dad.

Another first day of school

This is Sam, on his first day of school. Sam started at Otter Lake Elementary as a second grader; he had the experience of being the 'new kid' and handled it great. Last year he successfully navigated through all the details and risks that a third grader faces and this year he is climbing towards the top of the elementary school heap. He is a fourth grader. His teacher is Mr. Green, who we are all excited that he has. Mr. Green has come back from teaching in Malaysia for 2 years. He is a 20+ year teaching veteran and we are looking forward to a great year for Sam. Sam also had a reading challenge this summer from his third grade teacher. He was challenged to read 1000 pages during the summer; which he did! So far, we have sent: Anne, Katie Emie and Sam off to school. Daniel and Andrew start on Monday - bright and early and David starts preschool on Tuesday - then the whole family will be covered with 'first day' posts. Stay tuned - 2 more to come.

Time flies

We have been reminiscing about the fact that 3 years ago (just a few days after coming home from 6 weeks in Ukraine) - I went down to the Twin Cities to begin a new role; leaving Karen at home with 7 kids - two of which were adopted and really knew nothing about life in a family. They would cry when it was time for supper; 'til they got their food, they would get into things, they wouldn't sleep, they would act up . . . lots of adjustments for their little minds and bodies. It did not take too long to realize that they needed some good solid structure and we got them into a pre-school. Now - Katie and Emie - along with Annie headed off to first grade this year! They have their own desks, Katie and Emie have the same teacher; Annie is in a different class. They left in their yellow school bus this morning and came home 9 hours later, a little tired, very hungry and all indications are the girls had a great first day.

At the fair