1st Day of School

[For the love of press-on tattoos…]

[P.S. Please send chocolate and wine.]

Lola!

She asked for her name in pink.

We practiced saying her name with different punctuation.

Lola. Lola? Lola!

She was emphatic about the exclamation choice. And really? It fits her.

Because this girl lives out loud. With expression.

She makes life rainbows and sunshine and sprinklers.

Oh, be still my beating heart.

Hi, Friends!

Has your summer begun? We’re heading into more than a week of 85-90+ degree weather! That’s hot for early June in our neck of the woods!

The boys finished the last of their testing for the charter school this week and then had their end-of-the-year park celebration.

I’ve been so lazy lately. Against all odds, I found some motivation today and did a huge gardening/outside project! If you know me, you know that’s news-worthy. [grin] I’ll take some pictures after Russ does a few extra things to the area this weekend.

Luke and I also made our first batch of lavender soap. All things considered, melt-and-pour soap is a fun, easy, clean, quick, and satisfying project to do with kids! [That combination is hard to come by!] We purchased a block of Shea Butter Glycerin Melt and Pour Soap Base, cut it into chunks, melted it in the microwave, added some lavender buds and lavender essential oil, and poured into a mini bar mold. It set up quickly. Luke’s ready to experiment with different colors and oils.

The little bars make great gifts.

 

In other news, some of you have been asking if I am on Instagram. You can now find me there as mthopeheidi. Come say hello!

And remember, you can always find me on Facebook, as well.

Lola

Just because she makes me smile.

Because Everyone Needs a Little More Lola

Grandpa

My grandpa, who lives in California, was here visiting last week. We are so thankful for the time we spent together! Lola spends Mondays at my mom’s house while the boys are at Classical Conversations, so she had a day with Grandpa all to herself! My mom took the above pictures of them playing a Peter Rabbit game together. (Mom posted more pictures here.)

I’m so sad that I didn’t get more pictures of our Thanksgiving together, but I did get this decent shot of him with my ragamuffin kids the day before he left.

Just for fun, I’m sharing the newspaper article about my grandpa that ran in his local paper for Veteran’s Day this past month.

 

My grandpa also received the French Legion of Honor Medal in a ceremony last year. He has been knighted by the French government! I just discovered a YouTube video of the ceremony.

We love you, Grandpa!

Better Late Than Never

I think “better late than never” is my new “reaching for the stars.” Because I still hit “never” more often than I’d like to admit.

We had a belated costume party with our best friends, and now I’m posting belated pictures of the belated party. Impressive.

Do you remember last year when I lost Lola’s mermaid costume? I’d love to pretend that I found it, but in reality my “make everyone’s dreams come true” best friend found the exact mermaid costume on Ebay and bought it for Lola for Christmas. And this year she got to be a mermaid. I bought both a George Washington and an Abraham Lincoln costume this year. Leif refused to wear one. (Surprise.) He made his own Creeper head, and I suppose that was better anyway. Luke happily chose George Washington. Levi went as himself (ha!!).

I dressed as a lady in waiting (yes, I did). We joined Harry and Hermione and made marzipan pumpkins. Because no party with these 6 kids is a party without marzipan.

More Lola Lovely

[She had to give herself “bunny ears” since her brothers weren’t around to do it. Giggle.]

La, La, La

[only two of my many favorites from an impromptu photo shoot this afternoon]

Lola’s Party

I have all sorts of things swirling in my head and in half-baked blog posts, but I wanted to share these two pictures before moving on from Lola. Did you know that I never posted pictures of her first birthday party?! Sad, but true.

I feel that there should be much more time between the start of school and her birthday in October. But that October 1st date sneaks up on me every time.

It doesn’t help that I suddenly realized Russ would be out of town this weekend (the weekend after her birthday) when we were planning a party for my mom, so we had to do two family parties last weekend (a week earlier than I was hoping!). But next weekend we have two more family birthdays! I guess that’s the way it goes when you have a close, lovely extended family. [grin]

All that to say we had a wonderful afternoon in the sunshine with family and close friends for Lola’s birthday this past Sunday. I made a few desserts and snack foods, and I hung paper lanterns. Lola wore her fairy costume. It was relaxed and sweet to spend time with special people!

[blink]

My audacious daughter turns four today. It isn’t as if you haven’t seen a gazillion pictures of her here on the blog the past four years, but let’s review her life by seeing them all again…all at once. Because y’all have nothing better to do, I’m certain, and I didn’t have anything better to do during the hours I spent reminiscing and making collages. (And, yes, this page will take forever to load.)

She makes my heart sing.

 

She Colors Our World

The Beginning of the 9th Year @ Mt. Hope Academy!

I started reading and math lessons with Levi when he turned 4. And here we are, eight and a half years later. It’s shocking, really. I always knew this is what I wanted to do, but some days I didn’t think I’d make it another week—or even another hour. [wry grin]

I’ve chronicled the past seven years of home school here on the blog. [SEVEN+ YEARS of blogging. That boggles my mind.]

But check out these lovely students:

 

I described my students four years ago, and not much has changed.

(Other than adding one more big distraction student, of course.)

But now I have a brooding adolescent middle school student on my hands. (I shared about Levi’s personality here.) In many ways he is still the same as he was four years ago, though.

I will say that Luke has gotten so. much. easier. than when he was younger because he is suddenly capable. He mows, he fixes things, he organizes things, he works on lists independently, and he is motivated by incentives. (I shared about Luke’s personality here.)

Leif is much the same as always (so sweet and loving, so ornery, so difficult to keep focused, so smart when he’s reading and talking independently, so sneaky, so stubborn about assigned lessons, and so like a puppy that can’t control his mouth or body).

Lola is audacious and interactive and hilarious and very, very distracting. And unable to entertain herself independently.

This should be an exciting year!

 

Some of my favorite posts that describe what we’re currently all about here at Mt. Hope Academy:

::  Classical Conversations (not much has changed since this third year update, though we’re now in our 5th year)

::  Classical Conversations Challenge (the main thing that has changed is that Levi is starting the Challenge level this year)

::  Our Big-Picture Educational Scope and Sequence Integrated with Classical Conversations (because we don’t just do CC! and there are more links in this post)

::  The Great Conversation (our over-arching themes and philosophy)

::  The Trivium: Instructions for Living a Life (because it isn’t just school)

 

I think we’re ready for a new year.

 

I Love Them

Rivers Are Roads {On the Water}

We spent eight hours on the water with friends yesterday. They are so kind to invite us out on their boat. Lovely company. Lovely scenery.

[Oregon is spectacular, no?]

The day was oddly gray and hazy. It might have something to do with the wildfires south of us. The setting sun at the end of the day was a strange red ball on the horizon. The temperature was perfect, though!

We started out on the lake, and the kids took turns on the tube behind the boat [more about this in a minute]. Then we went (leisurely) up river as far as the boat could go. It was quiet and solitary—particularly since most of the kids were still on the tube behind the boat.

The sun came out as we left the boat to swim and explore. I so wish I could have had my camera when we came to a beautiful waterfall and rode tubes on the rapids. It was a good lesson (for me) in just being present in the moment and knowing that the beauty and adventure happened even if I didn’t get a picture of it.

The kids spent hours swimming. Luke in particular was a crazy man the whole day. I do not know how his body did not give out on him at some point between the tube acrobatics and swimming into the swift current at the rapids/falls.

And then this girl. She slays me.

She was an amazing sport. Fearless. Thrilled to be on an adventure. And game for anything.

After hours of river play, we headed back out to the lake and enjoyed more tubing. These children are not content with passive recreation. Must be creative and daring…

Lola jumped at the chance to ride the tube early in the day. I wondered how she would like it. It took about 2 seconds for her grin to spread. And another two seconds for her to be shouting, “faster!”

As the kids starting doing tricks around her, I said, “Give her a year and she’ll be doing tricks with the rest of them.” [short pause] “No, probably only an hour.”

Two minutes later…

She’s THREE, people.

Gray hair. Lamaze breathing.

But just in case that’s just too much awesomeness for y’all…

It took about 15 shots and great patience to get the sweet picture of her above, because every time I tried to take her picture she would face plant into the seat below and giggle uproariously.

She took a spill on the rapids (and off the tube) and didn’t think it was so funny. [She did go again after a bit when Brant promised he’d catch a fish for her and went down with her. Then she happily went a few more times.]

Luke was sitting still in the above picture because he was in trouble for practically letting his brother drown and then having a bad attitude about it.

Thanks to Emily for jumping in to save Lola the first time and Brant for jumping in to save Leif the second time.

3 Going on 13

We went mini golfing a couple days ago for a birthday party with our best friends. Lola, though she thought she was 13, also thought it was an obstacle course rather than a mini golf course. So I spent the whole time attempting to follow her and keep her out of other people’s way—while simultaneously dealing with two other boys who seem to have no concept of a “start at the beginning, take turns, take your time, be considerate of others, and enjoy the process” sort of game. Just keeping it real.