Green Cannon Balls

Back at home, homeschooling is in full swing, and all of the busiest part of fall as well. Soccer, dance, children's choir, harp, piano, art, Trail Life, trying to get field trips and socializing fit in before baby. It's been quite a constant stream of activity. And can I say right now, if any more harp strings pop or break, I'm going to scream? Changing from summer to fall and from winter to spring just wreaks havoc on them...apparently this is normal! Some weeks we've had consecutive days when it is someone's turn to have a meltdown. First day might be Corwin, next day Rhi, next one Alden, next ME! Wally seems to stay above the meltdown mode, but he's always been more of an internal handler when it comes to stress. I was actually thankful for a week of rain that cancelled soccer.

Corwin set up shop in our backyard after being inspired by a book. It was so cute to come out and buy various items from his store. 

Rhianwen got her ears pierced and everything seems to have healed really well. No redness or swelling or crusting or anything. I am so thankful that her experience was totally different than mine! We need to take her back to get them checked soon. But as far as I can tell, she's ready to have fun with it.

Just some fun Alden artwork.

Rhianwen and friends put on a play that she wrote for us. It's been in the works for months, and I was about to go insane fielding questions about costume design, set design, timing, and the rest. It was cute, and Rhi was so satisfied with it at the end that she immediately started planning the next one.

Sadly the sound really didn't come out on the video, but if you want to see the first half of the play in action, I'll put it below:

A very fun experiment with acids, bases, neutrals, and purple cabbage indicator.

We also enjoyed our first bookclub doing missionary biographies this year. The first was William Carey who went to India, so we had a fun time discussing the book, India, eating delicious Indian food, and doing crafts. I hope that we'll be able to keep doing this after baby comes, but we'll see!

Corwin's little soccer team. They are naturals at wanting to get the ball in the goal, unlike some of their competition. They call themselves the Green Cannon Balls (per Corwin's request).

Corwin loves playing competitively, but he will not be a good loser. So far this season, they've won every time, although technically, no one keeps score. 

Sadly, most of Alden's games have been at the same time as Corwin's with the exception of this past week. I got so into Alden's game that I forgot to take pictures!!! I did get a team shot after their win this past week. Wally is their coach and loves it. He enjoys seeing them develop and grow.

Alden's team.

Schoolhouse of Wonder fieldtrip. The kids learned about Indians and how they lived long ago in this area. They are discussing a trap in this picture.

Here they are wading in the Eno after discussing water ecosystems. They caught more things in the stream but found some empty freshwater clams and some snails under rocks in the river. Of course, my boys got totally soaked. Wading is a relative term to them, I guess.

Some funny kid quotes:

Alden: Mommy, who was the first person to ever sing in tune?

Corwin: Where is the tahky wahkah? (walky talky)

Corwin: You are my beeeeesssst mommy!

We asked Corwin if had a dream the other night and if he had yelled, and he responded: I had a dream and I went into my dream and then I found my bed again, and that was just the boing of me falling back into my bed.