Put Me in Summer and I'll Be a---

Fullness. That is how I'd describe summer. Full of life, unpredictability, spontaneity, and motion.

Corwin and a little friend enjoying dinner together.

A kind of big change in our house the past month or so is that Wally watched Forks Over Knives 
and decided to try going what I call vegan+ and what Wally calls whole-foods, plant-based diet. 
Basically, vegan with little added salt, sugar, oils, or processing. No, we aren't dieting. Obviously, 
if you've seen Wally, you know he doesn't need it, and personally, I think I'm just about perfect ;0)
 My parents have tried to convince us of the benefits for a while, but it took some time and the 
documentary, and, shall I say prayer on my part, for Wally to buy it. I found him watching the movie 
on his own one night, and I didn't even know there was one. Anyway, if anything, it shows me that 
prayer works even if the diet doesn't solve our health problems :) Now, for those of you who are
 thinking, "Well, scratch them off the list of people to have over for dinner." Please don't. We will 
eat what we are served and enjoy it without guilt. This is just a lifestyle/health change for us; not 
something moral. And if you choose to make a foray into vegan cooking for us, we'll be happy 
about that too. We understand from experience how difficult it is these days to satisfy every diet
 in even one family. 

Surprisingly our kids have barely noticed. They still eat and enjoy, but might comment about how 
they only will get special sugary rich foods on their birthdays or at other friend's houses now. 

Alden and Corwin making crepes for our little book study on France.

Alden's "soft house" inspired from a book. He built it each day for rest time for almost 2 weeks.

 The kids had fun at VBS, and, as always, one of their favorite things were the puppets.

When they got home, they put on puppet shows and made their own scenery. If you think Alden has
drawn a disproportionately large figure in blue, you'd be correct. He is supposed to be a giant.

And now that we have Pippin, our rowdy day occasionally continues past the kids' bedtime. This time
 it was pretty hilarious. Sorry about the garish yellow floor. It looks especially bad in the camera at night.

Somehow he got his head stuck in the dog toy. I probably should have spared him the embarrassment,
 but I had to get a clip; it was too funny.

Other Pippin fun:

"FREEDOM!". If you don't know, watch Braveheart.

Catch with Daddy. Or should I say, throw with daddy, since catching would be the part that happens
the least.

I finally had a hankering to go camping after having kids. So we went over Independence Day. The
kids were SO excited. Especially Corwin. This is how our conversations went leading up to the big
day: 

M: Corwin, sit down and eat your supper.

C: I want to go camping. 

M: What do you say when I tell you to do something? 

C: I want to go camping.

M: (SIGH) Sit down and eat your food.

C: I WANT TO GO CAMPING!!! Boo hoo!

M: I know you want to go camping. We will go camping tomorrow. But if you want to go camping tomorrow, you need to sit down and eat your food now.

Daddy exits line of vision.

C: Where did daddy go? Did he go camping? I want to go camping!!!

M: No, daddy just stepped out to get something out of the car. Daddy will not go camping without
you. 

C: I want to go camping.

Imagine similar conversations every, oh, 15 minutes for 3 days. I was already insane before we go
there.

Then when we got to the campsite: 

C: I want to go to bed.

M: We need to set up the tent and eat supper, then you can go to bed.

C: I want to go to bed

Ad infinitum...

The first night went great until Corwin somehow managed to dump a whole cup of water in his
 face while he slept. You can imagine the cacophony that ensued. Mommy ended up with the
wet pillow in exchange for blessed silence.

The next day, we went canoeing. We saw osprey and these neat little birds that built their nests
from mud under the bridges. I have yet to find out what they were. The kids' favorite thing was
 to ride the wake of the motorboats after they passed. Pippin didn't know what to think of the
 water. We think he thought it was a solid surface because he jumped out of the boat almost
right away, sunk, swam, got dragged back in, and never tried that again. He ended up really
enjoying canoeing with his little front paws hanging over the side of the boat.

We had some good friends come to camp that night. Everyone had a great time.

Alden and his friend playing soccer in an empty camp site.

Testing the weight capacity for our canoe. Didn't max it out! It actually made me think of the Sound 

of Music with the boat that capsizes.

Throwing rocks.

The camping trip was a bit of an experiment to see if we thought it would work to camp for a week 
in Acadia National Park in Maine in September. We made reservations when we got back. Hopefully it won't rain!

We started up our little mom and me Bible study for the summer. This time we are going through A Girl after God's Own Heart. On the cover it is labeled for "tweens". I hate that term. I don't care if
 there are varied stages of childhood, you don't need to give it a special label and marketing. I
 think it is so harmful to the little psyche to start labeling yourself into a category like that...as if 
you were expected to fit a mold of attitudes, interests, and struggles. Anyway, the book is fine, 
and the girls are taking charge going through their answers together, which has been fun to see.

Bwackbeywies, as Corwin would say, unless he calls them stwawbeywies or bwuebeywies. 
The kids came in with a little less than 1/2 cup and begged me to do something with it. So I 
said we'd need to get more. Our park is full of them, even more so than our back field, so we 
gathered some one morning. Corwin was like Little Sal and ate nearly every berry he picked.
 He came up to me and said: 

C: Wook! I got 1,000 bwackbeywies.

M: Oh! Wow! Let's count them!

C: One, two, fwee!

It really was three. He didn't seem to note the discrepancy.

Another cute conversation:

M: You're getting so big!

C: Yeah, my potty is gone. 

M: That's because you are so big. 

C puts hand on head: Yeah, I get all the way to my head. 

We're trying to memorize the love verses from I Corinthians. This was week 2 on verse 1. So 
proud of him!

Rhianwen on the big slip and slide daddy made in preparation for Alden's birthday party. I just 
pray no one will get injured. She had 2 teeth pulled this month and took it like a champ. This 
month she also found out that her "best friend", a girl friend next door, moved away without us 
knowing that the last goodbye was the last. Rhianwen was very sad. The boys are sad they lost 
their cool older boy friend who also lived next door. 

Pure joy.

Busy Living

End of year performances, traveling to a conference, finishing school, starting summer, getting a puppy, getting caught up on all kinds of Dr. appointments, and praying hard for friends. My dad would call that burning the candle at both ends, and we are feeling it. But thankfully difficulties often birth joys. 

Rhianwen had a very cute observation day in jazz. She has come a long way!

"You've got that one thing."

My fave part, when Ms. Kirstie had all of the dads dance with the girls and taught them a little routine. I was thanking the Lord that I am a mom b/c I would NOT have been comfortable doing this :)

Ballet. I just love it. So pretty. Grandmama was able to come to this one. 

So sweet.

I was very disappointed that I hadn't completely figured out my camera, so I don't have any good video clips from this!!!

Nature walks almost always happen in our backyard. They were drawing pictures of the baby cardinals in their nest. Do you like Corwin's technique?

Nanny Kim, Grandpa, and Uncle Skipper all came to watch the kids while we went to a homeschool conference. Our favorite thing is just getting away, the 2 of us, free to feel like we're back to normal relational life.

And then I was insane enough to want a puppy, and Wally was insane enough to say yes. His name is Pippin and his theme song is Zippity-do-dah except it's Pippity-do-dah. His arch nemesis is Alden's batman cup. If it's on the floor, it's lights out for it. He also likes to eat my rug...any suggestions to stop this behavior? Yes, my girl has shorts on, no, she's not quite got the lady-like thing down yet. She likes to ride the dirt track in skirts.

Dirt track????

Uh-huh. Thanks to Wally. Sometimes I wish I could see his thought process...wakes up in the morning, yawns, stretches, makes breakfast, wanders outside, thinks, "I think I'll make a dirt track today." Done.

Except, Wally thinks the track is the perfect size for Corwin's Strider bike, so it may NOT be done, quite. Guess who got a BMX off of Craigslist? No, not me!

Some of the fun sans Wally who was taking the video.

This summer some things I've decided to do are a little bit of Five in a Row, cooking with Rhianwen, art, and maintaining some knowledge of math facts. Since it's Wally's job to cook breakfast, he helped her make Eggs in a Frame (I call it Eggs in a Basket). Grandmama gave her a Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys and Girls which she is using. Tuesdays are her day to cook. Alden and Corwin now whine and feel left out. I told them if they wanted to pick out a recipe, we could do it. So far, they haven't.

Happy birthday dear daddy! I'm still trying to figure out my camera, as you can tell. But I am enjoying it! Can you tell that Alden just absolutely adores Wally? He wants to be just like him when he grows up. I tell him that is a great aspiration. We finally gave Wally the particular frames he wants for his office desk. So now he can put some updated pictures of his family on it along with the ones that are 13 years old. 

Watching World Cup. Usually Pippin is way too excited to see Corwin, but this was at the end of a long day of playing, so he's calm and sleepy. I've been told this breed will become couch potatoes once they become adults/they are happy with lots of activity or little, so we'll see!

Corwin was singing a song that Grandpa had sung the week he was here. He's a little unsure in this video clip, but, previously, he was belting it out on the swing, in the car, all over the place :)

Corwin has been making up fantastic stories. I love that stage when they can start being creative with their words! 

Some funny moments: 

Me: "Corwin, if you spill water on the floor, you need to clean it up."

Corwin: "That wasn't me. It was the pee."

Corwin: "I born right now."

Alden: "Of course you are. You are way way borner now!"

Corwin (on being told that Daddy was at the dentist): "Aftah he get his teef paint, he get a bouncy ball!".

If only it were as fun as their visits!

Yeah. Lots of Corwin, but my older 2 provide many fun conversations too. They are just often way too complicated to write down. :)

Celebrations

May is full of birthdays on the Tinsley side of the family. Celebrating Mother's Day gets tucked in neatly along with it. So, May is a favorite month of mine :0) My sweet husband gave me a new camera, so I am learning how to use it. Here are some of the first pics from it.

Talking with Farmer Bob while looking for the queen bee at the Bush-N-Vine in York, SC. If you are ever in the Rock-Hill area, this is a fun farm to visit, and my husband worked there growing up.

Feelin' right at home on the farm. Wally says his memories here are tied to crop rotation.

Fun in the tunnel.

If you are wondering where Rhianwen was, she was back at the homestead fixin' up some vittles with Grandmama which has been a wish of Rhi's for quite some time. She says Grandmama is the best cook in the world and has wanted to cook with her.

It was delicious! 

Then it was off to Greenville for my niece's, Kallie's, birthday celebration. Despite the fact that there was an awesome playground 5 feet in front of them, the cousins decided to monkey around in the bushes for a while. 

They got to go on a little train ride. This was after the tunnel with lots of high pitched happy screaming from Benj. Corwin is now assuring him that there are no monsters.

"Smiley" aka the birthday girl aka Kallie with her awesome mommy.

Sharing the joys of cupcakes.

Enjoying the birthday girl and Uncle Robeson.

Back in York for Mother's Day. We got to see Mary Ruth and her sweet mama and daddy. We had so much fun visiting with them!

Happy Mother's Day, Grandmama!

So thankful to be part of such a sweet, kind, wise family. I'm so thankful for Ruth's mothering to my husband and for always being available and valuing our relationship.

Risen and Camping

Although I am playing catch-up, we still have our "He is Risen" banner up in our dining room! The kids keep asking when we will take it down. Soon, soon. But we are glad the fact is there to stay.

Dyeing Easter Eggs. I had to donate one of mine to the little boy b/c he was so enthralled with this activity. 

Resurrection cookies: sealing the "tomb".

Adding the last picture to the Easter road.

Easter baskets! I felt like I had to especially tell Rhianwen that today was NOT about Frozen. She did a good job being excited and then shifting her focus back to Easter and worship.

Squinty, tired, ready for lunch after a long but good morning at church.

Oh, you didn't find a strawberry, but an egg?

Enjoying their "tiny-one jellybeans" as Corwin dubbed them.

Engrossed in egg peeling. 

Alden went off on his first camping trip with Daddy and a group of boys who are joining Trail Life USA. He was SO excited. Corwin was very sad, and kept insisting that he wanted to go. Once he found out that you had to be 5 to go, he said, "I not three! I five!....Yes, I am! I five!". As you may have guessed, he was stuck watching Frozen and eating pizza with the girls, but the highlight was that he got to sleep in Alden's loft while he was gone.

Alden's list of essential camping gear.

Throwing rocks in the lake.

Reading how to cook eggs in a bag for the next morning...it actually worked!

See?

Putting up a tent, taking it down, and repacking. They also lit a fire using matches. Guess who got burned? Yes, this stuff is for men...not mommies.

On a hike, in a tree, watching an osprey. Bonus points!

We are really excited about this. As you can tell, Alden felt so special and like a true adventurer doing this with his daddy and other guys. We hope there will be many more experiences like this for them.

Back at home, Corwin cut this almost all by himself, and he glued everything on with the correct orientation completely on his own. I was amazed, but maybe that's b/c I still think of him as my baby most days.

Cardinal eggs in our backyard. I love spring!

Duke Gardens, here we come. There were 9 little ducklings following their mommy around. You can see 3 in this picture. Yes, Alden likes to live on the edge.

Koi!

My sweet kids. 

Picnicking in a quiet spot.