August 31

These Sparks are ready for their 2nd week of AWANA

August 30

 

Lucy and Elliott learned about Native Americans that lived in wigwams today.

August 29

When mom and dad drag you all over God's creation house hunting and you didn't kill each other, you are rewarded with ice cream.

The process has officially begun. Our realtor showed us 7 houses this morning. Then we continued driving around on our own to get a feel for which neighborhoods we do/don't like. We did see one house that was pretty close to perfect, but had a small garage (and we thought our current garage was small!). Like you might be able to fit both cars in it, but not the bikes or lawn mower. And the neighborhood doesn't allow sheds. What. The. Heck!?! And one house that I really liked online was disappointing in person. Those cameras can make tiny rooms appear much larger.

The kids all decided that they would rather do school work than have the day off school to look at houses! It was that exciting for them. Ha! Honestly, it will be much easier without them anyways - "Don't touch that!", "You can't pee in this house", "Quit climbing the outside of the stairs!". At one point Elliott sat on the stairs and through his hat and sandals down the stairs. Sigh. I am not sure which he likes more - house hunting or painting class.

August 28

 Happy 8th Birthday Elliott!!!

 We made edible cells in anatomy today.

Elliott and I were sung to for our birthdays.

Clay had the day off work, so he came to co-op with us and got to sit on 1 of each of the kids' classes. It was nice having him there. We sure missed him this summer!

August 27

Elliott chose to spend his birthday date day with me and Clay at the fair.

 Elliott enjoyed his first fair corndog. He may never eat the frozen ones again.

  

 

 I failed - but it was fun!

 

 

 I love both of their faces in this one. They are enjoying a juggling show.

 Elliott's selfie with the juggler

 

 This boy spent (wasted) alot of his money on these arcade-type games. He wanted to play every one we passed. Oh well. It was his birthday and that's how he chose to spend it. Honestly, I have never taken him to the ride area of the fair before. It's crazy how much money you can spend in little-to-no time!

 

 We stalked this robot for awhile.

Some things aren't as good on the last day of the fair.

We had a fun day. I honestly think this may be the first time Clay, Elliott, and I have ever done anything with just the 3 of us. He was a happy little man all day.

August 26

Happy 40th to me!

Y'all! Clay outdid himself for my birthday. When he asked me awhile back what I wanted to do for my birthday, the only reply I gave was that I didn't want to cook or clean up after anybody. He spent many lonely evenings in Texas planning out a great day for me. 

First thing he did was make me breakfast. He found a new recipe online, bought all the stuff for it, and cooked it himself. It was delicious. Then he did the dishes! 

Then we headed out on our first adventure. We picked up Subway sandwiches and headed to Bernheim for a morning of hiking. He researched geocaching because it's been on my bucket list for a long time and I have never gotten around to doing it. It was alot of fun and helped some of the reluctant hikers enjoy it a tad more.

 

 

 

We found 4 caches on 1 trail.

After a picnic lunch we headed to a paint studio and one of our favorite families joined us for a paint party. Elliott was less than thrilled, but did fine.

 

 

  

 

 

 Metal mouths

This picture cracks me up. I should have stood next to Shannon so we didn't look like sister wives.

Mamaw and Bapaw came over to babysit (Clay lined up childcare!!!) so Clay and I could go out for dinner to one of my favorite restaurants. Two couples joined us and we had alot of fun. We headed from dinner to a breakout game. This was something I'd also been wanting to do for awhile. You are given a scenario, locked in a room (handcuffed in the beginning), and given clues to figure out how to get out of the room in less than an hour. Our group managed to get out in 51 minutes. Only 30% of the people succeed at breaking out. We might have been a tad competitive.
 

Truly, I didn't plan a thing, had no idea any of this was planned, and I didn't cook once or clean up after anybody! It was a marvelous day! My 41st birthday may be a letdown - ha!

August 25

Elliott had his jiu jitsu belt test tonight and is now a grey belt. Belt promotion are fun. After the kids demonstrate their skills, they get "thrown" by the instructors and all the other kids that have color belts.

 Rolling with his best playmate.

 

 Testing

 

 Grey belt!

 

 These three got new belts,

August 24

Happy Birthday Uncle Bob!

 

AWANA started back up last night. I went from a group of independent and fun 5th grade girls last year, to a sweet and energetic group of kindergartners. I think I am going to like this group (especially the sassy redhead), but I sure will miss those 5th graders.

August 23

 

 

 Mamaw and Bapaw took Elliott to Main Event as his birthday gift. They got to do the ropes course, bowling, laser tag, and the arcade games. I am so glad Elliott finally hit 48 inches and is tall enough to do this kind of stuff.

August 22

 

 

We made a pinhole viewer, which was actually neater than I expected:

 

 

 

 It was a neat experience. The crickets came out for a bit. We got to see some neat shadows. Overall, I thought it would be a little darker, but I guess we will just have to go to the point of Totality for that in 2024!