Mae is 11 months old!!

Mae was sick for her 11 month pictures so she looks a little weepy. She had a cold and was just not herself. She continues to be so busy and so much fun. In fact, on August 21, when she turned 11 months old, she tried to walk. She made several courageous attempts at walking, piecing together 4 steps at one point. Not much progress on the walking front since then but she tries anytime you encourage her. Almost one year old.......I cannot believe it!!!

From the mouths of babes....

So as part of our homeschooling curriculum this year, we are reading some classic children's books and then doing language arts, science, art, math, etc based on the story. We also identify vocabulary words that we don't know and we write them and their definitions on index cards. Last week, one of our words was "indignant." According to Nicholas's children's dictionary, indignant means the following: "if you are indignant, you are upset and annoyed because you feel that something is not fair." Soon after learning that word together, there was a set of unfortunate circumstances that led to Nicholas not getting to go outside to play baseball one evening when we had said we would probably be able to do that later. Instead, we sent him upstairs to get ready for bed. He was very upset and marched upstairs and then stood at the top of the stairs and said, with hands on hips and bottom lip quivering, "I'm going to use my words. I am very indignant that I don't get to play baseball." I LOVE it!! He was using this huge word in exactly the right context and he was so passionate about it.......he was almost in tears. Priceless.

Summer Fun 2010

August 7--visit with the Biggerstaff family. Nikki, Isaac and Alex came to see us in our new house while they were in the area visiting Nikk's family. Alex is 5 days older than Mae. It was difficult to get them to both be still long enough to get a picture!

Nikki, Alex, Mae and me sharing some pie.......the girls mooched several bites from their mommies, then they switched and mooched from the other mommy!

August 7--Isaac Biggerstaff and Ella. Isaac is 6 days older than Ella.

Mae Mae enjoying some Blueberry Dream Pie!

Nicholas and Ella ready for church......Niko is giving his little sister a kiss. Sweet!!

July 30--Nicholas completed Skyhawks Tennis Camp and he was very proud of himself

July 30--Nicholas at tennis camp

Princess Ella and her babies........Ella dresses up as a princess nearly every day

Grand Camp Part 2

One of the many fun group activities at camp. The children were not remotely concerned by the 90+ degree temperatures!!

Nicholas with his swimming buddies. Every time the kids would swim, they had to have a buddy that they stayed close to in the water. The lifeguards would blow a whistle every 15 minutes and the kids had to hold up their hands with their buddies.

Nicholas and a new friend building a marble maze. Meemaw and Papa said that Nicholas was really friendly at camp and played with lots of different children.

Nicholas standing in the observation tower overlooking the lake

This tree looks like a cross........can you see Nicholas?

Papa and Nicholas building a marble maze. One of the cabins, Crumpacker, was full of games and activities for the campers.

Nicholas enjoying some swimming time

Grand Camp Part 1

Nicholas outside of "Mission Village" where his cabin was located. His cabin was named "Rhodes" after a Brethren missionary......at least, that's what he tells me.....

Becker Lodge

The Grand Camp 2010 group

Arky Parky where the kids play

Meemaw and Nicholas inside the chapel

Nicholas just spent 3 days at Grand Camp with Meemaw and Papa Carl. Grand Camp is an opportunity for children (ages 5-10) and their grandparents to attend church camp together. They had a great time. The camp is located at Camp Mack which is in Milford, Indiana. They had worship services, campfires (can you imagine.......in this heat?), group activities, crafts, lots of swimming, meals and next to no air conditioning. The Detwilers toughed it out the first night and stayed at the camp in a cabin with fans going just trying to get some decent sleep. The second night, they decided air conditioning was priority one so they drove back to Nappanee to sleep.

The main building at Camp Mack, Becker Lodge, was nearly destroyed by a fire on July 12 of this year. The building dated back to the 1920's. What a loss. No one was hurt but some major changes were made in order for the camp to continue running. The campers had previously eaten their meals in Becker Lodge so some large tents have been set up to accomodate meals and meal prep. It's amazing to me that the staff at Camp Mack, with a lot of help from volunteers, have not let this catastrophe slow them down in their efforts to provide meaningful camp experiences for children.

Hendricks County Fair Fun

Last week was our local fair and we took the kids on Wednesday evening for a big fun time. We visited with lots of animals and ate lots of fair food. Mae didn't necessarily appreciate the horse that whinnied in her face.......poor Mae.......she screamed and shook and was so scared. Bad mommy for thinking I could pet a horse while wearing Mae in the sling.

We watched a horse pulling contest with big draft horses.......so cool. While we watched, they were pulling 7500 lb. Can you imagine? And they loved it. They were jumping to get started when their handlers would hook them up to the big weight. Then we let Nicholas and Ella ride some animals........Ella chose Molly the pony and Nicholas chose Jonas the camel. So fun.

Mae is 10 months old!!

Our little peanut is becoming such a biggie girl. She says "DA DA DA" and just lights up when Daddy comes into the room. She's nowhere close to saying "MA MA MA" despite my unceasing efforts to get her to speak the sounds that will melt my heart! She's very busy and gets into everything. It's ever the challenge to keep the Barbie and Polly Pocket accessories away from her little hands and mouth!