July update

We went strawberry picking toward the end of June, and Lucy and Gene were pretty helpful...





The child not pictured was not helpful. End of story. (Well, actually, the real story is she was almost falling-asleep tired and just couldn't be bothered to stoop down and look under the leaves like the strawberry-field signs said. She didn't even want to exert a little energy so she could pick one to EAT! She fell asleep two minutes after leaving the field.)

We did end up making a year's supply of jam out of our meager pickings, though:)

Here's one of Jane's favorite activities lately... giving her animals a bath in the sink. She's not supposed to use the soap (they don't need a real bath...) but it looks like maybe she was sneaking it here:


Jane and Lucy play with our blocks and animals every day, generally multiple times every day. I had to snap this picture because...look who decided one day to join in. And wasn't Jane jealous! But the carpet is so small that I decided she could do something else for a while, and let her two older sibs have fun together. Gene had a great time...but hasn't really been back since. Blocks are a girl toy, right?


Jane really likes puzzles, and can do anything under 50 pieces no problem. We've been trying 100 pieces lately, and she's doing okay...with a little help. But once she get's going, she's great! She does have some Donahue (Grandma Hendricks' family) blood in her (well, if you couldn't tell from the hair!)


Gene and I have been playing catch with the girls...after realizing they were growing up under a baseball star, and had no ball skills whatsoever. It's been fun, and they are getting really into it!





Speaking of balls, the girls have also discovered the joys of blowing up things. I mean, with their mouths, or a little pump we discovered somewhere. Lucy spent about a whole day blowing up a beach ball with the pump, squeezing out all the air, and blowing it up again. Of course Jane, the resident copycat, had to do the same. Then they started using their mouths as well...


Oh, and here's our door. A nice, regular door. We hadn't touched it since moving in, except to put up the lovely door knocker the first year. I think it has our last name engraved on it. Last year, we started to notice various houses with painted front doors in strikingly bold colors. And Brendan assured me there were a lot in Birmingham, which seems to be a trend-setting city. And maybe we were feeling trendy... so we decided to be bold and cover up all that whiteness...



The girls helped. I think Gene helped too, but he didn't make it into a picture.


There is no "finished" picture yet, because the third coat hasn't exactly been completed yet, but I will finish the door after we get back from vacation. And if I remember to take a picture, I'll probably post it. But here's an "in progress" picture, to give you the general idea:


I really like it:)

Ok, to finish up here...we had some really nice, not so hot weather...the girls had reading time outside for a couple days. We've devolved from a strict "nap time" 3 years ago, to "room time" the last couple years, to "reading time" this summer. No one naps, no one needs to (really!), and they get bored and restless up in their rooms. Since we signed up for the library reading program this summer, and some days reading was the last thing on their minds (well, for some of them) we instituted an hour every afternoon for reading. It will be really great once the third one can read. Right now, she is limited to looking at books, doing a puzzle, or coloring a picture. During that time, I also read her one book of her choosing, and work on some phonics with her.


Oh, one more picture that is completely random. The girls helped peel eggs for egg salad one day. It's so nice to have kitchen helpers! And to know that one day I can say to someone, "Please make some egg salad for lunch." And they can call me when it's ready:)