2 Weeks and a Wedding!

 The most important thing that happened in our family was Super Star's marriage to Mr. E.  

It happened a week ago Saturday.  It was simple and sweet, but it still took time and energy on our part because we had to get ready for Pixie and Grammie to come stay.  Grammie's arrival meant moving bedrooms around so that she could be on the main floor (she can't do stairs) and near a bathroom.  This meant we moved lots of beds, lots of bedding, lots of furniture, and lots of kids around the house.

This also meant that we didn't do a whole lot of what most would call "school" that week.

We had Morning Meetings every day.

We read The Elephant's Girl several days.

We read from this book at least a few days:

It's a chapter book with lots of pictures, so even though it looks like a brief story, it's taken us over two weeks so far, and we're not done yet. (But I'm not reading more than 2-3 pages a day, so, no wonder!)

We worked at least 3 days on our bulletin board subjects.  I freshened them up with new Spanish, Latin, art appreciation, inspiration, nature study, Mind Up, math, and grammar posters.  But I left our music appreciation, folk song, poem, and character affirmation the same.

Church activities were end-of-season swim parties for youth and children, but the children's party was postponed to a day we couldn't attend. :(

Activities that I bothered to photograph are:

1.  Little Princess made rolls--both wheat (pictured) and gluten-free.  (So. Good.)

2.  We painted our picnic table top.  The kids worked on it two at a time, one coat a day for 3 days.  Now I need to touch up spots between boards that they missed, and we need to do the legs.

3.  One afternoon, the kids found a box of photo albums.  They loved seeing their older sisters as babies and little kids.  Sir Walter Scott and I told story after story, and it was only when I said they absolutely had to clean up if they wanted to eat dinner that they reluctantly put the albums back in a box.

4.  I forgot.  I did school with the older girls every day.  I got a kick out of seeing our whiteboard filled up with grammar, so I took a picture.

5.  It was aerospace education night at CAP. 

6.  On the last beautiful morning before the heat wave drove us indoors, I took the kids to a park.  I read a book.  They played.

Win-win

7.  Ladybug found a kitten in our woodpile.  She was thin but friendly.  

We had to feed her.

We had to give her water.

We had to cuddle her.

And now she lives with us.

Lola named her Stellarlune.

I call her Lulu.

8.  I get a kick out of finding the older girls deep in study in random places in the house.  This is Nature Angel working on a self-designed (ambitious!) geography course.

9.  We had our first dance rehearsal of the season!  It was rough, but it wasn't the worst first day ever.  There's hope for a great year.

10.  We had a few really bad incidents with Brother.  Not bad enough to send him to the psych hospital, but we did have to involve the police.

Stress levels are high right now.

But then, there was the wedding!!!

The sisters gathered together early to help Super Star get ready.

They're hanging out together, watching most of us set up chairs for the ceremony.

Mother-daughter hug

Look how happy Mr. E is!

And look how happy Super Star is!

The bishop conducted a sweet ceremony--and there were reasons to laugh and cry happy tears. 
Look at these two being so happy!

And here's the newly married duo!

This picture is chronologically out of order, but I put it here because it is my new favorite picture of the two--like they're walking into their future together, each supporting the other.

When Super Star took off her veil, I picked it up and put it on a few kids.  Ladybug was the happiest!

And a most-of-the-family selfie.  Mr. E jumped in for the next set of photos, but you can't see everyone's faces in a single one of those!  Plus, Sir Walter Scott made silly faces because he thought he heard, "Silly photo now!"  (No one said it. 😂)
Also, our Belle was in Bonaire--though she was allowed to Facetime during the ceremony.

The Second Week

We returned to our school schedule.  We did the same things listed above, but we were more faithful about daily bulletin board activities and reading aloud from the books on Libraries of Hope we've been working on this month.  We also listened to the second Brandenburg Concerto (our favorite so far).

Sir Walter Scott got a quick snap of me helping Lola give a talk in primary.

Beowulf had a hard week with a number of out-of-control episodes.  I did not give him the med that induces sleep, but he fell asleep here after a hard morning of spinning everywhere.

But here he is working industriously on his mammal report.  All of the kids finished their mammal reports this week.

Church activities were canceled because the local schools started this week.

I walked into the dining room to clear it and set it for dinner, and I found these two working away!

I was previewing videos for geography, and the kids all came to watch with me over my shoulder.  I figured they were interested, so I threw it up on the TV, so we could watch and hear more comfortably.  It was a 10-minute history of Ghana.

Dance rehearsal #2 went much more smoothly than the first one.  I'm choreographing and teaching 5 dances, and Nature Angel is doing the same with 3 more.  We're all super busy on dance days!

On the way home from dance, we finished listening to The Incorrigibles book #1.

The heat from the West Coast reached us and baked us for a week.  

With actual temperatures above 100 and heat indices at or near 120, we stayed indoors night and day.

Except for one day, when Sir Walter Scott dared to take the kids to a spray park.  Because it was new to them and Dad was playing, it was extra fun, and he got them slushies on the way home. :)

We're finishing up The Elephant's Girl tonight.  It has been a terrible bedtime story because it has been so exciting that they've been literally jumping to their feet and screaming.  We've never made so many predictions or been so in agony over plot twists.  Last night, the climax of the story forced two of my kids to hide their faces while they listened, and two more listened standing with clenched fists.  One hid behind a chair!

I'm not certain what's causing our current few books to affect my kids so much--is it the actual reading material, or is it a learning phase they're all in?

But I like it.

(What on earth are we going to read next?)